The Latest Looks for Less: The Truth Behind Fast Fashion
Written by Josie Lee
As the world recovers in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, many people are beginning to question the implications of their everyday lifestyle choices. From shopping locally to sorting the recycling, the changes being made have already had a hugely positive impact on our wellbeing. Nevertheless, one of the greatest threats to our planet has not only gone on to survive the pandemic, but has moreover continued to thrive in its aftermath. Responsible for more global carbon emissions than all international flights and maritime shipping combined, the fast fashion industry poses billion-dollar life-threatening consequences that the majority of its consumers aren’t even aware of. As most companies have no obligation to publicly disclose their detrimental global impact, it is only through research and close scrutiny that we as customers can truly understand why cheap prices come at a high cost.
So, what exactly is fast fashion? According to the Oxford English Dictionary, fast fashion is defined as “inexpensive clothing produced rapidly by mass-market retailers in response to the latest trends”. Contrary to popular belief, fast fashion is therefore not just limited to infamous cheap online marketplaces such as Boohoo, Missguided and Zaful. In fact, popular high street stores (including the likes of Zara and H&M) are equally as culpable when it comes to this harmful practice. Over the past twenty years, clothing production and consumption have doubled, yet consumers keep their clothes only half as long. Three out of five fast fashion garments end up in a landfill within a year of purchase, making it the fastest growing category of waste. Shockingly, it therefore comes as no surprise that an equivalent of one garbage truck of textile is wasted every second. In this way, it is arguably easier to think of fast fashion less as something to be consumed and rather as the process of consuming.
The detrimental effect that fast fashion has on the environment cannot be ignored. Worryingly, less than 11% of brands are implementing recycling strategies for their items. In addition, over half of the fabrics used by fast fashion retailers are made with polyester, which takes over 200 years to decompose. The textile industry is also responsible for 24% of insecticide use and 11% of pesticide use; these harmful chemicals can cause catastrophic damage to the natural world and its wildlife. The fashion industry is also the second-biggest consumer of water and is responsible for around 20% of the world's wastewater. Think about the clothes sitting in your wardrobe right now: take your favourite jeans, for example, almost five years’ worth of drinking water was wasted in the production of that one pair alone. That being said, perhaps the biggest problem posed by fast fashion is the dire working conditions which labourers must endure. This issue is made all the more serious by the fact that 60% of those who labour in the global fashion industry are children under the age of 18 years. Despite being recognised by the UN as a fundamental human right, 93% of fast fashion brands aren’t even paying their garment workers a living wage.
Given this information, it’s hard to comprehend why fast fashion is so successful. Many people continue to use exploitative brands purely out of convenience: fast fashion companies produce cheap clothes which can be delivered straight to your door with a few simple clicks. At a time when many people are still fearful to leave their own homes let alone venture out onto the high street, independent boutiques continue to suffer losses at the hands of the comparable ease and security of online shopping. In this way, the Covid-19 pandemic has actually benefited many so-called ‘fast fashion e-tailers’ which primarily operate online. For example, the cheap clothing brand Shein is estimated to have sold $10 billion worth of clothing in 2020 alone. Another reason why fast fashion is so prolific is due to the sheer quantity of clothes produced in conjunction with clever marketing designed to entice the customer to keep coming back even when they don’t actually need new clothes. According to fast fashion retailer Boohoo’s website, “there are up to 100 pieces hitting the site every day and a new collection each week.”
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
So how can we tell whether a brand is ethical without having to delve into a rabbit hole of research? There are actually many things which testify to the sustainable efforts of a fashion brand and luckily these aren’t difficult to look for. Brands which are committed to publicly disclosing their product supply chains are a good place to start. When a garment label says ‘made in China’, what this doesn’t inform the consumer of is the working conditions under which it was produced or the oil used in transportation, for example. However, more and more brands are becoming increasingly transparent when it comes to informing the customer of just such information, and this is reassuring that the brand is committed to worker welfare as well as environmental conservation. Leading on from this, another important thing to look for is whether a brand fully discloses the sourcing of their materials. That is to say, if a garment is made with partially recycled materials, in reality this may only make up a small percentage of the fabric used. While a garment may also be made of 100% recycled materials, these may not have been organically or sustainably produced and sourced, meaning that their impact on the environment is still harmful. Finally, it is important to know where the profits of your purchase are going towards. When it comes to fast fashion, a mere average of 0.6% of the profits from clothing sales actually go to the workers who produced them.
Ultimately, it’s difficult to envisage these brands making any major changes in the near future, primarily since their business models are so profitable. However, as we return to varying degrees of normal and begin to appreciate our daily lives once again, we will also find that it only takes small individual changes in favour of sustainability to make a massive difference. Shopping with a conscience has never been more important and never before has it been so fashionable!