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Editor's note (25 November): Black Friday deals will persuade millions of shoppers to part with their hard-earned cash this week. A look at what really prompts us to spend, spend, spend, from our archives.
Most people don't shop like Zina Kumok.

Before the 26-year-old Indianapolis-based communications professional buys anything she asks herself a series of questions, such as, "do I need the item?" and "will it be useful in the long run?"

Once quite the spendthrift, Kumok blew through her budget, buying items on sale that she didn't need and spending too much money dining out. While she didn't max out credit cards or bury herself in debt, Kumok was spending above her means.

Those little tags really do crazy things to people's minds.

She now has a list of products that she absolutely will not buy, including books, notebooks and office supplies - three things she doesn't need, but used to love to spend money on, to the detriment of her bank account.

A big part of the problem: impulsivity. When Kumok moved to London for a year, for instance, she bought every guidebook she could find, including specialised titles like a book lover's guide to London and obscure guides to specific areas of the city. She couldn't help herself.

"It's our brains," she said with a laugh. "It's so easy to spend $10 here and $20 there, but that adds up."

Kumok, who now runs a blog called Debt Free After Three, didn't read a single one of the guidebooks and had to pay $150 in extra baggage fees to bring them home.

Impulse spending is a big problem for many people. A 2012 Bank of Montreal survey, for instance, found that Canadians spend, on average, CAD $3,720 ($2,987) each year on impulse buys. A 2014 Creditcard.com survey found that 75% of Americans had made an impulse buy, with 10% of people spending more than $1,000 on a single item. A Nielsen study, conducted last year, found that impulsivity led 52% of people in Thailand, 48% of people in India and 44% of people in China to buy something they didn't need.
The scarcity impulse
Why are people so prone to making split-second money decisions, many of which are detrimental to their bank accounts? And how can you resist the urge?

Ryan Howell, an associate professor of psychology at San Francisco State University in California in the US, said the impulse to buy, in part, is a survival instinct. Back in our hunter and gatherer days, when people saw something they wanted, they'd grab it, even if they didn't need it, because it was likely they wouldn't come across that item again.

"If you see something that seems to be running in short supply, you're going to get it," Howell said.

These days, such scarcity isn't an issue - we can buy nearly anything we want if we have the means - but we often still approach life like our ancestors did, especially when it comes to a sale. When we see a 50% off clearance price tag, that scarcity impulse kicks into gear, Howell said. The feeling is, if we don't buy that item now, it's going to be gone forever - or at least at that good price.

There's another reason why people buy things on a whim: it makes them feel good. Scott Rick, an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Michigan in the US has found that the concept of retail therapy is a real thing. For some people, if they're feeling sad, shopping will make them happier because it restores some control in their lives.

It's making the choice to buy or not to buy that helps people feel more in control. However, the choices have to be somewhat difficult to make and the outcome must be pleasant. "Those are typically the kinds of choices that characterise a shopping trip," he said. "So retail therapy can be good in certain ways. We do get pleasure from consumption and my research suggests that it can help."

Of course, that kind of "therapy" can end up being a lot more expensive than other types of control-restoring activities. Re-arranging a bookshelf or sorting through clothes to give to charity can also make people feel better about their lives, Rick said.

Some research has also looked into how touch impacts our money decisions. In 2003, in the US, Illinois' state attorney general's office issued a statement around the Christmas holidays warning consumers to be careful about holding an object as it might encourage them to buy it. It might have been one of the odder public service announcements, but research indicates that touching an object increases feelings of ownership - and we don't like to lose things that we own, Rick said.

As soon as you feel something you become a "quasi-owner" of that item, he said. That's when loss aversion kicks in - a theory that people can't bear to lose money or goods - and it becomes difficult to let go, regardless of whether you need or can afford the item.

This partly explains why we simply must have that car we just took for a test drive or why losing a house to another bidder can be so devastating. Often, the moment we sit behind the wheel or walk through a place, we want it.

But, we don't immediately hand over our credit card in exchange for car keys because there's a lot more work that goes into purchasing a vehicle or a house than a video game or a pair of trousers. In the case of the former, there's a built-in time lag between when we want something and when we buy, Howell said. "It takes a lot of time and effort to think about a house and to pull the trigger," he said.

However, we still make bad decisions during bidding wars. It's surprisingly easy to drop an additional $5,000 on a house, even if it's over the price limit you had set. The worry? It's scarcity fear again. If we don't get this house, another one might not come along.

"There are a lot physiological variables that go into a bidding war," Howell said, including the fact that it is exhilarating and emotional to bid and win.
Resist the urge
Ultimately, our bad split-second money decisions come down to one thing: we don't take the time to think. If that bidding war was done over days or weeks, rather than minutes or hours, it's unlikely you'd keep hiking up the price of that house, Howell said.

Can you counteract your natural tendencies? With a bit of discipline, it's possible. Howell suggests waiting 24 hours before making any would-be impulse purchases, big or small. Of course, that means you need to recognise when you're being tempted. If you still want the item the next day, then buy it if you can afford it. But most likely you'll have forgotten about it or the intense must-have feelings will have dissipated.

Another trick: start monitoring your spending and pay with cash. If you are able to see just how much you're parting with, you are more likely to end up only buying the things you really want.

Purposely over-examining purchases and ruling out certain categories of items altogether has worked for Kumok. By running through her list of questions, she delays her purchasing decision and thinks hard about whether she needs an item. She buys almost no books these days and instead checks books out of the library, buying only tomes she really wants to own forever.

Of course, the urge to spend hasn't disappeared. Just a few weeks ago Kumok walked into a store and saw a box of chocolates with a yellow tag on it. She thought the tag meant it was a sale and the familiar "buy now" feeling came over her. When Kumok got closer, she saw that it wasn't a sale tag after all. Would she have bought the chocolates if they had been on sale? Probably, she said.

"Those little tags really do crazy things to people's minds," Kumok said.

To comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Capital, please head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter.

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Editor's note (25 November): Black Friday deals will persuade millions of shoppers to part with their hard-earned cash this week. A look at what really prompts us to spend, spend, spend, from our archives. Most people don't shop like Zina Kumok.

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Written by joshua becker ·

There is little disagreement that shopping comprises a significant portion of our lives. And to some extent, this is entirely expected-to live is to consume. However, in most developed nations, shopping has long since passed the role of necessity and has entered the realm of sport.

Our fascination with shopping and consumption has produced many harmful effects on our lives (debt, stress, and busyness). And yet, it continues. Unfortunately, to a degree that few us even realize.

Based on a variety of studies and research methods, here are 17 staggering statistics that articulate our current passion and obsession for shopping:

1. The average woman makes 301 trips to the store annually, spending close to 400 hours a year shopping. This amounts to 8.5 years spent shopping during a typical lifespan. ( NY Daily News)

2. Americans spend more on shoes, jewelry, and watches ($100 billion) than on higher education. ( Psychology Today)

3. Shopping malls outnumber high schools in America. ( Affluenza)

4. 33% of Americans shop online at least once per week. 69% shop online at least monthly. ( Mintel)

5. While 50% of online shoppers will increase the size of their orders just to hit the free shipping minimum. ( Mintel)

6. An estimated two-thirds of the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) comes from retail consumption. ( The Balance).

