By, Maizatul Akhmar
It all started with a conversation about our baju raya.
Just a week after the celebration, my friends and I were still having fun sharing about our Eid celebration. We shared about everything—how much money packets we received, what we ate during the celebration and our Eid outfits. That is when I noticed something interesting. A lot of my friends mentioned that they chose to borrow accessories such as jewellery from each other instead of buying a new one. I had also borrowed my mom’s batik to wear during Eid, mainly because I did not want to spend a lot of money on a new outfit.
What seemed like a budget friendly choice suddenly made me rethink about our relationship with clothing slowly started to change, how we are learning to be stylish without being wasteful.
Rethinking Fashion
Every time we talk about fashion, a lot of people like to use the term ‘fast fashion’ to either describe the current fashion trend or just to sound cooler around their peers. But we rarely pause for a minute to really understand what it really meant. According to Alyssa Hardy in an article that she wrote for Vogue, fast fashion refers to, “quickly produced trends sold at low price points” (see: https://www.vogue.com/article/what-is-fast-fashion).
Fast fashion does sound good for the economy at first glance. It encourages people to buy more clothes to follow the latest trends. Some people believe that the more they spend, the more they are helping with economic growth. Although this sounds good in theory, it is not good enough to erase the fact that fast fashion is one of the biggest enemies to the environment.
According to Earth.org, the fashion industry is responsible for around 10 percent of global carbon emissions, even more than all international flights and shipping combined. To make things worse, that is not even counting the water waste, chemical pollution, and labour issues that come with the mass production of clothing.
Fashion with Limits: What Sustainability Means for Students
While some students prefer one shopping method over others, some people are more comfortable choosing middle ground. Four of my friends, Firzanah, Dhuha, Mirza, and Zahra shared that they enjoyed both buying new clothes and thrifting, depending on what they were looking for. They usually choose to shop for new clothes if they want to find something basic such as slack pants. But when they intended to find statement pieces to elevate their outfit, they prefered thrifting as their primary choice.
Zakirah on the other hand, said that she does not like thrifting at all. She finds the idea of wearing strangers’ second-hand clothes uncomfortable and she also expressed her worry about their cleanliness. Instead, she prefers to shop online or borrow her sisters’ clothes that she finds more comfortable and more personal to do.
Interestingly, only some of my friends are familiar with the term ‘fast-fashion.’ Dhuha and Mirza recognized the term immediately when mentioned and both of them agreed that it is a problem, especially when it often involves poor quality production. But Zahra and Firzanah were not familiar with the term however, they still expressed their concern about the quality of the clothes that they own when explained about what fast fashion is, showing people can still feel the effects without really needing to know what fast fashion is.
All of them said they love inheriting clothes from their mothers. “They are just beautiful,” one of them said, smiling. Whether it is a kebaya, batik, or just a simple blouse, these hand-me-downs carry not just style but sentimental values too.
But when it comes to shopping sustainably in general, everyone admitted that they were facing the same issue: a small budget. As students, they are not willing to pay more just because it is sustainable. It is not like they do not care about the environment, it is because it is not realistic for their purses. Instead, they shared some tricks to stay fashionable by buying clothes that are timeless and versatile so that they can wear them in different ways and they can last beyond a short period of time.
Wearing Our Values
My friends remind me that everyone has his or her own preference with fashion. Some of us thrift, some prefer new clothes, and some do a mixture of both. Choosing any of these means that becoming fashionable is not impermissible, rather I believe that comfort matters most.
Though, I am also still figuring out myself. I did not borrow my mom’s batik with the intention of being sustainable, either way I just wanted to save money. But looking back, that simple decision helped me realize that sustainability can begin with small and thoughtful decisions. Rashmila Maiti had written on the detriments of fast fashion, which we must be cautious about (see: https://earth.org/fast-fashions-detrimental-effect-on-the-environment/).
In the end, I am not perfect and I do not think anyone is when it comes to ethical fashion. But becoming more aware of the impact of my choices, even in small ways like thrifting or wearing what I already own, feels like a step in the right direction.***
