Clothing & Fast Fashion
“Fast fashion isn’t free. Someone, somewhere is paying.”
Fashion shoppers spent about 3.5 billion Euros on Christmas party clothing this year – but 8 million of those sparkly items will be on their way to landfill after just one wear.
So-called fast fashion has ushered throwaway culture into the clothing business, with items so cheap they have become single-use purchases.
Overall, the fashion industry as a whole is contributing more to climate change than the aeronautical and shipping industries combined. If trends continue, the industry could account for a quarter of the world’s carbon budget by 2050.
What is Fast Fashion?
Fast fashion can be defined as cheap, trendy clothing, that samples ideas from the catwalk or celebrity culture and turns them into garments in high street stores at breakneck speed.
A glance at history, we see that before the 1800s, fashion was slow. People had to source their own materials like wool or leather, prepare them, weave them and then make the clothes.
After the Industrial Revolution, when new technology was first introduced – such as the sewing machine - clothes became easier, quicker and cheaper to make. Dressmaking shops emerged to cater for the middle classes.
What is fast fashion? How do fast fashion brands like Zara, H&M, Forever 21, Uniqlo, Topshop, Primark and many more affect workers and the environment? Answering these questions and many more in this video in under 5 minutes!
A lot of these dressmaking shops used teams of garment workers or home workers. It was around this time that sweatshops emerged, along with some familiar safety issues. The first major garment factory disaster was when fire broke out in New York’s Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in 1911. It claimed the lives of 146 garment workers, many of whom were young, female immigrants.
On the 60s and 70s, new trends were emerging and clothing became a form of personal expression, but there was still a distinction between high fashion and high street.
In the late 1990s and 2000s, low-cost fashion reached its zenith. Online shopping took off, and Fast Fashion retailers like H&M, Zara and Topshop took over the high street. These brands took the looks and design elements from the top fashion houses and reproduced them quickly and cheaply. With everyone now able to shop for on-trend clothes whenever they wanted, it’s easy to understand how the phenomenon caught on.
Zara is a Spanish clothing and accessories retailer. Zara was founded in 1975 by Amancio Ortega. Zara is the main brand of the Inditex group, the world's largest apparel retailer. Inditex also owns brands such as Massimo Dutti, Pull and Bear, Bershka, Stradivarius, Oysho, Zara Home, and Uterqüe. As of 2016, the main owner of Inditex, Amancio Ortega, was the second wealthiest man in the world.
Overconsumption
The business model of fast fashion is based on consumers’ desire for new clothing to wear. In order to fulfill consumer’s demand, fast fashion brands provide affordable prices and a wide range of clothing that reflects the latest trends. This ends up persuading consumers to buy more items which leads to the issue of overconsumption.
Globally, clothes consumption is predicted to rise by 63% by 2030. This means an increase from 62 million metric tons (in 2017) to 102 million metric tons in 2030 - or more than 500 billion T-shirts.
What’s even more disturbing, fashion goods are purchased even when the old ones are still wearable. The quick response model and new supply chain practices of fast fashion even accelerate the speed of it. In recent years, the fashion cycle has steadily decreased as fast fashion retailers sell clothing that is expected to be disposed of after being worn only a few times. This dramatically shortens the consumers’ buying cycle. The quick changing stocks and low price of fashion goods encourage consumers to visit the store and make purchases more frequently. As a result, excessive stock and untrendy clothes tends to end up in landfills.
A recent article about fast fashion pointed out that in order to make the fast moving trend affordable, fast-fashion merchandise is typically priced much lower than the competition, operating on a business model of low quality and high volume. Low quality goods make overconsumption more severe since those products have a shorter life span and would need to be replaced much more often. Furthermore, as both industry and consumers continue to embrace fast fashion, the volume of goods to be disposed of or recycled has increased substantially. However, most fast-fashion goods do not have the inherent quality to be considered as collectables for vintage or historic collections. The low quality goods can only end up as waste, hardly to be recycled. These cycles of providing affordable price to trigger the sales, and the low quality comes with it that makes products last shorter are making consumers unconsciously buying more. Not only does it drive sales numbers, but also the amount of waste that comes with it.
Unlike other industries, the price of clothing has gone down over the last few decades, but at what cost? While clothing consumption is skyrocketing, partly due to a trend known as "fast fashion", the consequences are disastrous for both the environment and human lives. Today the textile industry is the most polluting in the world, after oil. All around the world, people are promoting ethical fashion. We went to meet some of them, who showed us that it is possible to change the way we dress before the world is worn out.
The psychology of shopping
Buying a new outfit for a special night out, or a big date, or even just because you had a bad day has never been easier. But as we spend our hard earned money on what seems like an endless rotation of fashion items, feeling rich and momentarily fulfilled with all our trendy purchases and bursting wardrobes, a question springs to mind.
In an era where the cost of housing, education and even public transportation is on what feels like a never-ending rise, most of us living in a Western society can still nip to the stores after a long day at work or busy day school and get that instant rush of shopping gratification by buying brand new clothes. Thanks to stores like Primark, we can all purchase a carry-bag full of clothes in one trip, without having to break the bank. It doesn't matter if we wear it once, or twice because it’s so cheap, it has become disposable.
