High Tech High Chula Vista

What Your Tag Does Not Say

Unethical Fashion

Nayeli Garcia

Humanities

Mrs. Indira Hood-Esparza

March 22, 2018

 We as humans wear clothing, it is one of the major attributes that separate us from other

species. Covering ourselves with garments is mainly to protect us from harsh environments but

it’s also an important social need to cover yourself. Somehow over time certain types of clothing

became popular and decade after decade fashion changed, influenced by culture and iconic

styles. With the birth of fashion came the demand for it and the capital gain. Fast fashion is what

we wear today, unnecessary amounts of new clothing rapidly replacing the old, garment that

might never even be used, thrown away. Exploiting not only earth’s natural resources, but

contaminating them as well. ​Unethical fashion is a global issue that should be addressed now

because of the damaging prices it takes on our water, biodiversity and the contribution it has to

our earth’s pollution.

The fashion industry seems to have an unquenchable thirst, being that water is needed in

almost every step in the textile industry. From the growing or maintaining of raw-materials to the

finishing touches of adding color through “byes, adding of specialty chemicals, and finishing

chemicals that are all applied to the fabrics in water baths” (Khouri). In the watering of cotton

alone more than 20,000 liters is need in order to cultivate enough cotton for one t-shirt (Cotton

Farming). The average human being needs about 50,000 liters of water their entire life, your

t-shirt is enough water to hydrate someone for nearly half their life. Water as we all know is not

your run of the mill essential resoure it is thy vital resource for the sustaining of human life. With

overpopulation pushing for cheaper ways to meet bemanes, we are now in a freshwater crisis (

Competing for Clean Water Has Led to a Crisis​ )​. Today ¨only 0.007 percent of the planet's

water is available to it’s,¨ 7.6 billion human inabatences (not accounting for the animals we feed

in order to eat).” Not only is the clothing industry deciding to waste water itś also contaminating
it. In the growing of plant based fabrics one uses a considerable amounts of pesticide, cotton

even got nicknamed the dirtiest crop because of the amounts of pesticides it needs. ¨Aldicarb,

cotton's second best-selling insecticide and most acutely poisonous to humans and wildlife, is

still used in 25 countries, including the U.S., where 16 states reported it in their groundwater,¨

(Institute). These kind of chemicals are sprayed along with water, they runoff ending up in our

limited freshwater supply. The constant attack and missuesd of water is personally degrading,

their in no concern for anything other than self gain no matter what lines have to be stamped

upon. Water is a precious resource, the way we make our clothing is putting that lifehinging

resource at risk.

Fashion kills, quite literally it takes lives by the billions, It might be something that has

been repeated so many times that it is seen as an over exaggeration. This statement is no longer

taken seriously because “their only animals” but it is the suffering that we put them through that

is alarming. Their born in order to die, sheep and cattle are bred to be slaughtered. Smaller

animals like ​mink, foxes and rabbits are caged in fur farms for their entire lives, deprived of the

space they need to be their wild selfs. Driving some to insanity, to self mutilation and even

cannibalism. The compact living leads to illness so their pumped with strong antibiotic. Selective

breeding is also another cause of illness, with sheep it “has resulted in a multitude disease related

to their excessive amount of hair, such as deaths from overheating and flystrike” (Clothing). The

anti fur acts of the past have resulted in an amazing reduction of the use of fur but sheepskin and

leather are still in high demand. When it comes to the way we treat animals it is a command

social belief ​“that animals were put on this Earth for our use.”​ Why do we think this, was it

because the desire to kill is rooted within us from our ancestor, who many years ago relied on
hunting in order to survive. If so why do we still hang onto these belief, with the advances we

have made it’s clear to us (at least in the western world) that we no longer need to kill for our

clothing.

When one thinks of pollution, you think about trash in the sea, the oil industry or coal

burning plants. You don’t naturally think my new t-shirt, you can not see it on your clothings

tags but you t-shirt’s story is more than what it seems. ​“The clothing industry is the second

largest polluter in the world...second only to oil,” said Eileen Fisher, a fashion designer while

received an environmental award for her commitment to environmental causes ( Castiel ). To be

right next to oil stems most from the fashion industries long and complicated processing chain,

from its involvement in several countries to the making of raw materials, textile

magnufactshering, the creation of the clothes, the shiping footprint and the despole of products.

Cotton again “dirtiest crop” uses at “least one-third of a pound (136 grams) of pesticides per one

pound of cotton,”(Qutab) that's a whole lot of chemicals. This damages the livelihood of any

ecosystem nearby and health of the workers picking cotton for your t-shirt. Synthetic man-made

fabrics like nylon, rayon and the infamiss polyester are all either completely comprised of

chemicals or; are a mixture of organic and inorganic. Therenfor are not sustainable products,

which means they will not dissolve into the earth when thrown away, plastic remains for

hundreds of years. In the washing of said plastic fabrics, microfabrics are released and take a

journey from your washing machine to the ocean. An example of how micro plastic can affect

you is a study by Sarah Dudas “In 2016, when planted thousands of clams and oysters across

coastal British Columbia and let them soak in the sand and saltwater. Three months later, they

dissolved hundreds of them with chemicals, filtered out the biodegradable matter, and looked at
the remaining material under a microscope. Inside this Pacific Northwest culinary staple, they

found a rainbow of little plastic particles,”(Christensen). Leather, it is well known to come from

cows so it must be eco friendly. Wrong! Do not be fooled, in leather making their is tanning and

finishing which involves chemicals.

