What is fast fashion? Here are some reasons why you should avoid fast fashion when possible.
The fast fashion industry is relatively new and causes a lot of damage to the environment, exploits workers and harms animals.
Fashion is a Tragic Reality
Clothes shopping was once an occasional event. It happened only a few times per year as the seasons changed and when our clothes outgrew ours. Something changed 20 years ago. Clothes became more affordable, trends accelerated, and shopping became a pastime. Fast fashion and global chains now dominate high street shopping and online shopping. What is fast fashion? What is the problem with fast fashion? How does fast fashion impact the environment, people, and animals?
In the shouldies, it was too good to be true. You could shop in these trendy stores with loose change and wear it a few times before throwing it away. Everyone could now afford to look like their favorite celebrity or follow the latest trends straight from the runway.
In 2013, Rana Plaza, a Bangladeshi clothing manufacturing plant, collapsed and killed over 1,000 workers. This was when people began to question fast fashion and wondered about the true price of $5 t-shirts. You might be well aware of the dark side of fast fashion. However, it is worth looking at how it got there and how we can change it.
What is Fast Fashion?
Fast fashion is defined as clothing that is cheap and trendy. It takes ideas from celebrity culture or the catwalks and transforms them into clothes in high-street stores at lightning speed to satisfy consumer demand. It is important to have the latest styles available as quickly as possible so that shoppers can grab them while they are still popular and then discard them after only a few uses. This is in keeping with the notion that wearing the same outfit over and over again is a fashion faux pas. If you want to be relevant, then you need to wear the most recent styles as they become available. Fashion is one of the most polluting industries in the world because of its toxic system of overproduction. Let’s look back at its history before we start to change it.
What is The Secret to Fast Fashion?
We need to go back in time to understand how fashion evolved so quickly. Fashion was slower before the 1800s. It was difficult to find the right materials, such as wool and leather, prepare them, weave them, then make clothes.
New technology was introduced by the Industrial Revolution, such as the sewing machine. Clothes were easier to make, faster and more affordable. To cater to middle class women, dressmaking shops were established.
Many of these dressmaking shops employed teams of homeworkers or garment workers. During this period, sweatshops were created, with the same safety concerns. In 1911, a fire erupted at New York’s Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. This was the first major garment factory disaster. It claimed the lives 146 garment workers, many who were young women immigrants.
In the 1960s and 1970s, fashion was a way for young people to express themselves. However, there was still a difference between high fashion and street.
Low-cost fashion was at its peak in the 2000s and 1990s. Online shopping became popular and fast-fashion retailers such as Zara, H&M and Topshop took over high street fashion. These retailers took design elements and looks from top fashion houses and created them cheaply and quickly. It’s easy for everyone to find trendy clothes online, which is why this phenomenon has become so popular.
Understanding Fast Fashion
Once, shopping for clothes was a special occasion. The ability to save money for new clothing at specific times of the year would be a benefit to consumers. Fashion shows would give the style-conscious a glimpse of what’s to come by showing new lines and collections several months before they are available in stores.
This all changed in the 1990s when shopping became an entertainment form and consumers began to spend more on clothes. Fast fashion, low-cost, trendy knockoffs that allow consumers to feel like they are wearing the same style that was worn by celebrities or walked the runway, is now possible.
Innovations in supply chain management (SCM), among fashion retailers, make fast fashion possible. It’s designed to produce clothing at a rapid pace in order to meet fast-changing consumer demand. It is based on the assumption that consumers desire high-fashion at a low price. Although the garments are made with care, they are not meant to be worn for many years or multiple times.
Category management is a way to link the manufacturer and the consumer in a mutually advantageous relationship. This collaboration is essential because fast fashion has a rapid pace.
Fast Fashion Leaders
H&M Group and Zara are major players in fast fashion. Although many companies can be both manufacturers and retailers, they may outsource the production of clothing.
Traditional mass-market department stores like Macy’s, J. C. Penney and Kohl’s have also taken inspiration from fast fashion. They have shortened the design and production time of their proprietary brands and in-house brands to be more competitive in the market.
What’s Wrong with Fast Fashion?
This comprehensive overview of the major issues caused by fast fashion brands contains tons of statistics and additional reading to help you get educated about clothes and their environmental and social impact. This is the problem with fast fashion.
What Environmental Issues Are Associated With Fast Fashion?
There is a high environmental cost to the endless creation of new clothing. The sector consumes 93 billion cubic metres of water each year, enough to supply five million people with their daily needs. It is also responsible for 20% of industrial water pollution due to textile treatment and dyeing.
Many problems are also associated with the materials and manufacturing processes. Cotton production is responsible for 6% of all pesticides in the world and 16%.
This industry is also responsible for as much as 10% of global carbon emissions and will continue to grow by 50% by 2030.
These problems are more widespread in the clothing industry, but plastic is a particular problem for fast fashion.
When Did Fast Fashion Begin?
Since the invention of the sewing machine, fashion has been growing rapidly. Ready-made clothing was popularized. You can choose from a variety of clothing options in ready-made clothing. This enabled the middle class to have more affordable access to fashion. However, custom and handmade tailoring and dressmaking remained popular until around a century later.
Fabric was rationed during World War II and the styles were simplified. Mass-produced clothing became more popular. Lower working standards were a result of mass-production. In 1911, 146 garment workers were killed in an accident at New York’s Triangle Shirtwaist factory.
From the 1960s through the 1990s, mass clothing production exploded. Labor and textile production were outsourced in the developing world. While the demand for affordable clothing was high, manufacturers sought out the lowest labor and materials. The pace at which clothing manufacturers began to produce was slowed down and trends were updated faster than four times per year.
Fashion supply chains created new production models in the 1990s to make them as efficient and fast as possible. Fashion retailers continued to reduce costs and increase production speed. It’s not unusual for stores to create weekly “microseasons” that bring in 52 collections each year. There will be consequences for such high production rates.
All images inculeded from www.pexels.com