Although many consumers may not see an issue with this form of consumption, the short clips shown from the infamous ‘Black Friday’ sales, depicting hundreds of shoppers pushing and shoving through store doors at midnight to get the best deals, shines a light on a bigger issue that is broader than the fashion industry. It's based on materialism. This drive to acquire as many possessions as possible to make ourselves feel wealthy, to show status, has undoubtedly lead to the rise of these fast-fashion brands. But the feelings fulfillment and gratification after a shopping spree are always short lived and many of us go home with purchases we later regret. We vow not to make the same mistake again, but the sale at H&M tempts us with its promise of the newest summer trends and discounts at Zara are hard to resist.
So why do we repeat this cycle of buying? Because we are living under the illusion that buying cheap clothing in bulk makes us richer and fulfills us, when in reality the only one getting rich is the label’s shareholders. “Buying cheap clothing only makes us poorer and the owner of the fast-fashion brand richer,” points out Firth, creative director of Eco-Age and founder of the Green Carpet Challenge, whilst questioning how Inditex’s founding chairman Amancio Ortega Gaona, can be so rich (currently listed the 3rd wealthiest man in the world according to Forbes) whilst thousands of their workers overseas earn the minimum wage, or less.
In our pursuit for more style, more trends and more fashion for the lowest price, we seem to have become less concerned with asking how our clothes were made and more concerned with how we can attain more. As fast-fashion labels moved their manufacturing hubs overseas in their pursuit of high-volume production, low cost, we have become disconnected from the complicated chain of garment production. “The fashion industry really does represent one of the purest and most far reaching, far developed forms of global capitalism,” notes John Hilary, executive direct of charity ‘War on Want,’ in the ‘True Cost.’
Fast fashion's lucrative business model relies on the ability to continuously sell a high volume of clothes. H&M outsources most its labor overseas to countries like Bangladesh, where the working conditions are difficult to oversee. Our ability to resist the low prices is difficult, thanks to our brain chemistry. Combine trendy clothes and cheap prices, and you have a promising business model. But, what are the consequences?
The true cost?
When the western world is suffering from solid waste impact of ‘fast fashion, many other countries like Bangladesh, China, Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam are suffering various problems for ‘fast fashion’ concept, philosophy of quick manufacturing at an affordable price, which is used in large retailers such as H&M, Zara, Adidas, Peacocks, Primark, Xcel Brands, and Topshop. These brands are speeding up trends and shortening fashion seasons, giving clothing shorter lives in our closets and setting a mindset of needing more, more, more. As a result, we are consuming too much in too little time and overflowing landfills with clothing.
Only for maximizing profit, the prominent brands are promoting fast fashion concept, which is destroying our planet and creating obstacles to produce our items more ethically and sustainably regarding both nature and people.
Mindful business: While working for a microfinance firm in Trujillo, Peru, Patrick was introduced to the broken Peruvian footwear industry made up of over 100,000 shoemakers who possess remarkable talent yet lack access to consistent work, fair-wages, and brand access to established international markets. Having had extensive exposure to such potential juxtaposed with a lack of access in other developing countries, Patrick developed a vision to push the fashion industry in a new direction by serving as one of the first fashion brands to deliver a superior yet ethically-produced product to consumers.
How To Spot a Fast Fashion Brand
There are some key factors that are common to Fast Fashion brands:
Thousands of styles, which touch on all the latest trends.
Extremely short turnaround time between when a trend or garment is seen on the catwalk, or in celebrity media, and when it hits the shelves.
Offshore manufacturing where labour is the cheapest, with the use of workers on low wages without adequate rights or safety, as well as complex supply chains with poor visibility beyond the first tier and of subcontracting.
Limited quantity of a particular garment – this is an idea pioneered by Zara. With new stock arriving in store every few days, shoppers know if they don’t buy something they like they’ll probably miss their chance.
Cheap, low quality materials, where clothes degrade after just a few wears and get thrown away.
Solutions
Ways to avoid Fast-Fashion
1. Know your brands. Many designers and companies use ethical and sustainable practices but don’t market themselves as such. Spend some time digging into your favorite brands and learning about their practices. You may choose to support them more — or maybe never again.
2. Buy quality, not quantity. It’s better to buy one high-quality handbag than three mediocre ones. Ditto for jeans and home décor. Select for a lifetime of use, not just a season.
3. Shop used. Buying second-hand helps cut down on fashion waste and supports those who are choosing to pass their clothes along instead of just tossing them into the trash. (According to the 2015 documentary The True Cost, the average American throws away 82 pounds of textile waste every year.)
4. Donate your old clothes. When you decide you’re no longer going to wear something, find a way to consign it or donate it. There are many organizations today that make it easy to send off your gently used clothes, handbags, and more.
5. Buy fair trade or ethically made items. Buying Fair Trade Certified clothing ensures that garments were made by workers who were treated well. It’s a reminder that they’re supporting their families and seeking a better way of life.
What do you do regarding making more sustainable clothing choices? By tagging us with #theconsciouschallenge you can share your ideas!
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Sources:
https://experiencelife.com/article/6-ways-to-quit-fast-fashion/
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