Then there’s the scale on which things are produced. In a globalised society, the world is smaller and materials cross the oceans from one corner to another before they even end up in store. “Offshoring has created this fractured supply chain where we don’t know how our clothes are made,” she explains. “And it’s not just as consumers that we don’t know how our clothes are made, it’s the companies too. Whenever they get into trouble, their answer is simply: ‘We had no idea that our contractor had subcontracted to that factory.’ Which is ridiculous. In the modern age with all the technology we have, you can’t hide behind ‘I had no idea.’”
Beyond the sheer speed, volume and scale of the fast fashion industry, it becomes a mentality question. We are consumers living in the epoch of social media and influencer culture, where relentless advertising and promotions constantly urge us to buy more. We wear something seven times before throwing it away, and for Thomas, our attitude to clothing has been ingrained in us through the current business model. “We are conditioned to treat clothes like this because of fast fashion’s marketing of fashion to us,” she theorises. “It’s cheap, it’s disposable, and we burn through it. It’s changed our perception of our wardrobes.”
So, what does this constant cycle of buying and discarding mean for our planet? “It’s a flawed idea that we can keep pumping out clothes at this humungous rate and think that we are just going to keep absorbing them somehow,” Thomas explains. “We’re going to have to come up with a plan B, because there is going to be a point where we’re drowning in clothes. We already are. But we’re going to really be drowning in clothes.”
If fashion, people and planet are to ever peacefully coexist, it’s going to require a huge shift in mindset and a redefinition of values. “We need to rethink what is considered success, beauty, and growth,” she summarises. “Saying you’re the biggest company, you own the most or you have the highest turnover is not necessarily a sign of success. And there’s nothing beautiful about having a disregard for the entire supply chain, the people on the supply chain and the Earth that has given us all this bounty. We have to rethink what success and beauty mean for fashion, in the parameters of ethics, responsibility and consciousness.”
“And when it comes to growth, as David Attenborough said, ‘you can’t have infinite growth on a finite planet. From the minute we’re born, you and I grow in size. We get taller and taller and taller. And then there’s a moment where we stop growing. We even shrink a bit, later on. But we stop growing, we hit our height about 17 or 18 years old. Now if we were a fashion company, would we keep growing and growing and growing until we were all giants? And then more. Right? Through to the moon. That’s completely ridiculous.”
“What we do instead is that we reach out maturity point in growing vertically, and then we grow in other ways. We mature, we grow intellectually, we grow grey; we grow in all these different ways but it’s still growth. It’s horizontal, it’s intellectual… it’s evolution and companies need to do that. There is a point when they have reached their vertical height and they must evolve in smarter ways, taking what they are doing and doing it more efficiently, more ethically, more beautifully.”