I usually pride myself on being an avid thrift shop shopper, but sometimes, I cave into my consumeristic culture that promotes shiny new clothes and the promise of possibilities—a.k.a around almost every winter break I go to the mall and “treat” myself to a shopping spree. One store that I frequent, and am a bit ashamed to admit, is Forever 21. I used to shop there when I was in middle and early high school (before I discovered the wonderful world of thrift shops). But, the clothes are cute and cheap—although they’re cheap for a reason, which is where a lot of my consumer guilt sinks in.

This past winter I engaged in my now ritualistic trip to my local mall and paid a pretty penny at Forever 21. For this blog, I decided to analyze three of the sweaters I purchased there. For starters, each shirt was made in a different country: Cambodia, China, and Vietnam—all of which are a significant distance away from the Galleria Mall in Middletown, N.Y. But, even before it got to my mall, it had to go to a warehouse, or multiple warehouses. And before that it had to be flown from these countries to America. The raw ingredients to make the shirt also had to be cultivated and shipped to where they were manufactured. Each of the sweaters is made out of four materials, and usually a combination of two or three—rayon, polyester, spandex, or nylon.  A quick Google search led me into a whole other scientific world of how these materials are made—who knew there was so much science behind the clothes we wear.

Polyester, spandex, and nylon are all made out of plastic (which is a derivation of oil), and rayon is made from purified cellulose from plants. Before these clothes can be sewn together, the materials need to be made, which requires certain chemical reactions. The sweaters also had colors like cream, red, blue, gold, and one was strictly dark blue made out of a fuzzy nylon material. The dyes as well are made from synthetic sources, which rely on coal and petroleum to be made. The added impact and problem with clothes that are made out of synthetic fibers, like plastic, is the way they are disposed of. Often times, particles of these clothes get rubbed off and make it into our oceans in the form of micro-plastics. These items are cheap because they’re made from synthetic fibers and dyes that are harsh on our environment and because they have poor labor conditions. They received a score of a D+ from the 2017 Ethical Fashion Report, which looked at criteria involving payment of a living wage, transparency, and worker empowerment initiatives.

These clothes are shipped to all parts of the world as they are a global company that has stores in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Japan, Korea, and the Philippines—that’s a lot of plane fuel. We also need to factor in the transportation that I used to get to the mall to buy those clothes. My house is about 18 miles from the mall—that’s 36 miles in total that I drove to go shopping.

All of this is just so I can treat myself to “new” clothes. I didn’t realize the extent to which clothes are derived from plastics. When buying an item, such as a sweater, we don’t usually think about everything that truly goes into that product before we take it from the hanger. However, I believe it’s really important to be an informed consumer about the impact our actions (and our clothes) are having on the environment, and the kinds of companies that we support. This analyzation of just three new pieces of clothing that I bought motivates me even more to buy secondhand—where I can walk to the Salvation Army in New Paltz and buy something that was already made.