The Truth of Fast Fashion...

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