Enclave ODS Circular Line, or the antidote to the fast fashion poison
No. I will not write about the subway.Tomorrow, with this article already published, I will be sitting in my office, talking zoommented about circular economy adapted to fashion at the Worldex India Textile Fair.
Interestingly, days before I was proposed to expose my thesis on the challenges and opportunities of circularity, I was reading the book Loved Clothes Last Longer (long life to your beloved clothes is my free and interested translation).Its author, the Italian Orsola de Castro, defends as a revolutionary act the repair and reuse of our garments.
Her words are not vain, because she, who in addition to writer is a designer and activist, is co -founder and creative director of Fashion Revolution, a movement that works so that the fashion industry takes the path of sustainability.
Left charo, journalist and independent counselor
And why do I talk about her?Because she writes that only one percent of the fibers - or almost nothing - becomes new fibers, according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.
And why do I quote MacArthur?Because he has developed the thesis of the circular economy and because as a practical person I am adore that thesis of his that the moment of acting is now.Tick, time passes.
But we talked about circularity.Very simple.Or very complex.It depends on options.It depends on whether the point of view is production, processes or people.Of course, global agreements and regulations.No less, of the commitments arising from the COP26 in this field, which looks there that there has been agreement.
The 130 signatory brands of the UNA Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action (or letter from the fashion industry for climate action) have proposed to drastically reduce emissions by the end of the decade, and beyond committing again with theNet Zero - or zero emissions - in 2050 have done it to reach 2030 with 50% less emissions, compared to 30% of its previous letter.
For this, it is essential to change the production model, but also the processes, so that the brands require their suppliers to observe a new model both at the level of materials and energy.
And as for people, let's think of us.In you.Also in you.In Myself.According to the McCarthur Foundation, just duplicating the times we wear the clothes - it is supposed to use an average of fifteen - we would get 44% of greenhouse gas emissions related to the life cycle of the garments.
If, in addition, we are able to reach other hands, we will be filling cabinets with our waste, because in another magical phrase of the Foundation "what for some is garbage, for others it is a treasure."
Circularity can be seen as an arduous task.But it is a thousand times better to face her as a great social opportunity.And it is not so difficult.It is certainly a normative issue.But it is above all a matter of education and training.
Does anyone remember when we wore the supermarket plastic bags like who drinks a glass of water?Well, it is not necessary to remember ... hours before writing these lines I read a pharmacist who insisted on a paracetamol box in a plasticized envelope.
And although society has been very good for the activism of young people as greate, not even protesters are required to remove consciences.Even the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has said very clear that "fast fashion is poison", with a known antidote: circularity.
Of course, for this, a new way of thinking is necessary, against the philosophy of extracting, producing, wasting and consuming.For example, the second -hand purchase, which should not be so bad when a large planet of the fashion system, such as the Kering group (owner of brands such as Gucci or Saint Laurent), has become a shareholder of the most important platform ofSecond -hand sale of luxury products, dressing collective.
There are other initiatives.Like the rent.When I saw that Carrie Symonds, Boris Johnson's last wife, prime minister of the United Kingdom, had married a rented suit I felt that he was changing a lot.To begin with, her economy had spent 50 euros on My Wardbrode HQ, a luxury clothing rental portal, instead of the 3,500 that cost the christos model Costarellos on Net-à-porter.
It is an example, but not the only model.We can also talk about the subscription.Our Adolfo Domínguez is increasingly promoting it: you receive five garments at home and you stay with those that fit your liking.
Or to recycle the clothes you do not want or that is not sold to turn it into another.In this sense, it is essential that the process of giving new life begins before its conception.If we look at a label and check that the garment is made up of three materials - a suppose - we will understand the arduous task of recycling because before we have to separate its components, something almost impossible.And some brands have gone to action.
En las últimas semanas, he sabido de la alianza de H&M con el Centro Superior de Diseño de Moda de Madrid, de la Universidad Politécnica, justamente para la creación del curso Csdmm & H&M Circular Program, que dirigirá el diseñador Juan Vidal.
When I found out I remembered the verse of the Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano, of his right poem to delirium: "The Church will also dictate a new commandment that had been forgotten to God: you will love nature, of which you are part."
*** Charo Izquierdo is a journalist and independent counselor.
