I can count my clothes

Why can't brands?

I used to feel that Fashion Week was the epitome of cool, and went to extreme lengths to attend events just to feel like I was part of it. Ok, maybe multiple overnight £3 megabuses to London in one weekend, when I couldn’t afford a hotel or time off work, wasn’t extreme, as much as it was kind of tragic in how desperate I was to get my foot in the door.

Now? It’s hard to stomach seeing the constant churn of collections and collaborations and parties with hardly a nod to sustainability, when no one can honestly still claim to be unaware of how urgently we need to get off this train. This season so far, with notable exceptions (like second-hand shows from eBay, Oxfam and Remake) the general feeling is that ‘we missed the moment’.

Alyssa Hardy

continues, “Much of it was beautiful, and some of it was even moving. But the question is: does it matter when the larger takeaway is to sell clothes within a deeply flawed system that prioritises overproduction and capital over everything?”

Amongst the meaningless recycled polyester dresses, the headlines keep coming. Just this week, new research from Greenpeace found that the burning of textile waste in Ghana’s Kantamanto Market, as a result of an influx of synthetic clothing from the Global North, has created toxic air pollution in the form of carcinogenic compounds.

One of the key interventions to this overproduction problem, together with strong extended producer responsibility legislation, is for brands to disclose their production volumes and commit to reducing them. But according to the What Fuels Fashion report, most big fashion brands (89%) do not disclose how many clothes they make annually, and less than 1% disclose a commitment to degrowth.

Here are a few examples of production volumes from a single year disclosed by 9 brands, together which could clothe more than 15% of the entire world’s population (well over 1 billion items).

Every product-making and selling business knows how many products it makes and sells. Any teenager working in retail knows that every product has an individual SKU. So why can’t brands just share their number?

To show how simple this disclosure really should be, The Or Foundation are asking folks to count the number of clothes in their wardrobe and share the message - I can count, why can’t you?

I decided to take it on and count my clothes. Which was tricky, logistically (sharing overstuffed storage space with my partner) and psychologically (an undeniable reminder that I have too much stuff, even after a recent clearout). The results are in, and including workout clothes and PJs but not including bags, scarves, underwear or socks, I have:

• 69 tops (including jumpers/cardigans)

• 29 bottoms (including skirts/shorts)

• 37 dresses (including jumpsuits/dungarees)

• 18 coats and jackets

• 15 pairs of shoes

• Total: 168

Over the years, I have regularly recommended doing a wardrobe audit in order to address overconsumption. Once we rediscover what we have, we can commit to buying less. But the larger purpose of this challenge is to ‘nominate’ brands who haven’t yet shared their number to do so before Black Friday (29th November 2024) as part of the Speak Volumes campaign.

I nominate three brands that perform relatively well on climate and decarbonisation, but without this crucial piece of data, accountability and impact is limited: H&M, Puma and Decathlon.

I have also signed onto this important letter that The OR Foundation have sent to 19 brands (Marks & Spencer, Next, Nike, Gap, Primark, George, F&F, H&M, Boohoo, TU, New Look, Authentic Brands Group (inc Reebok & Forever 21), PVH Corp. (inc Calvin Klein & Tommy Hilfiger), Gildan, Zara, Asos, Frasers Group (inc Slazenger & Everlast), Puma and Disney).

@jumanjoe

Here’s how you can get involved to contribute the goal of getting 100 brands, including at least one major brand, to disclose their production volumes before Black Friday.

1. Nominate a fashion brand using this simple #SpeaksVolume form.

2. Use your social media channels to share the campaign, making sure to tag the brands you nominate. Here’s a creative toolkit.

3. If you have connections to people at major brands, reach out to them, or connect them to speakvolumes@theor.org for a conversation. You could also use this email template. If you work for a brand of any size, why not bring this up with your sustainability team?

Let me know how you get on! And make sure to check out speakvolumes.org and @theorispresent for more information and FAQs. This op-ed by Liz Ricketts, The Or Foundation’s co-founder, is also an excellent call-to-arms.

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