Fast fashion is killing our planet, but Spokanites can help

Editor’s Note: For the last few months, RANGE has been working with the junior and senior students at The Community School to help each of them develop a piece of journalistic writing about a local or recent news topic that interested them. As they reached the end of the capstone project, we selected a few articles that we professionally edited and will be publishing on our website in the coming weeks as part of a series we’re calling The Young RANGE. Through this project we’ve been constantly in awe at the level of student engagement, the quality of work and the RANGE of topics the youth were passionate about. We’re beyond excited to introduce you to these students and their work , continuing with Albert Johnson’s piece on fast fashion. – Erin Sellers

When prom season is at its peak, millions of high school students nationwide — including approximately 9,000 in Spokane — scramble to put together creative, cohesive outfits for specially-themed nights. From cocktail dresses to patterned shirts, the internet allows them to peruse a wide variety of styles at affordable prices. They may find a gorgeous blue dress for an under-the-sea theme or a stylish vest printed with flowers. A few clicks later, these clothes are delivered in plastic bags just days after their order was placed. They’ll throw on their brand-new garments and head out for a night of glitz and glam they’ll remember for the rest of their lives.

After the night ends, though, many of the outfits will likely never be worn again, making their way to a landfill in the next few months, or living in the back of a closet until they’re forgotten about. Each year, Americans toss away more than 10 million tons of textiles. Inevitably, the pattern continues the next year, and possibly the year after.

Yet prom is far from the only example of clothing mass consumption; Day-to-day clothing over-consumption is even grander than any of us could fathom. In the last decade, retailers have moved online, allowing shoppers to browse thousands of items which can be shipped directly to their homes in under a week — a little over 20% of all purchases are made online.

In America, this consumerism is especially rampant , leading to clothing being disposed of at rapid rates. Then more clothing is bought, worn for a short period of time, and discarded when the trend or season runs its course. This is the cycle of fast fashion, which is defined as the rampant production and consumerism of trendy, low-quality, low-cost clothing and wearables.

Retailers churn out 36 clothing collections per year, compared to the four per year that was typical 30 years ago. According to The New York Times , this increase in production is intended to keep up with the breakneck pace of fashion trends cycling through social media and encourage consumers to purchase more clothes more frequently to stay “on trend.”

An average American buys 68 new pieces of clothing per year, almost six times the amount they bought back in the 80s.

By owning more clothes, people have more options to create creative outfits for a variety of occasions. As reporter and TV host Hasan Minhaj says in his expose of the fashion industry, “We want the feeling of luxury without paying full price.”

Retail therapy, pollution, art theft and bad labor practices

That search for cheap luxury can be addicting.

Fast fashion is affordable – a simple white cropped t-shirt that costs $24.94 at The Gap can be purchased for just $4.29 on global online fashion retailer SHEIN — though there may be quality differences . Shopping apps like Amazon and its new online marketplace competitor, Temu , make shopping quicker and easier, with the process of finding a whole outfit taking only a few clicks.

Shopping is also a stress reliever. According to Time Magazine , simply walking the aisles or scrolling through an online store can give you a dopamine bump, which can boost your mood.

What many buyers don’t know, or choose to ignore, is that buying from fast fashion brands is contributing to the death of our planet, and robbing small and locally owned businesses of their sales and meticulously crafted designs.

According to Britannica , the fast fashion industry is responsible for 10% of global carbon emissions. The industry also uses dyes and chemicals which cause pollution and consumes huge amounts of water. The World Resources Institute shares that a single cotton shirt takes 2,700 liters of water to make, which is enough water to sustain a person for two and a half years. Additionally, 92 million tons of textile waste are produced annually, and 85% of textiles in the United States end up in landfills or are incinerated.

Many textiles that are not incinerated are transported to secondary locations, one of which is the Atacama Desert in Chile, which forms a truly horrifying “clothing graveyard,” according to Britannica . While different experts disagree on the exact size of this dumping ground, Space.com states this garment pile had grown so huge, you can see it from space, and estimate its growth to be 39,000 tons annually.

