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Jakarta Post

As sustainable fashion awareness grows, clothes swapping thrives

Take your pick: People look through second-hand clothes at a clothing swap event at CoHaus, North Grogol, South Jakarta, on Saturday morning

The Jakarta Post
Jakarta
Mon, May 6, 2019

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As sustainable fashion awareness grows, clothes swapping thrives

T

ake your pick: People look through second-hand clothes at a clothing swap event at CoHaus, North Grogol, South Jakarta, on Saturday morning. With greater awareness about the importance of sustainable fashion, clothing swap events are thriving.(JP/Dames Alexander Sinaga)

For many, fast fashion is a temptation hard to resist without realizing the real cost of the industry.

Fast fashion is low-cost clothing produced massively and rapidly by retailers in response to up-to-date trends.

However, concerns have been raised over the negative impacts of fast fashion on the environment and society, such as water pollution, consumer disposal behavior as well as labor issues like overworked, underpaid workers and poor working conditions.

According to the Copenhagen Fashion Summit, the global fashion industry contributes 92 million tons of solid waste to landfills every year.

Meanwhile, the World Bank’s 2017 statistics showed that the textile industry produced about 20 percent of the world’s industrial water pollution.

Realizing the ugly cost of fast fashion, more social movements have emerged to promote fashion sustainability, such as clothes swapping.

On Saturday, at least hundred of people, mostly women, crowded a clothes swap event held at CoHaus coworking space in South Jakarta. Visitors could be seen choosing from piles of used clothes, which were curated by Zerowaste.id.

The clothes swapping event was intended to help people who want new clothes without buying them while also clearing up storage space and being less wasteful.

One of the attendees, Fransiska Dimitri, 25, from Bintaro, South Jakarta, had learned about the event on social media and decided to bring four articles of clothing to swap at the event.

“[This] is great fun. All the items are in good quality,” Fransiska told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

Although she took along four pieces of clothing, she only swapped three as one piece was rejected by the curator for having a small tear in it.

Having attended such event for the first time, Fransiska believed that clothes ping would help reduce the negative impacts of fast fashion.

Another attendee, 33-year-old fashion designer Ayu Dila, had been to similar events before and this time, brought articles of clothing with her.

Fashion Revolution Indonesia held a similar event in February.

“I only swapped two, because I think they are the best items,” Ayu told the Post.

She donated her remaining pieces to the organizer.

According to Zerowaste.id spokeswoman Amanda Zahra Marsono, people are still hesitant about wearing secondhand clothes mainly due to hygiene concerns. However, she ensured that the organizers checked the cleanliness of every article of clothing before they are displayed.

“We want the public to feel comfortable about clothes swapping,” Amanda said.

The demand for used clothing in Indonesia is high, she claimed.

“We have received requests to conduct similar events in Batam [Riau Islands] and Bandung [West Java],” Amanda said, adding that financial restrictions prevented the organizer from expanding to outside Jakarta.

The event was conducted in collaboration with Sadari Sedari, a youth movement focused on reducing fashion waste by selling used clothing and giving the profits to educational charities across Indonesia.

“Together we want to reduce textile waste,” said Sadari Sedari founder Nabilah Kushaflyski.

She added that any profit made from the event would be distributed to orphanages.

“It’s time for us to move toward sustainable fashion,” she said. (das)

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