WOKING, England — Josephine Copeland and her 20-year-old daughter, Jo Jo, visited Primark at the Woking Peacock Centre Mall to buy presents for friends, but ended up loaded with clothes for themselves: boots, a cardigan, a festive blouse and a long silver coat with faux fur trim, which cost £12 but looks like a million bucks. "If it falls apart, you just toss it away," said Jo Jo Copeland, proudly wearing her purchase. Environmentally, that is more and more of a problem.
With rainbow piles of sweaters and T-shirts that often cost less than a sandwich, stores like Primark are leaders in the quick-growing "fast clothes" industry, selling low-cost garments that can be used and discarded without a second thought. Consumers, especially teenagers, love the concept, pioneered also by stores like Old Navy and Target in the United States, since it allows them to shift styles with speed on a low budget.
But clothes — and fast clothes in particular — are large and worsening sources of the carbon emissions that contribute to global warming, both because of how they are produced and how they are cared for, concludes a thought-provoking report from researchers at Cambridge University entitled, "Well Dressed?"
The $1 trillion global textile industry must become eco-conscious, the report concludes. It explores how to develop more "sustainable clothing" — a seeming oxymoron in a world where fashions change every few months.
"Hmmm," said Sally Neild, 44, dressed in casual chic — jeans and boots — as she pondered the idea, shopping bags in hand. "People now think a lot about green travel and green food. But I think we are a long way from there in terms of clothes. People are mad about those stores."
It is hard to imagine how customers who rush after trends, or the stores that serve them, will respond to the report's suggestions: that people lease clothes and return them at the end of a month or a season, so the garments can be lent again — like library books — to someone else, and that they buy more expensive and durable clothing that can be worn for years.


This article suggests that buying clothes that last longer may be better for the environment than buying cheap clothing from stores like Target or Forever
21, that we tend to wear a few times and then get rid of. It would be better for your wallet and your earth to buy more durable, but expensive clothing that lasts for years. But there are also perks to buying 'disposable' or 'fast' clothing, for one, they are cheaper. It seems a lot better to buy a lot of stuff for 100$ than to buy a few items for 100$. This is why clothing chains that offer good prices with good styles for us are so appealing. Also, synthetic fibers are more breathable and easier to wash than expensive fabrics. They dry more quickly so it could also be a good idea to air dry them instead of using a dryer.