Impact of Fashion

IMPACT OF FASHION

It’s hard to ignore the siren call to protect the planet today. The fashion industry has been labeled as the second largest polluter of the world after crude oil. At one time, there were two fashion seasons: Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter. Fast forward to today, the fashion industry is churning out “52 micro-seasons” per year- with new collection launching every week. With new trends coming out every week, consumers are often lead into impulse buying, trying to keep up with trends.

Why should we care? A recent study shows that 1-tonne of textiles waste is discarded every 5 minutes in Singapore. 92% of it is incinerated, ending up in the landfill. Most of these apparels are made out of synthetic petroleum based fibers– polyester, nylon, acrylic, which will take anywhere from 50 to 200 years for these garments to decompose.

Synthetic petroleum based fibers such as polyester is frequently used for its wrinkle-free properties. Because it often doesn’t need to be ironed and it can be washed easily, it is very convenient for the wearer to maintain. High quality polyester lasts well and maintains the quality of its surface. However, most polyester clothing on the market is cheap, poor quality fast fashion, which will last few wears.

And because they are synthetic petroleum based fibers, and is therefore made from a carbon intensive non-renewable resource and more than 70 billion barrels of oil are used each year, just to make the world’s polyester fiber. Production of such fibers uses harmful chemicals, including carcinogens and emits gasses like N2O, which are more than 300times more damaging than CO2.

We hope to do our part to minimize the impact of fashion on the environment where we can. We are committed to only use natural or renewable materials for our garments. Our packaging is plastic-free and the papers we use for our tags and cards are all FSC-certified, made from responsible sources.

It’s the best we could do now, but we will continue to improve and source for better options.