When Mark Twain stated that "clothes make the man," he meant to criticize a society he considered superficial, vapid and shallow. Yet almost a hundred years after his death, his statement holds even more weight and rings even more true now that fashion is a multimillion-dollar industry. Fashion is currently responsible for millions whose livelihood is directly dependent on it, a major player in both the economy and society and an key influence on the environment. From production, to transportation, to landfills, sky-high rates of carbon emission and inefficient consumption of energy, the textile industry has both a massive negative impact on our environment and huge potential to decrease its carbon footprint in it. In this paper I will dig into the role of the fashion/textile industry regarding climate change and the energy budget, the how's and whys of its energy use and most of all, the amazing innovations taking place in high fashion that still aren't accessible to the mass markets and their impact on the environment. .
Humanity has been involved with the production and consumption of textiles for a significant portion of their history, but it wasn't until the industrial revolution that it factored into society as a major industry. Historically, merchants used to travel with cloth to sell and mainly created clothing items through weaving, knitting and spinning. During this time period most individuals owned few and basic pieces of clothing that were durable, of high quality and often reusable. Owing more pieces of clothing was associated with the upper class that could afford superfluous clothing items. The Industrial Revolution proved to be a changing point in history when clothing manufactured in England accounted for 25% (Economy Watch)1 of the countries total export becoming a significant force of the economy. This period also proved extremely innovative with the appearance of new technology and machines that allowed the increase of speed and productivity of the clothing production.
