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According to the World Bank, the fashion industry and textile production and dyeing is responsible for up to a fifth of all industrial water pollution. When companies such as Forever 21 continue to
produce cheap clothes, that water has also effectively gone to waste when the garments are out of commission. CHRISTINA DOMMER ILLUSTRATION

Fast fashion? Try fast trashin

ast-fashion pioneer
Forever 21 is closing its
doors in Canada, and I say
good riddance.

The Los Angeles-based retailer
filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
in late September, closing many of
its stores across Europe and Asia.
Forever 21 issued a statement that
it would be retreating back into the
USS. to reconsider and refocus its
brand image.

If you've ever shopped at a Forever

21 store, you'll know it’s an over-
whelming expe-
rience: clothes
wall-to-wall,
stuffed clear-
ance racks, jack-
ets with tacky
slogans on the
back. The stores
take up valu-
able real estate
CHRISTINA at shopping

DOMMER malls, with

some reaching 20,000 square feet
(1860 sq. m)—that’s bigger than a
hockey rink.

I'd liken shopping at Forever 21 to
reading a textbook without pictures
or diagrams to break it up. There
might be some interesting infor-
mation in there, but it’s not worth
rooting through such a large volume
of words.

The clothes might be inexpen-
sive, but that doesn’t add up to much
because the quality of Forever 21’s

wares means they wont stay in your
closet for long. As such, Forever 21
also takes up valuable real estate in
landfills. While competitors Aber-
crombie & Fitch and Zara have
upped the quality of their products,
Forever 21 has stuck to its dirt-cheap
guns and paid sorely for it. Also, the
increasing popularity of online shop-
ping is rendering brick-and-mortar
retail obsolete.

The World Wildlife Fund esti-
mates that 20,000 litres of water goes

into producing the equivalent of a
single cotton T-shirt and a pair of
jeans. When you put that in a landfill,
all that water goes down the drain
with it.

Shoppers are tired of wearing
something that’s cute one week
and a dud the next, or breaking a
zipper the second time they use it.
Let Forever 21’s departure serve
as a warning to retailers every-
where: consumers value quality
over quantity.

Foreign

anada is a leading country
( where much of the popu-
lation has foreign roots. In
other words, Canada is a cultural
microcosm that represents many of
the same aspects as the other main
global communities. The Cana-
dian government must establish a
fair balance in the importation of
cultural movies and scientific movies
related to education.
Foreign movies will always be
welcome in Canada. They convey
cultural, social and economic

film aids culture

its economy. The importation of
films in the last ten years in Canada
shows the influence of Asian movies,
such as The Farewell, The Parasite,and
The Great Battle,
all which are
distributed by
Netflix Canada.
Canada, with
its tradition of
democracy and
a high respect
for interna-
tional relations,

with foreign countries in the areas
of scientific research, education and
trade. Foreign movies do not only
include cultural topics, but also
cover many themes that the world
of globalization demands.

The United States, for example,
has a large influence in the English-
speaking Canada because of the
common language. There are several
successful Canadian and Ameri-
can film co-productions such as
My Big Fat Greek Wedding and the

Saw series.

Wolf Warrior 2 (2017), Mandarin

The Passion of the Christ (2004),
Armaic, Hebrew, Latin

The Intouchables (2011), French

in total film production in North
America. In 2015, two Cana-

Spirited Away (2001), Japanese

Dangal (2016), Hindi

Life Is Beautiful (1997), Italian

(ALL FIGURES IN U.S. DOLLARS)

Film Academy Awards. Canada is
a key country in global film produc-

messages that the country needs to has signed bilat- HENRI In 2011, Toronto ranked third dian co-productions were nomi- tion. That also means Canada can
strengthen its diversity and develop eral agreements NGIMBIS behind Los Angeles, New York nated for Best Picture in the 88th help shape culture of the future.
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