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14 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 1 MAY 2022 NEWS Thrifting your way out of fashion's planetary impact NICOLE MEILAK FAST fashion brands are on the rise, but a growing communi- ty of thrift shoppers, clothes swappers, and sustainability ac- tivists is offering an alternative paradigm for Malta's fashion scene. Fashion Revolution Week, a global campaign that brings together activists and fashion lovers to re-imagine a more sustainable fashion industry, is led by the organisation Fash- ion Revolution, which has local branches all over the world, in- cluding in Malta. Tamara Fenech set up the Maltese branch of Fashion Rev- olution in 2018. The group fo- cuses on mobilisation through the consumer side of the sup- ply chain. Instead of feeding the 'fast fashion' industry, the group promotes more sustaina- ble consumer choices like buy- ing clothes that last and repair- ing your own clothes instead of buying new pieces. "Sustainable fashion is mul- tifaceted," she said, explain- ing that being sustainable in your consumer choices doesn't have to break the bank either. "There's second-hand clothes, and you can repair your own clothes." To celebrate Fashion Revolu- tion Week, the group set up a repair shop stand at the Earth Day Green Fair in Manikata. Members set up an outdoor sewing station to repair dam- aged clothes for free, helping people prolong the lifespan of their clothes. Fenech explained that the event directly ties in with Fash- ion Revolution's Made to Last campaign, which promotes buying durable clothes with a long lifespan while giving new life to old clothes that are torn and need repairing. "Repairing is the first point of adding new life to your clothes. Instead of chucking your old clothes away because they've been torn you can fall back in love with them," she said. 'Fast fashion' refers to a busi- ness model employed by fash- ion companies to mass-produce catwalk trends with low-qual- ity materials and sell them at cheap prices. Brands like Zara, Primark, and more recently Shein are among the most pop- ular fast fashion retailers in the world today. But fast fashion comes at a higher price. Scandals have been emerging for decades on poor working conditions in the labour sweatshops used by these brands. In 1996 one American magazine published a photograph of a young Paki- stani boy sewing a Nike foot- ball together, leaving the sports brand plagued with sweatshop and child labour allegations. The industry also deals heavy environmental damage. The UNDP estimates that the amount of clothes produced annually has doubled since the early 2000s, with almost 100 billion pieces a year produced by 2014. A lot of the pieces end up in landfills as customers are constantly encouraged to buy more clothes to keep up with changing trends. In opposition to fast fashion, many girls over the world are instead adopting a 'slow fash- ion' approach to their ward- robe. Fenech said she's noticed a similar shift in Malta. "In the last few years, sec- ond-hand clothes have definite- ly picked up. There used to be a stigma around this, but it has definitely changed, especially among the younger genera- tion," she said. This shift comes with entre- preneurial opportunity. Franc- esca Falzon and Francesca Valletta set up their own thrift shop pop-up to resell their own clothes while raising money for animal charities. What started as a one-off event ended up be- ing a regular appointment, with their fifth pop-up scheduled for 8th and 9th July. "For me and Fran, sustaina- ble fashion is a topic that truly sparks an interest and is some- thing we really bonded over when we got to know each oth- er," Valletta recalled. Preparations for their thrift events start months in advance, when they begin promoting the event on social media. From there, the two start inviting lo- cal brands to sell their products at the event, while scheduling dates to receive clothing dona- tions. Malta's sustainable fashion movement is a small, thriving community of shoppers who recognise the impacts that 'fast' fashion's business model has on global social and environmental conditions