FAST FASHION’S DIRTY LITTLE SECRETS, from “The Clothes We Wear” exhibition. Only 10% of recycled clothing gets re-sold. The rest goes mainly to landfill. And, as exemplified by this Victoria’s Secret tank top rescued from Fountain Creek near my home in Colorado Springs, some of it goes into our lakes, rivers, and streams.


FAST FASHION’S DIRTY LITTLE SECRETS, from “The Clothes We Wear” exhibition. Only 10% of recycled clothing gets re-sold. The rest goes mainly to landfill. And, as exemplified by this Victoria’s Secret tank top rescued from Fountain Creek near my home in Colorado Springs, some of it goes into our lakes, rivers, and streams.

Artist: Sheary Clough Suiter

Title: FAST FASHION’S DIRTY LITTLE SECRETS, from “The Clothes We Wear” exhibition. Only 10% of recycled clothing gets re-sold. The rest goes mainly to landfill. And, as exemplified by this Victoria’s Secret tank top rescued from Fountain Creek near my home in Colorado Springs, some of it goes into our lakes, rivers, and streams.

Attribution: FAST FASHION'S DIRTY LITTLE SECRETS (back side), 2021, Sheary Clough Suiter

Year: 2021

Materials: Reclaimed Victoria's Secret Woman's Tank Top, Thread, Hand-embroidered, Encaustic, Found Tree Branch.

Dimensions: 23”x44”

Image Statement: Only 10% of recycled clothing gets re-sold. The rest goes mainly to landfill. And, as exemplified by this article of clothing I rescued from Fountain Creek near my home in Colorado Springs, some of it goes into our lakes, rivers, and streams. More than 60 percent of fabric fibers are now synthetics, derived from fossil fuels, so if and when our clothing ends up in a landfill (about 85 percent of textile waste in the United States goes to landfills or is incinerated), it will not decay. Nor will the synthetic microfibers that end up in the sea, freshwater and elsewhere, including the deepest parts of the oceans and the highest glacier peaks.