THE WORLD

Fast fashion is a term we hear thrown around a lot these days, so much so that it’s almost beginning to lose its meaning. The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as “inexpensive clothing produced rapidly by massmarket retailers in response to the latest trends”. The big problem is the speed at which these trends cycle, meaning that people are more likely to throw away their fast fashion clothing to make room for newer items. With environmentalism becoming a trend, especially after the school climate strikes and Greta Thunberg’s speeches, it’s easy to shun fast fashion using performative activism; sharing posts Instagram stories, or by avoiding more expensive wasteful brands, like Zara or H&M, because people on social media are telling you it’s bad. But with cheap, trendy items being made more rapidly than ever, and TikTok encouraging people to “run not walk” to buy them, it’s hard to resist the temptation. It feels like Shein has grown, which has become very popular in recent years, despite the climate crisis becoming more prominent, and young people of the same demographic advocating for environmentalism. It’s crucial that we engage with environmentalism more actively, rather than just following trends, especially as we are the generation most responsible for making a difference.

Another term that has started to lose its meaning is the concept of ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’. People tend to forget the most valuable step: trying to reduce our consumption of new items, items which have created to fulfil the demands of the changing fashion world. We seem to have a fear of repeating outfits, and these days, social media pushes the concept of buying a new outfit for every special occasion. This is why it is more important than ever that we normalise seeing people re-wear the same outfits and discourage over-consumption. People overlook the idea of ‘shopping’ from your own wardrobe: try looking through what you already own and putting combinations together that you hadn’t previously considered.

There are several issues with over-consumption of first-hand clothing. Firstly, the amount of water used to produce a single item of clothing is astronomical, with an average of 2,700 litres needed to make a single cotton t-shirt. Secondly, the working conditions in factories for shops like Shein are awful, with the Guardian reporting that at one point, “some workers at factories supplying Shein reported working more than 75 hours per week”. And thirdly, the quality of new clothing is just not what it used to be, due to the growing demand for new clothing, as quickly as possible.