'Textile zombie' v fossil fashion: the battle to clean up the clothing industry in 2023

There was a huge rise this year in hyperfast fashion, with its huge carbon footprint and terrible waste. But from jeans grown in Lancashire to the popularising of repairs, it's not all bad newsThe year 2023 has been one of hyper-fast fashion, extreme price tags (both high and low), and toxic spills of polyester clothing. It was the year the zombie in the room - the sheer volume of clothing we are producing and buying - took on a life of its own.The connection between fossil fuels and the synthetics in our clothes really hit home. "Fossil fashion is at the core of many of fast fashion's worst problems: cheap materials, over-reliance on synthetics, a spiralling waste crisis and spiking emissions," said Fossil Fuel Fashion, a new organisation that launched at New York Climate Week in September, bringing together a coalition of organisations aiming to phase fossil fuels out from the industry. Continue reading...