Response to Alice Payne – Salomon Ruiz

In this text Alice Payne describes the ideal life-cycle of a fashion garment. She explains the different phases of this life-cycle and also the problems they involve. Concerning the fibre choice,  although some materials like cotton or bamboo seem to be more sustainable, their production is often more expensive and also polluting, therefore it is hard to find materials that can be sustainable and also cheap.  Something that really surprised me is how sandblasting is a dangerous practice for workers, as most of the stores sell denim with this characteristic, and I have even bought jeans like this without knowing their negative impact. Alice Payne explains in this example how big is the influence of the media and fashion forescasters to start a trend that people will follow, no matter how some practices in the fashion industry are unethical. For instance, I have seen in California some products like sunglasses with a label warning people about toxic substances contained in the product, but people might buy these products regardless of this label, because they look cool or a celebrity is using that product.  Therefore, fashion magazines, media, etc should do more research about the products they promote and the government should more the fashion industry practices. Another point that I found interesting, during the garment use phase, is how washing clothes is a big environmental issue, as we waste a lot of water and also add chemicals to this  water through detergents  that becomes then hard to recycle. I had really never thought how washing clothes can have a big impact on the environment, as it is a daily life activity and even more, using dryers also requires a lot of energy. Therefore, it is crucial that designers find materials that do not need to be washed that often like denim, so we can reduce the impact of washing. In conclusion, clothes should be designed according to the life cycle described by Payne, so they can really be recycled and follow the cradle to cradle model, however every phase has issues that are yet to resolve like finding the right textiles, having a fair manufacture, etc. Some companies have started to adopt this life-cycle of the garment, but their prices are often higher than fast-fashion prices, so a lot of improvement has to be done. 

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