Tracing Your Clothes from Seed to Garment: Understanding the Fashion Supply Chain

Today, mass production reigns supreme, and the fashion supply chain can often seem like a mystery to the average consumer. But with the rise of conscious consumption, more and more people are becoming interested in knowing the story behind the clothes they wear.

To understand the fashion supply chain, let's take cotton as an example. The journey of cotton from seed to garment is a multi-step and often environmentally damaging process. Back in the 1950s, nearly 100% of the clothes sold in the US were made in the US. Today, only 2% of US clothes are still made in the US. The supply chain of the fashion industry has shifted to a globally interconnected supply mesh. The top three worldwide producers of cotton are India, China, and the United States. The United States is the number one exporter of cotton, exporting over 70% of its production, which will then reenter the US either as a fabric or as a product.

Garment factories are mostly located in China and India, where India has the lowest cost of labor with a monthly average wage of $37 per worker, versus $200 in China.

The cotton supply chain can be broken down into 8 steps:

1. Raw cotton production

2. Trader buys raw cotton from several farmers and combines all products into bulk before selling them to factories

3. Factories extract the seeds, cleans the bolls, and spin the fibers into thread

4. Trader buys spools of thread to be sold to mills

5. Mills produce and dye the fabric

6. Trader buys the fabric to sell to manufacturers

7. Manufacturers create the products/textiles for retailers

8. Products appear on shelves at the retail store

While this process may seem straightforward, the reality is that the fashion industry is one of the most wasteful and polluting industries in the world. From the use of harmful chemicals in growing and processing the cotton, to the energy-intensive production methods used to manufacture the fabric and garments, the fashion supply chain has a significant impact on the environment.

Firstly, the fashion industry consumes 1.5 trillion litres of water annually. It causes 20 % of global clean water pollution, due to dyeing and treatment of fabrics with toxic chemicals, and pesticide usage to grow raw materials. Plastics, commonly utilised in synthetic fibres, end up in the oceans, contaminating the food chain as micro-plastics. Furthermore, 87 % of clothes end up as waste in landfill or are incinerated, whilst 30 % of garments are overproduced and disposed of without being worn even once. The fashion industry also accounts for 10 % of annual global carbon emissions and is a major player in deforestation and soil degradation.

To bring about change in the fashion industry, it's crucial that consumers are informed and demand transparency from the brands they buy from. By knowing the story behind their clothes, consumers can make informed decisions about what they wear and support sustainable and ethical practices.

The future of fashion looks bright, with a growing number of brands committing to sustainable practices and greater transparency in their supply chains. As consumers, it's up to us to drive this change by choosing to buy from brands that are committed to making a positive impact. By doing so, we can help create a future where the fashion industry is not only stylish and trendy, but also sustainable and ethical.