The fast fashion industry is also notorious for using synthetic fibers such as polyester, nylon, and spandex, which are derived from fossil fuels. The New York Times says 60% of fibers used in fast fashion fabrics are synthetic, which are not biodegradable and are responsible for 35% of microplastics contaminating the oceans. The mass expulsion of clothing has become a dire situation, with the average American throwing away 80 lbs of clothing every year, according to The Patriot Act, a Netflix series hosted by Minhaj. He also stated on the show that in 2015, textile production created more greenhouse gasses than international flights and maritime shipping combined.

Fast fashion isn’t only harming the environment; it’s also harming artists and small businesses. Small businesses and designers continuously express distress over stolen designs. In an article from NPR , a designer for Elexiay, a fashion brand highlighting sustainable Nigerian craftsmanship, claimed SHEIN copied a design of their “Amelia Top.” The designer said they “spent hours designing and brainstorming this design and it takes days to crochet each sweater,” and said it was “quite disheartening” to see their hard work reduced to a machine-made copy.

Many artists have taken to social media claiming their original earrings and enamel pin designs have been stolen by fast fashion brands. Because of copyright laws, designers cannot copyright a sweater design but can copyright specific aspects of their works, such as unique patterns. This allows lots of wiggle room for large brands to “copy” designs without repercussions.

Kim Blessing and Delena Mobley, co-owners of Dom+Bomb in Spokane, said while they haven’t had anything stolen yet, they’re preparing for the inevitability — even if it’s hard to get justice.

“The sad part about it is it’s really difficult to get good representation in court if you don’t have money,” Mobley added. “They know what they’re doing, and they know who they’re doing it to, and they know what the limitations are.”

The fast fashion industry is also notorious for utilizing unethical labor practices and severely underpaying workers. According to Green America , “On average, Bangladeshi women work 60 hours a week and earn an hourly rate of 28 taka or $0.95 in USD.” Many companies have “pay per piece” rates, which can be as low as 5-6 cents per clothing item.

Underpayment is not the only issue: 80% of garment workers worldwide are women, and many of them are subjected to workplace violence, harassment, malnourishment and prolonged exposure to dangerous chemicals. Many Americans may choose to overlook these problems because they aren’t visible or happening in the US, but even that isn’t true. CBS News claims that in 2016, a U.S. Department of Labor investigation found payment violations in 85% of garment factories they examined in Los Angeles.

And while US laws such as the FABRIC Act and the Garment Worker Protection Act strive to implement hourly minimum wage pay for garment workers, many are still being exploited every day.

Some local businesses combat this by vetting their manufacturers.

“One of the things that we’ve really focused on is sustainability in workers’ rights,” Blessing  said. “Like, you have to be paid a living wage, a survivable wage, to make our stuff, you know? We work with manufacturers who make that a priority.”

How You Can Help

Shop local

Supporting small, local businesses is one of the easiest ways to combat over consumption, and luckily, Spokane is full of brands, businesses and events that make shopping small and local accessible and fun.

If you’re in the mood to thrift, consider checking out Global Neighborhood Thrift and Vintage or The Arc of Spokane . If you’re looking to support small artists and businesses, visit From Here , The Small Biz Shoppe , or simply go on your web browser and look up “vendor events near me.” You can also check out Terrain’s website to get more info on local upcoming artsy events.

Shopping small has benefits beyond saving money or helping a local artist.

“Supporting local businesses helps to build a sense of community and strengthens the cultural fabric of our sweet city,” Rose Honey , a mixed media artist and art/design educator in the West Valley School District, said.

Caleb Seven Hawks Walsh , an acrylic painter and cartoonist, said, “When the art resonates with someone and they buy it, it’s truly a win-win situation and it makes me happy to keep going and make more cool stuff.”

