We Need To Talk About Fashion Gluttony
People of faith need to talk more about sustainability.
The price of looking good is too high — literally and figuratively.
Beyond the long-standing challenges in the fashion industry around sustainability and fair labour, new global tariffs imposed by Trump have disrupted brands across the spectrum — from household names to smaller, independent labels.
As companies scramble to navigate these shifts, an important question re-emerges: just how ethical — or even practical — are our current fashion models? Why do we shop the way we do? Why are there so many brands out there?
For we who view the world through a lens of faith, the questions cut deeper.
Are we over identifying with what we own to validate who we are? Have we overlooked the spiritual side of sustainable shopping?
Let’s be real. Deciding what to wear is hard enough without the added weight of eco-consciousness and morality behind every fit. But ignoring both of those things has left the planet in a volatile state.
God created the earth and we were given a responsibility to look after it. In recent years we’ve done more to exploit it than we have to care for it and the fashion industry plays a big role in that conversation.
Shopping sustainably is always suggested as a solution to the problem, but simply “shopping sustainably” is not as simple as it sounds. There are a lot of reasons why not all brands are sustainable (yet) and even more reasons why not everyone can or will shop sustainably.
Does this sound familiar?
You’re trying to shop more sustainably, you start browsing the “conscious” or “eco” range at your favourite high street store.
It’s going well — until you look a little closer at the label on that recycled shirt: 30% recycled plastic, 50% viscose, 20% acrylic.
No biggie. You move to certified sustainable brands instead — the PANGAIAs and TALAs of the world. Great, if athleisure is your vibe. But you’re not wearing that every day, and you probably need more than two outfits.
Next stop: Depop and Vinted. They have you covered for most pieces. But Corteiz are dropping their new Air Max 95 collab — and you’re trying to be the first, not the last to cop.
And what about those new faith-based brands coming up that you like? Brands like Not Yet Home or Agios. Most of them are in their infancy and don’t have the funds to control their supply chain to make it sustainable yet — they need higher revenue to grow into a company that can be sustainable. Alternatively, they can drive up their prices to cover the cost of sustainable production, but realistically — in this economy — that would slow down the rate of consumption, potentially resulting in mean slow to no growth.
The system is broken and trying to fix it in one shopping trip can all be too much. So we slowly go back to our old spending habits. Which was way less anxiety-inducing.
Fashion is more than just clothes on our bodies; it’s an expression of our identity and our values. If our values are based in biblical beliefs, then we have to think about more than just stereotypical sin and wrong-doing. We have a duty of care to look after the earth we live on and the people that live on it.
The truth is, we’ve become so detached from the effects of our consumption habits that we don’t think the issue is as severe as it is.
Remember those videos of piles of clothes washed up on beaches in Ghana? Or the fire that destroyed the livelihood of so many in Kantamanto Market, one of the world’s largest second-hand markets? If you don’t, that only further proves the point.
Shopping sustainably is a daisy-chain of choices that are out of our control. Plastic clothes outlive us. Cotton ones use too much water. Sustainable clothes are often too expensive to make up the majority of our wardrobe.
But placing full responsibility on consumers for the state of the fashion industry is futile. Real change at the industry level will have the most profound impact on the issues we face.
Companies have to be serious and intentional about their sustainability efforts, but that’s not an easy transition given our current consumer habits. Change also needs to take place at the cultural level.
We Need to Consume Less.
Buying less and buying better allows us to make choices that align with our deeper values, we can shift the demand signals companies respond to.
By slowing our rate of consumption, we reduce overproduction — meaning fewer clothes entering the market, and fewer that need to be resold, recycled, or (most often) landfilled.
We can still shop our favourite brands, without missing out on latest drops, and still take part in the growing circular fashion economy.
For that shift to take root two things need to happen:
Believe in your personal style — sorry kids, style doesn’t just mean buying whatever is new, real style means knowing how to work what you already own, extending the lifetime of the clothes in our wardrobe.
Get comfortable with lack — fashion is important and it says a lot about us, but thankfully our identity is rooted in something deeper than our outside appearance. Going without may be the best way for us to increase our sustainable habits and to align our consumption with our values.