The True Cost of Fast Fashion — And What One Sari Can Replace

A €5 t-shirt feels like a bargain. But someone, somewhere, pays the difference, usually the planet and the people who made it. Understanding the true cost of fast fashion, and its real environmental impact, is the first step towards a slower, better way of dressing. Here is what that hidden price tag actually looks like, and what a single upcycled sari can replace.

What ‘fast fashion’ really costs

Fast fashion is the business of making clothes as quickly and cheaply as possible, in huge volumes, to be worn a handful of times and replaced. The low prices are real but they are only possible because the true costs are pushed elsewhere: onto rivers, landfills, the climate, and the people at the bottom of the supply chain.

The environmental price

The numbers are sobering, and they are widely documented:

• Carbon: The UN Environment Programme estimates the fashion sector is responsible for around 8–10% of global carbon emissions more than international flights and shipping combined.
• Water: Producing a single cotton t-shirt can take roughly 2,700 litres of water about what one person drinks in two and a half years.
• Waste: The Ellen MacArthur Foundation has estimated that the equivalent of a rubbish truck full of textiles is landfilled or burned every second.

Most of this is driven by volume: making far more clothing than the world can wear, from virgin materials, to be discarded fast. (We looked at this in more detail in the impact of fast fashion on the environment.)

The human price

Speed and rock-bottom prices depend on cheap labour. Across the fastest, cheapest supply chains, garment workers, most of them women, are too often underpaid, overworked and unprotected. A cheaper t-shirt on the rail frequently means a lower wage for the person who sewed it. The real cost of fast fashion is not only ecological; it is human.

What ‘slow fashion’ means instead

Slow fashion is the deliberate opposite: fewer, better pieces, made to last, from responsibly sourced or reclaimed materials, by people paid fairly. It is less about buying ‘sustainable’ labels and more about buying less and choosing well, valuing a garment enough to wear it for years and care for it properly. If you are just starting out, our guide to building a planet-friendly wardrobe is a good place to begin.

What one sari can replace

Here is the hopeful part. A single sari is five or six metres of beautiful, durable silk, enough to make several new pieces. At I was a Sari, each pre-loved sari is rescued and remade, by hand, into clothing, bags and jewellery, using a fraction of the water and energy that new fabric would demand, and creating skilled, paid work for artisans in Mumbai in the process.

One upcycled piece will not fix the industry. But it replaces a garment that would otherwise have been made new, and it proves that clothes can be beautiful, modern and desirable without the hidden costs. That is the whole idea behind how upcycled saris are changing fashion, and behind what sustainable fashion really means.

Where to start

You do not need to overhaul your wardrobe overnight. Buy less, choose well, care for what you own and when you do buy, look for pieces with a story you can trace. You can see what that looks like across our best sellers and new arrivals.

Note: the figures above are widely-cited industry estimates from sources including the UN Environment Programme and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, and are intended to show scale rather than exact measurement.