While the fight against climate change can seem overwhelming, making a relatively small change in your life can have an effect. GCN speaks to people who give examples of achievable changes we can make in order to make our planet a better place. In this article, we talk about slow fashion.
Actress and activist Aoibhéann McCann is a big proponent of the slow fashion concept. She told us how to balance being a lover of style with responsibility for the planet.
“Slow fashion is the opposite of fast fashion and fast fashion is essentially high-street fashion. Recycling clothes is a really difficult thing to do. With the amount of clothes we have on the planet, we’re not really getting rid of them, they’re not disappearing into thin air.
“They get shipped off to other continents and ruin the local trade and industry there. We’re screwing with the world with the amount of clothes we don’t want after wearing them three times.
“We tend to buy clothes that for the most part are built to be worn only a few times. So buy something you love, that you will need, that will last for a long long time and that you won’t throw away. That doesn’t necessarily mean expensive clothes.
“For younger generations, it’s shifting the focus off ‘I’ve been photographed in this once and I am no longer able to wear it’. Buy one thing and really love it instead of 25 to 40 things in a year.
“Buy second hand. The system is built to make you want more, so it helps people scratch an itch. Charity shops and second-hand shops are the best.
“Go to sustainable fashion brands. Grown Clothing would be one of my favourites. Every time you buy a t-shirt they plant an Irish indigenous tree (Tree4tee).
“Altering clothes is another option. I paid €18 euro to have a €7 pair of jeans taken in, but that person got paid and I’ll wear the jeans until they absolutely fall off me.
“You have to keep in mind – that €3 euro t-shirt, it’s not organic cotton, it couldn’t be, and it’s probably poisoned some water system and it’s probably one of about a thousand t-shirts someone had to make who doesn’t have a good quality of life. And it’s not just affecting them, it’s affecting the environment they live in.”
You can learn more about how we can all make a difference at our event ‘Mayday: The Fight To Save Our World’. The event will be an evening of information, conversation and action – a collaboration between GCN and Extinction Rebellion Ireland will take place Project Arts Centre, Dublin on May 1.
Tickets for the event are available here.
Join us and @ExtinctRebelsIE at @projectarts Wednesday, May 1 for a discussion on the current #climateemergency and how we can all effect positive change. https://t.co/N5iAXAYsYf pic.twitter.com/kPhaJA8ckk
— Gay Community News (@GCNmag) April 25, 2019
This story originally appeared on GCN’s May 2019 issue. Read the full issue here.
© 2019 GCN (Gay Community News). All rights reserved.
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