Fashion and the affects on the Environment

Jynsyn Noble
9 min readDec 16, 2016

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Noble, Jynsyn

11/16/16

Evolution of Fashion

Usually when people think of the Fashion Industry they don’t think of how it was started or what it actually entails. With that the Fashion Industry wasn’t considered an industry until the twentieth century (Evolution of the Fashion Industry). It wasn’t considered before because at that time there were not many manufacturing businesses as well there was not a lot of freedom to dress as we do now. Back in the twentieth century there were certain dress codes that women had to abide by as well as men. Women were not allowed to wear pants or low cut shirts and men could not wear skirts or a wife beater. It was suits and ties for the men and dresses or skirts for the women. If you didn’t abide by this dress code you would be considered abnormal or poor.

Paul Poiret

Although when fashion did arise it was created by the Europeans and then overproduced by Americans. Paul Poiret a french designer said “Elegance and fashion have been the pastime of our ancestors, but now they take on the importance of a science” ( Women’s Wear Daily). When Paul Poiret said this, it is believed that back in the day fashion was elegant and original but now like science a new and innovative idea fashion has been overproduced and over consumed. Poiret and many other french fashion designers like Charles Worth, Jeanne Lanvin, and Paquin had these amazing original designs, however America started manufacturing all these designs and overproducing them. This occurred in a New York City industry where more then 18000 workers were employed in manufacturing blouses. The manufacturing of the clothes effected many peoples living conditions as well as there work conditions. During the up rising of manufacturing different garments,many people that lived next to the factories were forced to leave because of “zoning restrictions”.(Evolution of the Fashion Industry). Basically saying the factories are moving here and people cant be within a two mile radius from the factories. Even if you were in a two mile radius the fumes and gases that came from the factories was toxic and caused many health problems. Even the working conditions in this business were very impacted and unregulated. Resulting in The Triangle Shirtwaist fire in 1911 where 146 workers were killed. This incident is what made the industry have a regulation on the amount of labor in a manufacturing factory. From then on the factories were regulated for the labor situation, however not for the amount of pollution they were creating when producing the many different garments.

Manufacturing Industry 20th Century
Triangle Shirtwaist fire

Eric Wilson from the article Evolution of the Fashion Industry stated “Now the fashion industry has little to do with the artisan’s craft of a century ago, but would be better described as the pursuit of profitable styles by multinational conglomerates with competitive technology and the most efficient delivery of timely merchandise”(Evolution of the Fashion Industry). Now when you think about fashion and the fashion industry you think of beauty, perfection, glamor, labels, fame and fortune. Although you could also relate other words to the fashion industry like pollution, unsustainable, over consumption, consumerism and wasteful. The fashion industry of the United States involves and contributes many aspects to the world but some are not as good as others. If you look up the definition of the United States it will say that it is the worlds most productive industrial nation implying that the United States is a system built on consumption. A country relying on consumption as a successful attribute can lead to various complications including pollution and waste, which leads to unsustainable resources and global warming.

Fashion Now

Some back ground information on how the fashion industries overconsumption can be a contributing factor to pollution is from an article Fast Fashion is the Second Dirtiest Industry in the World, Next to Big Oil which states that the fashion industry system acquires an outcome involving an abundance amount of waste after producing the product. This waste is then dumped into the environment which is ultimately one of the causes of the nations pollution in the world. The fashion industry usually can not reuse or recycle their materials and product, therefore the chemicals they are using are just being put out into the earths natural resources creating pollution and waste in the environment. which explains why this article states that the clothing industry is the worlds second largest polluter (EcoWatch).

Zara Clothing is Hazardous

In saying that the United States is obsessed with the fashion industry and materialistic things. Americans shop everyday, you could even consider it as someones hobby as well as someones addiction. The article stated above says because of the fashion industries popularity it leads to consumerism as a method of “fast fashion” in which merchandise is created to be transported at a fast pace from modeling shows to the store (EcoWatch). This method leads to overconsumption where the product of clothing is being produced too fast and disposing an insanely amount of cheaper and older clothes into the world creating pollution because of the chemicals in the clothing. The clothes that are being disposed are setting out carbon emission into the environment resulting to an even bigger problem of global warming (EcoWatch).

Recycling Clothes

Although the fashion business is causing pollution and health issues the industry is trying to help the environment.The article in the New York Times called Sustainable Innovation: Reducing Fashion’s Carbon Footprint by Christopher F. Schuetze on August 20, 2016 is a new innovated idea of how to help the fashion industry become more environmentally friendly. This article introduces reusing the already produced fabrics and textiles that are left over, instead of producing new materials from other resources. This will stop the over production of clothes and the waste the fashion industry contributes to pollution; also it will help reduce the fashions industries carbon footprint. In a study, “experts estimate that British consumers throw out more than a million tones (1.1 million U.S. tons) of textiles in the form of clothes and other products every year”(Schuetze).With this obscene amount of clothes they decided to do something about it by recycling the different fabrics they could use.” The Bureau of International Recycling, claims that a single kilogram of collected used clothing can help reduce up to 3.6 kilograms, or almost 8 pounds, of CO2 emissions”(Schuetze). This process of recycling would also reduce the huge amount of water consumption that the fashion industry consumes to make the different materials. As well as recycling they have considered making a machine that sorts different fabrics so they can make a new and environmentally friendly design. This would sort the fabrics and make the fabric a better quality to use in the next big fashion show.

