Spend less on trends

Fast fashion brands like SHEIN and H&M promote unsustainability and materialism

MARY MABRY a message from mary

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 from FASHION, page 27

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.

Trends

Fast fashion companies also use trends to attract customers. According to UQ, fast fashion clothes aren’t only cheaply made and priced but also “copy the latest catwalk styles and get pumped quickly through the stores in order to maximize on current trends.”

When clothing companies are on the pulse, buyers can’t help but indulge. If there’s a new style, they want to be a part of it. As Collective Fashion Justice said, “there used to be four fashion seasons. Today, there are 52 micro-seasons.”

By playing into a buyer’s desire to be on trend, fast fashion brands promote mass consumption; consumers must consume at the same rate the producer is producing. This isn’t a healthy cycle for either party and only results in more waste and harm to the environment.

SHEIN is the perfect example of this. Time Magazine cited an investigation that stated SHEIN added “anywhere between 2,000 and 10,000 individual styles to its app each day between July and December of 2021.”

Time also credited SHEIN’s social media presence to its success: it reached its young, susceptible audience through social media advertisement and use influencers to promote their clothing. Time describes this strategy as “widely successful” — contributing to SHEIN being “the world’s most popular fashion brand in 2022.”

Clothing lifespan

Cost, quality and trends combine to create another issue: These clothes ensure customers will come back for more.

If clothes don’t last long because they aren’t made of quality materials and/ or the clothes go out of style, consumers will be looking to buy again. Companies recognize these cycles and use them to their advantage.

Collective Fashion Justice cited this strategic move as “planned obsolescence” — clothes that are “designed to wear out or become unfashionable.”

This just adds to the number of ways that these brands encourage people to buy clothes frequently and in bulk.

What next?

Forbes said Generation Z is concerned about climate change and wanted to take action. However, it’s also the people keeping the fast fashion industry booming. Forbes cited a report that claims one in three Gen Z consumers said they “feel addicted to fast fashion.”

Companies use low costs, trends and short closet life to keep customers coming back. These are unsustainable, yet addicting, practices. After all, not many people want to pay for expensive clothes, dress “out of style” or wear the same clothes for an extended period of time.

So, what will break the cycle? Either fast fashion brands have to dissipate or the current culture of fashion has to. If one doesn’t give, we’ll be stuck in an endless loop of worker and environmental abuse.

CONTACT Mary Mabry at mabrymm@ dukes.jmu.edu. For more editorials regarding the JMU and Harrisonburg communities, follow the opinion desk on Instagram and Twitter @Breeze_Opinion.