Audience: High School Students
A woman with a bag from H&M, a prominent fast fashion brand. Image by Fernand De Canne from Unsplash.
You are sprawled across the couch, mindlessly scrolling through Instagram, when your finger pauses on an advertisement. It features a blue-eyed beauty, looking effortlessly gorgeous in a floral skirt. It’s almost too easy to click and discover the skirt’s selling on Shein for only a few dollars. You tell yourself that you need this skirt. By owning this, you could emulate the model’s magnetism, her charm. As you’re checking out, you figure there’s no harm in throwing in a dress or two, since the prices make it worth it, even if you don’t absolutely love it. Right?
This notion is entirely untrue. It’s the quickness of it, the lighting, the styling, and the model’s beauty that make you abandon rational thought. Why is the clothing so cheap? How does the company make a profit selling such inexpensive garments? Where are these clothes even coming from? None of these are considered in those five minutes it takes to order and press “buy”.
We often hear about overwhelming global issues like climate change, child labor, and ocean pollution, but claim no responsibility for the situation. We blame the industries and their factories. Ultimately, we blame the system: the suppliers' methods of meeting the materialistic demands engendered through our capitalistic society. We conveniently forget that the system we criticize caters to us. Through our normal everyday habits, we collectively drive every business on the planet. These daily practices, including how we dress and what we buy, are not as inconsequential as we might think. Our actions cause ripples, but no one wants to admit fault when we are all soaked by the wave.
For starters, fast fashion is the fashion industry’s response to this generation's constantly shifting clothing trends. These brands are known to exploit children, vastly underpay their workers, and function with the mindset of producing clothing as quickly and cheaply as possible. The garments are designed and manufactured rapidly, usually with low quality fabrics not intended to last many wears. Fast fashion brands are no small minority either, with numerous garments likely taking space in your own closet. Some of the most popular brands are Zara, H&M, Forever 21, and as previously touched on, Shein. These companies have some of the fastest clothing turnovers on the market, many ready for sale only days after designs are finalized. Zara, arguably one of the first fast fashion retailers in existence, “puts out 12,000 new designs and manufactures more than 450 million clothing items every day” (Lai 2022). Similarly, Shein “adds up to 10,000 new items to its app every day” (Singh-Kurtz 2023). Fast fashion appeals to the newer generations by advertising through social media, being quick on the latest trends, and selling designer-adjacent looks with hardly any strain on the wallet. All factors considered, it doesn't seem like the rise of fast fashion will be slowing down anytime soon, with projections that “by 2030 the sector will surpass 200 billion dollars, driven by a significant boost over the next five years” (Adegeest 2021).
One might wonder why people are so quick to condemn fast fashion. It’s affordable, stylish, and easily accessible, so what’s the harm in purchasing from these companies? The true issues, however, lie in the methods of the fast fashion giants and their willingness to compromise the health and safety of our environment through mass-producing poorly-made garments. The fashion industry “manufactures over 100 billion garments every year, with 87% ending up in the incinerator and only 1% actually being recycled” (Kent 2021). Fast fashion is a leading contributor to the modern throwaway culture, creating an estimated 92 million tons of textile waste annually. Fast fashion is normally crafted using non-biodegradable synthetic fibers, mainly polyester, and 40% of the fashion industry’s carbon emissions are a result of polyester production. Furthermore, the apparel industry as a whole is accountable for 4% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. To put the number into perspective, 4% of greenhouse gas emissions is roughly the output of the UK, France, and Germany combined. This number is growing exponentially, and “unchecked fashion production would account for 26% of all carbon emissions by 2050” (Environmental Audit Committee 2019). The damage to our environment from fast fashion doesn’t end at carbon emissions. Fast fashion companies regularly use heavy metals and extremely toxic dyes, which are the cheapest option during clothing production. These poisons taint otherwise clean aquifers, streams, and rivers, harming ecosystems and causing major biodiversity loss. Fast fashion retailers have one single goal: to profit as much as possible. These companies simply don’t care about our Earth or its people, unless they are taking our money or exploiting workers for cheap labor.
