ALTERATION SPACE

The
Project

Acqua Foundation, the international art charity dedicated to protect and preserve WATER, together with the artists Anna Nazaretskaia and Daria Elkina, have started ALTERATION SPACE – a digital project developed by the artists to fight fast fashion side effects, making the public opinion aware of the damages and pollution that a fashion based on “once used, once thrown” clothes can create.

The artistic duo has created a Digital Clothing Collection based on the theme of the states of WATER, making a statement to preserve the environment and to push Fashion Industry towards a more careful, balanced and sustainable future.

The digital collection will be available online and on the Instagram page of @alterationspace and @acquafoundation, where each supporter, through a small donation, will be able to choose their own digital outfit. Following this, the artists will develop a new image by combining the digital outfit with a photo uploaded by the supporter.

The Donations will help mitigate the environmental impact in one of the most affected regions of the globe through a charity project in collaboration with AMREF.

THE PROBLEM

The most significant impacts that Fast Fashion has on the planet:

– The depletion of non-renewable sources

– The emission of greenhouse gases

– The use of massive amounts of water and energy

THE 2ND LARGEST CONSUMER OF WATER SUPPLY

The “virtual” water you consume through your cotton clothing.

It takes 10,000 liters of water to produce 1 kilo of cotton, meaning it takes about 2,700 liters to make 1 cotton t-shirt.
Therefore, when you buy clothes made of cotton you “use” water from wherever the cotton was grown and produced. This is referred to as “virtual” water – the water from around the world that you use as a result of your consumption. But the so-called virtual water is very real:

“The water consumed to grow India’s cotton exports in 2013 would be enough to supply 85% of the country’s 1.24 billion people with 100 litres of water every day for a year. Meanwhile, more than 100 million people in India do not have access to safe water”.
– The Guardian, 20 March 2015

It takes about 700 gallons of water to produce 1 cotton shirt. That’s enough water for one person to drink at least eight cups per day for three-and-a-half years.

It takes about 2,000 gallons of water to produce 1 pair of jeans. That’s more than enough for one person to drink eight cups per day for 10 years.

It takes 10,000 liters of water to produce 1 kg of cotton. Global cotton production requires over 250 billion tons of water annually.

Source: www.theworldcounts.com

WATER POLLUTION

Fashion causes water-pollution problems, too. Textile dyeing is the world’s second-largest polluter of water, since the water leftover from the dyeing process is often dumped into ditches, streams, or rivers.

Dying textiles causes lots of water pollution. The dyeing process uses enough water to fill 2 million Olympic-sized swimming pools each year.

ETHICAL ISSUE

Hazardous substances used in textile production have serious impacts on the health of textile workers, and toxic effluents cause major environmental damage. From an economic perspective, more than $500 billion of value is lost every year due to clothing under-utilisation and the lack of recycling.

CLOTHING ENDS UP AS WASTE

Clothing production has roughly doubled since 2000. While people bought 60% more garments in 2014 than in 2000, they only kept the clothes for half as long.

In Europe, fashion companies went from an average offering of two collections per year in 2000 to five in 2011. Some brands offer even more. Zara puts out 24 collections per year, while H&M offers between 12 and 16.

A lot of this clothing ends up in the dump. The equivalent of one garbage truck full of clothes is burned or dumped in a landfill every second. Landfill sights all across the world are filled with clothes.

In total, up to 85% of textiles go into landfills each year. That’s enough to fill the Sydney harbor annually.