What Is Fast Fashion and Why Is It Bad?
February 16, 2022
We've all heard the term 'fast fashion'
being thrown around for god knows how long. And we either attribute it to the
big company corporations floating around or the immediacy of obtaining clothing
at any given time. At least to me it does.
I often think folks who I follow on
Instagram and who follow me, namely old childhood and adolescent friends, see
the type of content I put out and don't see any value or importance to them.
Like it's just a "passion project" I put out for funzies. Rather, they
click and move on. And I get it.. if it's something you're not exposed to on a
daily basis or have a close connection to, I don't expect you to drop
everything and suddenly enrol in a course to learn about said topic. However,
that being said, I do expect folks to take a few minutes out of their day and
let the information they're reading sink in for a bit, especially if it's
something repeatedly being broadcasted online. Perhaps we should think to
ourselves, "hmm...maybe it's...important? Perhaps I shall do a
quick Google search to find out why this is such a big deal." You
would be surprised as to how a quick search can rapidly turn into an immense
fascination and suddenly your ethics and values kick in and your brain cells
starts churning. In an ideal world, right?
This conversation isn't just about my
personal views, opinions and thoughts on fast fashion, nor is it only an
educational lecture. It is both, and I hope you reading this will sit and
follow along with me to unpack the destruction the fast fashion industry has on
both people and the planet and how our voice and money has lasting consumer
power. Because it matters and I want to be the helping hand in teaching you why
it does.
Let's start off with a
few definitions of what fast fashion is.
According to The Good Trade, fast fashion is defined as a design,
manufacturing, and marketing method focused on rapidly producing high volumes
of clothing. Investopedia defines it as clothing designs that move
quickly from the catwalk to stores to take advantages of trends. Wikipedia describes
it as a clothing industry business model of replicating recent
catwalk trends and high-fashion designs, mass producing them at
low cost, and bringing them to retail stores quickly while demand is
highest. It appears these definitions are pretty lacklustre and is a non-exhaustive definition of what fast fashion is and the complexities it
holds.
I can take a stab at
it? According to me, Yuddha Maharaj, fast fashion is the process of designing,
manufacturing and distributing clothing rapidly, that of which is disposable,
made with cheaply made fabrics and prioritizes profit over people. It's a work
in progress. But simply put, fast fashion does a lot more harm to all than we
think it does, and the industry does a wonderful job at hiding that cost.
Now that we've tackled
defining what fast fashion is, we can now delve into briefly talking about
the truth of fast fashion and why it is bad [not good,
horrible, toxic, unethical etc.].
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
Now, I was going to
present you with the fact statement the fast fashion industry is
the second largest polluter in the world", following
up with "Let that sink in". That is until I did a quick
fact checking and have come to learn that it isn't actually true. Before your
sudden interest and investment gets lost or reduces in care, it doesn't shrink
the cause of concern or change anything for that matter. According to Eco Cult,
The Eco Experts and Eco Jungle (a lot of eco's here), fast fashion falls between
the 3rd or 4th biggest polluting industry in
the world. That is still wild and just as frightening. So let's continue..
The first biggest
polluter in the world is the fossil fuel/oil and gas industry. I hope this does
not come as a surprise to you, reader, because it is a well known fact how much
the fossil fuel industry has greatly impacted our environments with the rise
of 'global warming', not to mention individual health. But the fact
that the fast fashion industry is at the top of the list tells you a lot.
The biggest connection and takeaway of this fact is that the reason why it
is one of the largest polluting industry in the world is because most of the
materials and textiles used in fashion such as polyester, nylon, rayon, and
acrylic, just to name a few, are all petroleum based synthetic fibres, which
all derive from fossil fuels. Petroleum is made from
crude oil, which also makes plastic, alongside a substance
called polymer. Have you heard of the term polyethylene
terephthalate? You may have seen it on a tag on a few of your
clothing. Polyethylene terephthalate is another way of saying plastic. That is
because majority of our clothing is made from plastic. Polyester, nylon,
acrylic and so on are all a form of this material. So basically, we wear plastic.
That is definitely not
a stretch of a statement to say, because it is very much true. In fact, plastic
is used in almost everything in our everyday living, we don't even realize it.
We eat it too! (But we're not talking about that, at least not now). With these
facts, it leads us to the consequential causes of environmental toxins, water
pollution and consumption, greenhouse gas and carbon emissions caused by
landfills and how that impacts human health and much more. The fast fashion
industry and production currently makes up 8% of total global
carbon emissions. Again, it was believed to be 10%, but that's
not so far off is it?
There is also another
added element to the environmental impacts and that is animals. For the sake of
keeping it brief, I will keep that until our next posts.
HUMAN IMPACTS
We should all know by
now that every action has a reaction. Just like our decisions have an impact on
many other elements in life. And so it goes with fashion. I'm not here to blame
or put the onus on you, reader, rather explain to you how powerful and
influential we really are and can be, both as consumers and human beings of the
Earth. But first, let's briefly unpack the impacts the fast
fashion industry has on people.