7. On average, an American between the ages of 18 and 65 has $4,717 of credit card debt. ( TIME)

8. 63% of Americans do not have enough savings to cover a $500 emergency. ( Forbes)

9. When asked about hobbies, girls (age 13-18) identified shopping as their favorite pastime. ( Adweek)

10. And 96% of adults and 95% of teens admit they participate in some form of retail therapy. ( Yahoo)

11. More than a third of adults and teens said shopping made them feel better than working out. ( Yahoo)

12. The average American throws away 65 pounds of clothing per year. ( Huffington Post)

13. The $8 billion home organization industry has more than doubled in size since the early 2000's-growing at a staggering rate of 10% each year. ( Uppercase)

14. Americans now spend more money on dining out than groceries. ( Fox News)

15. The average American women spends 190 hours each year shopping for clothes, shoes, or window shopping. That same survey found that these same women spend 95 hours shopping for food-this task occupies only half the time of shoe, clothes and window shopping. ( Forbes)

16. 50% of Americans will go shopping on Black Friday. ( Syracuse)

17. Worldwide, total retail sales were more than $22 trillion in 2014, according to a report from eMarketer.com. And total annual U.S. retail sales have increased an average of 4.5% between 1993 and 2015, according to the U.S. ( The Balance)

The numbers paint a jarring picture of excessive shopping and unnecessary consumption. This fascination with shopping might be okay if it was improving the happiness of our lives. But as most of us know, the happiness derived from accumulating material possessions doesn't last. We ought to be looking elsewhere.

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17 Staggering Statistics About Our Shopping Habits

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Written by joshua becker · There is little disagreement that shopping comprises a significant portion of our lives. And to some extent, this is entirely expected-to live is to consume. However, in most developed nations, shopping has long since passed the role of necessity and has entered the realm of sport.

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Hello My name is……..

Today I am going to talk about…..

Fast Fashion is a concept where you can buy cheap clothes but poor countries suffer because they have low wages and work in inhumane conditions.

Companies like H+M , Zara, Mango, Topshop, Nike and Primark practice Fast Fashion.

We will first take a look at…..

Secondly…..

Thirdly…..

And finally……

On the one hand…….

On the other hand……..

However…..

As a consequence……..

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When it comes to clothes these days, maybe you should ask: What's your waste size?

You know you have those clothes sitting in your closet: That shirt you spent less than $10 on because it looked cool for a second, or that skirt you only wore once before it went out of fashion.

Fashion cycles are moving faster than ever. A Quartz article in December revealed how fashion brands like Zara, Gap and Adidas are churning out new styles more frequently, a trend dubbed "fast fashion" by many in the industry. The clothes that are mass-produced also become more affordable, thus attracting consumers to buy more.

"It used to be four seasons in a year; now it may be up to 11 or 15 or more," says Tasha Lewis, a professor at Cornell University's Department of Fiber Science and Apparel Design.

The top fast fashion retailers grew 9.7 percent per year over the last five years, topping the 6.8 percent of growth of traditional apparel companies, according to financial holding company CIT.

Fashion is big business. Estimates vary, but one report puts the global industry at $1.2 trillion, with more than $250 billion spent in the U.S. alone. In 2014, the average household spent an average $1,786 on apparel and related services.

More styles mean more purchases - and that leads to more waste created. Journalist Elizabeth Cline writes in her book Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion that disposable clothing is damaging to the environment and the economy. We are more likely to dispose of cheaper, mass-produced fashion garments than pricier ones.

"We don't necessarily have the ability to handle the disposal," Lewis says. "The rate of disposal is not keeping up with the availability of places to put everything that we're getting rid of and that's the problem."

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, 15.1 million tons of textile waste was generated in 2013, of which 12.8 million tons were discarded.
How To Deal With All This Textile Waste?
One way developed nations get rid of their excess clothing is by donating it to developing nations. According to the United Nations, the United States is the biggest exporter of used clothes, and the top importing countries of used clothing are India, Russia and Pakistan.

But with the strong dollar and availability of cheap clothing from Asia, some are worried that demand for exports of secondhand clothing will decline - thus forcing developed nations to find new ways to deal with post-consumer textile waste.

Fast fashion and the disposable culture also hurt sorting companies that export second-hand clothing.

Adam Baruchowitz, founder of Wearable Collections in New York City, collects second-hand clothing and sells it to sorting companies. The companies then sort through the clothes, separating those that will be made into other low-grade fiber products and those that will be exported.
Do Retailers' Recycling Programs Encourage Consumerism?
Baruchowitz says the most valuable part of a sorting company's business is in selling reusable second-hand clothing. But if the quality is questionable, more of the garments collected might have to head to the shredding bin rather than the second-hand clothes market.

"It's very damaging to the environment, this fast fashion culture, and it also affects the secondhand market because these clothes aren't meant to be used for so long," he says. "I can't say for sure, but the secondhand H&Ms would probably be in less demand than a garment that was produced with more quality. I'm getting all this stuff from fast fashion and I'm hearing from clients that it's hurting them."

Several clothing retailers have announced take-back programs that collect used garments from customers to be recycled, sold or remade into other clothing. H&M, for example, has allowed customers to bring unwanted garments - which will be transformed to recycled textile fibers for new products - since 2013. The company aims to have "zero garments going to landfill." Patagonia also recycles and sells used Patagonia products in its stores.

It plays into the concept of extended producer responsibility, which means the manufacturer has to take into consideration the product's afterlife.

But does it actually encourage more consumerism? For many stores, customers can get store credit and vouchers for sending in used clothing.

"If you bring it back to the store and you see something new and you're going to give me a discount, I'm having a buying moment I may not have had before because you're having me back at your store. It's very smart in terms of business," Lewis says.
Grassroots Efforts To Counter Fast Fashion
The concept, however, might encourage a different type of thinking: If manufacturers have to think about how they're going to get the most out of the product after it has been worn, Lewis says, it might spur them to start designing products that can be taken apart easily, have better quality, or might be biodegradable, for example.

H&M introduced new garments made of recycled textile fibers two year ago.

A year ago, a few users began uploading YouTube videos of themselves exchanging clothes with friends. It was either that, or they were showcasing how they made new styles out of their old, scrappy clothes.

"Today is fashion revolution day and I decided to take part in this movement by making a 'Haulternative' video," says CutiePieMarza, a YouTuber from England, in her video. She was exchanging clothes with grav3yardgirl, a YouTuber from Texas.

"It's part haul, part swap ... she asked me about a month ago if I would be part of this awesome project," says grav3yardgirl in her video. "I think it's something mainly going on in the UK."

"Haulternative" is an alternative to the traditional "haul" videos, where users post videos of themselves parading their latest buys.

It was an activity that was part of the larger Fashion Revolution movement started in the United Kingdom that aimed to bring awareness to the source of our garments - as well as the waste created by our consumerist habits.

"It's an alternative haul. It's looking at how people can do a different kind of haul, how people can refresh their wardrobe without having to buy new clothes," says Carry Somers, co-founder of the movement. "It's encouraging people to be more conscious when they're shopping."

Instead of constantly buying new clothes, the movement suggested people buy from vintage stores, make new clothes out of old ones or just swap clothes. Fashion Revolution Week will take place April 18-24 and participants are encouraged to upload their "haulternative" videos this year as well.

