Fashion is trends and trends are fashion. From girlfriend jeans to animal prints, trends are constantly determining the global face of fashion. However, trends have multiplied the number of fast fashion industries which have begun to negatively impact our society.
Fast fashion industries utilise strategies like trend replication directly from high-end designers’ catwalks, rapid production lines, shorter supply chains and low-quality materials to bring inexpensive replicas of high-fashion to the public. Short term effects on the environment and customer expenditure are negligible, nonetheless, the long terms effects are menacing.
Currently, the fast fashion production and supply chain processes equate to 8.1% of global greenhouse gas emissions and are projected to rise even higher due to the unprecedented strain on planetary resources. The environmental impact is not limited to the constant fuel released from the production houses but also the waste generated by consumers including packaging. Fast fashion has created the mindset of trend-bearing which induces individuals to continually purchase new sets of clothing which directly impacts the waste in landfills. A statistic from Economic Times states that average American women buy 58 new articles of clothing each year from which more than 50% is worn 3 times or less and generally lands up in the landfills.
Furthermore, fast fashion has become essential in today’s world because of social media pressure. Hasan Minhaj claims, “That outfit is going to be different from last week’s outfit because it’s on the ‘Gram” This necessity and creation of social media images has caused people to mindlessly purchase clothes from these chains. In recent years, brands like Zara, H&M, Vero Moda and others have captured the market by replicating inexpensive versions using cheaper materials to sell to consumers. An amalgamation of social media pressure and beauty standards with wearing expensive-is styled clothing for consumers, the fast-track fashion industry has created a niche for itself.
Additionally, the amount of oil, water and fuel needed to create these designs is threatening. Brands like these have to replicate ideas within weeks of it being on catwalks and runways, and therefore the environmental pressure exerted to fabricate these knock-offs is astonishing. Spandex alone uses 342 million barrels of oil to generate its slim-fit lines. Nevertheless, industries also use child-labourers to manufacture their “trend-setting” items which cause less-economically developed countries like Bangladesh to spiral into increased poverty. The awareness of these ethical issues has been highlighted be in Nike’s child labour case in 2015 or Gucci in 2012, people continue to purchase these goods.
Consuming fast fashion is a human habit, however, it must be reduced while raising awareness. Fast fashion is choking our lives with their benefits be it the fierce advertising, increasing social media pressures or the beauty standards, we constantly consume it without thinking about the disadvantages that accompany it. Fast Fashion will exist however how we choose to utilise it is in our hands.
