Do you think, your apparel has nothing to do this fast fashion?
“According to a recent research (2024) conducted on fashion apparel globally ,the answer is no.” 7 out of 10 clothing we own are from fast fashion brands.
So your next question will be, “what is fast fashion doing in my wardrobe?”
You’re not alone! More than 73 % of people don’t know what kind of products they own. So what is fast fashion all about?
Let’s dive right in!
WHAT IS FAST FASHION ?
Fast Fashion is actually a term which is used to refer to a fashion based business which operates on producing large quantities of clothing designs from catwalk trends at low cost. The clothing collections change so frequently or in other words it only targets the most recent trends present in the clothing industry.
The reason fast fashion is getting popular is because it paves the way for mainstream consumers to purchase trendy clothing items at a low cost. But the cost comes at a price. Even though it may be trendy clothing, the quality is very low and mostly made of polyester which is a great environmental affecting compound in recent decades.
Models are the main reason behind the catwalk and fashion shows. The Top 10 female models have stated that catwalk is something that makes every women go bold and stunning.
The key things that build the fast fashion.
- It’s cheap
- The urge for Trend
- It’s disposable
When did fast fashion became popular ?
Ever wondered how it all started?
In the 1800’s fashion tended to be static and only minor changes were involved for the trends. This was due to the needs of clothing accessories like leather, wool, cotton and also the headache of manual weaving.
But when the Industrial Revolution came into existence, Many new technologies like sewing machines, cotton harvesters, and looms were introduced. Dress making doesn’t seem to be difficult at these times and it became cheaper, easier and a lot quicker.
Many of these dressmaking shops utilized groups of clothing laborers and home workers. Thus it eventually paved the way for Sweatshops with some safety measures. As time passed along with new technologies, Fast Fashion was coined in the fashion industry to refer to the quick turnover of designs that moved from the catwalk to current fashion trends and managed to be very famous in the mid 2000s.
Now clothing Industry is considered to be the most profitable industry and it is estimated around 108 billion dollar and expected to reach 223 billion dollar by 2024. These Top 7 high paying fashion jobs are considered to cross over the revenue of billion a year.
Why it considered to be bad ?
“Fast fashion isn’t free. Someone, somewhere is paying.” — LUCY SIEGLE
After a week of research, I do say we must completely agree with a famous journalist “Miss.Lucy Siegle“. Fast clothing apparel has made a series of impacts on the environment and the disaster isn’t gonna stop in the future.
In recent years, the fast fashion is referred as “Disposable Fashion“. This is widely due to the impact that is made in clothing industry.
Did you know that “Clothing industries produces a tenth of the world’s carbon emissions“ ? Yet we still didn’t take any major measures to reduce the number down. So what ways does the fast fashion affect us?
Look at the research conducted on landfill globally on the year 2024 below:
Global Statistics:
According to the study by Clean Clothes Campaign, 2024, “Three out of five fast fashion items end up in a landfill”. As we can see the popularity over the slow apparels is far more lower than fast apparels. This is highly due to the increase in demand for trendy clothing apparel and as a result, the increase in clothing produces more textile fabrics and other dyes which eventually results in higher amount of landfill and waste.
Environmental Impact :
The key to fast fashion is, it’s ability to produce goods in a fast manner. In order to create goods as early and cheaply as possible, it has taken procedure which does some serious damage to the environment. It is causing high amount of damage to the world in different aspects.
They are,
Global Impacts:
- 11 million tons of clothing is thrown out in the US alone. This is highly due to the fact that the fast clothing trends which is currently evolving into much larger sector in apparel industry. Each clothing we use contains of harmful chemicals which can cause harm to animals and mankind
- 20 percent of global water waste are caused only by Textile dyeing which makes it as the second most polluting industry for water.
- According to Levi Strauss & Co, A simple pair of jeans production emits carbon as much as driving a car 129 kilometers. Did you know that “A single t-shirt and jeans you wear uses 20,000 litres of water to produce” ?
- Approximately, tons of fabric are required to satisfy the needs of new clothing in which it takes 200 tons of water just to create one ton of fabric
Chemical Impacts on environment:
- Toxic fabric dyes and other harmful chemicals present in clothing products such as benzothiazole, which has been related to several types of cancer and respiratory illnesses, have been found in clothing apparel on the market today.
- According to the United Nations Environment Program, 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions are attributable to the clothing industry.
- Polyester is a kind of plastic involved in the making of cheap clothing materials, and it turns out to be that when you wash your polyester pieces of clothing, they shed into microplastic pieces, which then disposed into our water streams become so tiny even they can’t be filtered out. ORB media found plastic in 84% of drinking water worldwide contains microplastic, which leads to the harsh truth that we drink the garments that we throw out each year.
