The environmental impact of fast fashion;
How Unkara offers sustainable alternatives
At Unkara Fashion, we aim to address the root cause of sustainability in the clothing industry, over consumerism, environmental pollution, and human rights violation in consequence of fast fashion. The term fast fashion was born during the 80s with the technological revolution and a model of capitalist and consumerist society. The original idea was to create low-cost garments so that the population could afford to buy them, but television advertising and marketing campaigns created an anxious desire to constantly wear the latest trends from fashion brands. Brands with fast fashion philosophy often imitate styles from couture designers with low-quality and low-cost mass productions. The appeal of being able to wear cheap clothes that consumers could otherwise obtain at much higher prices made the fast fashion business model prevalent, especially among young customers. The concept of fashion has been fed as something fast, cheap and disposable. This model also created an unnecessary, anxious and voracious psychological need to always want more products in the shortest possible time. Thus, many couture designers have had to adapt their production and transportation times so that new products always reach the consumer faster through physical or virtual stores.
Let’s analyse the production chain to have a better understanding of the “clothes traffic”. The process begins in countries like Bangladesh, India and China where cotton and synthetic materials are grown with relatively less strict environmental and labour compliance standards. It continues in developed countries where excessive consumerism and big fast fashion brands force us to always want new products at the expense of the marginalized group in developing societies. And it ends up in the world’s largest landfills in Ghana, Kenya and Chile that we call second-hand markets for excessive clothing dumping via donations.
Unkara team visited Gikomba market, the largest second-hand clothes market in East Africa, the first time early 2023. What we saw there was heartbreaking…
We invited JM Photography to interpret Unkara’s sustainable philosophy.
Photographer
Julius Mwaura Kamau
Date
02/12/2023
Opposite to this is Unkara's approach. We have conducted several field visits in Africa to source our fabrics locally and be coherent throughout the production process for our clients. We want to offer sustainable alternatives at 360 degrees from the origin of the fabrics to the disposal of our clothes. Our products are made of high quality cotton or linen with a touch of Ankara (African print fabric) that suit every skin colour, age and size. The fabrics are locally produced and every piece is unique and hand-made in Jericho Market where our designer has her shop.
Our female workers share a similar vulnerable background of abuse and violence that made them resilient and strong enough to seek financial independence. As a slow fashion brand, we promise never to scale production at the cost of environment or workers’ rights; our clothes are based on a philosophy and are not already made or immediately available to be shipped. During the process, the client will be updated on the stage of the production and the worker history. After the shipping, whenever the customers or members want to return the dress after a year of ownership, it will be transformed into sanitised second-hand clothes or converted into a bag, earrings, toys, etc. The high quality of our products makes them long-lasting and versatile for different purposes. Find more about our philosophy and clothes design on our website.
Already at the beginning of the process, environmental norms are not respected due to the low production cost imposed by fast fashion brands. In order to maintain a low market price, factories of fashion brands need to cut costs in labour and fabrics ,and compromise practices that are not harmful to the environment to be able to have a profitable margin. Therefore, the so-called “desire for progress” makes harmful practices for the environment and, consequently, for the human being allowed and accepted, such as the non-filtration of polluted water before its reinsertion into the sea, throwing away the remains of unusable fabrics or garments creating landfills, the contamination of groundwater and the aridification of the earth.
Globally, fashion is the second most polluting industry after the oil and gas sector. According to the American Environmental Protection Agency, 11.3 million tons of textiles end up in landfills and less than 15% of these are recycled. According to the European Parliament, textile production, through dyes and finishing products, is responsible for approximately 20% of the world's drinking water pollution and 1.2 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year. Disposal of clothing in a short time is devastating on an environmental level and today there is no difference between throwing away a plastic bottle or a t-shirt, since clothes are made of synthetic materials that take centuries to get rid of.