Some companies are experimenting with new ideas. Rent The Runway, for example, rents out branded clothes to customers who pay a monthly fee. Those concerned about the mounting waste hopped onto an opposing concept: Instead of buying cheap clothes, invest in slightly costly clothes with good quality that might last you longer. The 30-year-sweatshirt by Tom Cridland is an example.

San Francisco was aware of this problem in 2002 - and pledged a goal of reaching zero waste by 2020 by encouraging the recycling of clothes, shoes and linen.

"I think for clothing, because we're a consumer culture, it's hard for me to say don't buy anything," Lewis says. "We can probably slow down how much we buy."

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What Happens When Fashion Becomes Fast, Disposable And Cheap?

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When it comes to clothes these days, maybe you should ask: What's your waste size? You know you have those clothes sitting in your closet: That shirt you spent less than $10 on because it looked cool for a second, or that skirt you only wore once before it went out of fashion.

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We love fashion, but we don’t want our clothes to come at the cost of people or our planet.

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Present simple - Habitudes/Veritès
I shop every month.
I buy clothes twice a year.

Présent Progressif - se passe en çe moment
Our consumption habits are causing a lot of problems in the world.

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Record yourself on the PADLET and explain the fashion industry today. Discuss the problems we face today. Give your opinion and organize your ideas using link words.

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If you're into "slow food" - the ethical response to "fast food" - you probably want to know how the animals were treated or whether pesticides were used on your vegetables. Now, the "slow fashion" movement is in the same spirit.

"It's about understanding the process or the origins of how things are made," says Soraya Darabi, co-founder of the clothing line Zady. "Where our products come from, how they're constructed and by whom. Slow fashion is really indicative of a movement of people who want to literally slow down."

This idea of slow fashion has been around for a long time. But over the past two years it has surged into a small-but-dedicated movement, partly inspired by the Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh. In 2013 some 2,000 people were making clothes - mostly for large, western brands - when the building they were working in collapsed. More than 1,100 people were killed.

Pietra Rivoli, a professor of finance and business at Georgetown University, says tragedies like the one in Bangladesh are a result of fast fashion: Consumers in the West buying lots of cheap clothes that are made in countries with little or no oversight of fire safety and fair labor.

"We talk about a race to the bottom in apparel production with production chasing the lowest costs," Rivoli says. "I think the bottom right now is in Bangladesh."

Rivoli is the author of The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy. She traced the origins of a T-shirt from Walgreens that cost $5.99.

"A lot of times there are demand surges from the West," Rivoli explains. "You know, 'We need more of those pink T-shirts by next week,' and these brands had never really thought about the fact that they might need to be monitoring for actual structural integrity of the buildings. That wasn't something that was really on their radar screen."

Supply chain integrity is important to Soraya Darabi and Maxine Bédat, the co-founders of Zady. They've come out with a new T-shirt that's an example of "slow fashion." It was made entirely in the U.S. by companies that Bédat says try to be eco- and labor friendly. The cotton is grown by the Texas Organic Cotton Marketing Cooperative.

"The fact that it's USDA. Organic is very meaningful to us because what that means is there is a government representative that's actually visiting these farms on an annual basis and they're checking to make sure these organic standards are being met," Bédat says.

Then the cotton goes to North Carolina where it's spun by a multigenerational family cooperative. "The actual sewers own part of the company," Bédat explains.

The T-shirts are also dyed in North Carolina by TS Designs.

"What we're doing is piecing together what is left of an industry that has totally been decimated," Bédat says.

Zady's T-shirt costs $36.

"It is a little bit of an upfront investment, but it's also, we believe, the way of the future - to own fewer but better things," says Darabi.

Like the Zady founders, Linda Greer likes the idea of slow fashion, but her definition is different. Greer is a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council. "It's intentional manufacturing with 'mindfulness' - to use current terms," she says.

Greer thinks the slow fashion movement should hold large retailers accountable for its manufacturing abroad. The NRDC has a program called Clean by Design that works with retailers and designers to "green the fashion supply chain."

Greer says 33 textile mills in China have adopted efficiency standards that have reduced pollution. These are mills that make clothes for Target, H&M and The Gap among others. But she says the apparel industry still has a very long way to go.

"The conundrum consumers face into trying to know where their clothing comes from is that even companies don't know where that clothing has come from," Greer says.

On a recent weekend, a line snaked around the Goodwill in Los Angeles for a vintage clothing sale. For these consumers slow fashion is recycling hats, dresses and purses that have some history.

"It was owned by someone living somewhere at some point and it already had a life and I'm here to give it maybe a second or third life," says shopper Jenny Rieu. Her Goodwill finds are unique and cheaper - not to mention friendlier to the environment.

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Slow Fashion Shows Consumers What It's Made Of

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If you're into "slow food" - the ethical response to "fast food" - you probably want to know how the animals were treated or whether pesticides were used on your vegetables. Now, the "slow fashion" movement is in the same spirit.

# data[].attributes.body
Look at the words below and comment on what they mean to you….
Talk about someone you know that might fit these sentences.

Shopaholic
Addicted to shopping
Always looking for bargains.   Must have the latest trends. Over consumption

Live for shopping
Fascinated by fashion,
make-up, technology
new i-phones
You can’t help yourself
You must buy it

# data[].attributes.body
1. What strikes you in the picture?

2. Describe it.

Colors- There are

Text – The text says…….which reminds me of……….

In the middle there is

3. What impact does it have on the viewer ?

4. The card, what does it remind you of ?

5. The « slogan » is what is written on the card, what does it mean to you ?

6, Imagine the shopping habits of the person that is showing the card.

7, What are the artist’s goals ?

The artists wants to …

8, What is your opinion ?

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Even before the tragedy in Bangladesh, pressure was growing on retailers to balance Americans' appetite for cheap clothes with the human costs of making them, the author Elizabeth Cline says.

# data[].attributes.headline
Undercover in Bangledesh clothing factories 

# data[].attributes.subject
Undercover in Bangledesh clothing factories 

# data[].attributes.body
fair trade
living wage
cheap clothes
domestically made
fast fashion
hooked on
unexpected consequences
missing connection
transparency
ethical fashion movement
small scale
vintage / thrift store
clothing swaps
sustainable fashion
organic cotton

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Voici un extrait d'une bande annonce d'un film documentaire intitulé "the true cost'". D'après cette bande annonce, nous pouvons comprendre que le thème du film est la mode, que ce film va parler des injustices et des problèmes liés à la fabrication de nos vêtements, aux conditions de travail et a la misère des employés des marques comme Nike ou H&M.
Cette bande annonce promet une atmosphère de film très engagé en faveur des employés des entreprises fabricantes de vêtements.
Des éléments frappants sont aussi montrés tels que des effondrements d'usines, des incendies ou même des fusillades par des militaires

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Arun Gupta says he was never much of a fashionista - just a guy who likes to dress sharp without going broke. That's how he came up with the idea of Grailed.com, a high-end consignment website.

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

But let's just say it hasn't been quite 30 years and you're over that jacket and want to try something else. Arun Gupta has an answer for that. His company grailed.com is a consignment website for high-end menswear. It allows fashionable men to buy and sell their clothes to each other. He joined us from New York, and I started by asking who he thinks is in that target audience.

