DO Worry About It…

Let Oak Hill Dry Cleaner Help You Fight Fast Fashion

If you read our blogs, you already know we’ve been on a bit of a soapbox over fast fashion for a few years. It is a disaster happening in real-time and one that impacts the environment, human beings, and the economy. To say it is an important issue in our fight for a better future is a bit of an understatement, and this SNL skit (above) captures how massive a problem fast fashion has become. It is cheap, trendy, and available quickly and can be hard to resist. Not just brands like Shein fall under the fast fashion heading. Familiar favorites like H&M, Old Navy, Zara, and Uniqlo are also guilty of using this so-called business model.

You may not know you are buying fast fashion or recognize its perils, so we’re always here to help.

In our past blogs, we’ve looked at the human and environmental toll, the financial toll, and the ethical toll that frequent purchases of fast fashion take. We’ve looked, too, at sustainable wardrobes and how to best care for household items rather than constantly buying cheaper replacements. We’ve tried to help our readers understand the many pitfalls of fast fashion, and the bottom line can be summed up in a word - choice. You choose whether to buy new things or to focus on what you’ve got and how best to care for them.

Consider this quote from one of our blogs:

“In the year 1960, Americans were spending around $4,000 of today’s dollars on their annual clothing budgets (roughly 10% of their household income), acquiring around 25 garments. Today, we spend less than 4% of our household income (roughly $1,800) and add around 70 garments to our wardrobe. Twenty-five items for $4k or 70 items for less than $2k…clearly there’s something amiss.”

These numbers perfectly match the SNL skit in the video above. It isn’t ONLY that you’re buying total garbage, but garbage made with cheap and toxic materials and at a humongous human toll, AND doing it well aware that there’s something very, VERY wrong.

The remedy is simple - don’t buy this stuff…EVER.

That often leads to a natural next question: What do you do about your wardrobe? After all, clothing can be very expensive and most cannot spend that 10% of household income buying new pieces each year.

Maintain Your Wardrobe

This is where we can become your partner in the fight against fast fashion by helping you maintain your existing wardrobe and even improving some items you thought were no longer functional. After all, we offer top-tier, eco-friendly dry cleaning, regular laundering and pressing, small repairs, and all the information in our blogs. For instance, the blog just before this one is all about tie-dyeing and how it can be used to redeem many garments with stains or other similar problems.

Use Professional Stain Removal

You can ask us to mail you a free copy of our stain removal guide, or you are always welcome to pop in and discuss your best remedies. If a household solution isn’t available, we’re here to help with our plant-based, scent-free, professional-grade compounds (along with our knowledge of using them) to rescue items from the rag bin.

Repurpose, Reuse, or Recycle Responsibly

Nothing in your wardrobe has to become a disposable item because we also have many ways to show you how to reuse, repurpose, or recycle. And when there are no remedies, we can also help you decide whether to donate to a reliable organization or send a garment for recycling with our trusted community partner. We have discussed how many pounds of textiles end up in landfills due to fast fashion, but also due to donating to the wrong groups. We work directly with Apparel Impact to ensure items are either resold or recycled effectively.

We’re also here to help when you use the preferred method of buying “new” items through secondhand shops and sites. After all, we get a lot of people bringing in designer duds that cost a lot, even when purchased through sites like The Real Real, Poshmark, or ThredUp, but arrive with stains or other issues. Frequently, we can fix or reduce the appearance of such issues.

Do Worry About It

As those clever comedians at SNL pointed out, it is your choice whether to contribute to the fast fashion problem or to say no to its many harms and find a better solution. Let us help. Call, email, or request a free home pickup of your items, and we’ll help you enjoy them for many years to come.