Blog 2 – Themes reflection

In the better lives units we learned about diversity, sustainability, and social responsibility. All three topics are equally important and relative to every aspect of the world of fashion. However, I think sustainability might have the most impact on how I work in fashion industry in the future. I learned that there are 1,130,000 tones of cloth purchased in the UK, but 800,000t waste form UK clothing during my chosen course – fashion journalism. The number of clothes that are wasted is jaw-dropping, yet there is a massive number of poor people that are struggling to have proper clean clothes to wear every day. How come we cannot just make less production and do not let the waste go to waste? What is the point spending all the money on making garments and just throw it all away once the season is past?

The main reason for the garment waste is fast fashion. fast fashion companies produce a large amount of clothing with cheap price and low quality to meet the fast-changing trends, but fast fashion is neither sustainable nor environmental-friendly, not to mention how unethical the way they treat their garment workers.

I’m major in fashion styling, as a stylist we have a choice to choose what kind of fashion brand we want in our work, and that shows what we support. Therefore, I think we have the voice, even though it may not be loud. Take myself for example, I personally never buy any product from fast fashion brands, not just because they are not sustainable, but also because there are way too many people are suffering due to the way that fast fashion companies’ decisions. I cannot ignore all that and give my money to them just to exchange for some clothes. As a fashion student, we are the ones who have opportunities to decide what we want the fashion industry to be in the future.