Fashion industry has a huge impact on people and the environment. For the past decade, the fashion industry has been based primarily on speed. By the word speed we mean a fast way of production, a rapid change of fashion trends and consequently fast and reckless purchases of new pieces, as the old ones are no longer fashionable. This vicious circle is in the forefront while the environment and the people involved in the production process are often neglected. Low prices, low-quality clothing and the constant change of fashion trends force consumers to buy more clothes than they need, which is ultimately reflected in the enormous amounts of fashion waste. The main source of difficulty in achieving a more sustainable fashion industry is the consumer. Fashion buyers are hungry for novelty, but they don’t have guilty conscience for constantly refreshing their wardrobe. On the other side of the supply chain, the industry also has problems exploiting workers who receive low wages and work hours of unpaid overtime; moreover, the use of toxic chemicals and environmental pollution are also major problems. Sustainable fashion is a fairly new movement in the fashion industry that aims to reduce textile waste and deplete the environment, while increasing the ethical treatment of workers. One of the main problems with the more sustainable functioning of fashion is that clothes are often discarded too quickly – before they are worn out. The goal is to slow down the production and consumption process in order to create an industry that will be more sustainable in the long run.
|
