Five Tips to Choose Sustainable Fashion

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Fast Fashion is the most popular trend in retail fashion today. Fast Fashion isn’t a specific style but rather clothing produced quickly and cheaply to respond instantly to consumer demand. Low prices and popular online retailers allow people to purchase clothing more often but at a devastating cost to the environment.

According to EarthDay.org, the fashion industry is one of the largest global polluters, creating 4% of all greenhouse gas emissions, 40 million tons of landfill waste and 35% of microplastics in the ocean.

According to fashion expert Jay Yoo, Ph.D., associate professor of apparel merchandising in the Robbins College of Health and Human Sciences at Baylor University, consumers are learning more about the environmental impacts of fashion and searching for better options.

Fashion expert Jay Yoo, Ph.D., associate professor of apparel merchandising in the Robbins College of Health and Human Sciences at Baylor University

Fashion expert Jay Yoo, Ph.D.

Yoo’s research shows that purchasing apparel products that help reduce negative impacts on the environment has emerged as a lifestyle.

“Fashion-conscious consumers are ready and willing to forgo fast fashion for more sustainable options produced in an ecologically and socially responsible way,” said Yoo.

Yoo recommends five ways you can use your purchasing power to support sustainable fashion.

• Choose natural fibers - organic cotton, linen or hemp.
• Avoid clothing that requires dry cleaning.
• Donate to and shop at resale stores.
• Purchase from retailers that are committed to sustainability.
• Encourage your friends to join you in supporting sustainable fashion.

Although fashion is often understood to center on apparel choices, fashion impacts nearly every aspect of human lives, Yoo said, including health, social responsibility and environmental issues involving consumptive behaviors. His additional research interests include appearance-related behaviors and their implications for individual and social well-being from consumer perspectives, from body-tanning behaviors, body image and quality of life among cancer patients, retail therapy and mental health, and irrational shopping and extreme body modification.