You’ve waited 4 months and spent £60 on a piece of Lyle and Scott knit. You’re feeling good, confident and looking cool. As you come out of the station you see the homeless guy wearing the same knit how do you feel?
You’d feel embarrassed and the item would be of less value to you. Right? Not to worry though you’re favourite brands are doing something about this. It was reported by the Evening Standard Lyle & Scott threatened to torch up to £1 million worth of unsold sweaters....but is this really the way to resolve issues of unsold stock when something positive could come out of excess supplies?
“Cynthia Magnus, a postgraduate student, stumbled upon cut-up clothes outside one of H&M's biggest outlets in Manhattan's Herald Square: slashed Puffa jackets and gloves with the fingers chopped off. Just 50 feet away, a homeless man slept on cardboard boxes.”
-Bonfire of the Fashion Vanities, The Evening Standard
The UK has a population of 58 million with more than 4 people per 1,000 estimated to be homeless. To retailers it is better to burn the clothes and damage the environment than donate and help 14.5 million homeless people. Does this seem like the right way of preserving a brand name?
Surely taking off the brand label and donating the clothes to shelters would be more appropriate. The material could go to organisations that make something new out of clothes like Traid.
The amount of energy used in burning clothes has a huge impact on the environment.
The manufacturing process uses a lot of energy through its use of polyester and other synthetic fabrics they require large amounts of crude oil which release emissions. They include explosive organic compounds, acid gases such as hydrogen chloride, which can cause or aggravate the respiratory system.
Is this the real price of our vanity?
Read the article and let us know what you think...
Bonfire of the Fashion Vanities
It’s time we stopped measuring ourselves against logos we wear and brands we buy.
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