ARUN GUPTA: You know, in the past five to 10 years, starting with the sort of metrosexual male movement, we've had this sort of resurgence of men's fashion. And I think that now it's becoming more mainstream and more sociably acceptable for men to care more about the clothes that they wear - you know, where they're made, how they look, how they fit. And I think that, you know, that's really what we tap into it is just sort of this, like, male fashion enthusiast community that is rapidly growing right now.

MARTIN: One of the reasons that we found this story interesting is that you remember at this year's Oscars, Chris Rock joked that the reason that men never get asked what their wearing is because men's fashion is boring.

(LAUGHTER)

GUPTA: You know, I think that's been true so far. You know, but I think right now it's happening that - it's just more exciting things are happening. Like, if you look at the number of new fashion designers that have come out in the last five years for men, like, the number is going. You talk about Haider Ackermann and John Elliott and just all these, like, sort of niche people who are getting, like, mainstream followings.

MARTIN: What do you think this site does that something like eBay doesn't do?

GUPTA: You know, eBay has been around for a long time. And because of that, they have a lot of positive connotations and a lot of negative connotations. And I think what we're trying to do with this site is say hey, you know, forget all the corporateness (ph) of it. Let's just do a curated community marketplace. And I think that what our site does specifically is reduce the cost that it takes to get into men's fashion. So if I'm a guy, you know, I have a regular job and I'm just, you know, saying oh hey, maybe I do want to get something from Balmain or, you know, one of these, like, luxury houses. I can't spend a thousand dollars on a pair of pants. That's just crazy. But what I can do is spend $300 on a pair of pants on, you know, grailed.com. And then let's say in a month I get these pants and, you know, they're not actually my style I, can resell them for $300 on grailed.com again. So it makes the risk for men to get in to men's fashion a lot lower than it used to be previously.

MARTIN: And when you say curated, does that mean you reject people's stuff from the Gap?

GUPTA: So we actually have a separate basic section. So we have two sections on the website...

MARTIN: Oh basic, excuse me.

(LAUGHTER)

GUPTA: Well, basics...

MARTIN: Excuse me...

GUPTA: ..You know, just like...

MARTIN: ...Basics.

GUPTA: ...Filler stuff, like, not everybody has - you know, you can't afford to have, you know, really expensive pieces for the entirety of your wardrobe. And everybody needs to fill out, you know, the t-shirts and the pants - you know, the everyday type of thing.

MARTIN: Well, why do you - what do you think it says that a site like this is successful at this particular point in our history? I was wondering if part of the reason that people are attracted to it is - in part it's environmental. I mean, people are becoming aware of the cost of throwing stuff out.

GUPTA: You know, that's a huge thing. I think that people are really starting to say, like, hey, let's not fill up landfills anymore, you know? Like, we're running out of space to put our garbage. Like, let's try to be more environmentally friendly.

MARTIN: I'm going to prove Chris Rock wrong. Arun, what are you wearing - or who are you wearing?

GUPTA: I'm actually wearing some Saint Laurent jeans. I'm wearing these made-in-Japan all-natural sneakers called Hender Schemes. And I'm wearing a Balmain t-shirt.

MARTIN: I don't even know what those things are (laughter). Tweet us a picture.

(LAUGHTER)

MARTIN: Tweet us a picture - @NPRMichel so we can see what you're wearing, even - especially your shoes.

GUPTA: Yeah, definitely.

MARTIN: Arun Gupta is the founder of grailed.com. It's a high-end men's consignment website. He joined us from New York. Thanks so much for joining us.

GUPTA: All right, thank you.

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Arun Gupta says he was never much of a fashionista - just a guy who likes to dress sharp without going broke. That's how he came up with the idea of Grailed.com, a high-end consignment website. MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: But let's just say it hasn't been quite 30 years and you're over that jacket and want to try something else.

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Fast Fashion’s Effect on People, The Planet, & You | Patrick Woodyard | TEDxUniversityofMississippi

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WATCH MARZIA'S VIDEO: http://bit.ly/1z1J9la NEW SWAMP FAMILY STORE- http://www.swampmerch.com http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=grav3yardgirl INSTAGRAM: http://instagram.com/grav3yardgirl GRAB THIS GATOR- http://bit.ly/1xM1InH WANNA SEND ME MAIL? SEND IT HERE!: GRAV3YARDGIRL PO BOX #2263 PEARLAND, TEXAS 77588 follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/grav3yardgirl LIKE ME ON FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/grav3yardgirl please check out MY ETSY PAGE!!: http://www.etsy.com/shop/enmortem?ref... please take a moment to subscribe!!

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Dianne Buckner reports on concerns over the environmental footprint of the fashion business.

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Summary - NY TIMES video - THE PRICE of FAST FASHION

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Summary - NY TIMES video - THE PRICE of FAST FASHION

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Have you ever thought about how you can improve your speaking performance?

My advice:

1. Practice

2. Record yourself, listen to yourself and think about what you could do better next time.

3. Have other people listen and give you feedback

4. Tell yourself you can do it

5. Try to overcome your fears of talking in front of others

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Exemples de phrases ou on exprime le but en anglais:

1. She stopped shopping at fast fashion stores in order to prevent underage workers from being exploited.
2. He changed his shopping habits so as to become a more conscious consumer.

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As/ since
As the fast fashion industry sells it's clothing very cheaply, the workers must also be inexpensive.
Because of
Because of his addiction to fashion, he had difficulties seeing that his habits were hurting the world.
That's why
She became educated about the world of fast fashion, that's why she changed her shopping habits.
As a result, Therefore
A high percentage of people buy their clothes in trendy, fast fashion shops, as a result, the industry is doing very well. Therefore, we will not see the industry making any changes unless we ask for more accountability from these big companies

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We must change our shopping habits if we want to live in a better world.
You should think about where your clothes come from.
You should try to buy secondhand clothing.

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We have done a lot of damage since shopping became a hobby
.
We have destroyed our waters.
We have let young children be exploited.
We have contributed to people living in poverty..

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When she got out of college and moved to New York, Elizabeth Cline liked to shop at vintage-clothing stores. They were the kinds of places tucked away on side streets in Manhattan and Brooklyn, where a lot of hunting and a little luck might reward you with a great, inexpensive cocktail dress that no one else had.

Then she discovered the world of "fast fashion" - chains like Forever 21, H&M and Zara - and it redefined her whole notion of bargain shopping.

"The products are very, very cheap," says Cline, author of Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion. "The design is pretty attractive. And if you walk into the store, I think, for a lot of consumers, it's virtually impossible to walk out empty-handed."

You see some products and it's just garbage. It's just crap, and you sort of fold it up and you think, yeah, you're going to wear it Saturday night to your party - and then it's literally going to fall apart.
'Selling An Ocean Of Clothing'
Over time, Cline had amassed 354 items of clothing, some of which she never wore. And such excesses aren't all that unusual, she notes. Chains like H&M are constantly turning over their merchandise, introducing ever-trendier clothing and feeding their customers' desire for novelty.

"We want to surprise the customers," says Margareta van den Bosch, the company's hugely influential style adviser. "We want to have something exciting. And if it's all the time hanging the same things there, it is not so exciting, I think."

Much of H&M's clothing is so inexpensive - a $10 leopard-print top or a $15 sweater, for example - that consumers can afford to buy it in quantities that wouldn't have begun to fit in our grandparents' armoires. It's so cheap that it isn't even worth returning if we get home and decide we don't like it, Cline says.

