Environmental issues are so deeply engaged in our lives that even a very small particular part of our lives can have a great effect on it. Today, I would like to talk about ?fashion? in an environmental perspective.

Have you heard about fast fashion brands? Even if you are not interested in fashion at all, you?ve may heard about brands like GAP, Forever21, H&M, and Zara. These brands are the leaders of the new trend of fashion so called Fast Fashion.

Fast Fashion is a trend where companies produces cheap, low-end apparels in very short term, every single time when the trend changes. This became possible since the companies are now able to produce trendy clothes cheaply and quickly due to the globalization and cheap labor abroad. As fast fashion became popular and common through the world, companies began competing against each other by introducing more lines per year at lower costs.

Since the companies produce more and more products at lower costs, consumers now feel free to buy clothes more often and tend to consume more carelessly and hastily. A Cambridge University study reports that in 2006, people were buying a third more clothes than they were in 2002 .According to research by the American Apparel and Footwear associations, Americans annually purchase an average of eight pairs of shoes and 68 pieces of clothing.

Another characteristics of the clothes made by fast fashion is that since they are produced low-end and quickly, most of the times their qualities are very low. Some of the clothes are so poorly made that they fall apart after single use. Now, it became common for shoppers to throw way items after using just once or twice. Statistics suggest that on average, UK consumers send 30kg of clothing and textiles per capita to landfill each year and those 1.2 million tones of clothing went to landfill in 2005 in the UK alone.

Here comes the problem of fast-fashion. The increase in the amount of clothes people consume also has consequences for the environment. If people buy clothes more frequently and dispose them as fast as they buy them, what happens to the disposed garments? It becomes wastes that harm our environment!

Then, what should people do to reduce such waste and save the world?

As a consumer, we should think once more before buying clothes. I used to buy clothes impulsively, with little thoughts about how useful those clothes would be. However, after knowing about all these problems that my action can cause, I became more prude in my consumption. For example, I consider several things before actually buying the item such as are fabrics and stitches are of good quality (so that it can be worn for long period of time), will this clothe match my other clothes and can be worn often..ect. To all of you who are reading this article now, I sincerly ask you guys to consider the impacts of your consumption before you buy any clothes.

Also before turning your clothe in to a garbage, consider about selling it to a secondhand-shop or donating it! In US a vintage-shop called Buffalo Exchange(http://www.buffaloexchange.com/) is a good example of selling and buying used clothe! Also there are many charities that want our donation, so instead of throwing away your old clothes, try giving it to other who desperately need them- like the saying one person's trash is another's treasure^^! 

In addition, you can recycle your clothes by reforming them into other items. For example, you can make your old sweater into a hand-warmer by cutting out and stiching them! Other variations are also possible. Through various ways, we can lengthen the clothe