Buying clothes has never been easier. 80 billion items are manufactured every year. We're putting too
much product out there, most of that product ending up in landfill. So-called 'fast fashion' allows
consumers to buy more, but they're wearing these garments less often and disposing of them at an
unprecedented rate.
This is where wardrobe castoffs end up.
Savanna Rags is a clothes recycling and processing plant in Nottingham, England. They process discarded
clothes from recycling bins around the country. Mohammed Patel has been running this plant for 12
years.
“Majority of it will go to Africa and Dubai. We send some of it to Europe and we have a couple of buyers
here in the UK that buy from us also.”
Să achiziționezi haine/Achiziționarea hainelor nu a fost niciodată mai ușoară.80 de miliarde de
articole sunt fabricate în fiecare an. Există mult prea multe articole pe piață, majoritatea ajungând la
groapa de gunoi.Așa numita 'modă perisabilă permite consumatorului să cumpere mai mult, deși poartă
aceste articole de îmbrăcăminte mai rar, debarasându-se de ele într-un ritm fără precedent/accelerat.
Aici ajung hainele din dulap/garderobă nedorite.
Savanna Rags este un centru de procesare și reciclare a hainelor în Nottingham, Anglia. Aici se
procesează hainele din containerele de reciclare din întreaga țară. Mohammed Patel conduce aceast
centru de 12 ani.
“Majoritatea hainelor este trimisă în Africa și Dubai. Trimitem o parte în Europa și avem câțiva
cumpărători aici, în Anglia, care cumpără de la noi. “
Globally, sorting plants like this only deal with around 25% of discarded clothes. In Britain, more than
300,000 tonnes of clothes end up in landfill every year. It's the fastest growing category of waste in the
country. But this is a global problem. Expanding middle classes in emerging markets are hungry for more
and cheaper fashion. It's estimated that by 2050, global clothing sales could more than triple.
“One of the things that we've noticed is that the quality of the actual material being used has gone
down. We're now having to process a lot more just to get the same quality of goods that we can sell on.”
La nivel global, centrele de sortare au de-aface cu 25% din hainele nedorite aruncate. În Marea Britanie,
annual, mai mult de 300.000 de tone de haine ajung la groapa de gunoi. Este categoria de deșeuri cu cea
mai rapidă creștere din țară.Dar această problemă este globală. Clasele de mijloc în continuă expansiune
sunt avide după haine multe și ieftine/Extinderea claselor de mijloc din țările în curs de dezvoltare a dus
la cererea pentru o modă din ce în ce mai ieftină. Se estimează că, până în 2050, vânzările globale în
materie de haine ar putea cel puțin să se tripleze.
“Unul dintre lucrurile pe care le-am observat este legat de calitateadin ce în ce mai scăzută a
materialelor folosite. În prezent se procesează o cantitate mai mare de haine pantru a obține aceeași
calitate./Acum trebuie să procesăm mai mult doar pentru a avea aceeași calitate a produselor, pe care
să le vindem mai departe. “
----But how can the fashion industry continue to grow while addressing the environmental need for people
to buy fewer clothes?
Dar cum ar putea industria modei să se dezvolte, dar să țină cont și de nevoia mediului oamenilor pantru
mai puține haine?
New York fashionistaIjeoma Kola is less about rags and more about the latest runway fashions.
Fashionista Iljeoma Kola este mai preocupată de noile tendințe în modă decât de vechituri.
“Because I post often on Instagram, there is a little bit of pressure to have a new outfit.”
She's a fashion blogger. Her stylish posts and clothing tips are attractinga big online following.
“I found myself before buying a lot of clothes. I usually bought clothes from H&M and Zara, or ASOS. But
if you're looking for trendy pieces they have them, they're pretty affordable.”
Today she's looking for a new outfit for a swanky industry event.
But this store doesn't sell clothes, it rents them. Ijeoma has been championing Rent the Runway's radical
new approach to high end fashion.
“Rent the Runway is a clothing borrowing service which allows you to rent clothes for either 4 or 8 days
at a time. You are cycling through clothing as fast but you're borrowing it with other people so other
people get to wear the same things that you're wearing as well.”
On average only 20% of clothes are worn on a regular basis. Rent the Runway's mission is to change
consumers’ relationship with the clothes they wear.
“ Rather than buying something only getting to wear it maybe three or four times before you decide to
give it away or throw it away. An item is worn a lot more when it is being shared across different
people.”
Rent the Runway only has a couple of flagship stores but online it's a giant and it's disrupting the fashion
industry.
To date, there are 10 million members so it comes with a hefty laundry bill. The company claims to have
the largest dry cleaning facility in the world. Rent the Runway is getting more mileage out of items of
clothing, it's also helping to tackle an increasing throwaway culture. But the last thing clothing brands
want is for consumers to buy less.
----
Except perhaps, for Patagonia, an outdoor apparel brand which sent shock waves through the industry
with this full page advert in the New York Times on Black Friday 2011.
Here in Amsterdam, Ryan Gellert heads up Patagonia's operations in Europe and the Middle East.
“The apparel industry has become one of the most polluting in the world as an industry we're creating
product that people don't need by stimulating demand and creating this sense that if you don't buy it
now it's not going to be available. There's this race to the bottom on price and quality that is an
unsustainable model.”
Patagonia's philosophy flies in the face of fast fashion to buy once, buy well, and mend clothing for a
longer lifespan.
“So maybe doing that in Amsterdam and then figuring out how to share it elsewhere.”
With the largest single repair facility in North America, and mobile mending services around Europe and
America, Patagonia's anti-fashion environmental message has resonated with people who buy into their
vision.
“Helping our customers keep their product in use longer was also one of the original big ideas in
Patagonia.”
Between 2008 and 2014, profits reportedly tripled. Patagonia claims it generates revenue of nearly 1
billion dollars a year. Its hope is to inspire other brands to tackle the environmental impact of fast
fashion.
“If I had the opportunity to sit down with leaders from some of the bigger fast fashion companies in the
world, what I'd really encourage them to understand the full impact of their supply chains.
Patagonia provides a glimpse into a more enlightened approach to fashion.
But they're a rare example. For Mohammed, the boom in fast fashion has been good for business, but
this throw away culturesits uncomfortably with him.
“Sometimes it's soul destroying, because you come to work and you just think, is this what we've come
to that the human race all we think about is dispose of things. The environmental impact on the planet
is just colossal and I don't think we as the human race realize what it is that we're doing, just for the
sake of wearing a pair of jeans.”
In order to tackle the throwaway culture, brands and consumers need to change their behaviors.
Industry pioneers are proving that there are viable business opportunities in selling less, others need to
follow suit.