My grandmother has only one shirt in her wardrobe. My mother has three. My daughter’s generation, 50. And 48% of them, she never wears.
- Jack Ma, Executive Chairman of Alibaba 

How many items of clothing do you own? How many do you wear regularly? If you’re like me, you may have purchased a shirt or pants and found that you only wore it once or twice before deciding it wasn’t as comfortable or cute as you originally thought. While making an impulse purchase and regretting it or disposing of clothing may seem trivial, the rise of cheap, ever-changing fashion options (“fast fashion”) has severe consequences. 

• Consumer demand has caused clothing production to double from 2000 to 2014. 

• The number of garments purchased per person increased by about 60% in the last 15 years. 

• The average American purchases 70 items of clothing per year. 

• Across nearly every apparel category, consumers keep clothing items about half as long as they did 15 years ago.

• Over 50% of fast fashion produced is discarded within a year. 

This system is not just wasteful, it has troubling environmental effects: making clothing requires using a lot of water and chemicals and emitting significant amounts of greenhouse gasses. Clothing-factory workers are often underpaid and exposed to unsafe or even deadly workplace conditions. Without changes in our behavior, and improvements in manufacturing, these issues will only grow in magnitude. 

What you could do: 

1. Repair damaged clothing instead of getting rid of it. (Guide for common repairs.) 

2. Set goals to only purchase X fashion related items per month/year. Fewer than 70!

3. Shop at second-hand stores. 

4. Use resources like remake to research brands and make purchases from brands that you trust are committed to sustainability. 

5. Buy less stuff.

What you could do with others:

      1. Take action with Fashion of Tomorrow.

      2. Support campaigns to help garment workers.