Fashion and ecologic, it is possible ?

As you know, the fashion world has an important impact on the plant. Our way of consuming always more "for our pleasure" has an impact on our actual and future life. Greenhouse effects our health and our daily life. The clothing companies need to produce different fashion lines, then they need to route and sell those products, it increases the carbon footprint. 

It's time to change, we just need to change our consumption habits. Low-cost clothing brands are part of fast fashion. For exemple, Zara designers offers more than 34 collections per year while a normal brand offers 4 collections per year.

What are the environmental impact of the fast fashion? What is we bought vintage or second-hand? What if we bought ethical and sustainable? What if we recycled?


It's small efforts on a large scale that can make things change and it's not very restrictive.  

The impact of the textile industry on our planet: 

China Yellow River Pollution

• With 1.7 billion tons of CO2 (per year) this industry emits the most greenhouse gas emissions.
• Today, it is estimated that 70% of the rivers in China are considered dangerous for humans just by touching them. 

• Making a t-shirt that weighs 250 grams requires 2500 litres of water, but we throw away about 12 kilograms of clothing per year per inhabitant.
• A pair of jeans travels an average of 65,000 kilometres (1.5 times around the Earth). Before landing in your wardrobe. These jeans also require 7,000 litres of water. About 20,000 tons of water are contaminated by dyeing alone every year.
• The textile and fashion industry accounts for 20% of global water pollution and 10% of CO2 emissions.
• A 2017 report by Global Fashion Agenda (GFA), estimated the EU's environmental footprint caused by the consumption of textiles at 4 to 6 %. Going into more detail, the 2017 Pulse of the Fashion Industry report, put together by GFA and the Boston Consulting Group,estimated that in 2015, the global textiles and clothing industry was responsible for the consumption of 79 billion cubic metres of water, 1 715 million tons of CO2 emissions and 92 million tons of waste. It also estimated that by 2030, under a business-as-usual scenario, these numbers would increase by at least 50 %.

Fashion industry: disastrous impact on the planet

How do we change our consumption habits? 

To consume eco-responsible is also to have an ethic of the image of the woman or the man in accordance with the values we share. It means participating in a world without vacuums and abandoning the lifestyle imposed by useless, invisible and underpaid notoriety, all wrapped up in a used digital world.

7 form of sustainable fashion: 

According to Dr. Anna Brismar “Ideally, all aspects of the figure above should be combined for every new garment produced. Hence each garment should first be manufactured on demand or custom-made (No. 1), in high quality and timeless design (No. 2), in an environmentally friendly manner (No. 3) and with consideration to various ethical aspects (No. 4). Thereafter, it should be used long and well through good care, repair and perhaps redesign (No. 5). When the product is no longer desired, it should be handed in to a secondhand shop, donated to charity or handed over to friends, relatives or perhaps a swap-shop, to prolong its active life (No. 6 and 7). When the garment is completely worn out, it should be returned to a collection point for recycling of the textile material, which can hence be reused in the manufacturing of new clothes or other textile products. Ideally, instead of buying newly produced clothes, one should consider renting, borrowing or swapping clothes (No. 6), or to buy secondhand or vintage (No. 7).”

Our solutions:

• Secondhand & Vintage, in the last few years secondhand websites have become very popular. So you can order in all tranquility on depop, vinted, vestiaire collective, ebay, videdressing, onceagain... But there are also shops near you, you will just have to look on the internet.
• Local brand, there are brands that manufacture their products in the country of origin, this allows to make the local market work and to reduce the transport of the garments.
• Ecological brand, ethically and sustainably brands that can be characterized by slow fashion (Thought Clothing, Pact, Reformation, EcoVibe, Alternative Apparel ...)

Understand more with TedX: How to engage with ethical fashion, Clara Vuletich 

In my next blog, I would define ethical and sustainable fashion.