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Festival Fashion: 5 Ways to Not Give a F***
It’s April 2021 and I can almost sense a faint whiff of “eau de toilet” flourishing from a rural portaloo. This can only mean one thing… festival season is fast approaching. But are you already panicking about what to wear? Are you currently saving images of flower-crowned females on Pinterest? Have you excessively browsed H&M? Well stop. I’ve been there so you don’t have to. I genuinely want you to have the most carefree, liberating, and human experience at a festival this year. Therefore, I am going to tell you why you should not give a flying f*** about what you wear. But first, some context… Let’s go back to…
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Circularity: The Fast Fix to Fast Fashion
Fast fashion has become a detriment to the eco-system of the planet. With new clothing being more accessible and cheaper than ever, we as the consumer need to change our apathy into action. How can the industry tailor to our new needs? Circularity. Every year in the U.K alone, Britons throw away an estimated 3.1 kilograms of textiles. This places us as the 4th highest textile waste producers in Europe (circular.co.uk). However, there is a possible solution to this; use of a Circular Economy. First things first what is a Circularity? It is based off the idea of a Circular Economy. It starts with the principles and ideas that, rather…
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Not All Heroes Wear Capes – Some Wear Thrifted
How thrifted clothing can counter the fashion industry’s growing problem I think it’s fair to say that the fashion industry has a problem with sustainability – and now is the time for a much-needed intervention. With environmental destruction and pollution being a part of our daily lives, there is a growing sense of collective responsibility to address this climate emergency. The damage as we know, has been a result of unsustainable practices, including the wide use of plastics, landfills, non-renewable energy, scarce resources, and more. This real threat to our environment, however, has been met with many encouraging interventions. Supermarkets have turned the tide on single-use plastic bags, eateries are…
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Charity Shops and Hand-Me-Downs are Important
Charity shops have always been at the heart of the high street. And, for as long as anyone can remember, people have passed on their clothes to siblings, friends, and even their parents. Meanwhile, many still throw their clothes and other textiles away, sending them to landfills where they will ultimately lay for more than 200 years. Globally, it has been estimated that over 92 million tonnes of textile waste is created each year. Fashion alone accounts for around 10% of greenhouse gas emissions. Things are starting to change, though. With the use of the Circular Economy and a global effort, waste can be reduced. But for a long time…
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5 Things to Do With Your Unwanted Clothes
Instead of throwing them away! Throw-away culture or fast fashion is the cycle of constantly making and consuming new clothes in order to keep up with the latest trends. It is extremely harmful for the environment, with hundreds of items of clothing disposed of when it is no longer in fashion. E – retailers and fast fashion giants with low prices along with social media have worsened the issue. Can we ever throw away throw – away culture? Or is it enough to just make an effort to be environmentally conscious in our fashion choices? Before binning the clothes you no longer wear, help combat throw-away culture and try these…
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Sustainable fashion: The community you want to be a part of
2020 has been a chaotic year; politics has become so polarised, the world has gone into lockdown, and our climate is descending into madness. But in reality, this could be our future if we don’t act now. 2020 was the year to save our planet and to hold the big industries accountable. 2020 was the year to redeem ourselves, but the pandemic has diverted our gaze to the immediate threats we’re facing. It’s time to make our consumption sustainable. Climate crisis Environmental activists have been flooding the media with statements trying to draw the world’s attention to our planet’s cry for help. We are rapidly depleting our resources and most…
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The Horror Story of the Fashion World
Simply put, we are killing the planet. And one of the big contributors to this is the fashion industry. It is the third biggest pollutant on the planet and it continues to rip through our natural resources on a daily basis. We have the solution right under our noses, yet we still do nothing. We, as consumers, need to become more aware of the impact this industry is having. Our money is single-handedly funding our planet’s demise and the majority of us have no idea how. The life cycle of fashion The life cycle of your typical fashion garment is probably a bit of a mystery to most – other…
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Ambiguous Vintage
‘Vintage’ can mean different things to different people and clever marketing has given it a rise in popularity in the last twenty years. Nowadays, you can find ‘second-hand’ clothes for 99p while a ‘vintage’ tag can push it towards £99. Did we trade in value for cool points when ‘vintage’ became a desirable look? When I first moved to London a few years ago, I was excited to discover events called Vintage Kilo Sales. The idea behind these events was quite simple – a local hall is filled with pre-loved items and the price of the clothes is determined by their weight. A kilo of clothes thus has a set…
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Bricks and Mortar
While online-only brands like ASOS, Boohoo and Missguided chip away at our formerly fashionable high streets, is the same true when it comes to second-hand? Do charity shops, vintage boutiques and thrift stores suffer at the hands of online marketplaces such as eBay and Depop? In 2015 the used textile market was worth close to €4 billion. Today, the volume of used or second-hand clothing is enormous and growing. And increasingly, this volume isn’t just coming from more economically developed countries, but from countries around the world. For example, 60% of Chinese consumers now admit to owning more clothes than they need, with the average number of wears per item…
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Vintage Love Don’t Cost a Thing
‘Vintage’ can mean different things to different people and clever marketing has given it a rise in popularity in the last twenty years. Nowadays, you can find ‘second-hand’ clothes for 99p while a ‘vintage’ tag can push it towards £99. Did we trade in value for cool points when ‘vintage’ became a desirable look? In November 2018, a sheer, svelte cream dress, adorned with thousands of tiny crystals sold for 4.8 million USD. This coveted vintage garment was worn by Marilyn Monroe when she sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to President John F. Kennedy in 1962. It holds the record for the most expensive dress sold at an auction.   What’s the most…
