Cotton: case study in misinformation

Sifting fake news from reality in the social media age is a challenge for us all. Misinformation, untruths and conspiracy theories spreading through social media are disrupting society as we’ve seen in the US election, vaccine roll-outs and the war in Ukraine.

Sorting facts from gossip and innuendo was traditionally the role of journalists but erosion of conventional news outlets means journalists are thin on the ground and being substituted by spin doctors, social media influencers and activists.

I’ve always wondered about figures attributing large amounts of water and chemicals to the production of cotton, and my scientific training made me wary of sharing these in my slow clothing advocacy work. I know the Australian industry has introduced water efficiency measures and some regions grow dryland (non-irrigated) cotton. Additionally, Australian growers use integrated pest management along with seed that has been genetically modified to resist insect attack.

The fashion industry is full of misinformation. People are fed the latest trends and treated like mushrooms, there’s endless greenwashing and a lack of transparency exacerbated by data kept behind paywalls. There’s even a ratings systems which ranks synthetic fibres like polyester that sheds microplastic particles as being more sustainable than natural fibres. How can that be? Polyester is plastic. It might use less water that cotton but is created from fossil fuel and its full polluting impact needs to be factored in.

It is helpful to see a new report Cotton: a case study in misinformation developed by the Transformers Foundation which represent the denim supply chain with the stated goal to help suppliers share their expertise and opinion on industry threats and solutions, brands and retailers to transform their jeans from a commodity into unique and valuable fashion, and consumers to choose the most environmentally-sound denim products and avoid greenwashing. You can download the report at this link https://www.transformersfoundation.org/cotton-report-2021 or read some direct quotes below.

“Fashion has a major misinformation problem. Half-truths, out-of-date information and shocking statistics stripped of context are widely circulated, from the notion that fashion is the second-most polluting industry to the idea that cotton is thirsty or that it consumes 25 percent of the world’s insecticides. While there have been attempts to debunk fashion misinformation, we have not taken the problem seriously enough. Fashion misinformation is part of the same society-wide information disorder destabilising democracies and undermining public trust.

“This report aims to take a new approach, using the cotton industry as a lens through which to tackle misinformation. Most of the common claims about the cotton industry are inaccurate or highly misleading (from the idea that cotton is water-thirsty to the notion that it takes 20,000 litres of water to make a T-shirt and a pair of jeans). It is an ideal place to begin to unpack how misinformation operates.

“Fashion misinformation is complicit in the same systems of misinformation breaking down public trust in our institutions and our trust in one another. Misinformation’s impacts are becoming more catastrophic, linked to public inaction around climate change, the questioning of the 2020 US election results, the rise of authoritarianism, and the threat to democracy worldwide. Sharing half-truths about how much water cotton consumes or the fashion industry pollutes might seem innocent by comparison, but it is all part of the same information disorder with troubling shared consequences.

“The stakes couldn’t be higher. The $2.5 trillion fashion industry’s environmental impact grows every year, with only a temporary slowdown during the pandemic. It is crucial for industries and society to understand the best available data and context on the environmental, social and economic impact of different fibres and systems within fashion, so that best practices can be developed and implemented, industries can make informed choices, and farmers and other suppliers and makers can be rewarded for and incentivised to operate using more responsible practices that drive more positive impacts.”

“Digital tools and social media networks make it possible to instantaneously share information that can quickly travel across the Internet. Social media and more precisely the amplification of fake news stories on social networks are picked up and released through mainstream media. This pipeline has overpowered newspapers as a main way that new stories are discovered, and much of this information is moving too quickly to be vetted. Exaggerated claims and sensationalism (and algorithms that prioritise them) drive more likes, garner more followers, and reward users for spreading misinformation. But it’s not just social media that’s to blame.

“Misinformation is also spread by private actors, namely companies who use deceptive marketing to describe their products or services as more sustainable than the competition or compared to an earlier iteration of their own business. This is known as greenwashing, and it’s a massive problem in fashion. In 2020, the European Commission analyzed 344 consumer product claims made online about sustainability, a quarter of which were made about clothing, fabric, and shoes. Almost half of all claims analyzed were flagged as possibly deceptive.”

The report indicates fashion as an industry has not been taken seriously and does not have independent or non-corporate groups scrutinising and analysing the sector. It has historically been dominated by creatives, and needs to build technical and scientific expertise.

In the end, there is no single definitive figure for water usage due to the wide range of growing countries and situations. This comment, from page 72 of the report, explains the place of water in our ecosystem: Water is borrowed from the global water cycle. It can be moved, polluted, change forms, or returned from where it came, but it can’t be ‘used up.’

The key to sustainability is wearing clothes until they wear out. When we extend the life of our clothes, we minimize the impact of the original inputs used to produce them.

Jane Milburn awarded OAM

Since 2012, Jane Milburn has advocated for living simply through sustainable everyday practices with a particular focus on how we choose, care for and dispose of clothing, and a decade on has been awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia for service to fashion sustainability.

Jane Milburn, OAM, recognised for slow clothing advocacy. Photo by Robin McConchie

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Slow Clothing culture

Slow Clothing is the antithesis of fast fashion. It is a way of thinking about, choosing, and wearing clothes so they bring value, meaning and joy to every day. We have finite resources on Earth and careful use of those resources is required to sustain our individual and collective future. Slow Clothing is a holistic approach to dressing that enables self-empowerment and individual actions to enjoy clothes while minimising our material footprint. It manifests through ten simple actions and choices—think, natural, quality, local, few, care, make, revive, adapt and salvage. This post is an extract from Jane Milburn’s 2017 book Slow Clothing: finding meaning in what we wear.

