Out Of The Closet: The Case for Less Waste
To celebrate Earth Day 2021, Think City Institute hosted a week-long programme of activities in partnership with Friends of Bukit Kiara, The Habitat Penang Hill and Fashion Revolution Malaysia to present a series of virtual workshops and talks and film screenings.
The Citymaker spoke to Zero Waste activist Melissa Tan, an Earthday.org ambassador and the acting country coordinator for Fashion Revolution Malaysia about the global movement to end human and environmental exploitation in the global fashion industry.
Melissa, who is also known for her work as a model, a TV host and an actor, has been a sustainability advocate ever since she was a child. We spoke with the former schoolyard recycling kid to find out more about the Fashion Revolution movement and its goals, and to get some expert tips on how to be fashion forward without destroying the planet.
What inspired you to get involved with fashion activism and the Zero Waste movement?
Melissa Tan: I’ve always been an environmentalist kid. I was always really into recycling and I understood that my actions had a corresponding effect on the world around me. And When I was a kid, I also learned about the great Pacific garbage patch. And it kind of horrified me because it really brought home the scale of negative damage that humans can cause into their environment. And at that time I felt helpless. It felt like I really wanted someone to fix it, whether it was government or those industries. But I felt like I was one person who couldn’t do anything.
Fast forward. I’m now an adult. It’s 15 years later and I’ve learned that, you know, the situation has just gotten so much worse and no superhero has come in to fix the problem. So, then it kind of brought to home how we have to fix the problem, each and every one of us.
Zero Waste living came as a natural solution because the ball’s in your court, you have control, and you can refuse to be part of the system that pollutes. It’s a really good experiment for yourself, for every one of us to see how creative we can actually be in re-engineering our lifestyles. The way we consume and produce to create as little negative impact as possible and to produce as much positive impact onto the whole world.
What took you from that individualistic, Zero Waste approach, to getting involved with Fashion Revolution?
Melissa Tan: Zero Waste living extends to all facets of your life. Naturally, fashion consumption is one of the bigger areas of our spending. I’m sure most of us, especially women, are faced with wardrobes that are crammed full of clothes. And yet we feel like we don’t have anything to wear. There’s this vicious cycle of consumption that we truly don’t really need. [Pursuing] Zero Waste living, it kind of brings that understanding and awareness of how we can live a bit more thoughtfully and mindfully. And to be aware [that] every decision we make has an impact, whether negative or positive, on the world around us. So, it was a natural transition to then assess how I consume fashion, and how I can impact change in the fashion industry, through my choices and through campaigning within the global movement itself.
The key thing is to question our consumption. To question the way that we consume fashion and produce it because whatever we’re doing right now, isn’t working. We might think that this excess of choice and options and the ability to click add to cart at any time might be good for us. But it has a mental strain on the consumer as well. We’re all overwhelmed, because what we’ve been trained to become is buying machines, consuming machines.
Every time a trend comes out, all this marketing is targeted at us. Pulling our strings to keep purchasing things that we don’t really need. So, you know, it’s breaking that vicious cycle of consumption and really bringing a sense of mindfulness back to the process, the sense of creativity, a sense of connection to the pieces that we wear and bring back that beautiful part of fashion that we’ve lost.
To that point about being buying machines and rediscovering that beautiful part of fashion. What are some of the misconceptions that people have about the origins and ethics of the clothing they buy and wear?
Melissa Tan: It might sound fun to buy a shirt for RM20 but think about the number of people that this piece of clothing has passed through. The sweat and tears, the people who are underpaid, [labour] in terrible working conditions, who really don’t have a choice but to stick to the life of a garment worker, to be able to bring you this piece at a price that is too low; that hasn’t factored the cost of people and planet into it.
If we step back and think about the impact of our clothing, not just environmentally, but socially, we might think twice about whether we want to be purchasing and promoting this current system.
How does Malaysia compare to countries in more developed nations when it comes to looking at the waste and the sense of ethics that surround the clothes that we wear?
Melissa Tan: A lot of studies around consumer behaviour are Western-focused. So, when it comes to our side here in Malaysia, we often have to rely on anecdotes or observations that don’t have a lot of numbers behind them. That’s one of the things that we’re trying to target in Fashion Revolution Malaysia. We’re partnering with Singapore’s Fashion Revolution, to form a Malaysian dataset: what is the consumer sentiment here in Malaysia and how do sustainability and ethical practices influence their behaviour and purchasing choices? So that we can shift this misconception that sustainability is a Western concept.
Are fashion brands and chains in Malaysia starting to respond to these ideas? Is there an element of being forced to act because of pressure from consumers, activists, and organisations like Fashion Revolution?
Melissa Tan: It has been really encouraging to see more local brands emerge that have championed social and environmental causes. They are part of educating their customers because we are, overall, just learning how to consume at that breakneck speed. All these options for online shopping have exploded over the last decade. We have to unlearn all those bad habits.
What impact has the pandemic, and the economic conditions that have accompanied it, had on both consumer sentiment and the emergence and growth of environmentally and socially conscious behaviour in the fashion industry?
Melissa Tan: It depends. Over the pandemic I believe a lot of people have had that realization [that they have] all this clothing in their wardrobe that they’re not using. And instead of being in that state of decluttering, they’re starting to question. Do I really need this much? How can I look at my behaviour and reassess this whole situation? As we move out of lockdown and people start going out again, I feel that we need to hang on to the lessons that we’ve learned over the pandemic, [that] over-consumption doesn’t help you.