But despite the low prices, fast fashion chains can be enormously profitable. Sales at H&M's parent company rose by 11 percent in 2012. Its chairman and largest shareholder, Stefan Persson, is the 17th richest person on the planet, with a net worth of $26.3 billion, according to Bloomberg. Amancio Ortega, founder of Zara, another highly successful chain, is the third richest, worth $58.3 billion.

How can these stores make so much money selling $10 shirts? Mostly because of volume.

"A store like H&M produces hundreds of millions of garments per year," Cline says. "They put a small markup on the clothes and earn their profit out of selling an ocean of clothing." H&M has 2,800 stores in 48 markets and it's growing fast, especially in China and the United States, according to the company's website.

The success of chains like H&M and Forever 21 represents a paradigm shift in the retail world, one that has affected every corner of the industry.

In the 1960s, people generally bought their clothing from large retailers like department stores, which in turn bought from manufacturers. But in the 1970s, retailers began to manufacture clothing themselves, giving them direct control over the manufacturing and distribution process.

Among the pioneers of the change was Les Wexner, founder of the Ohio-based women's clothing chain The Limited, says Frank Bober, CEO of Stylesight, a company that helps retailers and designers spot trends.

"He was the guy that recognized that, 'Hey, I can do this myself. I can understand what my clients want, what my customer wants, and then I can go make that for them. I don't need to go to a bunch of manufacturers to do that,' " Bober says.
The End Of The Two-Season Shopping Calendar
Meanwhile, computer technology transformed the entire process, enabling retailers to design, manufacture and ship products much faster and more efficiently. At one time, the fashion industry worked around a two-season calendar that unfolded at a predictable pace.

"I remember my mother would take me shopping in August for the fall, and I would just be dying, putting on these itchy sweaters when it was 90 degrees outside," recalls Sharon Graubard, Stylesight's design director. "Nobody does that anymore."

A relentless drive for speed now characterizes the industry. Chains like Zara are so fast, they can design, manufacture and get clothing onto store shelves in a month. Customers can now easily see the latest fashions online and have become conditioned to expect a constant stream of trendy new styles from retailers.

This focus on speed has affected every kind of retailer, even those not generally considered fast fashion.

"What that has done is made the industry move faster and work faster and have to produce more product," says Ed Filipowski, president of KCD, a public relations firm that represents some of the biggest and best-known brands in fashion. "It's created a sort of year-round calendar for fashion as opposed to a biannual calendar for fashion. It's made our job a lot harder and it's made creativity a constant challenge."

But now that retailers have whetted customers' demand for novelty, they have to keep their products affordable - a big challenge. That means manufacturing in low-wage countries like China, but it also means using cheap, synthetic materials and rudimentary manufacturing processes.

The simple fact is that much fast fashion doesn't survive more than a few washings. Simon Collins, dean of fashion at Parsons The New School for Design, likes the way fast fashion has brought a level of style to the masses, but he laments how poorly made it can be.

"You see some products and it's just garbage. It's just crap," he says. "And you sort of fold it up and you think, yeah, you're going to wear it Saturday night to your party - and then it's literally going to fall apart."

Author Elizabeth Cline remembers buying a shirt at Old Navy, a chain she used to frequent. "I had this tank top that had two flowers, kind of like on the strap, and ... after I started writing the book, I just started looking at my clothes, and the flowers were actually affixed with some sort of tape. They weren't even sewn on."
'Landfill Fashion'
Poor quality has turned the fast fashion label into something of a pejorative, so much so that chains like Uniqlo and H&M now reject the term altogether.

And the chains have other image problems as well. Cline says there's a growing public consensus that the mass production of so much cheap clothing is an enormous waste of resources such as fuel and water. While many people donate their clothing to charities and consignment shops, fast fashion tends to be so cheaply made that no one wants to buy it, she notes. Instead, it gets recycled into industrial rags and insulation, or even thrown out altogether - generating the term "landfill fashion."

The fast fashion model may be cracking in other ways, too. Factory workers in China, where a lot of clothing is manufactured, are increasingly pressing for higher wages.

Companies have responded by moving production into places where wages are even lower, like Bangladesh. But such countries lack the sophisticated manufacturing infrastructure of China, and in the rush to fill the void, tragedy has sometimes ensued. A fire at a clothing factory on the outskirts of the capital, Dhaka, killed 112 people in November.

The industry will no doubt adapt over time, but the days when fashion gets faster and cheaper every year are probably at an end.

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In Trendy World Of Fast Fashion, Styles Aren't Made To Last

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Chains like H&M and Forever 21 turn out new styles so quickly that they've been dubbed "fast fashion" retailers. While the stores reap big profits, many say the business model has hidden costs, like encouraging poor labor practices and churning out cheaply made products that quickly end up in landfills.

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Create a Newscast about Fast Fashion and the Solutions

You will be 4 people in the group

Identify the roles of each person (reporters, experts)

How are you going to film your video (in different parts)

How are you going to put them together?

Write the script for each part

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STAFF line a wide aisle, cheering. Blue balloons bob in anticipation. Then the doors open and throngs of women rush in, clutching shopping bags to gather up their bounty-dresses, jumpers, shoes and other treasure. The scene, captured in a video of a store opening in France last year, is common for Primark-the company dubs such exuberance "Primania". The Irish retailer, owned by Associated British Foods (ABF), now sells more clothes than any other retailer in Britain. In 2006 Primark opened its first store in Spain. Since then it has marched steadily across the continent, establishing outposts in the Netherlands, Portugal, Germany, Belgium, Austria and France. Sales rose by 150% between 2009 and 2014, making Primark a new force in the global rag trade (see chart).

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Now the retailer is plotting its boldest invasion. On September 10th it will open its first shop in America, the world's biggest clothing market. Boston will be first to get a Primark, to be followed shortly by seven other sites in the north-east.

Triumph is not guaranteed. Primark may be the most successful brand Americans have never heard of, and changing that will take time. Nevertheless, ABF, which also sells sugar, tea and Ovaltine, has reason to be optimistic. For many shoppers, Primark has an irresistible offer: trendy clothes at astonishingly low prices. The result is a new and even faster kind of fast fashion, which encourages consumers to buy heaps of items, discard them after a few wears and then come back for another batch of new outfits.

Primark's rise comes at a tricky moment for some mainstream clothes firms, or "specialty-apparel" companies, as analysts call them. Famous American brands such as J.Crew and Abercrombie & Fitch have struggled. Gap, once the world's leading specialty-apparel company, has had a particularly rough patch. With its bland styles and frequent sales promotions, the company's Gap-branded chain has suffered an 8% fall in sales over the past decade, reckons Euromonitor, a data firm, even as the overall market has grown strongly. In June Gap said it would close one-quarter of its shops in North America.

As some clothing chains have suffered, the world's four largest brands have cemented their lead by pursuing different strategies. Two American retailers, T.J. Maxx and Ross, sell discounted items bearing designer labels, usually from previous seasons. Two European retailers, H&M and Zara, sell own-label clothes in the latest styles, constantly updating their ranges. Zara remains the leading innovator in fast fashion, introducing more than 18,000 designs each year and producing them within an average of three weeks.

