Fast Fashion and the Environment

Fast Fashion is the 2nd biggest polluter of the modern era, with exceeding customer consumption of new clothes monthly. The water, fields of cotton, and dye usage to create trendy fashion could cost us our world. Jeans, especially, are one of the major polluters using 1,800 gallons of water JUST to create one pair of jeans. So that got me thinking... what if I use the jeans that don't fit me anymore and are old to create something beautiful. To show the fashion world that even though the clothing and material is old, the outcome can be beautiful still. I had initially thought of making clothing such as a dress from the old materials I had leftover, but the figured why not start with something smaller and easier. 

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I had created this piece to show people my age/people who have the luxury of buying more than 3 pairs of outfits per year that old clothing doesn't need to go to the garbage disposal right away but can be created into a chic bag. The style is very 2000s which is very in style for todays Gen Z and Millennial Generation. I had also gotten into trying to show people a healthier way to consume fashion because of my love of fashion, I had originally wanted to become a model but realised that some brands are unethical when it comes to the environment and animals so I did some digging and some of my favourite brands were not environmentally friendly which broke my heart. But I found two icons in the fashion industry, Vivienne Westwood and Stella McCartney change the face of fashion and change their ways of making clothes which inspired me to be like them. 

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Being from Cambodia I realise that countries in Southeast Asia and Asia in general are used as cheap labor for fast fashion companies. I remember growing up the capital and right next to my house there was a Fabric House, the people employed just work to sort fabrics and the conditions inside were not sanitary and children as young as newborns were there (not to work but they are there because their parents are there.). The workers packed fabrics until night time and there were fabrics strewn about with some thrown away because they were not deemed suitable). I don't know what their wages were but back then (2005 - 2011?) I'm sure their wages were not the best. It was so normalised though, that I thought it was normal to have THIS amount of people working in THAT small space. My grandparents even warned me not to go into that Fabric House (I had friends in there and I would go inside to play hide and seek due to the amount of bags of fabrics they had, there were many hiding spots) because of the amount of insects and the dirty-ness of the place. So I just thought if those people are suffering just for my happiness is it worth it? So through this I am trying to show people that old doesn't always mean bad. 

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**KEEP IN MIND, I am an amateur sewer AND accessories maker.** I had decided for the first time in my life, to create, a purse. The skeleton is made of cardboard and the fabric consists of a sweater and jeans. I had watched videos online on how Couture Fashion brands used stitches to finish their outfits and decided to use three types, my two most used ones were the slipstitch and blanket stitch (which I used interchangeably depending on how long the thread was) and I used a running stitch for the lopsided sides. 

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When people see this, I want them to know that people from under developed countries work so hard everyday to produce fabrics for us and how some of the people in the Fabric Houses have so much potential (to invent. to lead. to inspire.) but due to the exploitation of workers they are used for this instead of getting to their full potential. But I do not blame every fashion consumer I am just saying be aware of this.