by So you’re broke up with fast fashion. Congratulations! You switched to buying second-hand, started shopping local and swapped polyester for EcoVero viscose. Every step is worthwhile, and yet the climate is still in crisis, and there is more that can be done.
Once upon a time, I thought sustainable fashion meant clothes I couldn’t afford, in shapes I’d never wear, and in colors inspired by ancient grains. I believe I meant to have an ethical wardrobe to step out of life in a hemp sack dress. But over the past decade, the industry has exploded with a new wave of designers determined to prove me wrong. Suddenly there were new brands for every style, all using cleaner, greener and fairer production methods.
At the same time, second-hand was emerging as the shopaholic’s guilt-free alternative – whether it was “true” vintage from the past, or last season’s unloved duds via successful resale apps. The second-hand clothing market is set to overtake fast fashion by the end of this decade. As awareness grows, thankfully, so do our shopping options.
Which is ironic, because if there’s one thing researchers, activists and advocates agree on, it’s that we can’t shop things better. Quite the opposite. The next stage of the fashion revolution is facing the truth: that the production of new clothes can never be “sustainable” while the planet is crying under the weight of our girls.
The Kantamanto market in Accra, Ghana, is a symbol of both the problem and the solution. Around 15m second-hand garments enter the country weekly, most from Europe and the USA. Local skilled craftsmen fight the waste avalanche by repairing and upcycling as much as possible – but around 40% go unsold and end up carpeting the beaches like seaweed.
Back home, the discourse has shifted to focus not on what we buy, but on what we don’t. How do we keep our clothes in use and make them last longer? How do we stay in love with them, instead of letting our eyes wander?
While brands still play a huge role in designing a better system, bragging rights are no longer about brand new threads but something anecdotal, well-worn and loved. Visible mending is a badge of honor, as people push back against fashion culture that is fast becoming obsolete.
Fashion activist Orsola de Castro recently took to Instagram to update her much-touted mission that the most sustainable clothing is the one already in your wardrobe. “When it comes to clothing, the most sustainable thing you can do is to maintain, care for and repair your own clothes,” she wrote.
It is a democratic view of a system that has long been criticized for its elitism. We may not be able to afford a £300 pair of trousers, but we can try to look after the ones we have. We can invest our time; while repairing the zip when it breaks, changing them when our body or our taste changes, and looking at them carefully every day.
Which brings us to the next frontier: laundry. It may not be the sexiest part of the sustainability conversation, but it’s time to hang up our laundry habits for inspection.
Up to 25% of clothing’s carbon footprint comes from the way we care for it, according to appliance manufacturer AEG. If you are one of the many people who fling everything in the laundry basket every night of course, take note. Beyond the environmental and financial cost of all that heating and sniffing, there is another reason to use the sniff test. Over-washing also damages our clothes.
Take a moment to reflect on your own laundry tragedies. We all have them; reel in the memory of the heroes wardrobe built too soon. The sweaters you lost due to contractions, the white shirt that caught a red sock and you lost it, the slinky dress that never slipped the same way again. One 2021 study found that we lose an average of 95 items of clothing in our lifetime due to laundry mishaps.
The answer? Wash less, and wash better. It’s time to make those “recycling chair” clothes in our bedrooms a point of pride, not shame.
Of course, this will always be subjective – one person’s mustard stain is another person’s “decorative” motif. And let’s agree that anything worn closely should still be washed every time. But for everything else, stop and ask yourself: does it really need immersion, or is this something that spot-washing can fix?
Related: Garments that last longer and less creasing: why it’s time to start washing at a lower temperature
When the answer is “no”, cooler temperatures and shorter cycles can reduce the stress placed on the fabric and help your favorite garments last longer – a win for your pocket and the planet.
Wrap – an NGO dedicated to tackling the climate crisis – estimates that you can reduce your carbon, water and waste footprint by 20-30% by extending the life of garments by just nine months. [pdf]. Not to mention saving precious hours of scrolling for a replacement.
But if all this is going to work then we may have to flush out some lingering social norms. Is it time to reinvent “too red to wash” as the TikTok aesthetic for the indie sleaze revival? To popularize the bib for adults? Or simply to accept the mindset of previous generations, where buying clothes meant committing to them for a long life?
Because “responsible” fashion means nothing if we are not willing to accept responsibility as well. We must love our clothes loud and proud. Repair them, treat them with care, wear them again and again – and make it a regular wash day without skipping a beat. It could really be the cleanest option.
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