Prior to my knowledge of campaign, I had already spent hours online reading and watching others advocate “slow fashion” or “sustainable fashion”. And I must say – a lot of valid points, many backed up with extensive research and statistics, were put out. Not to be mistaken for minimalism, where the aim is to have only the essentials in your closet, slow fashion, as the name suggests, is a global response to fast fashion. Fast fashion has been getting a bad rep in the last decade due to its notorious impact of polluting our oceans, land and air and underpaying its garment factory workers.
In fact, Oxfam estimates that it would take a person 13 years to drink the amount of water used to create one t-shirt and a pair of jeans. Global greenhouse gas emissions from the apparel industry is expected to increase from 10% to 26% by 2050, according to findings by the United Nations. Here in Singapore, only 4% of 168,000 tonnes (that’s x1000 in kilograms) of textile waste generated in 2019 were recycled, with the rest either incinerated or dumped into the Semakau Landfill.
The impact of the fashion industry is unparalleled.