Hello everyone! For this week, we’ll be talking about fast fashion. This is a topic that’s been so widely talked about these days. This post is a bit lengthy, but it’s worth the read, trust me. Without further ado, let’s get right into it!
What is Fast Fashion
Fast fashion is a practice whereby retailers produce cheap pieces of clothing that closely mimic runway designs or celebrity fashion for high street stores at accelerated rates to meet ever changing consumer preferences. Although this phrase, ‘fast fashion’, seems like a fairly recent term, it is surprising to see its roots reach back into the late 2000s with brands like Zara and H&M pioneering this ‘movement’.
The Fast Fashion business model
The fast fashion business model focused on speed and productivity by reproducing the latest runway fashions for consumers as soon as possible. To keep retail prices low and production costs even lower, retailers often utilised cheap materials and labour.
How did Fast Fashion come about
As with any other trend or business model, fast fashion didn’t happen overnight. It began in the 1970s when fashion became a form of self-expression. There was also a greater desire from people to follow the fashion trends or dress like their favourite celebrities. However, there was still a gap between ordinary (high street) fashion and high fashion. High fashion was way too costly and people couldn’t look the way they wanted without going broke. A few years later, fashion brands like Zara and H&M swooped in and bridged the gap between high street fashion and high fashion. Retailers began mimicking the styles of top designers while selling those clothes for cheaper. It was then, fast fashion was born.
Implications of Fast Fashion
This concept sounds good for both consumer and retailer right? Buyers get to stay up-to-date with the latest fashion trends without burning a hole in their pocket and retailers get to profit from their low costs of production. Yet, it is in this convenient mask of fast fashion, we too often neglect its deadly implications on the environment.
One emphasis of fast fashion is the need to keep costs low, meaning corners need to be cut during production. The use of cheap and toxic textile dyes is a major issue in the industry. These dyes are washed into water bodies from textile factories, polluting clean water sources. This makes the fashion industry the 2nd most polluting industry right after agriculture.
Furthermore, the manufacture of clothes uses the popular fabric polyester. What people don’t know is that polyester comes from fossil fuels. If the demand for polyester increases, then naturally the demand and usage of fossil fuels will increase as well. It goes without saying that fossil fuels have been contributing to global warming for decades and the fashion industry isn’t exactly helping with its tremendous demand for polyester. Polyesters also degrade over time to produce microplastics that enter our water basins, adding to the problem of microplastic pollution in oceans and other water bodies.
Lastly, cotton manufacture for clothes is not guilt-free as well. The growing of cotton requires a huge amount of pesticides just to keep up with its. The rampant use of pesticides is a key contributor to water pollution when they get washed into water bodies, either through surface runoff or groundwater movement.
In a nutshell
Turns out fast fashion is pretty bad for the environment right! Who knew! We hope that after reading this, you’re going to be more conscious of your spending behaviours, especially with all the summer sales right around the corner. Remember to just buy what you need and do your part. If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.
References
Linden, A.R., 2016. An analysis of the fast fashion industry. Senior Projects Fall 2016.
Good On You. 2020. Good On You. [online] Available at: <https://goodonyou.eco/> [Accessed 27 June 2020].
