Activists Stunt | Circular Fashion

I don’t know if you had the chance to see the publicity stunt that some activists pulled during an LV fashion show with signs saying over - consumption = extinction on the runway. Mmm, I am pretty sure most people didn’t feel elude by the message, since precisely this brand isn’t exactly the problem in the growing fashion contamination cycle. The message is right but the context was all wrong. To send a message across and reach people we need to know when and how to do it. Pushing our beliefs into other people is making us do the opposite and that is not what we want. Educating people and creating a community is what is going to stop the problem, creating awareness in individuals is what will stop the over-consumption, not impositions or the government interference, at the end of the day we are the ones swiping that card, not the brands, not the retailers, not the government, so by taking individual responsibility we decrease the hit, by teaching people how to take action we can make a change.

The Stunt

My first thought when I saw the videos was is she aware that the life of this brand merchandise is circular? Is she aware that this brand niche isn’t exactly the masses? A lot of all aspire to own at least one of their pieces but regular people B, B+, or C aren’t these brands target, the same goes for Chanel, Dior, Hermes, Fendi, etc. How often do you see a person tossing a Chanel bag or an LV belt in the garbage or buying 40 bags at once? I haven’t...

I was so annoyed with that video and infuriated by the comments that I couldn’t help myself from asking one of the people commenting “I support her” how was she supporting her? Bc unless you stop over-consuming you aren’t supporting anything and her answer was:

“ Well Cinthia that is the plan, it’s a gradual thing. You can’t just shock your system. I am getting informed but I agree we don’t need much to be happy”.

(I am still trying to figure how the second statement is relevant to the subject but ok).

And I know if I were to keep asking my anger was going to reach the sky. Like in what kind of society are we living in, that we just jump to give opinions without thinking anything through first, only lead by emotions, like kids?

After the whole debacle, I figured that it was important to write about circular fashion, and the reason is, that learning about how it works and adding its steps in our daily life gives us more power as individuals to stop this path of destruction and unnecessary consumption if we choose so of course.

The habit of buying 100 Shein t-shirts for 10 bucks, is what is causing the damage, fast fashion and our own habits are the biggest problem. I know we aren’t all rich but we also don’t need to buy 100 shirts every two days.

Circular Fashion

Circular fashion is a system where our clothing and personal belongings are produced through a more considered model: where the production of an item and the end of its life are equally as important.

Four Steps to Circular Fashion

Taking all of this into account, here is a breakdown of the various steps that would be required for creating a truly circular fashion system.

1. Produce and Buy Less (we)

2. Design Out Waste and With the End in Mind

3. Extend a Garment’s Life as Long as Possible (we)

4. Manage a Garment’s “End” of Life

Key points of circular fashion:

· Using fewer materials in producing individual items for increased recyclability

· Working to remove nonrecyclable and polluting materials from the supply chain

· Recapturing everything from garment off-cuts to packaging for reuse

· Ensuring use and reuse for as long as possible including collection schemes and bringing the recycled materials back to a ‘good as new’ state

· Returning any unavoidable waste to nature safely

1. Produce and Buy Less.

This is the step that very few brands want to talk about, but it’s absolutely necessary if we ever want to reach a truly circular system.

Right now, we are simply producing too many clothes — and shoes, and bags, and jewelry and everything else.

According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, over 100 billion garments are being produced annually.

As the often-quoted stat goes, from 2000 to 2014, clothing production roughly doubled, yet people are keeping clothes half as long.

Fashion brands have gone from releasing new clothes a couple of times per year or once per season to launching new styles weekly or even daily.

Ultra-fast fashion retailer Shein even advertises that they drop at least 1,000 new styles every single day. Some days, the retailer drops over 6,000 new products daily.

There’s no way that this overproduction and over-extraction of resources could ever be circular. Even if we switched to using all renewable sources for fabrics, dyes, etc. we’d be producing faster than those resources could renew.

And given the state of textile recycling technology, today and the amount of time and energy textile recycling takes, we also could not possibly recycle all of those clothes.

