Fashion

Demand for island fashion

Hawaiian shirts, dresses, and accessories are common purchases for vacationers. Therefore, they feel as if they are buying a local product. However, how many of them are actually made in Hawaii? Not many. The Hawaiian attire you buy is usually made wherever the cheapest labor is, usually places like China and Cambodia. These laborers work for hours in giant factories producing clothing, in areas with toxic fumes, and are paid at less than minimum wage.

Global considerations

In 2019, a study showed that 62 million metric tons of clothing were consumed throughout the world. As the 19th century began, clothing manufacturing has increased at an extremely high rate. Being the second-largest consumer of water, the fashion industry uses hundreds and thousands of gallons to make a single article of clothing. Have you bought a cotton shirt? Just to make that, it took 700 gallons of water. What about a pair of jeans? 2,000 gallons.

Here are a few more things to consider. Since 2020, the production of clothing has practically doubled. Even though 60% more clothing purchases were made in 2014, from 2000, these clothes were kept for half as long. 23% of all chemicals produced worldwide are used for the textile industry. Though some companies claim they recycle their clothes to transform into new styles, less than one percent of this clothing actually is. Finally, the equivalent of a garbage truck of clothing is burned or dumped every second.

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