ISAIC Presentation Shares Cost of “Fast Fashion,” Tips for Reducing Clothing Waste – Oakland County Times

ISAIC Presentation Shares Cost of “Fast Fashion,” Tips for Reducing Clothing Waste

(Crystal A. Proxmire, Oct. 14, 2024)

Bloomfield Township, MI- Olivia Marshall is on a mission.  She’s bringing darning back.

Marshall is a Training Developer at Industrial Sewing and Innovation Center in Detroit (ISAIC), which is located in the Carhart building in Detroit.  Their goal is to “Change clothes. Change lives,” by “revolutionizing the textile and apparel industry through a human-centered approach to innovative manufacturing and training.”

One of the group’s passions is educating people on the dark side of fashion, and how their choices can make a difference.  Marshall was the featured speaker at a Bloomfield Township Library on Sept. 24, sharing a presentation compiled by Cassie Franklin on behalf of ISAIC.  The presentation is shared at libraries, schools, and other places throughout the Metro Detroit area to help raise awareness and fuel change.

THE DARK SIDE OF FAST FASHION

“It’s a pretty bleak outlook we have for sustainability,” Marshall said.  “We all know about global warming and industrialization, but in fashion it goes deeper. There is ‘fast fashion,’ which I call ‘trash fashion.”

She shared that over 80 billion pieces of new clothing are produced each year.  And 72% of that ends up in landfills.  Even when people donate to thrift shops, they don’t realize that much of that material ends up being sent to landfills both in the US and overseas, where mountains of unwanted shirts, shoes, dresses, pants and other fabric items surround the residents of third world nations.

Many items are made from synthetic fibers such as polyester.  “Polyester is basically the same kind of plastic water bottles are made out of,” she said.  “It takes 200 years for that discarded shirt to decompose.”

Yet the rate of production continues to rise, and the quality of clothing items continues to decline. “If you make clothes more likely to fall apart, people will throw them out and buy new ones,” Marshall said. There’s also a lot of pressure on consumers to always be updating their looks.  Every year new colors and trends drive people to purchase new items they otherwise may not need.

Some tricks of the trade include poor stitching and thinner fabrics that are prone to getting holes.  One attendee recalled that back in her youth “the quality of clothes was better, and more people sewed.  So much today is thrown away.”

In addition to the challenges of trash, clothing manufacturing takes up enormous amounts of water and can add to water pollution depending on production practices.

There are human costs as well.  In the 1980s, the majority of clothing manufacturing was moved to outside of the United States.  Workers are paid pennies on the dollar for their labor, and much of it is done by women and children.  Accusations of trafficking and sexual harassment are not uncommon and the working conditions can be terrible.

WHAT CAN MANUFACTURERS AND RESEARCHERS DO?

ISAIC looks at the clothing industry from multiple perspectives, including creating a work environment that is healthiest for workers.  Ergonomic seating helps protect the long-term health of the humans tasked with sewing for extended periods of time.  Production workflows are studied to minimize excess work, like walking or stretching unnecessarily, and to make sure that items move from one step to the next most efficiently.

They also study new technologies, like robotics and AI.  “This isn’t to take away jobs from humans, but to see how we can make humans jobs easier, to have a better quality of life,” Marshall said.

She explained that many people don’t realize how clothes are made, that human touch is needed.  “You can’t just program a robot to sew a shirt,” she said.  Even with a simple design, humans navigate the process much faster, and more instinctually, than robots are capable.

However, they can help in some ways.  For example, as part of their training programs ISIAC students learn to sew the Carhart logo onto beanies.  The logo is a simple square, but quality is a must, so AI technology is used to check the work, catching imperfections that need to be corrected.

ISAIC also looks at sustainability issues, including fabric recycling.  Marshall explained that having blended fabrics, which many items do, creates a challenge.  Cotton fibers can be separated, but polyester fibers are plastic that must be melted down. When the two are combined though, there is not yet a good method for separating them out.

It’s also hard to get the material looking good.  ISAIC tested out doing recycled T-shirts, but all too often an imperfection would create unwanted color specks, and in the end there was lots of waste.  The process is just too expensive and too imperfect at this time to really make a dent in reducing the amount of fashion trash.

Communicating with the industry about best practices and innovation is one of the ways ISAIC is working to make a difference. The other is educating the public about what they, as individuals, can do.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

Marshall’s presentation shared ways to shop more contentiously, as well as how to take care of the clothing so that it doesn’t wear out as quickly.

One tip was to chose garments made in countries with stricter environmental regulations and protections for employees, such as the United State, Canada, and countries in Europe.  These garments may cost more, but that cost is helping to pay the workers a living wage, and with some conditions to help protect the environment.

She said to look for quality stitching.  A standard good stitch has 12 stitches per inch, whereas some stores now have clothes with just five.   Another recommendation was to stick with organic fibers like cotton, linen, hemp, alpaca, and bamboo.

Marshall also urged people to consider clothing companies that work in smaller batches as opposed to larger scale.  Companies with large runs tend to make extra items that are just disposed of.

Taking care of the clothes you have can also make a difference in the world, and in one’s bank account.

Suggestions included learning proper stain removal techniques, such as that stains should always be blotted and not rubbed, and never to dry an item with a stain on it because that helps bake the stain in.

She also noted that every time an item is washed and/or dried it is working to break down the fabric. The lint that ends up in the drawer is mainly fabric strands pulled out of clothing.  “Every time you wash it, fibers are going down the drain,” Marshall said.

There are also a number of ways to repair damaged garments, including:

-darning

-patchwork

-decorative applique

-sashiko stitching

-iron on mending

-using dye to cover up stains or refresh looks

And if clothes are too far gone, rather than throwing them out, consider cutting them up to use for cleaning rags, or using the scraps of fabric to adorn other fashion creations.

There are many YouTube videos that explain these techniques.  So even a person does not know how to sew a button, they can learn.  “Don’t be afraid to try new things. Don’t be afraid to fail.  Seam rippers exist for a reason,” she said.

Repairing clothes can be done discretely, or it can turn into a hobby of creating one’s own fashion. “In the fashion industry, people want what no one else has,” Marshall said.

Being unique can also help bring more conversations, so that more people are mindful of the choices they make.  As one person in the audience said, “The more attention you can bring to it, the more we can create change.”

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