Gap is trying to catch up. Its lower-price Old Navy chain, led by a veteran of H&M, is relatively nimble. For example, Old Navy chooses the same fabric for several styles of garment, monitors which styles sell best, then adjusts production accordingly. Art Peck, Gap's chief executive, is now using Old Navy's strategy as a template for the group's Gap and Banana Republic chains. Results will begin to appear next year.

By then Primark will be a more serious threat-and not just to Gap. Maureen Hinton of Conlumino, a retail consultant, argues that Primark has a winning combination: cool clothes, attractive stores and, most important, rock-bottom prices. In Britain, the average selling price of women's clothes at H&M was £10.69 ($16.37) for the year to May 10th, according to Sanford C. Bernstein, a research firm. At Primark, the average selling price was £3.87. For Asos, a young and hitherto vigorous online fashion retailer, such bargains are hard to match. The need to keep cutting prices and stay competitive has forced Asos to issue a series of profit warnings. And on September 2nd the British firm's founder and chief executive, Nick Robertson, resigned.

John Bason, ABF's finance director, says Primark achieves its low prices thanks to sleek logistics, a meagre marketing budget and its scale, which helps win bargains from suppliers. The company withstands tiny margins, making its money on volume. It has bet successfully that demand for clothes is as elastic as the waistband in a pair of plus-size sweatpants: the cheaper they are, the more shoppers buy of them. It is also benefiting from the "Instagram effect", in which fashion-conscious young consumers post snaps of themselves wearing another new outfit on social media.

"Consumers shop at Primark differently than they shop at a lot of retailers," says Bernstein's Jamie Merriman. "It's almost like shopping at a Costco,"-which sells buckets of peanuts and vats of detergent-"where you're thinking about it in terms of volume." H&M sells an annual average of £3,400-worth of clothes per square metre in Britain, according to Bernstein. Primark sells £5,300-worth.

There are a few threats to this model. Primark may find, as Tesco has recently done, that breaking into America is no walkover for foreign retailers. Two markets that appear so similar may prove to have unexpected differences. Indeed, Target, a once-soaring American retailer of clothes and other goods, has recently had to retreat from Canada on discovering that its formula just didn't fly north of the border.

Then again, Primark's ultra-cheap prices could prove as tempting in the United States as they are elsewhere. The same young Americans who have flocked to Forever 21, another seller of affordable, trendy gear, may now come rushing to Primark. An early sampling of Primark's American product line-up showed that goods were 22% cheaper than similar fare at Forever 21.

Another possible problem is Primark's online business, or lack of it. Its prices are too low to justify the shipping costs of e-commerce. If consumers in America and elsewhere switch in large numbers to buying clothes through, say, social networks and messaging services, Primark might get left behind.

Other concerns pose a challenge not just to Primark but to its peers too. A culture of disposable fashion rattles environmentalists. Americans threw away 11.1m tonnes of clothes and shoes in 2013. That amounts to 4.4% of the country's rubbish, more than twice the share in 1990. Just as worrying are the conditions in which cheap clothes are made. In 2013 more than 1,100 people were crushed when a factory complex collapsed in Bangladesh. The victims included workers stitching clothes for Primark. The company has paid $14m to victims' families. It is one of many firms to have signed an agreement to promote safety at textile factories.

The sad truth, however, is that most consumers soon forgot about the tragedy. In 2014, the year after the factory collapse, Primark's sales jumped by more than 20%. It will take some stopping.

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STAFF line a wide aisle, cheering. Blue balloons bob in anticipation. Then the doors open and throngs of women rush in, clutching shopping bags to gather up their bounty-dresses, jumpers, shoes and other treasure. The scene, captured in a video of a store opening in France last year, is common for Primark-the company dubs such exuberance "Primania".

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Self Assessment - Summary the fashion industry

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Some people buy expensive goods and gadgets just because it gives them a good feeling and makes them feel rich. People having low self esteem shop because it gives an impression that they are doing well in life. ... Thus, usually shopping fulfills a buyer's need.

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A boom in cheap fashion is coming.

And unless we change the way we produce and sell clothes, it's going to put massive strain on the environment and the people who make them. The conclusion comes from new research by McKinsey & Co., which looked at the way we currently consume fashion as well as the amplifying effect emerging markets could have as their growing middle classes buy more clothes.

McKinsey found that a culture of disposable fashion is proliferating in which retailers keep putting out greater volumes of inexpensive clothing. Consumers, attracted by the low cost and constant newness, are buying these clothes in greater quantities, and often wearing them only a handful of times before discarding them. This fast-fashion ecosystem uses large amounts of natural resources while producing carbon emissions that fuel climate change. It has also been linked to numerous cases of worker abuses in countries sewing the garments.

The report warns: "Without improvements in how clothing is made, these issues will grow proportionally as more clothes are produced."

In all likelihood, more clothes will be produced. Between 2000 and 2014, clothing production worldwide doubled, according to McKinsey, and the average number of collections produced by European apparel companies in a year rose from two to five between 2000 and 2011.

This clothing boom is set to continue as growing middle classes in populous developing economies spend their rising incomes on clothes. "In five large developing countries-Brazil, China, India, Mexico, and Russia-apparel sales grew eight times faster than in Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States," the report states. These consumers still buy a "fraction" of what shoppers in countries such as the US buy, but sales would still rise "significantly" if they continue buying more.

And it's only getting easier to do that. Clothing prices aren't keeping pace with other goods, meaning that, relatively speaking, clothes are getting cheaper. The number of garments the average consumer purchased each year rose by 60% between 2000 and 2014, McKinsey notes, and people are keeping clothing items for about half as long compared with 15 years ago, according to the report.

To make all this clothing requires land, water, and energy, and the impact doesn't end in producing the clothes since water and energy are used each time a garment is laundered. If 80% of emerging markets rose to Western levels of per capita consumption, the effect on the natural resources we use alone would be significant.

What's to be done? To offset this environmental impact "will likely require action across the industry," McKinsey states.

It suggests, for one, that the apparel industry develop standards and practices for garments to be recycled. Currently, it's extremely difficult to separate out fibers by type in fabrics made of blends, and mechanical methods of recycling cotton degrade its quality. McKinsey suggests more investment in chemical methods. (Textile technology company Evrnu and Levi's recently created a pair of jeans from mostly post-consumer cotton waste using Evrnu's chemical recycling method.)

It also recommends establishing higher labor and environmental standards, encouraging consumers to use low-impact methods to care for clothes, and investing in development of new fibers.

These are known problems, however. Organizations and individual brands are working on them, but their progress isn't always straightforward. H&M, which positions itself as a leader in sustainable fast fashion, is investing in programs to reduce its impact while cranking out huge volumes of new clothes. Like Zara's efforts, including its new sustainable collection, these actions do little to offset growing footprints. And these brands are hardly alone.

Clearly, something needs to change. Brands need to take responsibility, but so do consumers, or the cost of all that cheap clothing could be greater than we're all able to afford.

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The coming fast-fashion boom in the developing world spells big trouble for the environment

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A boom in cheap fashion is coming. And unless we change the way we produce and sell clothes, it's going to put massive strain on the environment and the people who make them.

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"It's not about perfection,
it's about making better choices."

Kathryn is the founder of goingzerowaste.com and author of 101 Ways to Go Zero Waste. She focuses on the health and wellness of self and the planet! Her positivity is infectious, inspiring you to make a change: big or small!

