Worse To Wear: Fast Fashion Battle in Alabama

Written by: Avery Welch

Photography by: Avery Welch

Standing in the driest desert on earth, a woman lifts her hand to an ache that throbs in her back. She closes her eyes, straightens her spine to the sky, and breathes in. Her breath, once fresh, turns stale, shortened by the dust and smoke polluted air that whips around her. She exhales a shaky cough as her eyes blink open to reveal a mountain; a mountain made of clothes. Her body spins as if it was the head of an owl and soaks in the muted colors of sun-aged garments that sprinkle a sea of beige and white – garments crusted in dust that stretch on for miles. Astonished, but not surprised, she continues to wade through the textile mountain in hopes of finding treasures worth selling.

A 65-foot landfill stands in the Atacama Desert, where unwanted clothes make up 60 percent of the substantial heap. Each year, the pile grows 39,000 tons, and the cause traces back to fast fashion, where the industry produces an estimated 92 million tons of textile waste a year.

In May of 2023, a satellite image from space released by SkyFi revealed the northern Chile garment graveyard. In the 50 cm resolution picture, tv static covers the beige sand dunes. Zoomed in, individuals from the surrounding Atacama Desert region, a population of approximately 300,000, sift through the static landfill regularly in search of clothes that they need or can resell for money.

Auburn University students 4,500 miles away rummage through piles of clothes at local thrift stores in search for a unique garment, an effort that many individuals across the country do to combat fast fashion.

The term fast fashion refers to the quick production of clothes in relation to the latest trends. Trends come and they go, and in recent years, the longevity of a trend dwindled. Social media pumps out trends and cultivates an environment for them to die within months.

Prominent companies such as ZARA, H&M, SHEIN, and Forever 21 take inspiration from the latest designs from runways or looks promoted by social media influencers. These brands and manufacturers exist with the goal to produce these designs and get them to consumers at the height of their popularity.

THE AUBURN UNIVERSITY FIGHT

Student Designer

Other brands, such as John Bownds’ Fatigued Garments, work to generate their own voice.

Auburn University apparel design student John Bownds began his upcycling business five years ago in Tuscon, Arizona, while visiting his mother.

“I mapped out all the thrift stores on my phone, and I would come home with sacks full of clothes on my handlebars,” said Bownds.

That same day, a man came up to him with the advice to sell those clothes online. Bownds then created the Instagram account that resides today with the handle @fatiguedgarments.

Inspired by designer Austin Babbitt, Bownds’ designs consist of patchwork on functional garments, an ode to the original intent of clothing: practicality. Bownds studied the history of clothing to further understand how companies originally produced their garments to understand the true purpose of garment design.

“If you date back to the 50s and 60s, the purpose of certain pants was just for industrial reasons, such as working in the mines, the fields, horseback riding,” continued Bownds. “So that’s why you have those types of pants with that type of stitching and quality construction.”

Carhartt garments (another inspiration for Bownds) date back to 1889, the time of “steel, steam, and locomotives.” The founder, Hamilton Carhartt, focused on market research after an initial period of failure and talked directly to railroad workers. The company then created the Carhartt bib overall, which came to be the blueprint for durable clothes worn in blue-collar jobs.

Garments created with a purpose contribute to the longevity of its use. Today, the majority of garments are not produced with the intention of lasting for a long time or with the intention of serving an industrial purpose.

Fast fashion rose when the demand for purposeful garments faded, and the demand for garments that aligned with the latest trends rose.

The term fast fashion first appeared in the early 1990s, when the New York Times described the new store, ZARA, in New York City. Founded in 1975, ZARA follows a business model that takes a garment from design to market in minimal time.

Brands similar to ZARA such as SHEIN and Forever 21 have rapid production cycles, where they can mass-produce garments in as little as two weeks. Comparatively, traditional brands take more than eight weeks to produce the same garment.

“Time is money,” according to Benjamin Franklin in his essay “Advice to a Young Tradesman,” but money also equates to quality.

“I wasn’t really happy with what I was receiving in terms of quality from these fast fashion brands who use child labor and unsustainable materials,” continued Bownds. “That’s not how clothing should be.”

The textbook definition of sustainability revolves around dealing with a resource in a way so that the resource does not deplete. In fashion, sustainability comes in many forms.

“If you’re into fast fashion, I would tell you be more sustainable and don’t shop at H&M,” continued Bownds. “Shop at second hand stores or something similar to Patagonia where they use more sustainable resources.”

