Are your clothes from China, India, Bangladesh? What are the fabrics made from…. polyester, acrylic, rayon, wool, bamboo? Each of the answers might surprise you.
I found this dress in my closet. I am guilty and have begun my own eco-transformation!! I just became more aware of every piece of clothing I buy. I try and stay away from polyesters and acrylic, but it can be hard. There is just so much of it out there.
So here is the scoop: Acrylic fabric is made with plastic threads. The plastic threads are made of a man made polymer fiber created from fossil fuels through a chemical process. Acrylic fabric is made in a way similar to the production of polyamide fabric (or nylon fabric) and polyester fabric. Check out this post on acrylic fabric by www.naturalclothing.com. Acrylic fabric can last in a landfill for 200 years and can release harmful toxins into the air.
Some of the workplace hazards of producing acrylic fabric according to NaturalClothing.com include the following: Acrylic fiber is made from the polymer polyacrylonitrile. Polyacrolonitrile is a flammable, colorless liquid that is created from polypropylene. The EPA found that inhaling polyacrylonitrile gives the victim similar symptoms to cyanide poisoning. In fact, when exposed to polyacrylonitrile, our bodies metabolize the chemical into cyanide. This metabolization can take place after exposure to the chemical through skin contact, ingestion, or inhalation. Polyacrylonitrile is also cited as a potential cancer hazard.
In addition, if you are purchasing a t-shirt that is the same price as a Starbucks latte, then something is wrong! I have been guilty of this. I was at Forever 21 and there it was – a t-shirt, on sale for $3.50! I got suckered into buying one! It was so cheap, how could I resist? Now I have learned that to create something that is good quality and will last the test of time, it will cost you, a little bit more than $3.50.
Here is what came up when I Googled “Cheap T-shirt”. How is that even humanly possible in 2020? $2.24!!!
This was my face when I saw this t-shirt for $2.24. I could not believe it. (Sorry, my hair was a bit of a mess!)
Some of the required steps to create that $2.24 T-Shirt would have needed to be the following:
You need to first find a farm, cultivate some cotton, feed it lots of water (for the cotton to grow), add fertilizers and pesticides, cut it and collect the raw fibers. Then a transformation process needs to happen to make the raw fibers into threads, yarn and fabric. This process is complicated and I will definitely discuss it, in an upcoming blog! Its fascinating.
After this the woven fabric, is sent to a finishing plant where it is bleached, pre-shrunk, dyed, printed and given a special finish before being made into clothing or the T-shirt like we discussed above.
After this, the shirt needs to get to you. The shirt will be shipped in a container from across the world (likely on a boat), then put on a truck and shipped to a warehouse, then the shirt will go from the warehouse storage compound to individual stores.
Can this really only cost $2.24? With this price, everyone in the supply chain must only be making 3 cents an hour. Something does not add up? This is how the “fast fashion” industry works. Our clothes are so cheap now, they are disposable. We are paying low prices for mediocre and less than mediocre goods and during this, a lot of the workers are not being given fair wages. There are many other ethical issues that I will talk about in another blog.
Hello! Nice to meet you! We are Moda Circolare (ModaC). We called ourselves Moda Circolare as this means Circular Fashion in Italian.
We are a brand new company out of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. We are a Sustainable Fashion Consulting Agency and our mission is to help fashion and apparel companies become more sustainable and conduct their business in a more circular approach. Circular fashion is essential for this industry to ensure it becomes truly sustainable.