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Breaking zero waste living down into a simple step by step process with lots of positivity and love. You'll find zero waste recipes, DIY beauty and cleaning products, and tons of tips to help you live a more eco-friendly life.

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Eddie Vedder - Society - Into The Wild - HD 1080p - Soundtrack - lyrics

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Society Lyrics: Hmmm ooh hooo hooo / It's a mystery to me / We have a greed, with which we have agreed / You think you have to want more than you need / Until you have it all, you won't be free

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11 Alternatives To Fast-Fashion Brands That Are As Cool As Forever 21 And Zara

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Ethical alaternatives to fast fashion that are us cool as h&m and zara - Shop less, but better.

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I always cared about the environment, but as embarrassing as it may be to admit, for the longest time I had no idea what an impact my choice of clothing was having. Fast fashion, although I have always been aware of it, is a concept that I only learned more about rather recently. In the last few years, I traveled a lot and didn't really have a permanent home base. As such, the sustainability of my closet wasn't really at the forefront of my mind. During that time my closet was defined by practicality and weight as well as availability and price. Now that I have a permanent (as permanent as a rental can be) home, my closet needs have changed accordingly. Sustainability and saying no to fast fashion are now central aspects in my fashion and closet choices.

In this post, I want to help those of you who are also interested in making more sustainable choices when it comes to your wardrobe, but aren't sure where to start or what exactly fast fashion means and does to our environment. While I will talk a little about what the impacts of fast fashion are, the main focus of this post is to offer you some alternatives to lessen your impact.

What is fast fashion?

Merriam Webster defines fast fashion as "an approach to the design, creation, and marketing of clothing fashions that emphasizes making fashion trends quickly and cheaply available to consumers"

There used to be two seasons in fashion but now stores like Top Shop, Zara and Forever 21 are pumping out 11-15 collections every year. The idea is to constantly create new fashion trends to continuously offer consumers something new. The way these brands achieve this is by producing clothing items as cheaply as possible and focusing more on high-quantity rather than high-quality.

Production impact

In order to be able to produce clothing as cheaply as possible, these brands use countries with very low labor and environmental standards as their manufacturing countries. Often times the workers earn ridiculously low amounts and are exposed to dangerous working conditions. Not to mention the frequent use of child labor. In addition to the low manufacturing standards, fast fashion companies also use the cheapest materials available, which further increases the negative impact of fast fashion on the environment.

Disposal impact

These items are not meant to last. You purchase them for a specific purpose and wear them for a short time, then they go out of style, or fall apart and you replace them with something new. Needless to say, this sort of shopping behavior not only creates an overflow of clothing in our homes, but also in the trash can.

Most of us are aware of this problem and try to ease our mind by donating our unwanted items to thrift stores or charities. However, most of these items are made so cheaply, they are impossible to resell. The majority of items get downcycled to industrial rags or insulation material or go straight to the landfill or incineration. If they are in decent shape or of better quality, that doesn't really improve the situation much as these organizations are getting so flooded with unwanted clothing. The second hand clothing market is unable to cope with the quantity as there simply aren't enough buyers.

Now that you know some of the negative impacts of fast fashion, let's look at how you, as an individual, can join me and many others in saying no to fast fashion.

Reducing your wardrobe size

Most of us, including myself before I started travelling, have way more clothes than we use or need. Reducing your wardrobe size and maintaining a smaller wardrobe is a great place to start being more conscious about your fashion choices. Overconsumption is one of the biggest factors that drives fast fashion and that leads to the rapid depletion of natural resources. A smaller wardrobe is not only easier to manage, it also helps you define your personal style and makes it easier for you to decide what to wear. Needless to say, it also saves you money.

In an effort to achieve just that, I decided to start a capsule wardrobe experiment. When doing a capsule wardrobe, you essentially create and maintain a wardrobe of a set amount of items (25 in my case) for a season. During that time you don't shop for new clothing or change your wardrobe. At the end of the period you create a new one for the next season, which may include some shopping.

If you don't want to go that far, you could start by simply decluttering your wardrobe. Then, try setting yourself a certain time in which you will fashion fast (not buy any clothes) or give yourself a limit on the number of items you buy in a given time (such as 3 months). All these little things can help increase your awareness and make you think twice about buying that new dress you don't even need.

Second hand shopping

Second hand shopping is a great way to remove yourself as a fashion consumer. By buying clothes second hand instead of new you help decrease the amount of clothing that goes into the trash. Moreover, you can save money and find some awesome unique pieces in the process.

There are also great alternative methods of shopping that are completely free such as swap parties where you can bring your unwanted clothes and swap it with other people for their unwanted clothes or facebook groups in which people give away their unwanted clothes for free.

Slow fashion

If you do want to get new clothing, that is totally okay too. It is possible to buy brand new clothing while still saying no to fast fashion. Quality over quantity is the important factor. You should opt for clothing that will last you a long time and that has been manufactured in a more sustainable manner. This concept is also known as slow fashion, which is basically the opposite of fast fashion

The idea of slow fashion was originally inspired by the slow-food movement in the 80's. The concept is about reliability, quality and transparency. Slow fashion brands often support small business as well as small scale production. They leverage artisan skills and quality in order to produce garments that are made to last. You can read more about the value of slow fashion here.

Understandably, slow fashion comes with a higher price tag. Those of us that are used to shopping low quality in retailers like H&M and Forever 21, may at first feel reluctant to pay the price for sustainable fashion. The important thing here is to keep in mind that the idea isn't just to switch all your fast fashion to slow fashion items. The goals is to change the way you think about your clothing. Instead of buying a new outfit for every party, get one dress that you love that you can wear in many different combinations. In this way, choosing to say no to fast fashion can even save you money.

What to look for on a label

When you go into a store to purchase a new piece of clothing there are some things you can look out for that will help you make a more sustainable choice. First and foremost it is always a good idea to research the brand. Most brands have websites on which they talk about their CSR policies as well as any sustainability efforts. If you are already in the store, here are some things to look at:

Fabrics

Certain fabrics have a much higher impact on the environment than others. When I look at a piece of clothing one of the first things I do is look at the tag on the inside to see what fabric it is made of. Here are some fabrics to avoid and some you can feel better about buying.

Avoid

Polyester (sheds microfibers into water)

Acrylic (toxic to produce)

Viscose rayon (or any combination of these names) (while made from tree it requires a toxic production process to produce it)

Non-organic cotton (heavy use of pesticides and herbicides that damage the environment)

Leather (is an animal product and also often undergoes a toxic tanning process).

Opt for

If you have to buy polyester, look for polyester made of recycled plastic

Tencel (a viscose rayon alternative made in a closed-loop process)

Silk (however: most of the time not vegan as silk worms die in the process)

Hemp

Linen

Wool (be aware: sheep are sometimes not treated very well, this varies from brand to brand)

Vegetable tanned leather (still an animal product, but has a non-toxic tanning process)

Innovative sustainable fabrics (such as Piñatex, CRAiLAR or Qmilch)

Certifications

Another good thing to look for are any certifications the brand has. This information you would usually find on the sales tag. The Ecolabel Index is a handy directory of labels, where you can find a list of many different certifications and labels and what they mean.

A few that are good to know or look out for are Oeko-Tex, GOTS and Forest Stewardship Council. You can never go wrong with those. Another great label to look for on clothing is the Fair Trade label. This label tells you that textile workers and manufacturing workers were fairly paid for their work.

