Thrifts and Sustainable Fashion

Dhwani nitin

Mar 4, 2024

Is Sustainable fashion a hoax or a reality?

The fashion industry has come a long way from being handmade for certain individuals to diving into mass consumerism and fast fashion to vintage clothing and second-hand shopping now. But while we see an increase in fashion brands promoting and consciously adding the tag of ‘sustainability’, are they transparent enough in their decisions and actions to carry that term?

With brands such as Zara and H&M ramping up their collection lines every year, their added initiatives of recycling used clothes add to the line of being sustainable, but at what cost? H&M’s Garment Collecting Programme asks its consumers to bring back bags of old clothing in exchange for vouchers to be used at the next purchase. This simply becomes an ironic move as they encourage overconsumption because recycling usually is limited due to the inability of technology and infrastructure to plan large-scale programs, which end up recycling less than 1% of the clothes.

Besides, the rise of competition in fast fashion e-commerce brands such as Shein and Temu, which are easily able to overtake existing brands in terms of sales and profits due to their speedy process of delivering trends at a low cost, drives up brands to start upscaling their ‘lead time’, i.e, the time taken for a product from design to purchase, as well.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. We haven’t taken into consideration the environmental and social impacts that arise from participating in this trend. So what is the solution, you may ask? Do we turn to slow fashion or search for alternatives such as thrifting and rental stores? The real change comes from within, regardless of how other companies and nations take into account actions for a solution. Following the trend of ‘Less is more’ sounds like a suitable option, such as investing in good quality pieces that last longer or donating your used clothes to those in need.