Fashion isn’t something we’re usually involved in, but at the start of this year we found ourselves on the catwalk at London Fashion Week Men’s – all thanks to Vivienne Westwood.
She’s calling on the fashion industry to ‘commit a political act’ by switching to green energy – us. She even called her fashion show ‘Ecotricity’!
It’s great to see someone such an influential fashion icon getting behind green energy and pushing the fashion industry to be more sustainable.
But why is she asking the fashion world to make the switch?
It’s an industry that’s long been associated with disposable culture, but it’s also an industry that is very energy intensive and uses a lot of our resources.
In fact, the fashion industry is the world’s second most polluting industry.
10% of the world’s carbon emissions come from the clothing and textile industry.
A quarter of the world’s chemicals are used for textile production, and it also uses more water than any other industry, apart from agriculture.
To put this in context, let’s look at something we all own – a basic cotton t-shirt. It takes 30kWh to make a simple t-shirt – that’s the same as watching over 23,000 hours of Netflix!
Everyone wears clothes, so everyone can do their bit to make the fashion industry more sustainable.
Here are our top ten tips…
- Take your old clothes to a charity shop, or donate them to a clothing bank for charity instead of throwing them away.
- Use a green laundry detergent that doesn’t contain lots of harmful chemicals, and wash on a low heat.
- Buy vintage and second-hand clothing.
- When you’re buying new clothing, choose garments made from eco-friendly, natural fabrics such as bamboo, silk, organic cotton and hemp.
- Instead of buying new clothes, give yours a makeover! Get crafty with some DIY to give them a new lease of life.
- Buy clothes from local companies – this will reduce the distance your clothes are transported to get to you.
- When you go shopping, take a carrier bag with you. It will save you from buying another one for all of your purchases!
- Invest in your clothes – it’s better in the long run to buy a good quality t-shirt than a cheap one that will rip straight away.
- Buy faux – the production of wool, leather and fur harms millions of animals every year, and is also bad for the environment.
- And of course, the biggest thing you can do to cut your carbon footprint and fight climate change is to switch to a green energy supplier (we’re pretty good, as far as they go!).
You can find out more about Vivienne’s work on her blog.
And if you’ve got any more tips, leave them in the comments below!
Emma – Ecotricity Communications Team
Great list. – The fashion industry is indeed one of the worst, but there are a lot of brands trying to change that. My final tip to add to the ones above is to search the deals in my ethical fashion section – https://ethicalrevolution.co.uk/fashion/ – all of the discounts listed there are from ethical brands and you can grab yourself a bargain. On a personal note, little beats a cracking charity shop find!