by Sonali Deshpande, Sierra Club Massachusetts Chapter intern
As Abigail Dillen of Earthjustice put it,"When policy experts think about climate change, what they have in mind is a big coal-fired power plant or cars we drive or the freight that moves our Amazon purchases around." But what about our closets at home, filled with stacks upon stacks of clothes?
In our modern world, clothing trends cycle in and out at disorienting paces. One day oversized band tees are the thing to wear, the next day it’s fitted crop tops. Kitten heels flip back and forth between “stupid” and “effortlessly chic.” When Kim Kardashian wears a denim pantsuit, we’ll all buy a denim pantsuit. The fashion industry has convinced us that if we rock all the new trends, regardless of what they are, we’ll be cool. So we comply. We’re constantly purchasing and discarding clothes to keep up with what’s in style, and in the process, we are quickly accumulating huge piles of waste. This is aided by the poor quality of a lot of mass-manufactured clothing. With cheap materials and shoddy construction working together to keep prices low, production quick, and numbers high, clothes fall apart and are discarded at an even faster pace. But who cares when that dress or those pants will go out of style soon anyways?
To be exact, Americans are letting go of 68 pounds of clothing per person every year. That’s 22 billion pounds total. In one year. And it’s exactly what the fashion industry wants. Since America’s industrialization, the success of big corporations has depended on the “continued marketing of new products and disposal of old ones that are thrown away simply because stylistic norms promote their obsolescence”(Luz Claudio). But regardless of the fashion industry’s great earning potential, it is wreaking havoc on our planet’s health.
As clothes are discarded, only about 15% of them are reused or recycled. Donating used clothes to charity is certainly a way to soften the blow of excess waste, but at the rate Americans are giving away cheap fashion items, there is not nearly enough second-hand demand to keep up with it. Thrift stores end up having to sell the bulk of their clothes to textile recyclers, or export them to developing nations (which disrupts the development of local economies there!).
Obviously, donating is better than discarding altogether. The billions of clothing items we throw into landfills often degrade and emit methane, a greenhouse gas that is exponentially more potent than CO2. Despite those fibers being “natural,” their processing (bleaching, dyeing, printing, even chemical baths) can also leave them laced with toxins, which can leach directly into our groundwater. Still, synthetic fibers are no better, as they are types of plastic that take many hundreds of years to biodegrade.
And none of this takes into account the great amount of pollution involved in the mass-scale production of textiles and clothing. When piles upon piles of clothes are shipped around the globe at every stage of production, huge amounts of energy are expended—not to mention the excessive resources consumed and toxic byproducts that are dumped into our environment. But why do we really need all these clothes in the first place?
The only antidote to these problems is an antidote to over-consumption.
A fashion alternative that is gaining a lot of speed right now is small-scale, American-made manufacturing that puts more emphasis on the art and design of fashion, and on quality above quantity. Right here in Massachusetts operates Good Clothing Company, a small-scale clothing manufacturer that takes orders from designers all over the country, conceiving and producing all of their pieces at their facility in Fall River. Their idea of fashion is one that celebrates clothing, design, and humanity, unlike the big-box retailers that celebrate money and little else. I went down to Fall River to figure out what exactly makes their clothing so “Good.” Here’s what they told me.
Me: What is it that makes Good Clothing Company so much more eco-friendly than traditional large-scale clothing manufacturing?
Good: Good Clothing Company is naturally more eco-friendly because of the way that the business is structured. With traditional overseas manufacturing minimums are in the thousands. Good Clothing Company offers minimums as low as 10/ size, style and color and as a result we have created a system where clients are not being forced to overproduce. With 10 garments each item is much more likely to find a home with interested buyer rather than ending up in a landfill, discount store or being forced onto the consumer.
[They also mentioned that all of the textiles they use are eco-friendly, which is usually not the case for commercial, mass-manufactured clothing.]
Me: I think your company is such a great antidote to the saturation of the fashion market with cheap-quality, “trendy” clothing that quickly goes out of style and straight into landfills. Do you think the fashion industry should have a greater responsibility to promote sustainable clothing?
Good: At Good Clothing Company we are committed to providing a high quality product. Our commitment to quality alone will help to keep clothing out of landfills because we construct garments to last. Our hope is that through our promotion of a high quality, Made in USA product that other manufacturing options become less appealing with time. It is most likely not the ridicule that will get fast fashion houses to think but rather the rapid growth of eco-alternatives, that focus on the environment and humanity, that will leave them no other choice but to acknowledge that this one day will be the new normal.
Me: It's quite amazing how quickly the demand for sustainable fashion has accelerated in recent years--but do you think this is enough to compete with the convenience and low prices of large-scale fast fashion? What is it about local manufacturing seems to be appealing to your customers, and how do you manage to keep prices down?
Good: There are multiple reasons that people appreciate local manufacturing.
Many of our clients connect with us because they have a strong interest in having their collections or designs Made in the USA.
Additionally, with easier communication, quicker turnaround times and the ability to produce in smaller batches we continue to captivate a local audience. Our clients appreciate that we are timely with responses and the delivery of their goods. Being a local company and working with a national audience is wonderful because our clients are working with us based on their ethos and there is a sense of pride attached when we all have fun working through the process of taking their design from concept to finished product.
In regards to pricing, we aim to stay competitive but not in an international sense. We promote that there is a value associated with a made in USA product and that it is something the consumer is/or should be willing to pay for. For this reason, we work closely with clients to make sure they understand what their retail price point would need to be in order to accommodate US based manufacturing.
Me: I would love for Massachusetts Sierra Club members and volunteers to dip their toe into the world of sustainable, locally-produced fashion. Where exactly would our readers be able to purchase the clothes you create?
Good: We actually have a brand that we design, develop and create ourselves - Good Apparel. At Good Clothing Company, we wanted to be able to show our customers that the model we are promoting for production can succeed and here's our perfect example.
[This is in addition to the clothes they manufacture for clients.]
The company’s process is incredibly communicative and personal. After hearing what their client is looking for, their in-house pattern expert hunkers down for a day, designing and creating a unique pattern. Then the fabric goes to the sample-makers, who are also well-trained experts. They bring the clothing design to life, and that sample will be sent back and forth between the client and the company until it is exactly what the client wants.
The sample then travels to the other side of the room, where experienced sewers replicate the clothing until the order is filled. When all is done, the pieces are sent to a corner to be double-checked for quality, keeping in mind things like loose threads. When the company touts the quality of their products, it is hardly an understatement.
As evidenced by Good Clothing Co. and other American-made clothing companies that are popping up across the country, there is growing demand for real, quality fashion. H&M, Zara, Forever 21, and other corporate fashion giants are not the be all end all. Since its founding in 2015, Good Clothing Co. is growing quickly, having already outgrown their smaller Mashpee facility. They have around 20 employees and are looking to hire 15 more in the next month. Small-scale manufacturing is exploding, and for good reason. If we as consumers strive to be mindful—to purchase items we love instead of mindlessly accumulating whatever is trendy—we can mitigate the great environmental issue that is fast fashion.
If you’re looking for quality fashion that is kind to the environment, high quality, and will never go “out of style,” remember to check out Good Clothing Company’s new line: Good Apparel.