Even though this idea of recycling clothes is ideal, people go for what is popular and the “in” thing resulting in big popular corporations getting most of the sale and consuming revenue. This is what leads to pollution in the fashion industry because some of the big fashion corporations are the ones using the top materials that are causing pollution. For instance some of the main materials that big corporations use in the fashion industry are nylon, polyester, and acrylic. These materials are not biodegradable meaning they are not sustainable materials which create pollution and are contributing factors to global warming when dumped into the environment (EcoWatch). These materials can easily be released into the environment without even knowing you are doing it. For example through the water ways when you wash your clothes in your washer at home, that water used finds its way into the environments natural waters like oceans and lakes. Thus leading to the pollution of the material that was washed in your washer at home. The article above states that “Eighty-five percent of the microfibers found along the shoreline were human-made material and” “matched the types of material, such as nylon and acrylic, used in clothing.”(EcoWatch).

The issue of the fashion industry leading the United States and other countries to over consuming product thus correlating with the pollution of chemicals from the clothing is important because it effects the planet and man kind directly. The fashion industry in itself is one of the major factors in the problem of overconsumption of product from other countries and within the United States.Fashion is never going to stop it’s a on going trend that many people value and use to express different cultures. Living in the United States and being one of the most productive countries is a huge problem for the environment as well as the people who are consuming the product. The idea to recycle all these fabrics is a great idea but it will not stop the amount of pollution that the industry produces. If America wants to help the environment they should stop the amount of consumption people consume on an everyday bases. We have to start at the source which is the fact that we are a country that runs on a system of materialistic things and we need to stop consuming over a tone of materials that result in humans wasting our resources.With that the fashion industry was scrutinized over the years for polluting the environment with chemicals from overproducing certain materials and overconsumption from other countries. More consumption and consumerism of the product that consists of environmentally unsustainable materials leads to pollution of the environment.

Therefore to stop consumption and overproducing here are a few steps to take before shopping. Step one don’t go out shopping unless the item you are getting is something you don’t have. Step two when shopping go thrifting instead of to a store like forever twenty-one or H&M that overproduce all there clothes. Step three instead of buying huge amounts of clothes for cheap by good quality clothing for a more expensive price. Its about quality over quantity not the other way around.These steps are little steps everyone should take to keep our planet sustainable.This will help reduce the amount of materials the factories use because the amount of merchandise people consume has decreased. This will also let the industry know people don’t want huge amounts of clothes that are not a good quality, we want good clothes that will last for awhile. Overall people need to take in to account of how much the fashion industry affects the planet and how they can do something about it, even if its as little as thrifting and taking a few steps to be more environmentally friendly.

Works Citied:

EWContributor. “Fast Fashion Is the Second Dirtiest Industry in the World, Next to Big Oil.” EcoWatch. N.p., Aug.-Sept. 2015. Web. 13 Dec. 2016.

Tucker, Emma. “Alexander McQueen’s DNA Turned into Leather by Tina Gorjanc.” Dezeen. N.p., 14 July 2016. Web. 13 Dec. 2016.

Friedman, Arthur. “New York’s Lucky Seventh.” WWD Century, Women’s Wear Daily Special Edition (September 1998): 162.

— . “Garment Town’s Rise to Fashion Avenue.” WWD Ninety, Women’s Wear Daily Special Edition (16 July 2001): 226.

Stone, Elaine. The Dynamics of Fashion. 2nd ed. New York: Fairchild Publications, 2004.

Schuertze, Christopher F. “Search IHT Rendezvous SEARCH Sustainable Innovation: Reducing Fashion’s Carbon Footprint.” New York Times. N.p., 20 Aug. 2012. Web. 11 Nov. 2016.

Stegemeyer, Anne. Who’s Who in Fashion. 3rd ed. New York: Fairchild Publications, 1996.

Trebay, Guy. “Al Gore’s Fashion Forecast.” New York Times. N.p., 29 Sept. 2007. Web. 11 Nov. 2016.

Wilson, Eric. “The Early Years.” WWD Ninety, Women’s Wear Daily Special Edition (16 July 2001): 58–60.

Wilson, Eric. “Evolution of the Fashion Industry.” LoveToKnow. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2016.

Photo Credits: Google Images

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Jynsyn Noble

Hello my name is Jynsyn I'm 21 years old and I study at SFSU. My major is Apparel, Merchandising, and Design. With this I hope to evolve the fashion industry.