1 minute read
Spend less on trends
from The Breeze 4.6.23
by The Breeze
Fast fashion brands like SHEIN and H&M promote unsustainability and materialism
MARY MABRY a message from mary
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Fast fashion is addicting. In fashion culture recently, trends pass faster than the seasons, and finding cheap clothes is a pastime.
Customers didn’t invent this culture — companies did, and it’s because they capitalize on mass consumption.
The cost
According to a poll of 29 respondents on The Breeze’s Instagram, low costs are the most popular reason respondents shop at places like Zara, SHEIN, H&M and Fashion Nova.
The Earth Island Journal said a key word in defining fast fashion is “cheap,” and that’s how it’s marketed. The publication asks: “What does it really mean for a sweater at H&M to cost as little as $9.99? And who is paying the price to produce such inexpensive clothing?”
There are no redeeming answers. Earth Island Journal said using cheap materials that harm the environment, expending immense amounts of chemicals and water and having a harsh working environment with little wages are the driving factors in making these clothes.
Price tags are extremely important to customers, which are why companies make clothes in a way that allows low retail prices. Although low prices should be a red flag to customers, they have the opposite effect: the cheaper the clothes, the more they can buy.
According to The University of Queensland (UQ), there’s been a 400% increase in clothing consumption in the last two decades — consuming “about 80 billion new pieces of clothing every year.” see FASHION, page 28
More consumption means more waste; as people buy more clothing, textile waste increases rapidly. This waste is especially harmful when made with cheap materials such as polyester, nylon and acrylic, UQ wrote, because they could take up to a 1,000 years to biodegrade.
Collective Fashion Justice reported this waste burdens poor communities and releases methane while sitting in landfills.
When companies make clothes in an unsustainable way, they promote unsustainable consumption as well.
