Fast Fashion

On Friday, September 20th, 2019, the Woodstock Union High School and Middle School students went to workshops to educate themselves on issues of climate change.

One of the workshops was led by Ms. Fountain and Mrs. Hayslett, called “Fast Fashion.” It was all about clothes and fashion and how those industries make an impact on the environment. Willow Carr talked about what “fast fashion” was, saying that it was clothes made for mass production, and that most of the industries have bad working conditions. Lydia Howe said that the clothes are poorly made, wondering if it was on purpose, because when it rips, you have to go buy new clothes.

The students watched a video about the creation of clothes, and how they have an impact on the environment. The video stated that you could tell the color of next year’s fashion by looking at the rivers in China, and that the fashion industry is one of the most polluting in the world.

Students created a list of the things that went into making articles of clothing. This was the list that they created. “Materials - wool, cotton/plant based, leather, plastic/human made, metals, dyes, workers/labor, factories, machines, fuel/energy, transportation, stores.” The students then considered how all of those items have an impact on climate change.

The workshop participants then talked about how people get sucked into buying all these clothes. Students mainly discussed the media, models, and the popularity of clothes.

Finally, they looked at possible solutions. Students began talking about thrifting and the yellow clothes donation boxes. One student talked about how if you went to the thrift store more, then the big clothing companies would have to stop making so many clothes, because there wouldn’t be as many people buying them.

This workshop proved that fashion doesn’t have to be fast. Now, students will think twice before buying clothing from the big industries.