Our Second Skin – The Clothes We Wore
Contributed by Judy Vars
Newsflash: The Fast Fashion Industry waste is drastically contributing to climate change! Fast fashion describes cheap, stylish, mass produced clothes that have a huge impact on the environment. These garments appeal to shoppers because they are affordable and trendy. But they aren’t built to last and quickly go out of style and because they are cheaper they are easily discarded, piling up in landfills.
We live in a consumerist, disposable world where we are told everything needs to be the newest, the latest, or trendiest fashion. The clothes we wear represent how we walk through the world, our social status, and our “coolness”. How we dress our bodies is how we represent ourselves to the world.
Have you ever thought about where clothing goes after you’re done with it? After the thrift shores are done with it? When there is no longer a use for it? We all share an ugly little secret – how much actual waste is involved with the fast fashion industry.
In the 1960s the average American bought fewer than 25 items of clothing and no more than 10% of their budget on clothing and shoes. 95% of the clothing was Made-in-America. Many of you might remember the hand me downs from our siblings and clothes waiting to be mended and repaired? Then things began to change, with massive factories and textile mills opened in China and Latin America. With cheap labor and material (made from fossil fuel) they could mass-produce inexpensive garments quickly. By the 1980s outsourcing was born, and with that came other issues such as sweatshops, lower quality clothes and child labor.
The average person throws away 81.lbs of clothes every year. In America alone, an estimated 11.3 million tons of textile waste – equivalent to 85% of all textiles – end up in landfills on a yearly basis.
The alternative to all this waste and consumption is “slow fashion”. This means buying ethical, sustainable, quality items. When shopping, consider timeless over trendy and buying secondhand. You can take steps to make sure your clothes last longer;
● Repair rips, broken zippers and lost buttons.
● Wash clothes only when necessary.
● Donate what you no longer wear.
● Have a clothing exchange with friends.
Valley Community for Recycling Solutions is hosting a special art show: Our Second Skin, The Clothes We Wore – We are asking artists, seamstresses and all creatives to explore and reexamine the relationship we have to our clothes, our Second Skin. Convey this idea in art wearables, decorative or accessory pieces, or wall art. Set your imagination and ideas free. Find and download our prospectus https://www.valleyrecyclingak.org/our-second-skin.
Entry deadline is July 28th 2023. Artists reception will be at the Dorothy Page Museum in Wasilla, August 5th. Select pieces will be displayed at the VCRS Education Booth at the Alaska State Fair.