What is fast fashion?
The world of fast fashion has been around since the early 2000’s, which means it has only been around for twenty years. Yet its impact has been massive on our environment and the consumer’s mindset.
Today, we would like to talk about fast fashion and the sustainability in the fashion industry, and why it is important.
1.What is Fast Fashion?
We define fast fashion as a term used by retailers where clothes are mass produced in a short period of time and sold in large quantities through retailers for a low amount of price. The process is recreated every time a new style or new season arrives.
Some examples of fast fashion brands and retailers are H&M, Zara, Forever21, Pull & Bear, Urban Outfitter, TopShops,
We would also like to mention some Instagram based brands which are indirectly using this method, such as FashionNova, PrettyLittleThings, Shein, MissGuided and more.
2. Why Do People Buy Fast Fashion?
The biggest reason why people buy fast fashion is because it’s affordable and convenient. They are vastly accessible and they also tend to have some similar styles to higher end clothes.
Most of the customers who buy fast fashion don’t really care about the quality of their clothes., want something affordable on a larger quantity, don’t want to spend a lot of money on clothes, want to be trendy on a budget or they might not actually have the budget to purchase a higher end clothes. Fast fashion is an easy solution to their problems.
3. The Impact of Fast Fashion
Fast fashion definitely has created some impact from its large scale practice. Let us break them one by one;
Labor : Prices don’t lie.
In order to suffice the demands for affordable items, retailers seek for cheap labors in countries like Bangladesh, India and China. Most of these labor workers are working long hours in dangerous conditions and they are not even paid minimum living wage. They also tend to hide their supply chain to prevent customers from knowing exactly where the clothes are coming from.
Environment: The fast fashion industry is one of the most environmentally polluting industry.
Fast fashion is responsible for 10% of humanity’s carbon emission with around 85% of textiles go into landfills each year.
The fashion industry is the second largest consumer industry of water, requiring about 700 gallons to produce one cotton shirt and 2,000 gallons of water to produce a pair of jeans.
Not to mention the waste of the chemicals used to dye and dry the fabrics ends up in the local rivers and water sources on areas used to produce these clothes.
To learn more about the environmental impact of fashion industry and more, we recommend you to check out this article.
Customers
This is where a lot of people don’t do the math. In the long term, wearing fast fashion can actually me more damaging to your wallet. It’s not effective in term of cost per wear.
Since the quality of fast fashion are not as well thought of in comparison to more expensive, small production fashion, they tend to get “worn” faster meaning after several uses, it loses its shape, making it unable for customers to wear them for an extended period of time.
What Can We Do as Consumers?
Despite this, there are still some things we can do as customers to help improve the situation
1. Stop Purchasing So Much
Remember the concept of reduce, reuse, recycle? These are placed in order for a reason, a lot of people only see the reuse and recycle part, but they forget about the reduce part. When you stop buying so much, especially fast fashion, you are reducing your personal carbon footprint and you would end up with less waste at the end of the day.
2. Thrift and Purchase Second Hands
Thrifting is a great way to recycle clothes and you can actually find some really high quality clothes in thrift stores. This is a great way to prolong the life of an item and also save yourself some money since thrift items are more affordable than new items. On the flip side, you can also sell or donate your gently worn clothes to thrift stores to recycle them.
3. Donate Unwanted Clothes
When we were young, we used to donate our unwanted, gently worn clothes to the orphanages or those in need. This is a great way to recycle your clothes and helping other at the same time. These days there are many third party services that accept clothing donation to be redistributed to those in needs. Sometimes, your clothes might even get a second chance to be in thrift store and worn by someone else who find value in it. Instead of just throwing them away, you can donate them and allow other people to enjoy them.
4. Shop Sustainable Fashion
Nowadays there are a lot of sustainable fashion brands available. These brands create high quality clothes in small batches which is a lot more sustainable for both the earth and customers.
They often use sustainable cotton or other recyclable materials to create their clothes and as a result, produce less carbon footprint and waste in comparison to fast fashion. They also pay attention to ethical labor, making them a better alternative to purchase your clothes. Some of these brands include Everlane, Reformation, Pact, Able, Patagonia and Alternative Apparel.
5. Make Your Own Clothes
If you have the time, skill and material, you can make your own clothes. This is a fun way to reduce fabric waste and create one of a kind piece tailored just for you.
6. Support Your Local / Small Fashion Brands
Whether you’re in the US, UK or live globally, there would always be independent / small local fashion brands you can support. These smaller brands usually have their own team of tailor to make your clothes or they have their own manufacturing practice that’s more sustainable compared to the bigger players. It’s also a great way to support small businesses and local economy.
Conclusion
We would never demonize anyone for shopping fast fashion. After all, it can be fun sometimes and not everyone is capable of buying hundreds of dollars worth of clothing. However, we would advise you to be more mindful of your purchases and reduce the amount of fast fashion products you purchase from now on.
What do you think about fast fashion? We would like to hear your opinion on it, share them with us in the comment section below!
