To Infinity and Beyond! The Fashion-Time Continuum

To Infinity and Beyond! The Fashion-Time Continuum

I was trying to think about if a connection exists between space and fashion since both topics are a huge part of society today; however, what came to my mind first was the phrase “to infinity and beyond”. Then thinking about how this phrase could be used in the fashion world, a sad thought ran across my mind. How often the clothing that is mass produced in the fast fashion world seems like it will stay on this Earth as long as “infinity” lasts, forever.

Because clothing materials like nylon and polyester are “man-made”, they are made up of unnatural materials that even when broken down, still remain “man-made”. This means that these plastics will forever sit on our Earth in some way, shape or form. This really puts into perspective just how powerful the human race is as inventors, not only of new materials, but of new environments in general. I mean look at the Amazon rainforest. We have dramatically reshaped how the forest functions in terms of the animal habitats that live there and how large it is in general.

Should this innovation that humans have brought upon the Earth through new clothing material be considered good or bad? Looking further back, before “man-made” materials, humans would often wear the skin/fur of different animals. Is this to be considered good, bad, antiquated? From a sustainability standpoint, neither are necessarily good for the environment. Both will be eventually broken down in nature, but forever will leave an impact. I suppose we need to make a choice as a human race as to where the line is. Where do we let our “revolutionary” innovations literally lead to the end of us as a species.

Now that was a little dramatic, but it is all connected. That piece of nylon clothing you threw out last week ended up in the ocean, slowly breaking into microplastics that a fish will eat. Now that fish is served on someone’s plate. Those microplastics were full of not just plastic, but also harmful chemicals.

This may seem miniscule, but thinking about how the plastic builds up over time, not just in our environment and food sources, but also in our body’s is frightening. That is why fashion is infinite, one day we wear it, the next it becomes a part of us.