For Bownds, sustainability lies in the design of his garments. He takes battered secondhand clothes that lack thread and transforms them into personalized garments.

Every month, Bownds hosts a pop-up shop for his designs. In the most recent pop-up, he brought an inventory of blank jackets and a collection of old scrap material from previous projects. The customers selected a jacket and various patterned scraps, and with a sewing machine on the go, Bownds crafted the jacket on the spot.

“I want to utilize all these extra materials, and I want to create something someone keeps in their closet forever,” said Bownds. “That’s what sustainability is to me.”

Student Model

Thrift stores call to the ones who lack the passion or craft for design but still want to practice sustainability. Luke Arborn, Auburn University student and professional model, sees the popularity of thrifting and how it plays an inspirational role in the industry.

Arborn serves as a director on the executive team of the Auburn University Modeling Board. The board’s fall semester fashion show, produced by Arborn, consisted of a self-style walk portion. Models strutted across the stage to showcase the outfits they crafted for the runway. Over half of the garments worn originated from thrift stores.

In the house section of the show, Arborn flaunted a long, thick, black coat that screamed expensive Vogue spy.

Arborn thrifted the vintage Russian coat for $8 at America’s Thrift in Opelika, Alabama. Each member of the board thrifts regularly, and the hunt for unique pieces allows them to push themselves in a creative and stylistic way that fast fashion will never provide.

“Anybody with style or a vision has the opportunity to take these clothes that somebody didn’t want and turn it into something where people turn to look at you and ask where you got it from,” said Arborn.

Not only do thrifted and sustainable garments appear on university runways, they also appear on high-fashion runways. Designers in the 2023 New York Fashion Week took inspiration from second hand material and incorporated sustainable practices into their collections.

Arborn walked for designer Mishka in New York Fashion Week and wore a cream silk vest made out of tablecloth.

“All of her garments were repurposed from existing material,” said Arbon. “Even the leather pants I wore, I remember her saying she got the material from a curtain.”

THE BIRMINGHAM FIGHT

Young Mila de Souza sat in her families catering company office and watched employees print paper after paper. When the thin white sheets lined with ink piled up in the trash like mountains, de Souza shivered. She shook off her dismay and scrounged up nearby cardboard boxes. With a stapler, de Souza attached green construction paper on the sides and called it the office recycling bin.

“When I look back at my life, it’s no surprise I ended up here,” said de Souza.

In December 2022, de Souza founded The Clothing Library, a high-quality sustainable rental business based in Birmingham, Alabama. The fire started young for de Souza, but the deep-rooted drive for sustainability ignited after she splurged on fast fashion clothing items herself.

“This is something that always hits me,” continued de Souza. “How can someone be paid properly?”

SHEIN workers in China frequently work up to 18 hours a day with no weekends and just one day off per month, according to Business Insider. The workers make less than four cents for every garment they make.

The recognition of the evil inside such a brightly promoted company urged de Souza to commit to the battle against fast fashion.

“I would say that was the point for me,” said de Souza. “For about five years now, I’ve only committed to buying second hand.”

When de Souza started reselling her clothes, she saw the issues with the reselling industry. Companies like Rent the Runway, another fashion rental source, still contribute non-sustainable practices to the industry such as shipping and dry cleaning every item, which shortens the lifetime of the garment at a high cost both economically and environmentally.

The Clothing Library uses eco-friendly washing methods and, since it remains a local business, does not contribute as much to environmental harm from shipping.

“Transparently, we’re bringing on a company to figure out the exact numbers for how much more sustainable [The Clothing Library] is and how we could be even more sustainable,” said de Souza.

At Duke University, de Souza created her own major called Intersectional Sustainability in the Fashion Industrial Complex. In more simple terms, de Souza studied how sustainable fashion affects society.

She took her expertise about sustainability and fashion from her time at Duke and built a company from the ground up with pride.

The Clothing Library curates a collection of stylish second-hand clothing from vendors for different sizes and occasions including formal wear, casual wear and activewear. Rental companies like Rent the Runway only include clothes that already exist, but The Clothing Library pushes for a future that includes their own line of upcycled garments.

“I have an opportunity to offer some really cool stuff, even if it’s just working with upcycling artists,” said de Souza. “It’s definitely a plan.”

Individuals from Auburn to Birmingham look to the textile mountain in front of them like the Atacama Desert region locals. They pick up the materials piece by piece, and they restore unrepeatable love into each garment.