13 Sep Garment pollution and Garment Deconstruction: My personal struggle
Clothing production is one of the leading causes of the world’s pollution, which makes me really sad because I love to shop. I remember when I first heard that fact; it was from my teacher Pat during my textiles class in my first semester. It really stuck to me; this information was something I never thought of as a consumer. However the more I thought about it the more it made sense. That’s when I started to research on how I could still have a stylish look without doing too much harm to our planet. I looked to Vice my favorite publication, particularly I was on Viceland their TV media. I watched a show called “States of Undress” which is basically a documentary style show that goes around the world to address issues that that the fashion industry rather you not know. They go to Pakistan, Russia, China and many other countries to show the regulations these countries may follow or ignore. I binge watched the show quite quickly and it definitely opened my eyes more about the issues the fashion industry is facing.
A month or so later I was talking to one of my friends Bradley about the issue and how I wished I could do something to stop the cycle. He then told me the first step is with myself and then he told me about garment deconstruction. Garment deconstruction basically is taking your old garments deconstructing them into separate pieces, and then restyling them into a new garment. The whole idea was radical to me! It was so interesting and so once again I went and did my research and sure enough it was most definitely a sustainable solution for people that wanted to stop the never ending cycle of garment pollution.
I then reached out to my friend Xavier he is a local Toronto designer and he has his own brand called Beyond Space. He is actually very active with garment deconstruction and he loves to give his styles a rough unfinished look. He is also going to be offering a garment deconstruction service in Toronto soon and he and I are talking about what kind of direction he wants to go with.
I think that people should be more aware of what we are doing to our planet and we shouldn’t be killing it for the sake of amazing fashion sense. I definitely recommend you all to look into garment reconstruction, not only will you be sustaining the earth but you will also have a one of a kind garment!!