Sustainable fashion: the “new in-thing” that is roaring the fashion scene. Fast fashion and high fashion practices are quickly under scrutiny due to their lack of ethics and sustainability. Fast fashion has conditioned us to dirt cheap prices for as little as $5 for t-shirts. With such low prices, consumers are buying more clothes than ever, and second-guessing higher prices for brands with ethical and sustainable practices. Trying to go the clean and eco way to protect our environment whilst looking stylish may seem a little far-fetched. So is it possible to choose sustainability in fashion?
Problems with general solutions we hear
- Thrifting
To most, the concept of being sustainable in fashion is just to donate their old clothing and buy from second-hand stores as much as possible. With more thrift stores opening up in Singapore, shopping second-hand may not seem that out of reach. However, thrift stores receive tons of donations each month. They have to sift through fabrics that actually can be re-sold as most of the donations are barely in usable condition. If you’ve been to a thrift store, you’d walk out empty-handed most of the time since there’s either nothing in your size, not your style or not the piece you’re looking for to add to your wardrobe. With cheap prices, some may over-consume and buy more than they don’t need and never wear them; causing more harm than help. Furthermore, I know many that are against the practice of wearing second-hand clothes. So as much as thrifting is a great idea, it may not be the one easy way to be sustainable in fashion.
- Consumption
The fastest and easiest solution to being sustainable is to consume less. But it’s much easier said than done. We live in a world of capitalism and media consumption. Everything we see is targeted for you to spend your hard-earned salary on something. Not to mention that clothing prices from fast fashion are cheaper than ever, shortening purchasing decisions and causing people to buy clothes they don’t need. On the extreme end of over-consumption, I know people that buy clothes every month from Shein and Taobao because they have a monthly slight price reduction on top of the already cheap pricing. They even have pieces in their wardrobe that haven’t been taken out of the packaging, and yet they’re still buying more clothes; resulting in piles of new and unworn clothes they don’t need. It will not be easy to break out of such habits and would take extreme discipline and much time to get used to living a minimalist lifestyle.
- Don’t buy from fast fashion
Now, we’ve probably all heard of the poor ethics of fast fashion brands – where they mistreat their workers, provide unlivable wages, over-produce, and overall are bad for the environment. As a result, activists have urged everyone to boycott all fast fashion brands. On the flip side, we have several brands that utilise clean, sustainable practices and also pay livable wages. But, the consensus is that ethical and sustainable fashion is expensive. With a $100 budget, you can either choose to get one single clothing piece from a brand that has sustainable and ethical practices or get a whole outfit from fast fashion brands. The inner money-savvy us will gravitate towards the latter, but the ethical us would want to contribute to paying for clean resources and providing factory workers livable wages. And usually, cheaper options always win. It also certainly doesn’t help that sustainable brands are scarce and not as accessible as compared to fast fashion brands which are everywhere and in your face.
- Expensive = More ethical
Invest and spend a bit more money on clothes as they are of better quality. Cotton On is known for its products to be cheap and unable to withstand the test of time. Wear and tear become obvious after a few uses and they wind up in a landfill. But expensive doesn’t equate to ethical and quality garments. High fashion is expensive, but also one of the most detrimental sectors of fashion to the environment. Many high fashion brands have poor ethics practice. Instead of tagging unsold items on clearance sales, they would very much rather incinerate them. Various documentaries have also shown that big brands purchase leather goods from cheap suppliers that do not have any care for the safety and welfare of their employees.
My proposed solutions
- Renew your existing clothes. Give the clothes you can’t bear to give away for free or are unable to sell a new lease on life.
1. Swap Stores
Swap stores are stores that allow you to trade your clothing, old or new, with pieces they stock. Most stores provide value for your apparel and give you a store credit that can be spent on anything they offer for sale. In a way, it can be treated as a discount on shopping for new clothes that you were going to do anyway. The Fashion Pulpit allows you to swap any of your clothes with them as long as you’re a member. They have a variety of memberships that even allow for customers that hate commitment and only want a one-time swap. Loop Garms also allows you to sell directly to them or trade streetwear/vintage items with items in their store. If you like to wait for newer releases, they allow store credit to be kept for a certain time-frame.
2. Re-work & Upcycle
Reworking and upcycling is a rising trend among creatives. Many have taken old t-shirts, handbags, and torn them apart and re-put-together into a brand new unrelated product like bucket hats. Locally, @fincraftedgoods is an amazing brand that can add flair to your old Uniqlo shirts. They have a FIN treatment which sews patchwork fabrics onto old pieces, giving a Japanese casual streetwear spin on it. For upcycled goods, @bhabie.co on Instagram has been reworking various fabrics into tops and bags. With @bhabie.co as his mentor, @honsieponsie has been reworking old shirts and t-shirts into bucket hats and shirts with pastel colour schemes. On global scales, RE/DONE repurposes vintage denim into the fabric for new products. At the same time, they conserve water whilst producing one of a kind products. @ghostboy.club from Malaysia has seen the success of upcycling old vintage tees into qipao tops, crop tops, gloves, and skirts.
