Fashion's hidden costs

In an attempt to fulfil our complex needs and find a unique expression of identity and to feel comfortable, or many a time to be accepted by the community or society-set standards, we turn to appearance through clothes.
Fashion is about turning and changing ideas about style, status and self expression into clothes we buy and wear. Fashion is not just about draping the body with clothes; it is a conscious choice, a way we script our personality, taste, values, cultural and religious identity and membership in a subculture.
The urge to express ourselves through clothes, amplified by social media and globalisation, has fuelled a mammoth industry — fashion — which emerged with mass production and department stores a century ago and today is a modern global business worth $1.8 trillion, employing hundreds of millions of people and expending natural resources unsustainably.
According to the 2025 apparel statistics, the average number of garments purchased per person worldwide is estimated at 50-60 per year, with major differences between high and low-income countries. The statistics also indicate an increase in garment purchases in the early 2020s, partly driven by fast and ultra-fast fashion. The data indicates that the number of clothes purchased exceeds their price.
Younger customers and new rules are driving circular experiments in repair services, resale platforms, rentals and take-back programmes from the periphery into the mainstream, even within the fashion industry. Scientists are working on true innovation in materials and procedures behind the scenes.
For example, they are learning how to recycle old clothing into new fibres and spin fabric from fungus, algae and agricultural waste, which is evidence that the technology for an alternative fashion system already exists.
Despite all these efforts behind the thread, beads, selfies and seasonal trends, is one of the world’s most polluting and exploitative supply chains. The strife is hidden, churning out billions of garments a year at a cost borne by the planet and its workers that the world can no longer afford.
The hidden costs behind the low prices that rarely appear in mainstream media are indelible. One cotton T-shirt requires 2,700 litres of water, which is about what one person would use in two and a half years; a massive, imperceptible drain on rivers and water bodies results when multiplied by the number of garments produced.
Textile dyeing and finishing are responsible for roughly 20 per cent of industrial water pollution worldwide. 10 per cent of global CO₂ emissions come from fashion, especially fast fashion, which is more than those from international flights and shipping combined. What is alarmingly irresponsible is that around 85 per cent of textiles produced each year end up in landfills. The fashion industry generates approximately 92 million tonnes of textile waste annually.
Synthetic fibres like polyester shed microplastics during every wash, contaminating rivers, oceans and even drinking water. To keep prices down, garment workers are paid a meager $3 a day and work extremely long hours. The constantly changing trends led to overconsumption and debt, creating financial stress for people.
The unsold clothes from the Global North end up in landfills and informal markets in the Global South, including Ghana and Chile. The deepening single-use mindset is becoming part of our culture, where the idea of caring for and repairing what we own is slowly eroding.
The article is not written to curb people's desire to enhance their appearance through a variety of clothing choices, but rather to introduce a layer of consciousness into people’s consumption patterns. When you see the price tag and feel the texture, pause to feel the thread's journey and the people involved.
The responsibility lies with consumers and, more importantly, with producers in this industry. Let us all listen to the untold narrative behind the price tag that the planet and its people are paying for our good looks, woven into every thread of the fabric.