We can only create a circular system if we are producing less in the first place.

Also, of course, one of the elements of a circular economy is about making durable things that last and can be used continually. Certainly, if a brand is producing hundreds of millions of clothes every year (Zara produces 450 million garments annually), you’re not considering longevity.

Not only is the clothing not designed to be durable but the only way people are able to buy so many clothes is if they are replacing their existing garments. Our closets are only so big after all.

2. Design Out Waste and With The End in Mind

This is something that the Ellen MacArthur foundation talks about in their approach to a circular economy and it’s a very important element.

We can try to extend the lives of garments and other items (which I’ll touch on in step 3) as long as possible, but it helps if these pieces were designed in a way that made it easy to repair them or keep them.

So, this means designing for durability: Using quality fabrics, reinforcing the seams so the seams don’t rip, using quality components like zippers and buttons.

It’s also about designing with a really great fit so people want to keep wearing that garment. When it’s too loose or tight in the wrong areas, or falling off our shoulders, or is just uncomfortable, people won’t want to keep it. In fact, eighty percent of consumers have reported difficulties finding well-fitting garments.

And this is something that fast fashion is really bad about. I mean these brands are launching hundreds or thousands of new garments every week. There’s no way they are thoroughly testing the fit on every single piece. It’s just not possible.

And beyond designing for durability, designers need to also have the end in mind.

So, for instance, using 100% of fiber instead of a blended fabric to maximize recyclability.

Or using 100% natural fibers and dyes and components so that the piece is compostable.

Or maybe designing a handbag or pair of shoes in a way that makes it very easy to repair if something were to happen to it.

3. Extend a Garment’s Life Through Reuse and Repair

As the Ellen MacArthur Foundation explained in their three principles of a circular economy, extending the life cycle of items is a key part of circularity.

4. Manage a Garment’s “End” of Life: Repurpose and Regenerate

There are a couple more R’s I want to talk about and these have to do with the sort of final stage of a garment as it currently is.

I hesitate to say “end-of-life” because that’s a terminology in the linear economy that assumes there is an end. And the point of a circular economy is that there isn’t an end; everything stays in use or gets used as something else.

But, there comes a time when a piece will be beyond repair or perhaps is unwearable or undesirable. In this case, that piece may need to be transformed so that the components or materials stay in use.

One way to do this is to repurpose it.

Circular Fashion R’S

Reuse

This means first and foremost, making the most out of your closet. For plenty of tips on this, listen to episode 7 of the Conscious Style Podcast with Jess Atkins, the co-creator of the wardrobe app, Stylebook.

The most sustainable garment is the one that you already have in your closet. Don’t be afraid to be an outfit repeater and get creative with new outfit combinations with the items that you’ve got!

When you do need something else or you are really wanting a piece, the second most circular or sustainable option is to make the most of what already exists in general. In other words, looking pre-loved.

Repair

The second R of this step is, repair and this is something that has been gaining more and more traction in the sustainable fashion space, which is exciting to see!

Fashion is too often treated as disposable. When there’s a rip, tear, a missing button, a stain… that piece is tossed or “given away”.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. Many of these issues can be mended or repaired. Either by learning through YouTube tutorials ourselves or by taking the garment to a nearby seamstress. Many Dry Cleaners will also take on a tailoring or mending project.

And something I’m a big advocate of is pushing brands to have repair programs where shoppers can bring back in their products and get them repaired for free or for a very small fee.

Repurposing

might mean cutting it up and creating an entirely new item out of it. It might mean using the fabric scraps for creating something small like a scrunchie.

Or, when all other avenues have been exhausted, downcycling that textile to use for something like insulation or couch cushions. This is really a last resort for fabrics that are just totally soiled.

The biggest potential benefit of circularity is that we reduce new production. So anytime a brand is talking about circularity *without* talking about degrowth and minimizing the production of new stuff, that’s greenwashing.

I would also say selling what we no longer use via apps like eBay, Mercado Libre, The Real Real, Poshmark, fairs, etc, or donating.