Beech Tree News Network

There’s a movement afoot to slow down fast fashion.  Fast fashion is the industry that uses cheap, usually man-made textiles, to produce designer knockoffs that are here today, gone tomorrow.  The Slow Fashion Caucus, led by Chellie Pingree, congresswoman from Maine, is a congressional effort to rein in Fast Fashion pollution—textile wastes in landfills.

On her website, Pingree.house.gov, Pingree says, “It doesn’t have to be this way.  As lawmakers, we can create incentives for the apparel industry and consumers to reduce natural resource consumption and engage in reusing, repairing, re-wearing and recycling textiles.’’   She goes on to accuse the fashion industry of making more clothing than can be worn.  The short-lived garments end up in landfills.  

People like Pingree are concerned about man-made textiles ending up in landfills, because of what these materials are made of.  Man-made fibers are made from polymers that are manufactured from mostly petroleum or natural gas (sciencedirect.com).  They believe the breakdown of these man-made textiles is akin to the same kinds of greenhouse gases that are produced by gasoline and diesel fuel use.

We were ahead of the curve, when I was growing up, because we reused, repaired, re-wore and recycled most clothing out of necessity.  We wore hand-me-downs from cousins and siblings.  If something was torn, it was sewed back together.  If a button popped off, it was put back on.  Clothing that was unsalvageable was turned into rags used to clean the house, check oil in the car, or wipe sweat from your face in the tobacco patch.  We didn’t have paper towels or Clorox Wipes.  Even today, it’s really hard for me to throw clothing away.  It pretty much has to be threadbare to be discarded in my house.

The other thing that happened back in the day is that people used old clothing to make quilts.  Many quilts today are made from new materials.  Yes, they are both beautiful and useful, and like any work of art, they are labor intensive, but they are not made of necessity.  They will, however, be passed down to subsequent generations to be reused.

In modern times, we think we have the market cornered on new ways to do old things, like this reuse old clothing push.  A couple of weeks ago, when I was reading the book of Jeremiah, I came upon a tidbit of information that I had never noticed before.  It took place during the story of Jeremiah in the cistern.  Jeremiah, like many prophets of old, fell out of favor with the King of Israel.  As punishment, he was lowered into a cistern, where he found himself knee-deep in mud.  One of the king’s servants interceded on Jeremiah’s behalf and got permission to rescue him from the cistern.  

This is the part I’d never seen before.  The servant went into a space beneath the storeroom in the king’s palace and gathered up “worn-out clothes and worn-out rags” (Jeremiah 38:11).  The servant did this so he could throw the rags down to Jeremiah in order for Jeremiah to place them between his arms and the ropes, so he wouldn’t get rope burn when they were pulling him out of the cistern.  The book of Jeremiah was written somewhere between 630 and 580 BC.  Slow Fashion is nothing new.

Garey wants everybody to know that he is doing his part on the reuse, re-wear front of the Slow Fashion movement.  If you don’t believe it, take a tour of his closet and tee shirt drawers—they are a virtual time capsule.