Paying work means survival, and in many countries, people take the closest job they can find. Fast fashion companies profit off of this desperation, employing workers and paying them hardly a living wage. In the world today, roughly 40 million people are working in “modern slavery,” being given so little in return for brutal, exhausting shifts. Fast fashion companies are the second largest contributor to this statistic. When you pull out your wallet to purchase a fast fashion garment and the price is almost strangely low, realize that the affordable prices are often a result of others’ suffering. The cheap tags are not without a price, and there are people barely surviving off of the salary they earn helping manufacture garments for fast fashion companies. Worse, fast fashion continues its reliance on child labor to continue fast tracking production times with a scarce monetary distribution. Already “11% of the children that are being forced to work are a part of the fashion sector” (The Guardian, 2017). These brands exploit children for their tiny hands and task them with the more delicate work during the manufacturing process, like picking cotton and stitching. The conditions these children are working in are not safe, since subcontractors have cut costs at almost every stage of garment production. The result: a dangerous and low-paying environment where small kids are denied their basic rights and freedoms.
The fast fashion industry has committed such atrocities against our environment, against people, and no one should stand by such a morally-challenged industry. However, many struggle with making a real change in their lives; it’s hard to shift fast fashion shopping habits that have become such a significant part of our closets. While it would be best to boycott all fast fashion brands, it simply isn’t realistic. However, it is less difficult to make a conscious effort to avoid fast fashion brands, while introducing a few new habits into your life. Your clothing output can be eased by simply handing down clothes you have outgrown to younger siblings, family members, or friends. On a similar note, receiving hand-me-downs can reduce your clothing consumption and lower the impact of your clothing waste on the environment. Similarly, instead of shopping at your favorite fast fashion stores, try thrifting as an alternative to buying new clothing. Buying second hand garments is an opportunity to step outside your comfort zone, all while supporting local thrift shops in your community. If thrifting isn’t your favorite, try to buy from sustainable clothing brands that use 100% recycled or biodegradable fabrics. These clothes last for a lot longer too, and in the case of any rips in the material, attempt to patch up the tear before immediately throwing it away.
Continuing on our current trajectory, the fashion industry will expedite its destructive resource-stripping practices. Children will be exploited and abused under the carelessly avaricious eye of fast fashion companies. Our world will be polluted by landfills swollen with synthetic fiber materials incapable of biodegrading. The symptoms of fashion-prompted global deterioration are already apparent, and we need to act before the damage proves to be beyond repair. This does not require an entire lifestyle switch; change begins with small efforts and a shift in mindset, away from brands looking to exploit people and the planet. Go buy a secondhand sweater, patch up that hole on your shirtsleeve, hand down the clothing you’ve outgrown to your cousins. These seemingly insignificant endeavors are all tiny steps towards the expansive issue of fast fashion. As a whole, we can slow the dramatic increase of fast fashion, taking the necessary steps towards a cleaner, fairer Earth. The rest lies with you, and your participation in the movement against this global issue.
Are you willing?
Bibliography:
Baruta, Chiara. “The Detrimental Effects of Fast-Fashion on Children’s Rights.” Humanium, 21 Sept. 2021, www.humanium.org/en/the-detrimental-effects-of-fast-fashion-on-childrens-rights/.
Darmo, Jennifer. “14 Hard Fast Fashion Facts and Statistics.” Good On You, 10 Aug. 2023, goodonyou.eco/fast-fashion-facts/.
Earthday. “Fashion for the Earth.” Earth Day, 30 July 2023, www.earthday.org/campaign/sustainable-fashion/?gclid=CjwKCAjwt52mBhB5EiwA05YKo1shXYDGKcjjkv8tmsFXjR7r3be7fWup-osRaG3V7V3CjoiBD2DIlBoCBdkQAvD_BwE.
Environmental Audit Committee. “Environmental Audit Committee - Publications - Committees - UK Parliament.” EAC Revisit Fashion Sustainability and Working Conditions in UK Garment Industry, 6 Oct. 2020, committees.parliament.uk/committee/62/environmental-audit-committee/publications/.
Lai, Olivia. “7 Fast Fashion Companies Responsible for Environmental Pollution in 2022.” Earth.Org, 15 Oct. 2022, earth.org/fast-fashion-companies/.
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