The fast fashion industry produces incredible amounts of waste every year, contributing to the second greatest source of pollution in the world. This is due to wasteful practices at both the corporate and the individual levels. We hoped to make a project that would educate our peers about the environmental effects of fashion waste and encourage them to adopt sustainable fashion practices in order to limit the fashion waste produced at the individual level. Initially, our plan was to create a zine with information on the environmental and social effects of fashion waste that would be accompanied both by a webpage with similar information and an in-person event where students would be able to swap their old clothes with one another. We also intended for the zine to be available physically as well as digitally for easy access to all students.
Ultimately, we decided that creating a zine, webpage, and an in-person event would be extremely difficult to do within this semester. We chose to prioritize the zine. The first half of the zine highlighted the pollution caused by the manufacturing process for the clothes we wear, as well as the amount of clothing that is thrown out every fashion season and with every new trend. The second half of the zine covers ways that students can upcycle their clothing, so as to prevent them from throwing them out and to encourage them to wear their clothing longer. Information regarding other sustainable fashion practices, such as taking care of their clothes and buying higher quality clothing that can be worn for years, was also included.
In the future, if this project were to continue, we would definitely want to host a clothing swap event. Not only would it be extremely fun, it would also be an opportunity to mobilize a daily large portion of the student body and educate them on sustainable fashion practices and how to limit their own fashion waste. The way we split up the workload and created the zine worked very well. However, in the future, the distribution of the zine itself as well as setting realistic goals from the get-go is some things that need to be improved on in the future. Overall, the main takeaway from the experience was how accessible activism is. We were able to mobilize and produce an easy-to-digest zine that educated others on a major issue. We will be sure to remember this facet of our project as we move forward and devote ourselves to other causes.
Studies in Feminist Activism 