We Were All Once Naked Anyway
Look at yourself now. As you are reading that sentence, you may sit on a chair or laying on a bed, tilting your head on a screen. That is one certainty. Other than that, I will also bet that you are wearing a piece of clothing while reading this. Be it your cardigan, your jacket, or a t-shirt, something’s got to cover your body, your belly, and your private parts. Unless, of course, if you are the type of person running around naked in public, which I hope you are not. Because then there would be no point in explaining a future danger of our earth regarding what we wear.
What you are about to read refers to another certainty of destruction that will only go further and further until it cripples the biological life on earth. A forecast that will very likely become a reality which is the massive razing of the world caused by the fashion industry.
One of the things that just keeps inventing itself a few times in our modern world is the fashion industry. The growth of this particular industry is so fast that we are starting to lose track of it. The whole thing is like a masquerade of a cheeky and trendy lifestyle that brings joy to those who wear it. But the fashion industry itself hides something bitter that they don’t expose to the public. This is what they call fast fashion.
Since 1987, the number of streetwear, sportswear, apparel, and footwear manufacturing has jumped significantly. The whole industry is like the very nightmare of capitalism anyone can think of. Greedy companies and their tired laborers are trapped in a deal just to make money and sustain the lives of their families. The clothes these companies display on the mall catalog or online stores are indeed pretty. But the sufferings of hundreds of thousands or millions of people are unimaginable. Their life depends on it, and we turn our heads around so quickly. Those glittery materials, fashionable cuts, and cute sizes can literally blind our eyes to its hidden consequences.
In 2019, Indonesia sent back tons of excessive junks and debris to the senders. The debris sent included plastic, papers, and woods. But most of them are clothes, cotton, and fabrics from unused items of clothing. Rather shockingly, these excesses were sent from developed countries like UK, US, Japan, China, Canada, Australia, Netherlands, Germany, and many more. This is one clear evidence that these companies are ruling their integrity out of greed with money as the target. No long-term environmental standards and observations are being done.
By this example, you can clearly see the shenanigans that this fast fashion industry is able to create. But that is just one among many reasons why it’s harmful to our planet and the whole ecosystem. Statistics said that a total of 150 billion garments are being produced each year while there are nearly 8 billion people. In measurements, that’s like 20 pieces of garments for each person on earth.
Another measurement said that the average clothes usage is 30 times per piece. One sustainable fashion pioneer Malin Viola Wennberg calculated what would happen if we start to peak up our usage standards by 60 times per piece. The result is that we have decreased the climate impact of clothes by 49%. If only we decrease our fashion consumption, the effects could be massive. We often rely on this unconscious bias towards the belief that expensive clothes are worth everything. People waste their garments and articles of clothing because the quality of the clothes is cheap. In other words, they are not meant to last. But of course, people still buy it because of the cheap price.
Developing countries like Indonesia are the target for massive bombardings of fast fashion while having millions of fast fashion workers in the country. But Indonesia is not even a minority in this one. It is true that 1 in 6 people on earth is currently working in the fashion industry. That’s just too much for a world evolving to a diverse amount of modern jobs.
The most devastating part is that we will actually keep losing even if we tighten up and follow the flawed system of the companies’ vile bureaucracy. These workers are not paid enough or even not being paid at all. in some cases, some of them were even declared dead by overworking. But at the same time, we know that having a job is very important for these people. It’s like a trap of capitalism made into reality.
There are many stories of marginalized laborers under threat and severe pressure from the company. If you think marginalized laborers who are dead by overwork and low payment, what they did for the sake of their job also not worth the effort. In fact, 3 out of 5 garments and fashion products end up in landfills within 12 months. These extraordinary pollutions production ranks the fashion industry as the second-largest polluter of the earth. Those pollutions will end up being the reason why rivers are no longer clean, the air is no longer healthy, and why some endemic animal species are dying in the wild.
Nonetheless, with all these horrendous facts being said, these companies keep focusing themselves on making cute, trendy, and affordable clothes, specifically for young people. As young people, we are the sheer target for these ongoing companies. Gen Z is the group with the most internet users in the world. These companies will look at us with green eyes and say “I know what you want, and we have it.” while bombarding us with several fashion catalog advertisements.
We could follow the tactic of their greed without even being aware of it. We are the one who makes and set trends for ourselves that keep on changing every moment. Every little curve on our body is where these companies will continue to rule their games and put their cheap clothes on. And you will likely be enticed by their marketing strategies. You will spare your money to buy a single cloth they are selling. You are the fresh meat of the market.
On the brighter side, we have great progress in doing sustainable fashion movement, which is the movement to stop this unthinkable but yet excessive desire to want more, own more, wear more, and therefore, show off more. People start to realize that the price we must pay for this trend of wasting and keep producing new products is more than the earth could handle.
Concentration on the usage of fashion items is the primary concern on sustainable fashion lifestyle. Sustainable fashion basically states that having clothes is primary, but collecting unused clothes is unnecessary. It is the time for us to be grateful and to feel enough of what has already been made. To deprive our own ego and eventually, kills it.
Regardless of the sheer evidence and real horror of the fast fashion industry, some people are still looking at sustainable fashion with cynicism. A number of counterintuitive theories about how sustainable fashion won’t make it 100% currently making it big on the internet discussion platforms, making people hesitant to even join the movement. Sometimes some of us forget that the goal of sustainable fashion is to enlarge the awareness and reduce the production of garments so that the dangers of the fashion industry can be reduced.
In a realistic case, if every single people on earth apply the sustainable fashion mindset, the economy will fall apart and people will lose their job. However, this dreadful narrative is highly imaginative and won’t happen anytime soon. The amount of awareness of people versus the production of the world’s fast fashion industry is already too distant and appalling. Our fight for sustainable fashion industry is still too long for us to worry about the bad effects of it. We can never really stop fast fashion in an instant, but that should not be a reason not to keep taking action. There should be no doubts floating around again whenever you are contemplating choosing sustainable fashion as the world needs each one of us to contribute.
There are many local as well as youth communities that dedicate themselves to bringing awareness regarding this issue. One of them is Slow Fashion Bali which is a growing local community with a clear vision and never-ending spirit to spread the importance of sustainable fashion. However, Slow Fashion Bali is not the only community that focuses on this matter, there are dozens of communities with the same vision and mission, fighting against the growing market of fast fashion. This brings hope to the future of sustainable fashion itself in the future.
The change for sustainable fashion is like a massive casting for a massive worldwide project, and it wants you to be a hero who saves the planet earth. How can you be the hero? By contributing through small acts that you do consistently and with the right mindset. Let’s treat clothes as what they are: something to wear. Something to cover our bodies from shame. The desire to produce and wear it should not make us shameless human beings who harm the world that we live in. Rather, our consumption behavior should nourish our natural senses of what is happening in the world and thereby taking accountability for every consequence that we take. Because what you wear matters. How many times you wear it matters. Choosing quality over quantity also matters.
Now let’s go back to another reflection. Do you remember the moment you came out of your mother’s womb? You barely have single cotton on your skin. For that single moment, what you want is just a piece of blanket or clothing to cover you from the windy air so that you are safe from the cold. If only we think that way in our modern world. Embracing the fact that we are just human. If only we value unanimous objects for the sake of their usage only, no greed or obsession involved. This world would be a better place. No clothes to show off or to pile up, just to wear. Sort of like Adam and Eve back in the day, sometimes we really have to follow ancient principles to make ourselves sane, and by that, being fully aware of what we cause to our Mother Earth. Remember, we were all once naked anyway.
