It’s all around us, from our masks to our OTTD*, fashion is everywhere around us .it’s not just a piece of clothing, it is a way to fully express our personalities, our choices, and sometimes even our roots and history with that grandma’s traditional saree hanging in your closet.

919 gallons of water just to produce one pair of jeans?

Our tastes, be it bold or simply plain, be it the flashy latest trends or all-time classics, fashion is out there to embrace it all. With the fashion industry employing every 1 in out 6 people on this planet and with the racing growth of 3-4 percent every year, it would be interesting to paint a picture of the following facts and figures of the industry.

We all are familiar with one fashion trend that never gets old no matter what age and times are, it just doesn’t go! It’s nothing else than jeans. We all love denim jeans but do you know it takes 919 gallons of water just to produce one pair of jeans?

The fashion industry is responsible for 20% of all industrial water pollution worldwide. It creates a waste of 1 trillion gallons of water while over a  billion people today do not have access to water.

Why fast fashion is not cool

Apparently, there is another term surfacing the internet these days when you google fashion and that is “fast fashionâ€_x009d_. And just like fast food isn’t a very good choice for our body, fast fashion isn’t also a great choice for our planet. Fast fashion means market retailers rapidly produce inexpensive clothing to keep up with the latest trend.

While this may not sound so bad from a business point of view it is well as a matter of fact a topic of serious importance. A trend is something that goes viral for a few days and then most of the time disappears only to be remembered in our ticktocks or Instagram reels. For such a short surviving trend, fast fashion produces tons of clothing which will become irrelevant in a very short time and then again retailers produce new trends and the scray cycle continues.

The above colors don’t shine so bright in this painting, do they? The question we must ask ourselves at this point is what should we do? Maybe we can paint a better picture perhaps?

As the word goes, yes it is a much better way to move forward. We have made mistakes in the past but we can not change the past, what is imperative is that we move forward with a better way and a better mindset than before. To change our future and provide a better one for our generations to come.

We don’t need fast, we need something that works efficiently. Fashion is an expression of oneself. It is an art and it can be expressed in million ways possible, then why not in a sustainable way?

Sustainable fashion is where clothing is made up of different eco-friendly materials, the process of production does not harm any human or any ecosystem, and the final product is finest in every way.

While fast fashion trends die every now and then, products from a sustainable closet are trendy yet classic. They sustain time, they speak of quality and purpose.

Even top-notch brand have started to realize this as important. H&M started an initiative of reaching a goal of 100% recycled fashion. 57% of its clothes are either recycled or produced in a more sustainable way.

Maison Margiela’s painter jeans are  woven from upcycled denim and the waste from the production of the re-tooled cotton fabric is passed on as compost for specialist coffee farmers in Guatemala.

Nisolo is a Certified B Corporation that offsets its carbon emissions 100 percent as a company but also focuses on ethical business practices, including ensuring living wages are also provided to its staff.

Where to start?

#30wearscampaign

Before you buy something ask yourself will you wear it at least 30 times? If you say yes voila! Congratulations on stepping into sustainable dressing! #30wearscampaign was started by Livia Firth, founder of Eco-Age as a step towards sustainability in fashion.

Donate your clothes

Honestly there are thousand things in your closet just sitting there taking up space. Walk in it and clean it up! We all are guilty of collecting  heap of clothes that we actually never wear, so clean it up and donate. People need people more than anything in these times and we all should do all that we can to help. We do not see the value of an unnecessary fur coat in our wardrobes as deeply as refuge child in the chills of winter months.give yourself that satisfaction of being kind.

Know about your clothes

Be informed about how and who made the clothes. If the process was sustainable and what value does that the brand follow. For which purpose is your money being  contributed. Making better choices is in our hands.

Recycle your clothes

Do you know if we choose to extend the life of our jeans by just 9 months we reduce their water footprint by 25-30%. Recycled wear is another goal many designers and brands are working forward to.

These might look small ways but together it can create a huge impact. Bring together people around the world and make better choices that will create a positive trend for our mother earth. After all change doesn’t need to be big, it just need to be what it is, a change and if it has to live long, it has to be sustainable.

*out fit of the day