Everything You Need to Know About Fast Fashion

 

What comes to your mind when you hear the word ‘fashion'? 

You think of buying new stuff, keeping up with trends, or perhaps looking like your favourite celebrities and influencers that seem to have such aspirational lives – and wardrobes. 

Gone are the days when trends were set by (and for) the upper class. It seems like today's fashion trends are decided from the ground up. 

Fashion brands love to talk about how they're making styles 'from the street' mainstream, platforming upcoming designers and young artists, thereby democratizing fashion. On paper, this looks great. We all deserve to live our lives in garments that make us feel beautiful and resonate with our aesthetic sensibilities. 

We shouldn't have to buy haute-couture to get our hands on clothes that look good. 

But with this change comes a shift towards a more consumerist approach. This means that freshness, form, and mass production for mass consumption take the place of timelessness, function, and discernment on the consumers' part. 

Social media influencers jump aboard hype trains, convincing their audience of teens and young adults (arguably the most impressionable consumers) to follow suit because their lives would be incomplete without whatever new outfit they're selling you.

Fashion trends are no more a trickle-down phenomenon (sorry The Devil Wears Prada fans) – or at least not in the way you think. 

Because now, trends aren't decided, curated, by fashion writers at magazines and high-fashion labels. They're picked up from people like you and me, from social media sites, from smaller designers – and capitalized on by enormous corporations – arguably much more sinister entities than Anna Wintour. In conversations surrounding variety, diversity, and creativity, is there no room to talk about sustainability? We can now buy cheaper, prettier clothes – but at what larger (non-financial) cost?

But first, let's understand what makes fast fashion attractive. 

Fast fashion companies are booming with huge discounts and offers to launch new lines of collections every week that mix in with the trends from formal to boho to cottage-core. They give people the instant gratification of being able to wear something that fits a trendy online aesthetic.

The main motive of fast fashion is to produce trendy designs with inexpensive styles- commercially influencing consumers into believing it is affordable and earning huge profits.

The attractions of fast fashion are:

1. Cheap rates

Big brands produce peak volumes of garments made from cheap materials, making production efficient. This ultimately makes the clothes cheaper to purchase.

2. Variety

Not only do these brands put up styles for all genders and sizes, they also offer a large variety of clothes that cater to people with different aesthetics.

3. Discounts

Huge sales, coupons, fast and easy shipping methods convince the customers to make large purchases through these brands.

These factors mean that fast fashion is challenging the established clothing label tradition of introducing new collections and lines on a seasonal basis. In fact, it’s not uncommon for fast fashion retailers to introduce new products multiple times in one week to stay on the trend.

Why is fast fashion harmful?

Fast fashion is a lucrative, exploitable business model with highly skilled production of clothing. The collections produced are mainly from elegant fashion weeks where brands and designers showcased their new sets. 

However, the disastrous side of fast fashion is concealed within its pretty colours, constant innovation, and the brands' performative activism on social media.

1. Technology

Commercial production, fast shipping, and 360° marketing have no doubt advanced the fast-fashion industry's growth– but their internet presence, both on online marketplaces as well as social media platforms – has revolutionized it. 

Options for online and offline shopping have been something consumers have yearned for. Online apps provide all services from selecting colors to free replacement within a period of time. 

With free shipping and digital payments, it has become super easy to impulsively order the next thing these brands tell you you can't live without.

2.  Impulsive Buying

When the consumer is presented with so many options, they impulsively buy things they might or might not need. 

Over the course of the pandemic, online shopping has become a coping mechanism for many. This has led to higher rates of online shopping and jumping on trends that fashion influencers have started.

The prospect of overbuying makes an individual a fashion slave, and thus we overpay without realizing it.

3. Fast Fashion Materials

Fast fashion may sound appealing to many, however, the high volume produced fits are certainly not of the top quality and tend to not last as long, which ultimately is of no use. 

In Bangladesh alone, 22,000 tonnes of toxic waste from fashion industries go straight into waterways every year. This textile waste contains substances like lead, mercury, and arsenic that are extremely harmful to human life.

Fast fashion affects the health of consumers, harmful chemicals such as benzothiazole, which has been linked to several types of cancer and respiratory illnesses, have been found in apparel in the market today. 

These poorly made clothes can be dangerous to health.

4. Environmental Impact

The piling up of trash and chemicals generated from industries in landfills and lakes affect human life as well as aquatic life. In garment-making industries, the waste is unregulated and ends up being thrown irresponsibly.

It makes its way into oceans and waterways which end marine life and take up to hundreds of years to decompose in these waters.

These pictures show a massive pile of fast fashion clothes, estimated to be around 39000 tons, taken at the Atacama desert in Chile. This is quite literally where fast fashion garments go to die. 

5. Human Rights Violations

The health of garment workers is always in jeopardy due to exposure to harmful chemicals. 

Unbearably long working hours, terribly low pay (below the working wages) and extremely hazardous working conditions are some of the issues which workers in the garment factories face on a daily basis. 

The 2013 Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh is one example of how unsafe it is to work in this industry.

As a whole, the fashion industry is becoming a humanitarian concern day by day.

Better Alternatives:

Thrifting

Thrifting is going to a store or flea market, where pre-owned items are put on sale and listed for lower prices. Online thrifting stores have become immensely popular and are best suited over fast fashion, all thanks to social media. 

1. Thrifting is a healthier option for the pocket as you get branded, top-quality products at a fraction of the original prices. 

2. Most proceeds from thrift stores are raised for charities.

3. It can introduce you to new varieties of fashion from long-lost trends. You might find your perfect fit!

4. It is a major step towards sustainable fashion and is environment-friendly. 

5. Purchasing a second-hand item means one less item being made. Even a small-scale change can terminate the grave effects of commercial production. 

The change is now, and it starts with us. 

Will you fall prey to fast fashion like thousands of others or will you escape the trap of fast fashion and pursue sustainability?

-Nayana Vachharajani