So, when it comes to social and environmental fashion brands, I feel they have an edge over mass fashion brands. When people…[are] buying a lot less, they have the space within themselves to then ask, well, if I’m only going to buy this one thing, wouldn’t I want to support a brand that does better?
One of the panels we brought together for the Fashion Revolution week in Malaysia [asked] is sustainable fashion more resilient? Over the pandemic we’ve seen global news of all these cancelled orders by fast fashion brands because people’s appetite for fast fashion hit the floor globally because everyone was staying indoors. They weren’t going out for events or to work or to school or whatever. So, the pressure to constantly appear in a new outfit [was] relieved.
And then [we] dive into this conversation [about] how sustainable fashion brands adapt to the situation. Because they didn’t have all this pipeline inventory coming in in mass volumes during the pandemic, they could plan their collections a bit better. And it’s not [as] hard to stop the machine in comparison to a fast fashion brand.
You made that point about learning lessons. History has shown that people aren’t all that great at remembering those lessons. How is fashion revolution working to make sure that those changes or even that awareness, that mindfulness, that ability to pause and reflect, become habits, permanent changes at both at global and local levels?
Melissa Tan: To some extent it’s keeping that pressure on the pedal [for] brands to do better and empowering consumers to be the ones to put the pressure on them. Fashion Revolution provides a lot of [free], open resources to brands and consumers, to [enable] them to campaign on their own, whether it’s through letter writing, whether it’s through social media, or holding events for [the] awareness and empowerment [to help] other consumers adopt more circular slow fashion practices for themselves.
As an example. Before joining Fashion Revolution, I had been running clothes swaps for the past three years using my platform as a Zero Waste advocate. And because I run these events regularly – which are also part of Fashion Revolutions portfolio of events you can run – I’ve seen how people change their behaviour. People who never considered the sustainability of their fashion, they actually just wanted to come have a good time and swap some clothes, trade [them] in for new ones. They’ve come back to me time and time again, [that] over the next few swaps, ‘Hey, I’ve actually reconsidered how I shop. I’ve actually lost my appetite for shopping because this swapping thing just makes so much sense. Why aren’t we sharing our resources? Why are all of us buying multiples of the same thing, wearing them once or twice, and then discarding them, when we can bring back that sense of community amongst ourselves?’
And that’s how we can appreciate fashion in a whole new way as well because it isn’t about competing [for] who looks better. It’s about sharing and celebrating each other and the stories behind our clothes.
As you pointed out as well, people can be quite overwhelmed by the scale of these problems, and wonder how they can have any effect as an individual. What other actions can people take to make their wardrobe more ethical and more environmentally sound?
Melissa Tan: It can be overwhelming, especially if you’ve been hit by all these facts about how dirty the fashion industry is. I think the easiest first step is [to] hit pause. Take your time, put away your wallet, shop your own wardrobe: whatever you need, you probably already own. And then, over the next, few months or a year, put yourself through challenges. Try to implement things like a buy-nothing year where you buy nothing new and see how these boundaries can help you discover your own style and use it as a realization tool [for] how little you actually need and how resourceful you can be in sourcing things second hand, borrowing, swapping, exploring all these circular methods to enjoy fashion.
One example I always like to use is Project 333 by Courtney Carver. She’s a popular minimalist writer. [This is] where you take 33 items from your wardrobe and these are the 33 items you’re going to be wearing for the next three months. So, you’ve got to be really strategic. [It] doesn’t include things like socks, underwear and pyjamas. So, 33 items that you’re going to step out of the house with. Through those three months, you’ll be able to see for yourself how you know, all those lessons that I’ve just mentioned, how little you really need and how much you start enjoying the clothing you actually own, because you still have to be creative.
Boundaries can be a good thing: how do you mix and match? How do you create your outfits from these 33 items? And how did you pick these 33 items in the first place? You’ll find you’re very likely going to pick your favourite items, because those are the ones you feel and look best in. [With a] minimalist capsule wardrobes, you tend to notice who operates from capsule wardrobes, because they’re usually the best dressed people in the room. That’s because every day they’re wearing their favourite outfit, no matter when, no matter where.
Most of us, we may have 5,000 things in our wardrobe, but 90% of them don’t make us feel great. That’s why we’re in this constant state of decluttering.
And if people want to go beyond that point of individual action, how they get involved with the Zero Waste community and with organizations like fashion revolution?
Melissa Tan: You just nailed it on the head. Get involved in the community. Fashion Revolution Malaysia [doesn’t] end with Fashion Revolution week. It’s meant to bring together people with similar interests and similar causes, not just sustainable brands, but to involve people and mass fashion brands in the conversation. All of us have to be moving in the same direction. It isn’t us versus them. It’s about how can we all improve together. We’re all at different stages of the journey [and] we can all share and encourage each other, share solutions and ways that we can improve.
Apart from Fashion Revolution, personally, I love Zero Waste Malaysia. They have a really great community that is a great resource and tool for people going Zero Waste in Malaysia.
Follow Fashion Revolution at https://www.fashionrevolution.org
Melissa Tan blogs regularly about sustainable living on her website https://www.heymelissatan.com
