Imagine a successful fashion brand that makes a hard stop, and then restarts all over again. And that is exactly what The Lots Ashleigh Battle did when she drew a line in the sand. Battle moved away from fast fashion to sustainability at the end of last year.
The fashion story shared with The Citizen in 2022 is now a far cry from her incredible fashion shape shift.
Fast fashion, with its rapid production cycles and low-cost trends, had grown into a colossal industry over recent years, said Battle. However, this growth came at a significant cost. Labour pay plummeted, product quality deteriorated, and environmental hazards skyrocketed in a vicious cycle of obsessive consumerism. While access to affordable trendy fashion was initially attractive to shoppers, the detrimental effects of this industry soon became apparent, she said.
Conscious fashion choicesFashionistas on social media have repeatedly posted images of the giant fast fashion dump in Chile, South America. There, previously donned but perhaps not forever loved, fashion went to die. Photographers and eco-conscious models and media have staged shoots and events at the tip to raise awareness of the damage that constantly disposed of garments can cause. It highlighted the all-round pollutive nature of it. Socially, with low wage sweatshops through to mountains of rotting fabrics.
Overproduction and waste have become scourges of the fashion industry. Currency, the equaliser in many ways.
