Q UA N T I T Y
NOT QUALITY
“Fast fashion isn’t free. Someone, somewhere is paying.” — Lucy Siegle
Clothing design. Creation. Marketing method. Cheaply made. On-trend clothes. Inexpensive styles for the public. Speedy supply chains. Fast pace of manufacturing. Outsourced and underpaid labor. Staying relevant. Toxic system. Overproduction. One of the largest polluting industries. Sweatshops. Safety issues. Catwalk trend replication. Globalization. Ton of waste. 600-900 new styles every week. High volumes of clothing. Low-quality materials. Even lower costs. Overwhelming consumerism. Harmful impact on the planet. Consumer-driven life. Overseas factory workers. Lack of moral lines. Human rights violation. New season every week. Desire to buy more. Everyday hobby. 10 percent of annual global emissions. Second-largest consumer of the world’s water supply. Toxic dyes and chemicals. Highly profitable business model.
FAST FASHION, the phenomenon which took over the high street in 00s and made the low-cost fashion reached its zenith. Leaving the planet, the people and the animals crying.
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PL ANET, ANIMALS &HUMAN COST Looking at the detrimental impact of the fast fashion we really are left wondering if there is anything good about it. The pressure of speeding up the production time, cutting all the costs, and focusing only on the profits make us wonder how is it even possible? Well, it is not. Unless we decide to care less about certain issues. The whole system of fast fashion seems to be just wrong. Cheap and toxic textiles dyes make the fashion industry the second largest polluter of clean water globally after agriculture. Low-priced textiles contribute to global warming and add to the increasing levels of plastic in our oceans when it’s put through the wash. Even “natural fabrics” can be a problem in fast fashion. Conventional cotton requires enormous amounts of water and pesticides in developing countries. Which then end up being a competition for fundamental resources between companies and local communities. Also, it’s not hard to imagine how shipping from the other end of the world is tragically polluting the air and waterways. Billions of animals are brutally killed every year for the clothing industry. The earlier mentioned toxic dyes and textiles are released in waterways and often ingested by ocean life. And that is not all. Thanks to the terrible conditions in fur
farms and the amount of real fur being produced we reached the days when it’s actually become cheaper to produce real fur than fake substitute. The speed of fast fashion manufacturing also means that more clothes are disposed of by consumers, creating a huge amount of textile waste. Unwanted clothing ends up in landfill or being destroyed. But how do we expect smaller and cheaper brands to grow up if the “prestigious” fashion houses they look up to, burn their not sold collections as they can’t bare the idea of “not so rich” people wearing their designs? Pathetic. Instead of manufacturing locally, the big players of fast fashion prefer the never-ending supply chain business model with the production in Asia thus they don’t have to spend that much money on the labor. Health of garment workers is in jeopardy not only because of the exposure to the toxic chemicals they work with. It looks like their employers are even more destructive. Dangerous environment, lowest wages in the world and poor labor conditions without basic human rights are other reasons of devastating impact on people physical and mental health. Even though the fashion world had a major reality check in 2013, when the Rana Plaza factory in Bangladesh has collapsed killing over 1000 people and injuring over 2500 more, most of the factories STILL do not meet standards required for safe and decent work environment. And the garment workers voices are left unheard. In the long run fast fashion affects even the group of people at the other end of the supply chain, creating the “throw-away” culture of its consumers.
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HOW DID IT ALL HAPPEN “Industry’s top players convincing us that we’re behind trends as soon as we see them being worn.”
Back in 60s/70s, when there was still a visible distinction between high fashion and high street, for young people creating trends was a form of personal expression. They didn’t want to follow the rules, but to be themselves. Thirty years later people found themselves in the situation of fast fashion, which democratized the industry by copying the designs from the top fashion houses and reproducing them quickly and cheaply. Suddenly everyone was able to dress like their favourite celebrity and shop for on-trend clothes whenever they wanted. Not so long ago we all used to have four seasons of the year. Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, which for Fashion industry worked as two: Spring/ Summer and Autumn/Winter. Billions of wasted clothing later the already disposable society was welcomed to the newly set standard of brands bashing out 52 “micro-seasons” per year or one new collection a week.
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This sinful industry is designed to make people feel out of trend after one week, highlighting that outfit repeating is an unforgettable fashion faux pas. With the rise of influencer culture, through the visual platforms like Instagram, nowadays it is even easier to follow up on your favourite celebrities’ styles to get inspired or… manipulated. The Fast Fashion leaders might be cruel, but they are not stupid. With few good marketing strategies on their side the odds are you will end up buying from them anyway. Either you don’t have spare tens of thousands on your account to spend on the new designer dress Kim K has just worn, or you follow a social media queen who has deals with Fast Fashion brands in place... Whatever and whoever you look at on social media it is designed to make you strive for more and more of it. And If you want more, you probably want it to be cheaper.
Well, there’s nothing better than Zara, H&M, Topshop or even better Missguided, Forever 21, Boohoo and Fashion Nova to fulfill that constant sense of need. While one could think that’s the worst aspect of social media era, there is more to come… Not only one can easily look for the inspiration, but it is also easier to be seen by others. “According to a 2017 survey commissioned by the London sustainability firm Hubbub, 41 percent of 18–25-yearold’s feel pressured to wear a different outfit every time they go out.” It is not hard to connect the dots and see how this, one of the most wasteful industries, can lead to anxiety and give one a sense of worthlessness, if they won’t manage to be on top of all trends and stay relevant. It is sad and disappointing how something what started from being a form of personal expression ended up being a psychological trauma.
“Don’t be into trends. Don’t make fashion own you, but you decide what you are, what you express by the way you dress and the way you live.” — Gianni Versace 7
GREENWASHING In other words, the clever way of using marketing to portray an organization’s products or activities as ethical and sustainable when they are not. It is a pretty name for a very blunt act of lying and misleading the customer to make them believe something that is not true. Everyday there is more people becoming aware of fashion’s impact on the planet, who want to participate in solving the issue. On one hand it’s amazing news, on the other it is a perfect situation for devious Fast Fashion brands to try and cover their environmentally damaging actions with some nice branding and slogans. Having plenty of newbies to the subject makes it extremely easy to catch those not yet fully aware individuals and simply fool them. While greenwashing in fashion industry might be not as obvious as it is in the fossil fuel industry, (Looking at the biggest oil companies in the world choosing green as its primary branding colour and using nature references really is amusing if you think about it. Unfortunately, it does work for some of us.) there are ways of identifying the fast fashion greenwashing bullshit. We just need to pay more attention to details and not allow Fast Fashion brands to fool us with their minimal approach to branding, as there is definitely more to be changed in their business models than filling up those head offices with beautiful plants. Probably a living wage for the garment workers would do as a first step.
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WHAT’S NEXT Even though many would consider the millennials and the zoomers careless or even lazy. It’s probably the fear of putting the future economy in hands of social media kids. However, the generations themselves have made it clear “we’ve grown too clever for mindless consumerism, forcing producers to become more ethical, more inclusive, and more liberal if they want our money.” It is essential, that brands are transparently communicating about their achievements, at the same time being honest about their business model, supply chain and ethics. While it is very important that we start with ourselves, shop more mindfully, use what is already there, minimize the waste without impulsively following all the trends, it is good to know there is a whole generation which don’t turn a blind eye. Even more, is willing to spread the awareness and fight for the whole system to be changed. Let’s remember that not often we can change a lot as individuals, (especially in such a toxic case),
but as a united conscious society.
“Individual consumer choices are the beginning of something bigger” 9
“Buy less. Choose well. Make it last.” — Vivienne Westwood