@bhabie.co 
@fincraftedgoods 
@ghostboy.club 
@honsieponsie 
https://shopredone.com/
3. Rental Fashion
If repeating outfits is a big no for you, rental fashion is the way to go. First off, it’s much cheaper than constantly buying new outfits. Since the piece will only be worn a few times, the apparel will either sit in your wardrobe untouched, or you’d have to sell it. This cycle can get tiring especially if you don’t have the time or energy to sell. Clothing rental does the work for you to keep your wardrobe in a fresh cycle. All you have to do is choose the pieces you want to rent. Unfortunately, we don’t have a large selection of brands that offer such services. For streetwear goods, CS+ offers a decent variety of tops from Burberry, Palace, ACW, etc. Their membership plans range from $68/month to $128/month. However, their apparel selection is quite limited to t-shirts despite name dropping popular designers. For females, Style Theory offers apparels and bags for rent from $59/month. They cater to more minimalistic styles with their variety of simple and easy-to-match pieces.
https://csplus.sg/ brand selection 
https://www.styletheory.co/sg/
4. Fashion Repair
When I was younger, when my shoes were spoilt, I would bring them to a cobbler to repair them. But somewhere down the line, I purchased new ones instead of repairing them. But with volunteer service Repair Kopitiam, this tradition may be brought back. On the last Sunday of every month, they host an event* to repair anything from apparels to electronics. Instead of throwing away goods the moment they are damaged, attempt to salvage its life by repairing.
*Do note that prior booking has to be done in advanced before heading down.
- Try to consume less
There are some simple questions to ask yourself to combat targeted advertisements and consume less. Before making any purchase, take time off to sit and ponder on your buys. Let the item sit inside your cart for at least a week. And you might even forget about the pieces and not want them anymore. And if you purchase from fast fashion, you can adopt sympathetic thinking as these purchases are directly funding mistreatment of workers whilst speeding up the process of global warming. You might even want to compare the money about to be spent that could be used on experiences that might make you happier. The most important question to ask yourself before buying clothes is: can you at least make 10 outfits out of this?
- Be informed of your buys from brands
The Fashion Transparency Index gives a percentage of grades for over 250 brands based on the transparency of their business practices. For brands with a higher percentage, it means they are more transparent in their practices by publishing more information about their suppliers, ethical employee management and environmental practices. These findings are further split into many more sub-categories within a 70-page report. They feature high fashion brands like Gucci, Hermes, as well as common fast-fashion brands like Vans, H&M, Uniqlo, and ASOS. Knowing more information about the brands you’re purchasing from will make you second-guess your decision of buying. However, recently, H&M is under the spotlight for ill-treating workers despite being the most transparent brand on the index. Hence, this index should only be a reference for further research on brands you tend to buy from.
Fashion Transparency Index:
https://www.fashionrevolution.org/about/transparency/
- Spend more, only for a good reason
Before splurging on higher-priced garments, look into the materials used. The material choice of apparels makes a huge difference in sustainability and longevity. Natural materials are subject to over-harvesting, setting them on the brink of extinction. Cotton, polyester, and materials in the same group, should be avoided due to the substantial pollutants generated during harvest. Try to choose man-made materials with eco-friendly producing practices, recycled materials, or natural sustainable materials that do not require much to grow or harvest. Organic cotton, recycled nylon, bamboo, hemp, are some good materials that can be produced fast without many environmental impacts. Bamboo and hemp are natural materials that require minimal labour, pesticide, and water to grow and harvest. Furthermore, bamboo self-regenerates from the roots, grow quickly and is easy to grow because it doesn’t need fertiliser. Lyocell is also a great fibre that can be made into fabric that is an alternative to polyester. I believe if we’re spending more on certain apparels, we should know where our money is going: directly to the brand for high-profit margin or funding the sustainable and ethical practices?
Normalise repeating outfits. Social media has given most of us this toxic mindset that once we are seen in an outfit, we can’t be seen in it anymore. Back when I had a smaller wardrobe, I repeated outfits and often got asked “didn’t you wear that recently?”. To combat that, most pieces I own are modular. A few pieces can be interchanged and swapped out easily to give a fresh new look. Some designers produce versatile cut and sewn pieces that have various ways to wear them to add different sorts of elegance. This will not only provide longevity of products but also allow you to consume less.
The topic of fashion sustainability isn’t at the top of everyone’s priority. For most people, buying from fast fashion is acceptable as they only occasionally buy clothes and the consequences will not have an immediate direct impact on them, allowing them to brush it off. But not only fast fashion, some brands you like may cost more but not even use sustainable practices. For most of us, we definitely wouldn’t go out of the way to research the brand before buying, look into the materials used, or even source for more sustainable alternatives. It isn’t easy to practice sustainability at all; I still occasionally buy from fast fashion brands. But I think we can all take small steps and try to work towards reducing our carbon footprint in our daily choices.
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