Fast fashion was
created by big billionaire dollar corporations with the sole purpose to
increase profit margins. In order to do so, this meant increasing demand which
then increases supply. Which ultimately creates this vicious cycle of
generating, producing and distributing clothing at an unreasonable speed. And
not to mention, the life cycle of clothing is built on a linear economy model
(make/purchase clothing, wear it, then dispose of it. We will talk more about
that in another blog post). How does one create demand you ask? Feeding us ideologies and
beliefs that we need new clothes every week, month, etc, that this item is in
trend, therefore we need it because if we don't, we are valued as less than and
excluded from the rest of society. Or they feed into our insecurities of what is
deemed acceptable, honourable and likeable (thanks Aja Barber for that lesson).
That's how you create demand, because if that is what is popular, then of
course I want to be in on it.
One fact dates back to
the 1990's where fast fashion company Zara had a mission to take only 15 days
for a garment to go from the design stage to being sold in stores. You might be
wondering why is that bad exactly? Surely it means it's more accessible
and the output is faster? We all love fast food (or maybe not as much,
I surely don't)? It's quick and easy and no time wasted, although it is frozen
and un-fresh and very unhealthy. It's a bit different with fashion, you see,
when there is a high demand (due to sales and popular trends. Did you know fast
fashion has 52 micro seasons? More on that in another post), the
supply needs to keep up, and that often means producing clothing at a inhumanely
rate at a much cheaper rate. So..
Who makes our clothes?
Humans do. Not
machines. I don't know about you, but it blows my mind that humans are making
[insert an absurd number] clothing for 14-16 hours a day for 7 days a week,
getting paid a couple cents per garment, or essentially below the minimum
living wage and in incredibly horrible environments with unethical labour
standards. These are garment workers, majority being women, from poorer or low
income communities in the Global South, such as Bangladesh, India, China,
Indonesia and Vietnam, just to name a few. Garment workers are the ones having
to make tens of thousands of the same clothing to distribute globally to the
masses. And they get little to nothing in return.
In 2013, the Rana
Plaza, a massive garment factory in the Dhaka District of Bangladesh, collapsed
due to a structural failure, leaving 1,134 garment workers dead and
approximately 2,500 injured. The structural issues and natural degrading of the
building was known to managers and building owners, but despite that, garment
workers were told to continue work due to pressures to complete orders. No
action was taken to fix the matter and after the collapse and death of 1,134
garment workers, majority women, this disaster soon spurred a global response
and call to action of the unethical, unsafe conditions, pressures and dangers
of the fast fashion industry. This remains the deadliest garment factory
disaster in history.
There is so much more
to delve into about why fast fashion is a horrible industry. I will be
making separate posts detailing the environmental impacts and human impacts of
the fast fashion industry, as well as tons of other blog posts speaking on the
many intersections fast fashion plays into in our society and the global world.
I want to make a
disclaimer that I am in no way a professional in deconstructing fast fashion
and sustainable fashion, rather my knowledge and information is a product of
the articles and books I read, the activists and educators I follow and admire
and my downright genuine interest and passion in advocating for a more
sustainable and ethical [fashion] future. I do plan on pursuing my studies in
sustainable fashion to some degree (degree, get it heh) in the near future, but
for now, this is a space for me to speak on important topics that I care about
in hopes of sparking interests (and thus taking action) or lighting a fire
under your arse.. because sometimes we need it!
Because the topic of
fast fashion is very complex and nuanced and carries with it oppression,
privilege and intersectionality, I will also be speaking on them to the best of
my ability. We can't talk about a whole picture without its many moving parts.
Let this be the
beginning of your learning and unlearning journey if it is, and I will gladly
learn with you.
SOURCES USED
Good On You:
https://goodonyou.eco/what-is-fast-fashion/
https://goodonyou.eco/what-is-fast-fashion/#:~:text=When%20Zara%20landed%20in%20New,to%20being%20sold%20in%20stores.
The Eco Experts: https://www.theecoexperts.co.uk/blog/top-7-most-polluting-industries#:~:text=1.,such%20as%20medicines%20and%20plastics.
Eco Cult: https://ecocult.com/now-know-fashion-5th-polluting-industry-equal-livestock/
Simply Enviro: https://www.simplyenviro.com/fossil-fuel
Threading
Change: https://www.threadingchange.org/blog/recycled-plastic-clothing#:~:text=So%2C%20how%20is%20plastic%20used,terephthalate%2C%20also%20known%20as%20PET.&text=Up%20to%2060%25%20of%20the,acrylic%2C%20nylon%2C%20and%20polyester.
Fashion Revolution: https://www.fashionrevolution.org/tag/who-made-my-clothes/
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Dhaka_garment_factory_collapse#Collapse_and_rescue
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