Weaving Diversity with Critical Thinking Approach: Exploring Geopolitics of Fashion of Second-Hand Clothing and Sustainable Literacy

Over 4 trillion dollars and 4.1 trillion kilograms of second-hand clothes are exported worldwide (United Nations 2017). People use a garment an average of seven times, purchase five times more clothing than in 1980, and produce 100 trillion garments yearly, with 20% of the total remaining unsold (Thomas 2019). These figures depict an unsustainable system when considering its repercussions in terms of overproduction, environmental impact, and social consequences. Specifically, it is essential to observe and understand the Fashion System from a diverse perspective (Pierce 1903), which can shed new light on current problems. The exploration focuses on whether it is possible to construct a Fashion System that operates and establishes new relationships internally and among its actors, fostering equitable, ethical, sustainable, and horizontal relations. Analysis tools are provided to future creative talents so that, through comprehensive and systemic education, they can consider proposing solutions for an industry and ecosystem that owe a debt to the environment, ethics, labor laws, and social issues. To accomplish this, the circuit of second-hand clothing, specifically the importation of used clothing through the port of Iquique, the Free Trade Zone ZOFRI, is examined.