How to spot a fast fashion brand ?
Fast fashion brands can be easily found out, these are the garments that come from big manufacturing industries, and they tend to release the trend as soon as they see on the catwalk or modeled by a celebrity, or through social media. One of the main factor is these cloths are made from poor quality materials, so finding a fast fashion brand isn’t that difficult.
One key tip that can be asked yourself before purchasing a product:
Are their garments delivered in huge processing industries where laborers are paid unjustifiable wages?
The main characteristics to look for are:
- A large number of styles, which address the latest trends
- All the time when new pattern and design of clothing is seen on the catwalk, or in media, and when it hits the race, its turn around time is extremely short.
- Very bad quality material, these garments corrupt after only a couple wears and days.
- Very short amount of specific clothing style, this is thought spread by Zara, customers know whether they don’t accepting something they like, they’ll presumably pass up on their opportunity.
- Sweatshop production where work is the least expensive, with the utilization of laborers on low wages without satisfactory rights or well being, just as labour chains with helpless perceive ability past the primary level and of subcontracting.
Fast Fashion brands
Wanna know who are all behind the roads of fast fashion? These are some big brands that play a vital role in the clothing industry. Consider each one of them producing the green house gases and other harmful chemicals that can make mankind terrible. Awful, huh?
Here are the big players of fast fashion brands!
- Zara
- H&M
- Uniqlo
- Victoria’s Secret
- Urban Outfitters
- Nova
- Adidas
How to Avoid Fast Fashion
1. Know Your Style:
Style is the mark way you dress, and it incorporates the fit, colors, textures,
examples, and pairings of your garments. Realizing your style will help you make buys you will proceed to wear and cherish.
2. Know Your Brands:
Always keep a note on brands, make a list of brands you use and which are all fast clothing apparel, keeping in mind try to avoid buying those products.
3. Don’t forget Your Priorities:
You should have a priorities list in mind, only those things that are necessary and important right now should be purchased.
4. Switch to sustainable clothing:
Shop for sustainable clothing which can provide long term life and the best example for it could be “Business Casuals“.
Non Fast Fashion Brands
Here are some sustainable non fast fashion brands that pave way for sustainable products…
- Levi’s
- Fair Indigo
- MATE The Label
- Amour Vert
- Whimsy + Row
- People Tree
- Petite Studio
- ADAY
Facts You Wanna Know About Fast Fashion
The urge to stay ‘on trend’ has lot more to do than we could expect. It even damages and could make our everyday life immersible. Know how they impacts all around the world with it’s eager for to be on top and the its’ greed to be a everyday talk around the people.
Here are some most cold hard facts that would rethink your thoughts about fast fashion
- It takes around 2,720 liters of water to produce just one cotton shirt – a number identical to what a normal individual beverages more than three years.
- 1.4 quadrillion microfibres are assessed to be in the sea because of washing garments.
- One kilogram of apparel over as long as its life cycle makes 11 kilograms of ozone harming substances.
- Americans discard or throw clothing products of 14 million tons every year.
- Clothing products accounts for 20 to 35 percent of microplastic flows into the ocean. The State of Fashion, McKinsey 2020
- More than $500 billion of significant worth is lost each year because of clothing under utilization and the absence of recycling” (Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2017)
- Washing, solvents, and dyes used in manufacturing are responsible for one-fifth of industrial water pollution”. McKinsey, 2020
Can Fast Fashion be sustainable?
Sustainable fashion is a development and cycle of cultivating change to clothing items and the apparel system towards more ecological aspects that could highly avoid any causes of pollution in the environment.
Fast fashion is the most environmental affecting factors of the clothing industry. It will never be sustainable. The clothing industry needs to move away from mass product production and towards cheaply available materials.
Impacts from the clothing apparel incorporate, more than 92 million tons of waste created each year and 1.5 trillion liters of water burned-through, close by compound contamination and undeniable degrees of CO2 discharges. And clearly fast fashion has failed in environmental management.
Will Fast Fashion end ?
Eventually, I don’t figure fast fashion will end. There will consistently be a client needing apparel both quick and at low cost. The urge for low cost and hype over the trends cause fast fashion to survive. Ultimately, as consumers, we have a large responsibility in ending fast fashion. If we don’t take action, there will more microfibres floating over our daily drinking water.
Conclusion
In conclusion, fast fashion isn’t entirely about the trends or the hype around catwalk clothing. It has caused serious impacts on environment, animals and also mankind.
let’s strive a way for more sustainable fashion and began a decade for sustainable clothing apparel.
What do you think about Fast Fashion and it’s impacts ? Let me know on the comments below!