I hope this post helps make it easier to purchase more sustainable clothing. If I left anything out or there is anything else you would like to know, feel free to comment below and I'll get back to you.

If you like this post, don't forget to pin it!

Other posts like this one:

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Saying No to Fast Fashion - Alternatives for a Sustainable Wardrobe

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I always cared about the environment, but as embarrassing as it may be to admit, for the longest time I had no idea what an impact my choice of clothing was having. Fast fashion, although I have always been aware of it, is a concept that I only learned more about rather recently.

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When I decided to quit buying fast fashion, I got a lot of questions.

"If you aren't going to shop at stores like H&M and Forever 21 anymore, what are you going to do? Buy a $100 shirt once or twice a season?"

Honestly, I don't know. I'm not a social activist, a humanitarian or the most environmentally conscious person on the planet. I'm not even quitting because I don't like the clothes.

To tell you the truth, I don't mind the thin, translucent fabric or the sweaters that ball up after a few washes.

But I decided to quit buying fast fashion because now that I know the truth about it, I can't go back.

Considering the ethics

To those who are less materialistic, it might sound trite. But to those of us who have spent almost every weekend scouring the racks of ultra-trendy stores since we had our own babysitting money to spend, fast fashion is a big deal.

It allows me to stay stylish on a budget, and I like the creative process of putting outfits together, or testing trends without spending all of my money in one place.

Forever 21 has been my favorite store since I was 13. I discovered it on a summer trip to Denver for my cousin's wedding, and I remember counting down the days when I heard it was coming to my hometown a few years later. I've shopped there religiously ever since.

But my perspective started to shift one night in a Pittsburgh parking lot.

Today, as a society, we purchase 400 percent more clothes than we did just two decades ago, and fashion is one of the most polluting industries in the world.

It was about midnight, and my friend Katie and I had met up earlier that day for a weekend of shopping and exploring the city.

For some reason, while Katie ran into CVS to grab a toothbrush, I sat in the car, rummaging through my Forever 21 bag (a frequent post-shopping ritual) when I noticed a Bible verse on the bottom of the bag: John 3:16.

As a good Christian college grad, I knew the verse. But I didn't know why it was on the bottom of my bag. So like any good college grad, I turned to Google.

Apparently, the religious founder of Forever 21, Do Won Chang, told CNN in 2012 that he put Bible verses on the bags because he "hoped others would learn of God's love."

A noble idea, indeed. But it got me wondering about Forever 21's ethics.

Of course, I had the vague suspicion that fast fashion was shady. After the sweatshop debacle with brands like Nike in the 90s, many of us kind of know that people in a Third World country somewhere might be underpaid to make our clothes.

But I figured that people more powerful than me were already doing something about that. Who knows? Maybe even Forever 21 was doing something.

So I let it go that night. But the idea haunted me whenever I went shopping for the next few weeks, and when I watched the documentary True Cost, it only got worse.

I chose True Cost by chance. I was looking for something new to watch on Netflix, and the cover looked interesting-three well-dressed young adults with empty shopping bags over their heads like a poor attempt at hide-and-seek.

As soon as the narrator spoke, I was hooked.

"This is a story about clothing. It's about the clothes we wear, the people who make these clothes and the impact that it's having on our world. It's a story about greed and fear. Power and poverty."

LA filmmaker Andrew Morgan made the documentary, and it's easy to follow because he doesn't have a background in fashion. He simply explores honest questions about how our clothes are made from the perspective of the average consumer.

As Morgan goes from country to country, industry to industry, he discovers that fast fashion is destroying our world at every point of its lifecycle-from the farms where genetically modified cotton is grown, to the textile factories where women are enslaved overseas, to the greed-inducing stores in our own country and the dumps heaping with toxic clothes.

When you see it all yourself, it changes everything.

Suddenly, fashion isn't this nebulous Third World problem. It's a problem for all of us, everywhere, from the slums of the poorest countries to our own crowded closets.

Today, as a society, we purchase 400 percent more clothes than we did just two decades ago, and fashion is one of the most polluting industries in the world.

Now, I'm an engaged citizen. I keep up with the news, and I know enough about big oil to list it among the top pollutants in the world.

But as someone who buys fast fashion all the time, I've heard so little about this industry's issues until now.

Why have I been shopping at these stores every weekend, thinking cheap clothes are a good bargain? And why are stores like Forever 21 slapping Bible verses on some of the most destructive practices in the world?

As consumers, we're safely separated from how our clothes are made, and that's part of the problem.

It's easy for fashion tycoons to hide their dirty secrets because people like me don't have to hear them, and quite frankly, we don't want to.

Shopping is an escape industry. We flock to the pop music and fluorescent lights to celebrate a promotion or to get over a bad breakup. We don't go there to confront a global crisis.

But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that's exactly what I wanted to do.

Fashion is something I use to express myself, and when something is wrong with it, I want to express that, too.

When I did some digging online to see how I could help reverse the effects of fast fashion, I found several resources on the True Cost website and another site for a movement called Fashion Revolution that started in the UK.

The bloggers and speakers on these sites helped me feel like I wasn't alone in my desire to change, and their words were truly inspiring.

But the more I searched, the more I noticed that many of the people talking about the dark side of fast fashion right now are celebrities, nonprofit owners and people who seem like they were born to be ultra-conscious fair trade shoppers.

I didn't see a lot of fast fashion shoppers like me who want to be better, but also don't see how being an ethical consumer fits into our budget and lifestyle.

When you're a fast fashion shopper, being an ethical consumer seems like one of those lofty goals in your dream life-the one where you wake up at dawn to do yoga and keep your plants alive for more than a week.

I consider my friends and I to be "good people," and we've shopped at these stores for 13 years now without having a single conversation about the ethics of it.

So I decided to quit buying fast fashion because I think these issues need to come up in our conversations more often.

We need more fast fashion shoppers talking about what stores like H&M, Forever 21, Zara and even Target are selling us. And we need more practical examples of what trying to be an ethical consumer looks like when you can't afford designer brands.

There's got to be a way to dress fashionably on a budget without contributing to waste, destruction and abuse in the world, and I want to find out what it is.

I don't expect my little boycott to change the world. That's going to take serious effort from thousands of people in many parts of society.

But as a consumer in a capitalist economy, I can't ignore the limited power that I have. Fashion is something I use to express myself, and when something is wrong with it, I want to express that, too.

I may not have all the answers. But that's OK. I don't think we need all the answers to get started. We just need the conviction that something is wrong.

And then we can start with the questions.

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When I decided to quit buying fast fashion, I got a lot of questions. "If you aren't going to shop at stores like H&M and Forever 21 anymore, what are you going to do? Buy a $100 shirt once or twice a season?" Honestly, I don't know.

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Haulternative • Fashion Revolution Week (w/ Marzia)

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You must include :

1. Introduce the topic of fast fashion, statistics about the way we shop.

2. Talk about the problems it has created, give concrete examples of the problems (tragedies, child workers, environmental disasters, economic disasters, low wages, etc. etc.)

3. Explain at least 4 different solutions , How can we stop shopping at fast fashion stores? What can we do differently?

4. Report on a “haulternative clothes swap” what is it? Maybe interview people that have done it or create your own.

5. Conclude