Fashion is present in our everyday living, in the daily task of choosing an outfits. It is a

self expression that helps show who you are so it is very close to many people's hearts. It’s also

greatly effects the fabric of society now and throughout history, it reflects the state of a culture.

“Dress is more than mere objects and materials people put on their bodies. Dress can be a sign or

symbol that refers to or stands for meanings not inherent in the material or object. In sum, the

physical body when dressed reflects the “social body” or surrounding societal system” (Turner,

1991 Damhorst, M.L. 1999. ‘Introduction’ to The Meanings of Dress). It is clearly evident that

fashion is important to personal lives, but does the advantage of having a trendy outfit out weight

the negative effects. Does it really even matter if somewhere something precious is being

destroyed for your trendy outfit. Fashion is constantly changing “Once upon a time, there were

two fashion seasons: Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter. Fast forward to 2014 and the fashion

industry is churning out 52 “micro-seasons” per year,”(Whitehead). It has become speed up to

the point where new trend are coming out every week so in the mixture of trying to keep up and

throw away what is now old. We fill up landfill with clothing that takes year to decompes for

example nylon clothes can take 30-40 years to completely decomposes (How Long it Take for

Some Everyday Items to Decompose). It’s unjust to put personal wants over the good of the

world that you call home.

 Unethical fashion shows yet another example of how our irresponsibility with the way

we produce, consume and throw away our have negative consequences. We need to come to the

realization that the clothing we wear has a devastating environmental impact. Our water

resources pay the price, animals and soon so we will too. What you buy has a story on other lives

and the environment.

Work Cited

Khouri, Hannah, et al. “Water Usage and the Textile Industry.” ​The Economics of Water​, 2013,
economicsofwater.weebly.com/water-usage-and-the-textile-industry.html.

“Cotton Farming.” ​WWF​,

wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/about_freshwater/freshwater_problems/thirsty_crops/cotton/.

“Competing for Clean Water Has Led to a Crisis.” ​Clean Water Crisis Facts and Information​,
National Geographic , 27 Jan. 2017,
www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/freshwater/freshwater-crisis/​.

Institute, Rodale. “Dig Deeper.” ​Rodale Institute​, 4 Feb. 2014, 12:55 pm,
rodaleinstitute.org/chemical-cotton/.

Tarantola, Andrew. “How Leather Is Slowly Killing the People and Places That Make
It.”​Gizmodo​, Gizmodo.com, 3 June 2014,
gizmodo.com/how-leather-is-slowly-killing-the-people-and-places-tha-1572678618.

“Animals Used for Clothing.” ​Animal Cruelty Exposure Fund​, WordPress,

www.animalcrueltyexposurefund.org/animals-used-for-clothing/.

“Fur Farms.” ​PETA​, www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-clothing/fur/fur-farms/.

“Clothing.” ​Animal Equality​, 27 Oct. 2011, www.animalequality.net/clothing.

“Clothes and Trimming | Commercial Exploitation of Wildlife | Humans: A Harmful Species? |

Threatening Factors.” ​To the Rescue of Endangered Species​, 10 Nov. 2017,
endangered-animals.ca/en/clothes-and-trimming.

Castiel, Daniella. “How Fashion Affects People and the Environment.” ​Sierra Club​, 29 Nov.
2016, www.sierraclub.org/planet/2016/11/how-fashion-affects-people-and-environment.
Christensen, Ken. “How Much Plastic Do You Want In Your Oysters And Clams?” ​Earthfix​, 14
Sept. 2017, 1:40pm, www.earthfix.info/news/article/oysters-with-a-side-of-microplastic/.

Whitehead, Shannon. “5 Truths the Fast Fashion Industry Doesn't Want You to Know.” ​The
Huffington Post​, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 19 Aug. 2014,
www.huffingtonpost.com/shannon-whitehead/5-truths-the-fast-fashion_b_5690575.html.

“Damhorst, M.L. 1999. ‘Introduction’ to The Meanings of Dress.” ​Granola, Grad School and Goffman​, 24
May 2016,
granolagradschoolandgoffman.wordpress.com/2016/05/24/damhorst-m-l-1999-introduction-to-the-meanings-o
f-dress/.

“HOW LONG IT TAKES FOR SOME EVERYDAY ITEMS TO DECOMPOSE.” ​Down2Earth

Materials​, 7 Dec. 2017, www.down2earthmaterials.ie/2013/02/14/decompose/.