Let's Talk Fashion: The Cost of Cheap Prices

After a year of research in the textile industry, I find there is a huge amount of background noise about its environmental burdens, so I decided to start my blog with a fashion post. I recently presented at a conference on fashion sustainability (Sustainable Innovation 2021: Accelerating Sustainability in Fashion, Clothing, Sportswear, and Accessories) where novel business models, upstream- and consumer-facing solutions were proposed for mitigating the environmental impacts of fast fashion in particular. Now, I would like to address different facts and issues associated with it, since it seems to me like we are stranded between the wish to look good today and the genuine unease about the future of the only place that can sustain human life! I promise you will realize that taking action in clothing is low-hanging fruit for decreasing your environmental impact. I can't cover all in a 5-minute read, but let’s dive in. You know that moment when in the high-street shop window, you see a perfect visual blend of a high-fashion runway piece and something that a music star wore in her recent video? If you look at the tag, chances are, this garment is made from polyester and costs less than 10 EUR. Sounds familiar? Well, that is a product of fast fashion. The formula is that mass-market brands successfully integrate the elements of pop culture and design of haute couture into their products and do that at neck-braking speeds of 2-6 weeks from its onset to shop racks. This brilliant business model of short lead-time, constant novelty, and abolition of 4 clothing seasons (remember those?), pioneered by Zara in the 90s and later adopted by many, offers trendy and cheap clothes.

The fast fashion brands have since started with an endless race to bottom pricing by reverting to cheap manufacturing. The outcome today is that we buy more and wear it less. An average person buys 60% more than in 2000 alone [1] and regularly uses just 20 - 30% of their wardrobe. To put it bluntly, we now buy 16 instead of 10 shirts and regularly wear just 3 of those 16.

While it may be cheap in financial terms, the actual environmental and social costs of fast fashion are staggering and not fully payed for. In other words, that dernier cri de la mode makes this planet scream too. The reasons are numerous.

This sector heavily relies on fossil resources like oil, gas, or coal, both as a primary material input for its synthetic fibers and as an energy source powering all its operations and transport. Half of all fibers produced today are polyester fibers which are entirely derived from these fossil resources [2] and made from the same material as your next water bottle (yes, the PET plastic). The in-parallel proliferation of this cheap fiber and fast fashion permeating into the high streets is more than just a correlation. Fast fashion is dependent on polyester [3] since it is a cheap and light material. The industry, therefore, faces the same issues as the plastics & packaging sector due to decreasing availability of fossil resources - it just doesn't have single-use products like straws to call for a visual display of consequences. It is more silent.

However, until these resources have been depleted, the transport of tons of intermediaries and finished garments every week produces substantial air emissions and climate change issue. The consequences on air quality are felt everywhere as the poor air people breathe. This is especially true in the regions like South-East Asia where fibers are largely produced and clothes assembled. Some estimates go as far as finding that the textile sector produces 8-10% of annual global carbon emissions which is more than all the international flights account for [1,4]. Carbon emissions are the primary driver of climate change, whose full repercussions are too complex to address in this post.. Those are the hidden costs that happen only because cheap labor costs and less stringent environmental regulation in Bangladesh, Viet Nam, Cambodia or Indonesia make the price spiral possible.

I should also address the elephant in the room – the water consumption and pollution which you probably saw as these bombastic liters of water necessary to produce your jeans. Let me say now – yes, this is true. Simply, jeans are usually a blend of cotton and some elastics. For water impacts, cotton and some other natural fibers are a bigger issue than synthetics since intensive agriculture used to produce cotton sucks up huge amounts of water in regions that are by default already semi-arid or arid. Say you need 300g of cotton for one pair, with about 10.000l per kg fiber, you are looking at 3.000l for just agriculture or some 25 days of water consumption by an average EU-resident for getting the cotton grown…. Not to mention the colossal water demand for fabric dying and processing. The effects are quick to multiple.

And what happens to all these garments once we decide we have had enough? A vast majority is landfilled, by which precious resources are almost forever lost. Landfilling is simply hiding waste; remember that out of sight out of mind… This is tied to the local waste management infrastructure, so we will not get into it now, because you as an end-user cannot do much about it tomorrow.

Finally, the industry is rather slow to reinvent itself, but there is some good news. I noticed a positive trend by fast fashion brands in promoting sustainable apparel and greening their supply chains. Whether this is a sincere effort remains to be seen by a cautious observer, but until the change is in its full swing, what can you do about it? Just think in terms of clothes’ lifespan and their volume reduction. If there is less textile to produce and waste to manage, there is less trouble and stress on the environment. Your style will not suffer either.

• Increase the portion of your closet which you rock regularly. You must have been told this a million times, but this remains the single most effective method for environmental mitigation. If we regularly wear every 5th item we own, just increase that portion. Opt for slimming down your purchasing appetite and…

• Buy quality whenever possible. This one is about buying 2-3 higher-quality pieces rather than 10 one-season-only chic items. Buy classics, they will last. This way you successfully reduce the overall volume of waste to be managed.

• Increase the life span of your garments. Wash, dry, and maintain as per producers’ instructions. Mend your clothes is necessary. Wash in full machines to optimize the water consumption.

• Pre-owned clothes and pass me downs. 90% of Gen Z youth like the idea of buying second-hand apparel [5] due to concerns about the environment, ethics as well as getting potential bargains. While I do understand this is not everyone's cup of tea, it is really surprising how many good things you can find in such stores. Give away and exchange before you discard - call up friends if they want to take something.

• Recycle when possible BUT don't think this is the ultimate solution to all environmental problems. Besides being an effective cure to calm our conscience from time to time (guilty of that myself), recycling is not omnipotent. In blended garments (e.g. mix of synthetics and cotton) mass-scale recycling is virtually impossible with the present technology. The clothes are exported to low-income countries or incinerated at regulated incinerators.

Spread the word & stay tuned for more content on textiles, plastics, food, energy and much more.

by Tijana Ivanović

Ing. env. dipl. EPF Switzerland

Dipl. inženjer zaštite životne sredine, Serbia

For the sake of transparency and good practice, references will always be available:

[1] World Bank. How much do our wardrobes cost the environment? 2019.

[2] Textile Exchange. Preferred Fiber & Materials Market Report 2019. 2019.

[3] Changing Markets Foundation. Fossil Fashion. The Hidden Reliance of Fast Fashion on Fossil Fuels. 2021

[4] Quantis. Measuring Fashion: Environmental Impact of the Global Apparel and Footwear Industries Study, 2018

[5] Luxury Tribune. The future of fashion will be circular or it won’t be. 2021.

Picture from personal collection.

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