According to Mel Antuna Hewitt , a bookbinder who creates heirloom journals, “there’s this saying that you make what you like and there will be someone who’ll like it too. Finding that someone is tough. But when you do find that someone, when you see their face when they connect with that thing that you made, there is no better feeling as an artist.”

Lori Bradeen , a potter who specializes in functional pottery, said “The more closely we can rely on one another, the less we rely on large corporations who, by the way, will never ask if your kid won their soccer game or if your spouse got the job they applied for.”

Buying from small creators guarantees you know where your money is going, right back into your community. It also guarantees you are making a direct, positive impact on not only your life but the life of the creator and our wider Spokane community.

These impacts can look like simply spending your money locally, but for Spokane-based fashion brand Dom+Bomb , it looks like fighting fatphobia and the gender binary through sustainable fashion. Started in June 2020 by Delena Mobley and Kim Blessing, the brand prioritizes relationships with their community, the co-owners said.

They partner with Odyssey and Spectrum, specifically Spectrum’s GAPP Program , to offer gender-affirming styling and tailoring to trans people in the Spokane area.

“I have not ever experienced that hands-on gratification that I get for helping people. And it is instant.” Mobley said. “It is how I get to sleep at night, knowing that someone whose spirit might have been a little wounded, that they were able to find something sweet, good and loving in the world.”

Their designs — and their business practices — are shaped through working with their 100+ Fit Models of all genders, sizes and ages, leading to sizing that ranges XS to 5XL, to ensure the best fit for everyone.

“We’re able to take those common things that we learn in those very interpersonal exchanges that we have with people. And we apply that knowledge towards every decision that we make for the business,” Mobley said.

Creating a space where “people are celebrated, not tolerated,” is key to their business, Mobley said, and what makes shopping local even more sweet for many in Spokane.

“You’re gonna find something here that you won’t find anywhere else — whether that’s the experience or the clothing or a combination of all those things,” Blessing said.

Buy less, mend your clothes and swap

Another option is to reduce your consumption, not just localize it. Time Magazine suggests if you find an item you really, really like, you can save the link and wait a week or two. This gives you the time and space to consider, “do I really need this?” If you still want it, buy it! If you haven’t thought of it, you probably don’t need it.

When you do buy, try to prioritize quality over quantity. While high-quality items tend to cost more, they usually last longer.

The cost of sourcing ethical, vetted labor is much more expensive than sourcing from sweatshops, but you can feel good knowing that your clothes were made ethically. And, you may save money in the long run: a $5 polyester shirt from SHEIN, TEMU or Amazon that will need to be replaced after four washes can add up to being more expensive than a $25, ethically-sourced cotton shirt that will last five or more years. The cotton shirt also has the added bonus of not releasing microplastics with every wash.

Tailoring and mending can also extend the lifespan of your wardrobe: next time your jeans feel a bit loose or you break a zipper, consider taking them to a tailor — you’ll be directly helping the environment by keeping those clothes out of the landfill.

You can also check out Spokane Zero Waste ’s “Mend-It Cafes”. Just bring your clothes, bedding, or other textiles in need of mending, and get paired with an expert mender who will fix up your items for no charge. These experts will even teach you how to mend items yourself, if you’re interested

If you do want to do a wardrobe overhaul or have pieces that no longer fit, you can still avoid landfills.

Clothing swaps are a great way to get rid of clothing, as well as snag some cute new second-hand items for yourself. Blessing said these swaps are “a great way to be sustainable that costs nothing.”

Another great way to reduce your clothing waste is to donate to local shelters, clothing banks, and organizations. One place to donate is the YWCA’s “Our Sister’s Closet” , which is a free, donation-based women’s clothing and necessity boutique.

With the constant catastrophization of the world around us, it can often feel hopeless to make an impact. And while the fast fashion situation is dire, there are direct actions you can integrate into your life to help mitigate the effects.

The post Fast fashion is killing our planet, but Spokanites can help appeared first on RANGE Media .