Taylor’d wi Style
Fashion in the Fast Lane By JeanAnn Taylor
I
hope you are not disappointed to learn this present-day fact of the clothing industry: not all apparel designers and manufacturers genuinely care about your exquisite sense of style. In fact, many care solely about your wallet—and they want what is in it. The mindset of today’s fashion industry has reshaped the way we perceive fashion, the way we shop, our options for clothing purchases, and in fact, our whole clothing culture. The term “fast fashion” is used to describe the quickly manufactured, cheap clothing created by mass-market retailers. Once upon a time, with each new season, fashionistas flocked to fashion shows in New York, Paris, and Milan to be the first to see avant-garde fabrics, colors, and silhouettes. The majority of us waited for our favorite fashion magazine to arrive in snail mail before getting a glimpse of the newest trends. Now, thanks to the Internet, we have immediate access to new runway fashions, and many of us want to be the first lady on the block seen wearing those hot new designs.
18 | 50+ Living | June 2019
To accommodate our desires (and their bank accounts) imitations of catwalk designs are hurriedly mass produced. In an effort to produce these garments as swiftly as possible, shortcuts are taken. In an effort to produce them as cheaply as possible, poor quality materials are used. The low-quality, poorly constructed garments are then quickly shipped to stores to sell to the mass market while images of skinny, sexy models are fresh on consumer’s minds. Fast-fashion chain stores receive new shipments each week, some several times each week, and they need to sell their inventory as quickly as possible. To meet their goals, they conspire to convince consumers that the blouse purchased last week is already out-of-fashion and needs to be replaced. If that strategy doesn’t work, their next tactic will. The cheaply made clothing is literally designed to fall apart, often within one or two washings. This makes it necessary to buy more clothing . . . which will fall apart, or pill, or tear . . . making it
