After watching the video and reading the article, I’m shocked and amazed by how the

fashion industry has caused so much harm to our own planet. To think that dressing yourself
up with new clothing for a special occasion can caused so much damage. Moreover, I’m also
quite stunned by how fast clothes are being produced, from the concept to the production,
my mind is really blown away by all of this.

Personally, I think that clothing has become cheap is due to the mass production of the
same piece of garment, which causes the valuation of the same garment to fall which in turn
results in cheap clothing. However, the main reason stated in the video is that e-commerce
stores are lowing prices because of fierce competitions online. In order to attract consumers
to buy from their store and not another, they must lower their prices. However, they aren’t
the only ones doing the same thing, other e-commerce stores are also doing the same, and
this causes clothing to be as cheap at eight dollars. For example, e-commerce store such as
Shopee have fierce competitions between companies and individual, for people who sell
clothing must lower their prices just so people will buy their clothes. Thus, due fierce
competitions, it causes cheap clothing.
Buying cheap clothing is nice however, does one know about the consequences of buying
too many? Having too many cheap clothes means you have to throw out old ones and some
of it may not even be usable anymore. Furthermore, most of these unwanted clothes are
donated are not all being given out to other countries or to people who need them, some of
it are incinerated due to poor condition which causes air pollution. What’s more is that
these clothing are only worn once or twice not even touched at all, which is quite sad. For
example, the Salvation Army, where clothes are people donate their clothes to. The
Salvation Army will sort through the clothing and check for any tears, after that they will
burn all those that can’t be worn. Therefore, I think that pollution caused by the incineration
of cheap clothing is the true cost of cheap fashion.

Sustainable fashion in Singapore is also generally not cared by many as some find it
expensive while others think its okay for clothing to not be sustainable as there are cheap
retail stores online. Sustainable fashion is expensive in Singapore, one piece of garment that
is sustainable costs around twenty dollars or even more, which causes the customer to find
cheaper options. For example, clothing that is made from bamboo or polymer clothing are
expensive, these costs more than ten dollars to thirty dollar per piece. Thus, people turn to
online stores such as Shein or Zara as these stores provide cheap and trendy clothing.

Second hand clothing aren’t generally liked by Singaporeans as some feel that it doesn’t feel
brand new, or some may even think that second hand items are fake. However,
Singaporeans are slowly accepting buying and selling of second-hand clothing. One example
would be the one stated in the CNA article where the writer’s mum gave her Gucci Belt to
the writer and from then on, they started to wear it ever since even though it was a second
hand clothing. The gradually acceptance of selling and buying of second-hand clothing will
positively impact us as clothing that can still be wear wouldn’t be kept in the closet forever.

In my opinion, I think that second-hand clothing could be the answer to fashion’s sustainability
crisis and at the same time, I also think that it is not the answer to fashion’s sustainability. Second-
hand clothing could be the answer to fashion’s sustainability as clothing that can still be worn
wouldn’t be kept in the closet like what I have mentioned earlier, and this means that the clothing
will be used more often by people who like to wear that specific clothing. However, since these
garments are already used, we don’t really know how long it was owned for or how many times it
has been worn. For instance, I had a second-hand owned item before, however after using it for only
three times, the item stopped working and I had to threw it out. Therefore, I think that second hand
clothing can and cannot be the answer to fashion’s sustainability crisis as we still have to throw it
away once the item cannot be used.