Stop overproduction!
The market guides the consumer and encourages them to keep buying more and more. In fashion stores, the entire collection is thrown away monthly, or sometimes even biweekly, so that new clothes can always be found in it. This ensures that 85% of all textiles produced end up in landfill within a year.
Clothing is also not made to be worn for a long time: there is no attention to sustainability in production, because clothing is not intended to be worn more than once or twice. By offering this low quality to customers, the market automatically creates a new demand for more.
Companies and organizations that collect second-hand clothing and send it to African countries with good intentions see that clothing ending up unworn on gigantic mountains, because there is an overwhelming surplus. There are now so many clothes in the world that they can clothe the next six generations. Yet the fashion industry is running at full speed and continues to be driven by consumption.
Sales promotions not only encourage consumers to buy more, but also unreasonably overload the employees in the stores. In Belgium, companies are only allowed to hold similar promotions twice a year (in January and July). The fact that such a regulation does not exist in the Netherlands does not mean that it would not be better.
The continuous accessibility of shops also causes overconsumption. For store staff, the exorbitant opening hours not only lead to overload and irregular hours, but also to less bonding with colleagues, which discourages union formation.
Finally, we note that it is impossible to walk down the street or use the Internet without coming across fast fashion advertisements. This continuous overstimulation encourages overconsumption and, in addition, promotes purchasing addiction.
To end this overproduction, the following steps are therefore required:
- the abandonment of the short-term trend strategy,
- a guarantee of at least 2 years on sustainable clothing,
- a structural change in the production process to adapt supply to demand, instead of increasing demand by multiplying supply,
- an end to throwing away, burning or otherwise disposing of first-hand clothing that has not been sold,
- no more sales promotions,
- an end to excessive shopping nights and shopping Sundays,
- completely stopping advertisements for products that damage the climate.
1. Tell the truth!
The fast fashion industry is fighting to maintain its credibility by marketing itself as more sustainable than it actually is. We know that the companies often lie and cheat. There are no standards to regulate them.
We demand honesty and transparency throughout the entire production chain.
2. Stop overproduction!
Even thrift stores are overwhelmed with excess clothing. Full bags are thrown away every day because production is so high. Ultimately, all this clothing ends up in landfills, while depleting vast amounts of natural resources.
We demand an end to the overproduction of clothing and the constant creation of new trends that cause wasteful consumption.
3. Treat employees fairly!
Fast fashion is possible thanks to the cheap purchasing prices of products that are transported all over the world, because it is still possible to exploit workers abroad in industry and retail.
We demand fair wages, safe working conditions and humane employment conditions for all workers in both the production chain and the store.
4. Promote sustainable alternatives!
Many clothing stores collect clothes under the pretense that they’d be recycled. With the Guerrilla Fashion action, we hang secondhand clothing on the racks to give away to customers. Research shows that in the branches where we do this, those clothes end up in the trash.
We demand that clothing companies actively promote the wearing of secondhand clothing as well as other sustainable alternatives.