The environmental impacts of the fashion industry are fast becoming key concerns for high-end designers such as Vivienne Westwood and Stella McCartney, and new campaigns from the British Fashion Council are addressing the sustainability of the most polluting industries on earth. The consumption and disposal of ‘fast fashion’ has led to a doubling in production of fashion garments over the past 15 years. The textiles industry is consuming vast amounts of oil, water, fertilizers and chemicals and has a large transport carbon footprint, with production, retailing, and consumption often separated by thousands of miles in different locations around the world.
But what can we do as individuals? A recent article in Stylist Magazine written by Lucy Siegle, ethical living journalist and author of To Die For: Is Fashion Wearing Out the World?, caught our eye at The Carbon Literacy Project. Lucy shares her tips on mindful shopping; how to move away from fast fashion and spend more time “curating an ethical wardrobe”, plus how to improve the longevity of those garments we do buy. We have picked out some of our favourite tips from the article.