What we wear defines us be fashionable and ethical
[Music]
[Applause]
are you
interested in fashion do you like to
wear
nice and trendy clothes
i believe a lot of us do because
people do judge you by your appearances
they may not know you but they will
certainly define you by the types of
clothing you wear
for this reason fashion has become a
very
important part of our lives
personally i love shopping whenever
enter a clothing store i get lost in the
endless rows of tops
jackets dresses and pants and there’s
almost so
many things that i’m on a shopping high
so speaking of fashion there’s still
different
different types of stores for example
let’s compare a top from store 8
which is a fashion shop and one from
store b
which is not so the one bought from
story cost three dollars whereas one
costs twenty five dollars if you buy it
from store b
now do you see the difference
and right now you might start thinking
wait a minute you’re telling me that the
exact same top
that feels the same and looks the exact
same
cost 22 dollars more for that difference
you can buy eight more crop tops instead
of
just one so
seriously how do fast fashion shops
carry
out all the production process
transportation transportation operations
and advertisement
in such a cheap amount of money the
answer is
they can’t there’s a phrase
saying that behind a successful person
there is a wasteful process of hard work
but no one ever sees it and they only
see the results
well it’s really quite similar
because we only see the trendy and cheap
clothes
but behind it there are countless
environmental costs
that we don’t occasionally care for to
be honest
because fast fashion isn’t free someone
somewhere is paying the price for it
now let’s clarify what fast fashion
means before we get
all started fast fashion
is the umbrella term used to describe
the accelerated process
of turning new design ideas from the
catwalk
into clothes onto the retail floor
so that is what fast fashion is
now for example a fast fashion brand
could take
around only 14 to 21 days
to convert an idea to its inception to
its sales
as a final product so that is extremely
fast because a simple project that you
might have had at school or
work usually costs around
three weeks to a month to complete this
simple task
but this store do
all the blueprinting designing
and making in simply just two weeks
now this ability to create new trends
instantly combined
with savvy marketing campaigns has
enabled fast fashion stores
to quickly turn around their stores
redefine their latest looks
and change their hype about their latest
look
and a new line of clothing so these fast
fashion stores
introduce new clothes almost weekly and
this times us consumers to buy
the newest product while making older
items seem more
irrelevant faster so
this over consumption has high
environmental cost circumstances
on the supply side of the equation
because
most clothing now is made of a product
material called polyester and it is a
petroleum-based fiber
that requires large amounts of fossil
fuels
for manufacturing so
in the 1980s polyester
and cotton they would use the same
amount
20 years later in the 2000s
cotton was still playing the same role
as polyester and even
a bit more but now statistics
of 2020 suggest that cotton stayed at
25 million metric tons of oil per year
which is a lot but polyester
rose up to 100 million metric tons
per year just let that sink in for a bit
and now this is a huge problem for
us and the planet because polyester is
also
a non-biodegradable product again it is
a petroleum-based fiber
and it requires large amounts of fossil
fuels
for manufacturing it can take anywhere
from
20 to 200 years to decompose
moreover it is one of the leading causes
to plastic in the oceans
now you might start thinking that
well i guess i’ll just buy cotton shirts
but cotton may be a better choice but
one single cotton shirt that you’re
wearing right now
costs 2 700 liters
of water to make 2700
for a single small shirt that’s about
all the water you’ll drink
in two years even two and a half years
but the greatest problem by far
is the waste that fast fashion produces
the average american sends 41 pounds
of waste to landfill each year
and this happens because fast fashion
stores
tend to advertise and produce new
products
almost weekly and they tempt us to buy
them
so consequently we throw out all our old
clothes
and buy new ones garbage waste
is already a huge huge huge problem for
our planet
because of the fashion industry the
amount of the waste is
increasing fast really really fast
and the fast fashion industry
is now the eighth most polluting
industry
in the world in terms of greenhouse gas
emissions
it is responsible for 92 million tons
or four percent of the world’s annual
solid waste
so this cannot possibly go on
how do you feel knowing that the new top
you bought wasted
2700 liters of water or the pants you
have on
will take 200 years to decompose
do you sleep better at night knowing
these facts no
i don’t think any of you think so
so we cannot
afford to disregard or dismiss the
details
that brought that new top or those
hot pants into existence we have
a responsibility as this generation
for the planet so
we have to protect it and if possible
without sacrificing our sense of style
so what should we do can we be
fashionable and ethical at the same time
so let’s just think how we wear
and shop for clothes the first and
easiest thing
is to just buy less clothing in the
first place
before you buy ask why you buy do i
really need this
do i just want this are they going to
make me
happier than the one i already have on
right now
or are they going to make me regret the
choice i
bought it so always ask yourself
why before you buy and the next thing
you can do
is to just wear your clothes for
longer that is so simple because just by
wearing your clothes for nine months
longer
you can reduce your carbon footprint by
that garment
by 30 percent you don’t have to toss
your clothes away because
the colors aren’t in there anyway you
can accessorize it which is really fun
like tie dyeing it but
if you still feel like shopping you can
go to a thrift store
it is a lot of fun it is almost like
treasure hunting and when you buy a
pre-owned piece
of clothing you reduce the carbon
emissions
by almost half a million cars
because us humans are almost dependent
on
cars and we can’t really live without
them
but by simply just wearing this piece of
clothing
for nine months longer you can help
reduce this
by a lot and finally
if you still want to have something new
choose to shop
from eco-friendly companies some of
the most ethical and sustainable
clothing shops in vancouver instead
include
obaki charlie and lee and chloe angus
designs
and there are a lot of others too so i
highly encourage you to be more aware
of how your clothing got to you
because once you become knowledgeable
and passionate about the clothes you
wear
it’s going to change you and it’s also
going to change
us and our planet
because global warming and climate
change
isn’t in the distant future it is here
and it is now
because every action and inaction either
contributes to it or
reduces its inch impact
now in new york city there is a clock
that says
exactly how long there is until our
planet
gets destroyed again this might be one
of
those other misinterpretations
or hoaxes but
what if there’s a chance what if the
world does
end we only have seven years left
we should do something that we wouldn’t
regret doing
so play your part as consumers
we have so much power to just change
this world
by thinking about what we buy so buy
less
and wear it for longer and choose to
shop from
thrift stores or eco-friendly companies
what we wear defines us we
can be ethical and fashionable
at the same time thank you
you