GreenStyle: Fast Fashion

Fashion has always been an ever-changing industry, with trends that come and go in the blink of an eye. However, fast fashion has drastically changed how we consume and perceive fashion in recent years. A Journal entry on Wikipedia states that fast fashion is a business strategy that involves replicating new fashion designs and trends, mass producing them for consumers at little to no cost (Wikipedia, 2024). While it may seem convenient and affordable to keep up with the latest fashion trends, it has significant environmental and social impacts on society. The rapid rise and fall of fashion brands, the high consumption rate of fast fashion, and the reasons behind it all contribute to the negative impacts of fast fashion. 

The Influence of Fast Fashion in our Society Today: Fast Fashion encourages a culture where clothes are seen as throwaway items, and consumers buy excessively without much thought. It creates a sense of urgency and makes consumers feel like they need to update their wardrobes constantly to keep up with the current fashion trends. This leads to a cycle of overconsumption and contributes to the environmental and social issues we see today (Alex, 2024).

The Rise of Fast Fashion Brands: In the late 1900s, Fast Fashion emerged, offering replica trendy fashion items. They are mass-produced and sold to consumers at a high rate (Adam, 2024).

The Environmental and Social Impacts It Has in Our Society Today: Clothing Waste – Fast Fashion makes consumers change their wardrobe frequently. Therefore, it contributes to much waste in our environment today. According to Bick et al., 80 billion pieces of new clothing are purchased every year, and of those 80 billion pieces, an average person in America throws away nearly 80 pounds of clothing and textiles yearly, taking up 5% of landfill space (Bick et al., 2018).

Fast fashion trends and the consumption of mass-produced clothing have skyrocketed since the entrance of online clothing shopping in the early 2000s. Most people have reached for their computer when needing a last-minute outfit and have come across sites like Shein, Asos, Zara, and even Amazon. Shopping with companies as listed contributes to mass-produced clothing and employee exploitation in some cases. Several articles have been written about Shein’s conditions in their factories and how they can make clothing quickly and put it out at a low cost for consumers.

Shein is an e-commerce retailer founded in 2008 in China that strives to offer accessible, cheap, and trend-forward clothing pieces. This company had accelerated growth amid the COVID-19 quarantine in 2020; everyone was stuck inside their homes and unable to shop in malls and outlet stores, so they turned to Shein. In 2021, Shein’s valuation doubled from $15 to $30 billion (Ria, 2023). Shein had a significant consumption rate due to the advertising on Tik Tok and Gen-Z, deeming it a cheap and fast way to shop for clothes online.

It is a well-known fact that Shein employees are mistreated and paid unfairly because of the pop-culture blast it gets online, and recently, Shein invited online influencers to take a trip to their factory based in China, where there were seemingly clean, fair, and innovative working conditions which shocked influencers. In October of 2022, the U.K. broadcaster Channel 4 had an undercover employee film inside two factories in Guangzhou to explore the real happenings inside Shein factories.

“Workers in both factories were working up to 18-hour days and given only one day off a month. In one factory, the outlet found women washing their hair during lunch breaks, and workers were penalized two-thirds of their daily wage if they made a mistake on a clothing item” (Singh-Kurtz, 2023).

Zara started out as a family company in 1975, by Amancio Ortega and Rosala Mera. Zara was originally known for selling cheaper knock-offs of high end and luxury brands for consumers. Zara is praised for forecasting trends with the consumer in mind and can roll out a new summer line like nobody’s business.

An article by Attire Media sheds light on the environmental damage and negative impact Zara has with its scarily fast production rates and dangerous materials used. Zara uses a material called viscose which is made of wood pulp from endangered trees. Viscose production in countries like India have experienced water contamination due to Zara using this material in clothing.

Zara’s lack of transparency goes unnoticed at times because they are able to meet consumer demands within weeks; some people will take flashy garments over the unsettling truth at the end of the day. Zara continues to be a leading and popular retailer in the world of fast fashion and online shopping. With fast changing trends and the consumers need to have the new “it” piece of the season, Zara is creating thousands of pieces to be put in stores weekly.

Whether you shop online or in store, fast fashion retail stores are contributing to 10% of total global carbon emissions (Maiti, 2024). The production of clothing from these stores dry up water sources, pollute bodies of water, and heavily impact the number of textiles thrown into dumps each year. Understanding these issues is a small step on the ladder to fixing the issue; by shopping second hand, vintage, or even using your older cousins hand-me-downs, you are helping eliminating the problem of fast fashion waste and “straight-to-consumer” production.

The fast fashion trend, represented by brands such as Shein and Zara, has lead to the production of trends at a faster rate and on a larger scale, resulting in consequences. As consumers become more aware of the impact of their choices, there is a growing demand for a shift towards sustainable and ethical practices in the fashion industry to address the pressing environmental and social concerns associated with fast fashion.

References:

Wikipedia contributors. (2024, February 19). Fast fashion. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 22:30, February 20, 2024, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fast_fashion&oldid=1208986429

Adam, H. (2024, February 13). Fast Fashion: How it impacts retail manufacturing. Investopedia. Retrieved 1:43, February 20, 2024, from https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/fast-fashion.asp

Williams, E. (2022). Appalling or Advantageous? Exploring the Impacts of Fast Fashion
From Environmental, Social, and Economic Perspectives. Journal for Global Business and
Community, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.56020/001c.36873

Alex, A. (ND). Fast Fashion Social Impacts And How It Affects Society. Panaorium. Retrieved 2:17, February 22, 2024. from https://www.panaprium.com/blogs/i/fast-fashion-society

A brief history of shein. Future Startup. (2023, November 6). https://futurestartup.com/2023/11/06/a-brief-history-of-shein/

Singh-Kurtz, S. (2023, July 5). Shein takes influencers on factory “tour.” The Cut. https://www.thecut.com/article/shein-influencer-factory-tour.html

Zara: A success story. The Enterprise World. (2021, November 18). https://theenterpriseworld.com/zara-a-success-story/

Media, A. (2021a, July 3). How ethical and sustainable is Zara? – articles: Attire Media. Attire. https://www.attiremedia.com/popular-brands/is-zara-ethical-and-sustainable

Maiti, R. (2024, January 5). Fast fashion: Its detrimental effect on the environment. Earth.Org. https://earth.org/fast-fashions-detrimental-effect-on-the-environment/