We have reached many limits, today we cannot continue with these systems. The planetary resources are limited and due to overdemand and an accelerated production and consumption we are exceeding the planetary boundaries avoiding and affecting the planet regeneration and putting its subsistence at risk.
Theories such as Planetary Boundaries (Rockström, 2009) present the need of immediate collective actions to avoid our planet deterioration. This theory studies 9 fundamental processes for our planet stability: Climate Change, the depletion of the ozone layer, changes is the use of land, water consumption, the nitrogen and phosphorus cycle, aerosols, chemical pollution and the oceans acidification.
The main goal is to transition today’s industries to better ones through reasonable processes where we don’t compromise future generations
Today we consume around 6000 lt of water for a pair of jeans, or 3000 for a t-shirt. If we consider that around 1400 t-shirts are fabricated every minute the numbers become overwhelming.
Until 2017 we talked about an estimated of 250 thousand factories all over the world with 40 million workers, where we could find kids among them, being responsible for the production of 80,000 million garments every year approximately.
Fast fashion & Low-Cost Model
A big part of today´s industry is based in a model known as Fast Fashion.
This scheme forces designers, brands, and companies to work at an accelerated speed in order to have new products on a constant basis. An example of this is the 57 collections seen in brands such as Zara or H&M vs. the 2 to 4 that were usually handled in fashion.
This accelerated model usually works under a «low cost» scheme, where the entire production chain is made cheaper.
To achieve this low cost, production is outsourced by subcontracting and giving the work to the highest bidder, losing transparency and traceability, and promoting labor exploitation.
The «low cost» implies a low quality in the products, which promotes a programmed obsolescence encouraging excessive and constant consumption regardless of the price someone is paying for it.
Although we believe that fashion is a cheap product, these systems have made us mistakenly believe that these are the «usual» prices of clothing, however, someone is always paying the real price of these objects.
Sustainable fashion seeks an environmental, social and economic impact.
Environmentally through materials and processes that do not use pesticides, that reduce water and energy consumption and that are certified to ensure transparency. Solutions that reduce the carbon footprint among other applied impacts.
Socially through decent wages and conditions that promote a better quality of life for those involved. As well as a brake on de-localization through local manufacturing and consumption to facilitate traceability and transparency.
We all can be agents of change by informing ourselves, being proactive in our conscious actions and not settling for what already exists but seeking new and better solutions.
We invite you to read the recommendations we mentioned in our article on responsible consumption and care!
Likewise, if what interests you is to join from the design, there are various techniques and methods that you can learn to achieve it.
Creamodite has been researching and promoting the method of patternmaking and design zero waste fashion since 2016, with sustainable design methodologies capable of achieving garments with zero waste through the work of the forms.
If you want to learn the method, you can have a look at our online course.
For more info contact us at info@workef.com or on our web site creamodite.org.