‘‘Hi I am Jean!

some parts of me are made of polyester but I’m mostly made of cotton. It took a big amount of water for the cotton to harvest, along with tons of pesticide & fertiliser. A large part of these chemicals end up as waste in the oceans, as the water treatment plants are currently insufficient or absent in most garments-exporter countries. To process synthetic fabric - derived from oil. Less water was required but a great amount of energy was used and greenhouse emissions were released, contributing to climate change. For my final touches, I required different heavy metals & industrial paints, that exposed workers to possible long term health problems.

Once I was fully grown, I travelled by sea and on the road for miles... I was lost within piles of ‘me’ in a big store before I was found and worn for a whole season! But at home I was just another item on a chair, washed too often and too hot. I was forgotten for a long time in your closet and right when I was getting used to hanging... the impatience to claim that hanger for a new jacket reached its peak, so I was sent away … hopefully to a charity shop and not into a regular bin...’’