How You Can Make More Sustainable Fashion Choices

 It's no secret that fast fashion has basically taken over the clothing market. The rise of online stores and the ease of having clothes at your door in just a couple of clicks is having a detrimental effect on the environment. I myself am guilty of turning to fast fashion brands for the convenience of needing a last minute outfit. However, I have dramatically cut down my intake of clothing pieces from fast fashion brands and now adopting the approach of 'Do I really need this? Will I wear it more than once? before making any purchases. If like me, you'd like to be more sustainable with your wardrobe pieces, here are some tips to help minimise wastage and be more environmentally friendly with your fashion purchases:

Research Clothing Alternatives

Whilst fast fashion brands make seem the easiest option to go with, it usually comes at a price. There are a lot of news articles recently about the unethical standards of labour and how unsustainable the manufacturing processes of these items are. Research into where exactly your clothes are coming from, and how they are being made and with what materials. For example, a brand I recently come across whilst looking for Father's Day gifts is Bamigo who craft clothing using Bamboo fibres. Did you know that to make one pair of jeans, one kilo of Cotton is needed and 8000 litres of water? By using Bamboo instead of the likes of Cotton, Bamigo is going down a more environmentally friendly route of creating mens clothing. 

Recycling Unwanted Items

The rise of the fast fashion industry unfortunately comes with a lot of wastage. With the rate of new lines and collections being produced and pushed out so quickly, these brands often have a lot of left over stock at the end of the season that they cannot sell. Not only that, but these items can be low in quality because of the warehouses they are made in, and so the rate of returned items is usually very high. And if you do end up keeping that bright pink dress you wore once to your friends birthday party, the chances are as the trends come in and out you won't find yourself reaching for that dress anymore. All of these scenarios contribute to excessive amounts of clothes ending up in landfills. As a consumer we have very little control over the practices of fast fashion brands, however what we can do is try to recycle our unwanted clothing where possible. So back to that pink dress, instead of throwing it away why not donate it to a local charity shop? Or if you really don't want to be out of pocket, sell it on for another person to wear and love.

Quality over Quantity

One of the biggest lessons that comes with being more sustainable, is adopting the quantity over quality approach. We've all been in that situation where you've seen a bargain and rushed into purchasing it without thinking 'Will I actually wear this?' Then you're left with pieces in your wardrobe with the tags still on, that you never end up wearing. Also, when we purchases these cheaper items we tend to not look after them as well as we could because you only paid £10 for it, it's not the end of the world if it breaks? But if you paid £100 for the same item, the chances are you're going to take more care in it, and make sure you wear it for years to come. 

Do you have any sustainable fashion tips?

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