The Look Behind The Exploited Modern Day Fashion System
In a world where the high demand for synthetic fibers continues on and automation accelerates the manufacturing process, Eco Age leverages our supply and demand data analysis to provide an awareness, making us the only organization that provides transparency to consumers and influencers.
In the near future, technology continues to thrive and accelerating the fashion production rate than ever before. The continuum of the social media craze spreads popular culture and influences people at a lighting speed. The demand for new products causes our landfills to fill up uncontrollably resulting in more pollutions and harm to the locals.
With the advancement in technology, automation is transforming the production process of the fashion industry. This affects the social life of our generation as well. People interact with digital screens and machines more often than with other human beings. For example, the invention of video games, VR, and AR lessen the physical interaction when playing games in the same space as before. Advancement of technology will lead to the elimination of human involvement in certain tasks from the harvesting the fibers to the assembling of the garments. Automation is reshaping the system of production, preventing workers from learning the skill set or craft needed to elevate their skills in order to move up the job ladder. Soon the workers will be a middle check man — doubling checking and making sure everything is going smoothly. With the invention of automated sewing machines, the need for human garment workers in production centers of developing countries decreased. This is a positive and a negative outcome because there is less risk of harm towards the workers working under poor factory conditions. However, these jobs are very important to the developing countries because it’s one of their top income.
In the textiles market, polyester is currently in the highest demand and will continue its trend beyond 2027. Man-made fibers from synthetic fibers like polyester, acrylic, and nylon continue to grow in their production and appear in our garments. Polyester is rising as the number 1 in production and demand as cotton comes in second. However, there is a big gap between them. As the graph predicts, the gap between polyester and cotton appears to get more distant as well. China, India, and Southeast Asia continue as the top producers of man-made fibers and this event greatly contributes to their air quality and their environmental state.
Our endless products, especially garments are made to fall apart. This contributes to the harming of the environment. Each year, on average, people tossed out 82 lbs of textiles. Approximately, 155 T-shirts are sitting in landfills for 200 years. This is only one of many consequences of using cheap and unsustainable fibers. Our landfills are filling up uncontrollably resulting in more pollution and harm to the locals. In response to lessen the landfill, greenhouse gases are produced from textile incineration process.
Fair wage and labor conditions for garment workers continue to be a pressing issue. Sweatshop working conditions continue to thrive in developing countries’ factories because there is not much transparency or demand for ethical labor. There’s a movement supporting ethical labor from companies, consumers, and the workers themselves.
Some changes in our policies happened in order to sustain our planet. There is a limitation on the production of man-made fibers per year producing for the fashion industry. More brands are sourcing more sustainable fibers and methods of designing because there is a growth in the consumers’ demand in sustainable and ethical products.
Green Initiatives groups such as Sustainable Cotton Project and Better Cotton Initiatives are advocating their cause for reforming the way cotton is farmed and marketed.The Sustainable Cotton Project promotes sustainably grown domestic cotton fiber without the use of the most toxic pesticides and herbicides producing Cleaner Cotton to growers, manufacturers, and consumers. San Francisco Sustainable Fashion Week International is said to promote sustainable fashion and chemical free industries for the health of future generations and our planet. Through digital media, this event presents the latest brands making a difference and informing the benefits of this transition of a slow and sustainable fashion industry.
Eco Age developed an mini-game in order to advocate the issues and consequences of the fashion industry. This simple game asks you a question and you pick the card with the scenario that is in your best in interest. From there, each choice you picked come with an outcome and the consequences of your action. This game is designed to start the change within the influencers community. Environmentally conscious celebrities and influencers on social medias have helped significantly by using their platform to bring a worldwide awareness to the issues.
When I started looking into the system of the fashion industry back in 2017, I never expected to be bombarded with such shocking issues and problems. My commute from home to school is rather short. It is just less than a 5-minute walk and the route is quite simple with not much of an interesting sight. I started out focusing on the parking lot of a restaurant called Wolfe’s.The theme of history and identity emerged from the parking lot observation. The parking lot before was a street but then it was closed off for an experiment for traffic flow. However, the markings on the street still remained as it became a parking lot.
Looking back to the things I’ve learned in Post Disciplinary Design class around this project, the three things that stood out were the amount of research, narrowing down, and producing prototypes that simplified the information learned about the system of the fashion industry.
I hope that our future will be a conscious one filled with empathy. We cannot change the past, so I hope we can learn from it — all its mistakes, fails and successes. The new chapter will bring equality for everyone and the quality of life will improve. I hope people who are privileged, have the voice, and ability to help the lesser will do so with no hesitation. Designers of the future need to think about both our planet and the people in order to design with sustainability and values in mind. I hope more brands and designers will implement closed-loop designs in their products. Somehow make a product easier to break down and be recycle, up-cycle, or biodegradable. We should all be making a difference by using our consumer power and demand transparency, quality, and commitment to follow ethical values from the industry.
