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Chapter 1: What should we consider for our summer wardrobe?
Now we are into the summer fashion season, aren't we?
So whether you're heading abroad on holidays or you're waiting for the heat to come here in Ireland, thoughts are turning towards our wardrobe. So what should we be wearing? Sustainable fashion expert and founder of So Sustainable, Miriam Keegan, is here now. Miriam, you're very welcome back to the programme. Summer's a funny one, isn't it?
We tend to drag out things that, you know, mightn't have seen the light of day for quite some time. But you say that's a good thing.
Yeah, absolutely. And I think I was in Ireland, especially dressed for the weather you want and not the weather you're getting, especially today. But yeah, I think, you know, summer wardrobes are exciting and they're creative, but they are based on trend cycles. And we see time and time again, denim shorts, khaki shorts, capris is the newest thing. Well, coming back anyway.
And we just need to be mindful of, you know, looking at trends versus maybe classic trends. pieces and focusing more so on keeping the good pieces that are, you know, going to stand the test of time.
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Chapter 2: How can we make sustainable choices in summer fashion?
And that includes whether you're going to buy new or buy secondhand. But just, yeah, kind of taking a step back and just shopping your wardrobe a little bit more.
OK, well, that's that's good advice, really. I mean, you're saying that the same trends are coming back all the time when it comes to summer wear. So buy something good and buy it once.
Yeah essentially because even when you know yeah it might be not as exciting or you might not get the endorphin of buying something brand new but even when you look at the cost of something so if you look at the it's two-folded so if you buy like say a 10 euro dress and you get you get to wear it once that's cost you 10 euro but if you bought a 90 euro dress let's say you had a wedding that's going to be talked about next and it's a summer dress and you're like I don't know I'm going to wear that for years to come I love the print and
And let's say it cost you, let's say, 90 euro. That's even being a bit generous. And you got, let's say, 10 to 20 wares out of it. That's going down to nine euro per ware or 450 per ware if you actually get the 20 wares out of it. But then looking at, I suppose, the more sustainability side of it and the human rights side of it.
The reality is that less than about 3%, it's a broad kind of fact, but about less than 3% goes to the people who actually made that garment. So if it was 100 euro of a dress, they got about 2 or 3 euro to make it. So, you know, we have to kind of take a step back sometimes and think, OK, just because I'm getting a bargain means someone else might be actually paying the price.
And just remind us how much, in terms of the amount of clothes that we have on this planet, they wouldn't just clothe all of us here right now, today or tomorrow.
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Chapter 3: What are the benefits of shopping our own wardrobes?
Give us that statistic.
Yeah, we have enough clothing on the planet to dress the next six generations. So we definitely don't need to be buying brand new.
We certainly do not. We certainly do not. So the first place we look is in our own wardrobes to see what we have from last year or the year before that will work this year. Now, if you bought a five euro T-shirt, the chances of it surviving for a couple of seasons are slim.
I would argue that point because... But you get suntan lotion on it.
Okay, fair, yeah.
But there is some amazing, like even content creators out there, you know, explaining how to actually clean your clothes properly. But also people complain about, you know, fast fashion being bad quality. I would say maybe the construction of it is not amazing, but actually the fabric most of the time is made from polyester and that is actually going to outlive us. Yeah.
Yeah, so depressing, I know. But polyester doesn't biodegrade. Well, it biodegrades after maybe 200 to 400 years. And it only became into existence in the 1920s, 1930s. So they can't even tell for certain how long it's actually going to take to biodegrade this. So that's a startling fact to remember, that most of our wardrobe is actually going to be there after we're gone.
So I just think it's so important that whatever we have, we share, we reuse. We also repair and, you know, learn how to upcycle something or even just, you know, pass it on to someone else who might be enjoying, who might enjoy this piece a bit more. You know, I'm all the time sharing my wardrobe with my mother, my friends, my cousins, everybody. And I just think that that's so important.
And it actually brings people together as well.
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Chapter 4: How does the cost-per-wear concept apply to sustainable fashion?
And unfortunately, you know, in Ireland, we might not see the effects of that. But the likes of the Atacama Desert in Chile or even Acre in Ghana, they have their beaches. Well, Atacama is a desert, but the Acre Beach is actually a 40 acre beach covered in clothes. because that's where the dead white man's clothes go.
Because people who are donating clothes that are just not resellable in charity shops, they go to the Global South and it's their problem then to sort it out. And then these people who buy the bales from these contractors of clothes to resell them, they realize that they're either like beyond repair or beyond there's too many stains and they just have to dump them. They don't have anything.
They don't have the infrastructure to actually recycle them. So it goes down to as well, just like looking at how do we actually really think about the full life cycle of our clothes going forward? Do we recycle them? Do we have the infrastructure to actually do that in Ireland first of all but even within Europe and that's a big topic now in the EU.
We were talking as well about that statistic that came out during the week that there's been a 200% increase in second hand clothes buying which on the surface of it looks really good but it does mean that we're all just still buying stuff.
Yeah I know. And we're all guilty of it.
We are.
Every one of us. And I think we have to just give ourselves a bit of grace. We're in a system that is completely rigged against us, you know, and as consumers, we're not given the tools to really navigate that space because all we think of is we're not good enough. So we therefore we need to keep buying more and look better in the next picture on Instagram.
And the reality is, is that we just need to like slow down and just be like, you know, really curate our own style and and yeah, just take it at an easier pace and give yourself some grace to just slow down and just.
Yeah, I think just pause before you buy. Absolutely. You mentioned endorphins earlier as well. You know, that little rush that you get when you buy something. And when people are going on holidays, I think that we all feel that fizz of excitement. And part of it is, oh, I'm going to get new clothes. whatever it is to wear the few bits to go on holidays.
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Chapter 5: What impact does fast fashion have on the environment?
mindfully looking after your clothes and taking a breath before you buy. Miriam, thank you so much. Thank you.
Miriam Keegan there, who is founder of So Sustainable.