Dressed to Kill

 

Image Credit: Tay Weilin

The fashion industry has an often understated impact on our planet.

Image Credit: Tay Weilin; Source of Data: United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
Image Credit: Tay Weilin; Source of Data: Global Fashion Agenda
Image Credit: Tay Weilin; Source of Data: World Resources Institute
Image Credit: Tay Weilin; Source of Data: McKinsey & Company

 

Although the fashion industry already has a significant impact on our planet today, its impact is likely to increase further in the following years. With the rise of fast fashion, clothes are becoming cheaper, trend cycles are being sped up, and consumers are buying more items of clothing (which they often don’t need or wear) than ever. As consumption increases, so does the impact of the fashion industry.

There is a pressing need for consumers to understand the true cost of fashion and to consider the environmental impact of their shopping habits. With climate change, biodiversity loss, and sustainability issues taking the front stage today, we need to ask ourselves if our clothes are contributing to the destruction of our planet. If we continue to consume at the rate we are doing so now, we would wreck irreversible damage onto our planet.