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Fashion industry emits more carbon than flights and maritime shipping combined

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Re: Fashion industry emits more carbon than flights and maritime shipping combined

#81
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I learned a most important trick watching America’s Next Top Model with my sister: Buy oufits, not clothes. You make the decision on what goes together and looks good at the store. You try stuff until you find what works. When it works, you buy the whole outfit. Possibly in multiples. No more decisions when getting dressed. You have predetermined outfits for whatever activity you’re doing that day. Refresh every few…

I like a combination approach much better. Buy multiple shirts, tees, sweaters, and pants which can match with each other. Oftentimes these are less saturated earthy colours with white and black mixed in. It'll be timeless and easy to maintain—not to mention very suitable for ones who have analysis paralysis with clothes. You can't mess up!

[deleted]

Re: Fashion industry emits more carbon than flights and maritime shipping combined

#82
The problem with carbon footprintting is that it suffers from a variation of the coastline paradox. It's impossible to meaningfully determine the carbon footprint of a t-shirt, for example, because you can also find another level of externality.

Re: Fashion industry emits more carbon than flights and maritime shipping combined

#83
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I learned a most important trick watching America’s Next Top Model with my sister: Buy oufits, not clothes. You make the decision on what goes together and looks good at the store. You try stuff until you find what works. When it works, you buy the whole outfit. Possibly in multiples. No more decisions when getting dressed. You have predetermined outfits for whatever activity you’re doing that day. Refresh every few…

I like a combination approach much better. Buy multiple shirts, tees, sweaters, and pants which can match with each other. Oftentimes these are less saturated earthy colours with white and black mixed in. It'll be timeless and easy to maintain—not to mention very suitable for ones who have analysis paralysis with clothes. You can't mess up!

Yes, I also try to be a conscious shopper and try to be able to maximise my wardrobe for multiple outfits. This is out of necessity too: I travel a lot, so having many outfits from a few items of clothes means a smaller suitcase. I used to have a rule that I would buy something only from a store where there was no more than 2 of but as the years pass, I admit that it's easy to slip into Zara when I'm in an airport with time to kill and suddenly "need" a new skirt or something. The ease of access is quite scary. I'm glad I didn't grow up with fashion available like this.

Re: Fashion industry emits more carbon than flights and maritime shipping combined

#84
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All the industries are competing to be the one by which you display your worth to society. The order as I see it is: House, Car, Clothes, Phone. Jewelry goes in there somewhere. Each of these products is trying to convince you of their value, excess value really, so you will spend your money on them, yet the expense of the product isn't worth much. You need a house to protect you from the weather and other people. Af…

They look beautiful. You know, like art. Is that also of no value? That said, is art (or having a beautiful environment) worth, in this particular case, filling the oceans with junk and killing people, probably not. But let's not pretend that fashion is a worthless status-seeking endeavor but playing video games is a window to a new world here.

Not all aesthetic creations are valuable art. If you want to buy ever more clothing because the designer created art, then pay the designer the same, produce one piece and put it in a museum; then we can get on with economising to reduce or negative impact on the planet sufficiently so it race might just survive the next few centuries.

What's the relative pollution of production of an article of fashion wear vs a game download? It's going to be something like a 100k times more pollution from the clothing, surely?

Re: Fashion industry emits more carbon than flights and maritime shipping combined

#85

Ecologically speaking maybe Steve Jobs/Star Trek respectively were onto something. A high quality minimal personal style that involves orders of magnitude less garment churn and waste with the added benefit of just not having to spend time on what to wear each day (insert pithy Jobs quote). But seriously if I was to explore finding a personal style that I could wear as my day to day work/life “uniform”, where to look…

Yes, I agree. Buy a few quality items and hang them to dry. Free-standing drying racks are cheap and can be used anywhere. Your clothes last much longer and you don't waste a lot of power.

Re: Fashion industry emits more carbon than flights and maritime shipping combined

#86

Ecologically speaking maybe Steve Jobs/Star Trek respectively were onto something. A high quality minimal personal style that involves orders of magnitude less garment churn and waste with the added benefit of just not having to spend time on what to wear each day (insert pithy Jobs quote). But seriously if I was to explore finding a personal style that I could wear as my day to day work/life “uniform”, where to look…

Check out Everlane. They even have a ‘Uniform’ line now, I think. They also have transparent pricing, manufacturing practices, and at least some commitment to sustainability.

Re: Fashion industry emits more carbon than flights and maritime shipping combined

#87
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, for one, that would vastly reduce economic growth. But aside from that, there’s not many things that fit X in the scheme of things you purchase frequently. Packaging / containers of consumed items is a big one. Fashion might be but probably not. The example I hear a lot for some reason is power tools. Yeah it would be great to share power tools because you only need them once or twice... but you only buy them o…

> Well, for one, that would vastly reduce economic growth. Yes, that's the point! I take the world without the economic growth where people are happy with what they have over one with economic growth and unsustainable level of CO2 emissions.

Not to start an argument, but that's easy to say when you have a comfortable life and already experienced abundance.

You know, people of poor and underdeveloped countries have the right to aspire to a better life (and yes, that means owning more than a couple of ragged t-shirts and eat meat often than twice a month)

Re: Fashion industry emits more carbon than flights and maritime shipping combined

#88
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, for one, that would vastly reduce economic growth. But aside from that, there’s not many things that fit X in the scheme of things you purchase frequently. Packaging / containers of consumed items is a big one. Fashion might be but probably not. The example I hear a lot for some reason is power tools. Yeah it would be great to share power tools because you only need them once or twice... but you only buy them o…

> Well, for one, that would vastly reduce economic growth. Yes, that's the point! I take the world without the economic growth where people are happy with what they have over one with economic growth and unsustainable level of CO2 emissions.

Sure, me too. But historically, and also literally right now, lack of economic growth leads to revolutions and protest if people are poor.

Re: Fashion industry emits more carbon than flights and maritime shipping combined

#89
post #5

That's interesting. I was thinking about this a lot over the past 2-3 weeks. The sheer amount of clothing lying in all the shops across the world. Talk a walk into any Macy's / Bloomingdales / Hudsons Bay and count the number of items of clothing. Then multiply that across that one store's chain of shops. Then realize there are multiple chains like that. Then realize there are multiple stores not in chains. Then real…

I started realizing something similar but with Guitar Center and Sam Ash. Guitar stores may not be as ubiquitous, but I know they're not selling out of their stock every year so I assume some must get sent back or destroyed.

Re: Fashion industry emits more carbon than flights and maritime shipping combined

#90

Ecologically speaking maybe Steve Jobs/Star Trek respectively were onto something. A high quality minimal personal style that involves orders of magnitude less garment churn and waste with the added benefit of just not having to spend time on what to wear each day (insert pithy Jobs quote). But seriously if I was to explore finding a personal style that I could wear as my day to day work/life “uniform”, where to look…

I'd happily wear a DS9 or First Contact era Starfleet uniform all day. They look great! :). Regarding your serious point, I'd like to know too. I'd pay for a service that would help me find a style that looks good on me, with associated supply of quality clothes in this style. My current clothing choice pattern is "random, with a pre-filtering done by my wife".

Sure they look great if you're a Hollywood actor who gets paid to do three hours of abs a day. There's a reason Kirk first donned the green tunic...
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