University of Denver Spring/Summer 2023

Tonozzi emphasizes the importance of only purchasing items that can be worn more than once, encouraging students to opt for pieces that can evolve with their style. The thrift store is also an alternative to costly “sustainably produced” clothing brands. Fatemi-Badi explains that Gen Z’s passion for sustainability can be used against them, with brands often touting false sustainability to increase prices. “Brands take advantage of [our generation] by green washing. The only thing you can do to fully avoid it is to make your own clothes or thrift,” she says. Following a relocation to Centennial Halls, the shop hosted its grand reopening in early February. With its own entrance separate from the residence hall, the store is easily accessible to students, faculty and staff. As Barnett-Cashman says, “We wanted to make this space really welcoming. Any one can stop in, not only to buy items from the thrift store but to learn about fast fashion and sustainability.” For many students, thrifting is already a regular practice. But there is a long way to go, Tonozzi says, in conquering overconsumption habits and the high-speed trend cycle. Fatemi-Badi agrees, noting that the narrative surrounding fashion itself must be reframed. “It’s all just a social construct,” she says. “What we find fashionable doesn’t need to look expensive, high-end or on-trend. We can redesign the way we think about clothes.” One student’s no-frills take on dressing up and dressing down BY AMBRIEL SPEAGLE Last summer, I had the opportunity to speak with over a dozen small business owners in Denver. Many were owners of recently opened vintage stores, a new sector of the city’s fashion scene. Every person I talked to relayed the same reason for opening their store: to combat fast fashion. They spoke passionately about diverting clothing waste from landfills. Many had an affection for the high quality and timeless styles of clothing made before the ’90s. They gushed over the opportunity they had to give these items a second life. Opening a vintage store was clearly more than just a business venture to these entrepreneurs. At the time of those interviews, I was interning for the fashion section of 303 Magazine, an independently owned publication that allowed me a lot of creative freedom. As a frequenter of vintage stores, I naturally gravitated toward writing about them. Those interviews certainly weren’t the first time I had heard about fast fashion. Throughout my undergraduate career at DU, I have covered fast fashion extensively. I don’t remember this being a conscious decision, as I certainly wasn’t smart enough as a first-year journalism student to understand the value of specializing. It was just something I already knew a lot about. I first became familiar with fast fashion in high school when a Netflix documentary, of all things, introduced me to the ethical horrors of the industry. In a spirited and naive promise that only a 15-year-old can make, I vowed to never shop at H&M again. Unfortunately, things did not remain that simple. As

I continued to research, I learned just how complex and far-reaching the fast fashion industry is. I realized that it was likely going to take more than a single 15-year-old boycotting her local retailer to overhaul a multibillion dollar industry. Fast fashion began in the 1990s. In an effort to expand profits, retailers began churning out cheaply made, low priced clothing on a weekly basis. Before that, clothing brands operated on a quarterly basis and launched a new line each season. Consumers shopped accordingly. Today, one only has to spend five minutes scrolling on any social media site to understand just how much overcon sumption the fast fashion industry has caused. Microtrends last about as long as it takes to order the item online. They are already over by the time it arrives in the mail. The consequences of fast fashion’s ascendance are endless. The average American tosses between 70 and 80 pounds of clothing every year. A mere 15% of that gets recycled. The rest heads straight to the landfill. Fast fashion is also one of the biggest contributors to air and water pollution. And to keep production cheap, fast fashion companies outsource labor overseas. The environmental atrocities caused by production are reserved for the citizens of developing nations to endure. The industry’s environmental record and ethical trans gressions are undeniable. Yet in the scramble to save our planet, fast fashion is often conveniently ignored. As a college student, I’ve seen firsthand why it’s all too easy to turn a blind eye to fast fashion. Students want to keep up with trends and relate to their peers while on a limited budget, and fast fashion is the quickest way to do so. There is a degree of hypocrisy at play, however, when the student fighting against climate change one day turns around and orders 10 items from a company found guilty of labor abuses the next. Fast fashion is one of the few environmental issues consumers have actual power over, yet we actively choose not to change our habits. The industry has seen consistent growth since its creation and is predicted to be worth over $100 billion by 2026 if the current trend continues. Since my childhood days of playing dress up, I have loved fashion. I deliberately planned out my outfits at the start of each week in high school, mixing and matching until I was blue in the face to avoid wearing the same outfit twice. If I have found a way to avoid fast fashion, anyone can. My advice? Shift to a solutions-based mindset. One of the most frequent arguments I hear in defense of fast fashion is its affordability. I get it. I also cannot afford to shop from sustainable brands. But we shouldn’t feign helplessness. There are plenty of effective, inexpensive avenues to avoid fast fashion. In my experience, the key to overproduction of cheap clothing is limiting our overall consumption. My wardrobe, which I’ll admit was once filled with cheap Forever 21 blouses, is now made up of durable staples that I have owned for years. Being on-trend is an exhausting, unnecessary use of money and resources. The endless cycle of clothing waste cannot be stopped without first stopping the endless cycle of clothing consumption.

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