Did you know that there is a link between fashion, pollution and the well-being of workers? What if we reconsidered the way we obtain clothes? We explain it all to you here.
A little word about fashion from yesterday to today
In your great-grandparents’ time, people rarely bought new clothes. They wore durable clothing that they repaired as needed. The children wore the old clothes of their many brothers and sisters, even if they were worn out or not too much to their liking. Fashion was mostly reserved for rich people.
Today, the reality is very different. Have you ever heard of the fastfashion ? It’s the fact of producing clothes very quickly that cost little money.
Result: our clothes last less because we get tired of them or because they are of lower quality.
What is the link with the pollution of the planet?
We use more resources to produce these clothes: water, pesticides, oil, chemicals for dyes… It is harmful to the environment.
When we get rid of our clothes, they often end up in landfills: thousands of tons of clothes have been abandoned in the Chilean desert, for example.
In addition, the workers who make these clothes often do so in conditions dangerous to their health and for low pay.
What is a clothing detox?
Seeing these mountains of abandoned clothes, journalist Valérie Simard decided to do a clothing detox: live a year without buying clothes. And she succeeded!
She recounted her experience in a recently released book: A year of clothing detox.
We agree: Valérie Simard is an adult who has finished growing up a long time ago! Since that’s not your case, you probably need to change your clothes more often than she does.
Here are other suggestions for you:
- buy clothes at thrift stores;
- swap clothes with friends;
- rent clothes for special occasions, like your prom;
- learn to make simple repairs, like sewing on a button.
Rewriting: Lysiane Alexandre, based on an article by Anne-Frédérique Hébert-Dolbec
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