By Gray Moloy
Despite ‘sustainability’ becoming a growing buzzword in the fashion industry, several student initiatives at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) are looking to develop the term into something more genuine.
Today’s fashion industry is immersed in fast fashion practices, where quickly made, trending clothes are sold at low price points. As a result, many are left with low-quality clothing items which end up in landfills once the trends fade.
A 2023 study conducted by the University of Waterloo found that Canadians produce about a billion pounds of textile and fabric waste from fashion and home goods each year.
Fast fashion’s negative impact on the environment has drawn many people back into thrift stores, searching for better quality or more sustainable ways to shop. In the past few years, second-hand shopping has become more mainstream and ingrained in Gen Z culture.
TMU students have taken notice of the impact of fast fashion on climate change and are finding their own unique ways of reducing their carbon footprint.
“It’s all about the circle. The circular lifecycle of what you’re doing.”
Mirezh Sivathakaran, a second-year fashion student, said TMU’s fashion program educated him on what sustainability means—leading him and his friends to be more conscious about where they buy from.
“More information out there about why we should be thrifting for environmental reasons…would sway us towards making smarter decisions,” said Sivathakaran.
For Tomi Segun-Adebowale, a fourth-year fashion communications student, efforts towards sustainable fashion practices began with swapping clothes among friends.
“Gauging your impact as a student in sustainability doesn’t have to be a grand gesture,” she explained.
Segun-Adebowale is also the editor-in-chief of StyleCircle, a student fashion publication. She has been able to use her knowledge of fashion and sustainability to run events geared toward students.
“We thought a clothing swap is good because not only are we able to engage our community in one space, but we’re able to get them to be conscious [about their carbon footprint],” Segun-Adebowale said at StyleCircle’s second clothing swap event this school year.
As students seek out new pieces of clothing, they are able to exchange their old fashion items for a new second-hand piece.
Learning about many different sustainability practices in her fashion courses, Segun-Adebowale echoed the importance of the thought behind the design process.
“It’s all about the circle. The circular lifecycle of what you’re doing. Think about where you start and where you intend for it to end,” she explained. “If your clothing is not made of materials that can be repurposed or that can easily disintegrate, then you need to reconsider.”
Segun-Adebowale has noticed the youth’s shift to thrifting and shopping for second-hand clothes, though she said many have found thrifting increasingly expensive.
“Sustainability for us means educating our audience about what sustainability means”
First-year sociology student Abbigail Zimmer has found fast fashion to be more accessible as well as affordable.
“I just opt for fast fashion because it’s less time-consuming. There’s more duplicates of different things [and] sizes,” said Zimmer.
While Zimmer sees the environmental value in second-hand shopping, fast fashion’s convenience leads her to shop more often at partaking brands and stores.
“At a thrift store, it’s one of a kind—which is cool but I opt for fast fashion because it’s [easily accessible],” she said.
Clothing swaps often allow buyers to spend less money as Segun-Adebowale described the clothes as “currency.”
Shopping second-hand is not the only option for those who want to make more sustainable fashion choices. Many fashion brands now seek out more ethical textiles and materials as well as local manufacturing.
Toronto-based wholesale clothing manufacturer, Cyanic Clothing, believes fashion “is a powerful tool for social change.” Its founder and chief executive officer, Burch Smith, said the company tries to “ensure that the organizations that we are working with are upholding certain sustainability standards.”
Smith hopes for brands to start clearly defining what their sustainability practices entail.
“It’s so much of a buzzword now,” he said. “We can easily throw it out now. I think it’s important for us to really say what sustainability means for us individually.”
Within Cyanic Clothing, Smith has found that education is an important tool in their sustainability journey.
“Sustainability for us means educating our audience about what sustainability means,” he said. “So it’s not just preaching, buying clothing made in Canada or buying clothing that’s made from cotton, but it’s educating about what that means in general.”
“I just opt to fast fashion because it’s less time consuming. There’s more duplicates of different things [and] sizes”
Cyanic Clothing plans to host an event at TMU in the next school year to engage with students and inform their fashion consumption choices.
“[The event is] centered around students donating clothing and then we’re able to collect that clothing and then resell it back,” said Smith.
This campaign aims for students to donate their unwanted clothing and effectively keep more textiles and discarded fast fashion out of landfills.
Until then, Cyanic Clothing will continue to work with local organizations like Fashion Takes Action to raise funds to keep clothing out of landfills.
Students have been able to make small shifts in their fashion consumption that can indirectly promote sustainability—whether or not they mean to.
Second-year fashion student Kelly Ho enjoys the process of thrifting rather than the environmental aspect. “I think that a lot of people don’t do it for environmental reasons, including myself. I just enjoy going thrifting and finding pieces,” she said.
Although she understands that thrifting is better for the environment, it is not her sole motivation to switch to second-hand shopping.
“Going thrifting, in the back of my mind, [I know that] this is better than going to the mall and going to H&M or something,” Ho said.
With small consumption changes, students can take steps to be more sustainable in their fashion choices—even if they only do it to stay on trend.
Marion Moloy
Thank you for a very interesting article! I thoroughly enjoyed it. I thrift shop as well at 86!