In the last 10 years, there has been a shift in the fashion sector. Growing up, the fashion in my life consisted of second hand clothing or clearances racks. It wasn’t until I was old enough to be able to afford clothing at an affordable price while also still being fashionable.
I decided to start at the beginning, the beginning of fashion that is. I think it is important to show how far fashion has come in terms of sustainability and process. I used Knightlab to create a timeline leading up to our current situation regarding climate change and fast fashion.
For my thesis I have decided to look at the effects of fast fashion on the climate. The questions I intially considered had to do with materials being used and in what capacity. However, looking for answers in data that hardly existed was difficult. Many companies have openly chosen to withold their effects on the climate and in what ways they have patricipated in unsustainable practices. The first table I created is meant to show brands that have been scored on a varying level of sustainability. Although I was able to come up with some brands that are very well-known in the fashion industry, some of these brands are conglomerates that own smaller brands like Associated British Foods which owns Primark, a very well known British fast fashion retailer. That is important to note because their scores are based off of multiple reports of the company rather than entirely fashion related. I chose to use a varying color scheme to show the effectiveness of the grades given to companies, as well as show that some data was not able to be scored or not requested.
Another aspect of my thesis is looking where the over produced clothing ends up. My research has taken me to landfills across the country. I wanted to take a local look at the amount of landfills there are in California, as well as ones that specifically take in clothing and recycle them or ship them abroad. Although this is only California, I think this is a great stepping stone for me to see landfills visually across the states and the areas that they are most concentrated in.