Author: Jennifer Cheung

Slides link: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/198ETLYYKEmfw-gvRuK8xV6XIXN7aCQVDHhfMdpfm9XQ/edit?usp=sharing 

Group members: Samanta Shi and Mehr Un Nisa Javed

Textiles are an extremely broad topic, so our group decided to focus on different textile materials and their impacts on the earth. I worked on the textile industry’s environmental and social impacts, as well as innovative new textiles that aim to lessen the carbon footprint and waste generated. With the help of an extremely comprehensive report on the textiles economy that Samanta found, I was able to find eye opening facts about the serious effects of the fast fashion industry. It was shocking to me to find out how little clothing material can be recycled and that 100 billion USD is lost because of all the fabric waste. Previously when shopping at fast fashion stores, I only saw the finished product but never truly thought about what it costs to put it on the rack. Incredulous amounts of water and fossil fuels are used to produce the textiles, adding to drought and water and air pollution. Additionally, I was never aware that every time clothes are put through a washing machine, hazardous substances in the dyes and microplastics in plastic based materials are stripped from the clothing and end up in the ocean, furthering ocean pollution and threatening ocean life. People often point to car emissions and individual water usage as a large source of pollution, but the clothes we wear have an immense effect on the health of our planet as well. However, a chart in the report of future actions that could be taken to lessen these effects, including more thoughtful designs and increased recycling innovation, shows that the industry has potential to make a turn into the right direction. 

Additionally, I was amazed by the new innovative fabrics that are currently being made, ranging from biofabricated leather to lotus fibers. Technology has come such a long way to turn food items into wearable fabrics. Not only are these fibers more sustainably sourced than popular materials today, they also have great benefits to the wearer, including temperature control and durability. Coffee ground, pineapple leaf, and banana fibers are sourced from waster products that farmers would throw away, which takes whole advantage of the product and lessens waste. While these fabrics may not be the most accessible or easily made, it shows that there is lots of room for new innovation to lessen textile effects on the planet. 

Since ethnography is the study of people and cultures, it is important to be able to observe people in depth to obtain full comprehension of people’s actions and motives behind them. While this benefits from long term studies, as people’s behaviors have specific patterns over time, the length of the study is not what makes it successful, as Pink and Morgan point out. Long term studies allow ethnographers to see changes over time, but the process can be uneventful when they must wait to see action. However, short term studies can be equally as effective through deeper participant studies and focus on details. 

This article was especially helpful as a guide for how to make good observations for our future field study at Shanghai fabric wholesale markets, in which we only have a couple hours to obtain data. In this extremely short term study, it is important for me to have focus and drive to make note of specific details, which will help me make conclusions for the question at hand. With only a tiny window to observe how the fabric markets operate, simply observing may not be enough to get a comprehensive understanding of how they function. As the article said, it may require being more assertive and asking vendors and customers about their choices in order to make sound conclusions. Additionally, our smartphones will serve as important tools for us to record data and the environment, so that we will be able to look back at the media and re-engage with the subject. This will aid in pointing out smaller details and making additional observations that were missed when we were there in person. However, consent from vendors and customers to make recordings may hinder our ability to make use of these techniques. Nonetheless, Pink and Morgan’s article shows that if we have the focus to observe and implicate ourselves in the middle of the action, we can still have a good study in this short amount of time. 

Woodward’s ideas of hidden sustainable practices within everyday life resonate much with my personal experience with fashion consumption. Fast fashion is indeed a major problem, but many individuals are not active participants who have the ability to constantly add and dispose of clothes in their closets. Fast fashion brands are the most accessible to the masses, but that does not mean that consumers who buy from them do not have sustainable practices. Clothes have a life from the design, production, and distribution side, however, they also have another life once they are purchased. 

As Woodward states, I, along with many other individuals, add to my closet in reference to what is already there. Many pieces that I own have been with me for years because they are versatile enough to compliment many outfits, therefore, they have a long lifetime in my wardrobe. When new trends come, I never find it necessary to completely change my closet. Instead, my clothes change as I change as an individual, when my tastes evolve and new clothes are gradually added to my closet over a long period of time. Additionally, specific items of clothing hold sentimental value, making it hard for me to get rid of them, thus elongating its life in my wardrobe. I am not unique in these practices, and many others similarly hold onto their clothes for a long period of time. Even a cheaply made and bought garment can be worn for a long time if the wearer chooses to maintain it well.

Individuals can be sustainable beyond their purchasing methods. For example, it is unnecessary to wash clothes frequently if the load is not full, because it wastes water and deteriorates the fabrics, shortening their lifespan. In my household, clothes are passed between all members of my family, optimizing their full potential of usage and giving them new life in the different ways they are worn. When clothes are finally worn out, we repurpose them into cleaning cloths. So, unsustainably sourced clothes can still be worn sustainably.

Fast fashion is embedded in our consumer culture so deeply that we many times forget to recognize and thus underestimate its effects on people and the planet. The culture to look presentable at all times and adhere to constantly changing trends has made the majority of people dependent on fast fashion. Social media and attention to celebrities has made the masses eager to follow the most current trends in order to stay relevant.

According to Fletcher, the introduction of fast food in Rome undermined the important traditions of family eating and authentic regional cuisine. Similarly, fast fashion’s ever changing styles and low quality materials take away from fashion’s significance because garments are so easily exchanged, replaced, and thrown away. New styles don’t carry weight or authenticity because in just a few weeks, they’ll be seen as obsolete. Thus, the art of designing and creating fashion garments is undermined. Edelkoort similarly compares fast fashion to food items, remarking that despite the labor and design effort put into a piece of clothing, the costs sometimes still remain under the price of a sandwich consumed within minutes. When consumers can pay for a shirt in pocket change, how can people involved in designing, constructing, and distributing be properly compensated? 

Fletcher states that slow fashion cannot change the current practices within the fashion industry if it is taken superficially. Slow fashion can’t be seen as another trend of marketing tool, because so many people are currently affected and oppressed by the dominance of fast fashion. However, it will be a difficult transition to the spread of slow fashion. Fast fashion is indeed superficial in the way it constantly changes, but millions of people are not capable of supporting slow fashion because of money restrictions. Slow fashion’s high prices make it inaccessible to a large consumer group who cannot afford to spend a chunk of their paycheck on clothes. People may say that investing in a pricier sustainable garment will make the cost worth it in the long run, but many people already wear the same fast fashion garments for long periods in order to save money, just as they would with a pricier piece. Fast fashion is definitely a detrimental force, but slow fashion needs to become available to everyone in order for it to take full effect. 

Edelkoort states that men’s fashion is growing because they are currently raising more children and thus becoming more sensitive and elegant. However, fathers can’t be the only participants in men’s fashion. Raising children doesn’t necessarily lead to more fashionable taste, so I believe that Edelkoort is attributing the growth of men’s fashion to a too specific demographic. In addition, she says that men and women’s fashion should not be in the same runway show because the women’s designs upstage the men’s. I believe that instead of having to separate the two, men’s designs should become as diverse and free flowing as women’s designs are. Despite these, I appreciated Edelkoort’s tribute to powerful women and her encouragement of the success of women within a male dominated industry.