Dressing is an everyday practice that defines and reflects our values. We are naturally attached to clothes on a physical, emotional, even spiritual level. We are particular about what we wear because we want to look good, feel comfortable, reflect an image and belong. Yet almost all our garments are now designed for us and we choose from ready-made options based on our age and stage of life, work, status and spending capacity. Unless we deliberately choose to step off the fast-fashion treadmill, we are trapped in a vortex with little thought beyond the next new outfit—without consideration for how we can engage our own creative expression, energy and skills.

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On the Textile Beat enews

Our enews update, On the Textile Beat November 2021, includes this graphic, below, summarising circular textile approaches: practical, mechanical, chemical, microbial and by design which I shared at a recent Circular Economy Futures event in Brisbane.

Everyone can enact the practical approach through everyday actions and choices as per the Slow Clothing Manifesto: think, natural, quality, local, few, care, make, revive, adapt and salvage.

 

Upcycling Challenge brings dormant textiles to life

Due to the Omicron outbreak, Eco Fashion Week Australia and the associated Upcycling Challenge (outlined in the post below) has been postponed until 2023.

Garments with meaning and story fit for A Closet of the Anthropocene will form the Upcycling Challenge collection at the upcoming Eco Fashion Week Australia in 2022.

Participating designers are asked to choose a ‘’hero’’ textile lying dormant in its current form and build on that to create a uniquely meaningful garment with a great story to tell about how it came to be in the world.

The hero textile might be Granny’s embroidered tablecloth, Mum’s outdated wedding dress, Dad’s old uniform, a favourite childhood dress or jumper, something painted in art school, or a beautiful but damaged treasure discovered in an op shop. This textile can be repurposed along with other materials of choice into a storyful creation with the hero at heart.

The EFWA Upcycling Challenge coordinator is Jane Milburn who has been personally upcycling since 2013 as a way to spark action in response to fashion excess and textile waste. Her upcycled wardrobe includes history skirts, denim tunics and geometric dresses made from dormant materials.

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A closet fit for the Anthropocene

The global fashion industry has faced a reckoning in recent years as wearers awaken to the exploitation, waste and pollution created by the unsustainable pursuit of fashionability in the 21st century.

There are alternatives emerging and those at the leading edge will be showcased in the welcome return of Eco Fashion Week Australia (EFWA) on runways and exhibitions across Western Australia in 2022.

EFWA founder and designer Zuhal Kuvan-Mills said art shows and avant-garde design exhibitions will present the work of fashion artists and designers across the world and challenge conventional notions of fashionability.

A Closet of the Anthropocene, named for the current geological age in which human impacts have predominantly influenced climate and the environment, is the central theme for the third EFWA.

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Local through and through

An alignment of values was integral to Timber Queensland’s search for a local natural-fibre shirt to include in marketing materials for its Buy Queensland Timber campaign.

“We are promoting the benefits of natural, renewable locally-sourced building products and our message is buy local, from local supply chains,” said the group’s strategic relations and communications manager Clarissa Brandt. “We wanted to echo that and work with other local supply chains to tell our story and walk our talk.”

Jason Ross in local cotton with Clarissa Brandt, in front of local contemporary charred timber cladding.

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Spinning the dream

Grow, harvest, clean, spin, weave, dye, design, sew and market. All these stages in the creation of clothes are largely outsourced to industrial processes that have cotton garments appear almost by magic for 21st century wearers buying on demand. JANE MILBURN reports.

About 90 percent of clothes bought in Australia are made overseas yet spinning is the only one of these processes that Australia can’t do right here, right now, today.

If we were to reintroduce onshore spinning capacity, this would enable local processing as well as recycling capacity to create a closed-loop fibre economy saving textiles from landfill.

Glenn Rogan in his Australian Super Cotton field at St George.

Until recently, most wearers were not thinking about the missing stages of repair and recycle that can help make the journey of clothes more circular and reduce their ecological impact. Now we are asking more questions, taking actions and seeking solutions.

With increasing concerns about climate change and pollution, the circular economy is poised to grow and Australia needs to be part of it. Manufacturing has been migrating offshore for decades, but pandemic disruption of supply chains may herald a turning of the tide.

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Permaculture your wardrobe

Permaculture clothing is real; it is what I wear. All my wardrobe selections are natural fibres, made and mended, thrifted and repurposed, adapted to suit current needs. Produce no waste, slow and small solutions, creatively use and respond to change. Permaculture principles to live and dress by for a more permanent culture.

I was invited to present a session on Permaculture your Wardrobe at the 2021 Australasian Permaculture Convergence and delighted to have my work described there by permaculture leader Robin Clayfield as a ‘new edge’. Also delighted to recently chat with global permaculture ambassador Morag Gamble on her podcast Sense-making in a changing world.

Michael Wardle of Savour Soils Permaculture and Jane Milburn at the 2021 Australasian Permaculture Convergence

Dressing is integral to life. Skin is our largest organ and we can think about clothes doing for us on the outside what food does inside. They protect and warm our bodies, and influence the way we feel and present to the world. And dressing is an agricultural act, if we want to wear natural fibres rather than plastic fibres.

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Use lockdown time to know yourself: Kate Ng

The opportunity to spend time getting to know yourself and understanding your motivations has been an upside of pandemic lockdown, according to Kate Ng from The Netherlands. She said accepting the curfew, knowing we just have to deal with it because there’s nothing we can do about it, makes it easier. “I can just get to know myself really well, get to know the things that make me tick and things that irritate me, and then I can manage better in my everyday life.”

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