Page 53 - MASALA Vol 8 Issue 6 June-July 2017

Fast Fashion is Fueled by Polyester
Polyester, a synthetic bre, is in approximately 60 percent of today’s clothing. It is actually a
polluting plastic made from fossil fuels, making the material’s carbon footprint three times that
of cotton. It is non-biodegradable, meaning that every piece of polyester produced is still on the
planet today. When you wash polyester, thousands of pieces of microplastics shed and enter
water systems and the oceans. As a result, sh are consuming these microplastics, and we are,
in turn, consuming the sh. Also, unlike natural bres, polyester cannot breath. This explains the
reason you may be sweating more!

Sustainable Fashion Inspiration
Nataly Elbaz Björklund is a sustainable fashion and ethical luxury blogger
under the name Literally Nataly (www.literallynataly.com). The aim of
her blog is to create awareness about environmental and social justice
issues, and introduce ethical, sustainable, eco-friendly, slow fashion and
lifestyle brands. This is something she strongly feels everyone needs to be
passionate about “as we only have one Earth, and in order for our Earth to be
able to sustain itself in the long term we need to give back what we take.”
Nataly tells Masala why we should reconsider the way we shop and where
we shop in an eye-opening interview.

What are high-street brands, fast fashion
and slow fashion?
High-street brands are found in most towns, typically chain brands
that have many branches or franchises around the world. I encourage
people to nd alternatives to many high-street brands because they are
often not transparent about the way in which they run their business.
For example, they might not let their customers know who made their
clothes and under what conditions the clothes were made.
Fast fashion brands (high-street brands which rotate their collections
numerous times a year) have been known to not take su cient
responsibility to ensure that factory workers work under fair conditions.
Nataly Elbaz Björklund, blogger at “Literally Nataly” Many of these brands have large carbon footprints, pollute the
environment through their manufacturing processes, use unsustainable
materials and make their consumers feel that their garment is disposable
when the new collection hits stores the following week. In essence, fast
fashion is a disposable product for a short-term trend and lifespan. The
problem is that the short-term “bene ts” come with serious long-term
problems for those involved in the production process as well as
the environment.

Slow fashion, on the other hand, encourages slower production
schedules, fair wages, lower carbon footprint and, ideally, zero waste
methods. It is about designing, creating and buying garments for their
quality and durability.

If one must buy a high-street brand or fast fashion, what advice could
you give them?
Always read the tags! As a conscious consumer, one should question where
the clothes are made and what they are made from. Some high-street brands
like Monki, for example, make many pieces in their collection from 100
percent organic cotton, while other brands don’t make any e ort at all to
derive their materials from more sustainable sources. When you see a piece
of clothing in a shop, you should also always ask yourself whether you really
need that piece, as most of the clothes we buy are variations of clothing
Fast fashion items we already own.

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