The Dangers of Fast Fashion and Short Trend Cycles
Fast fashion is often related to issues concerning sustainability, such as overconsumption and textile waste. In today's world, fast fashion describes clothing brands like Shein, which produces cheap clothing from sweatshops. However, the original term was created to identify companies that produce garments from start to finish in a matter of weeks, rather than the previous industry standard of up to six months.
The term was officially coined by The New York Times in the early 1990s in reference to the fashion brand Zara. At the time, Zara produced garments in just 15 days from design to retail sale. When describing a particular garment, fast fashion does not imply that the clothing was produced cheaply in a sweatshop; fast fashion refers to the amount of time it takes a garment to be produced.
As more brands began to follow this production model, consumers noticed new clothes in stores more frequently. For example, a store would have an entirely new stock of clothing every month or two. The increased production of clothing eventually led to the quick appearance and disappearance of trend cycles.
Consumers began to believe that the clothes that they owned or recently purchased were already out of style, as retailers added entirely new selections at faster rates. With social media and the internet, brands can easily track what trends people are following, causing many companies to adopt a fast fashion model in order to keep up. Between brands trying to keep up with consumers and consumers trying to keep up with trends, issues involving labor exploitation, sweatshops and overconsumption enter the conversation.
Shortened trend cycles drastically increased the amount of clothes a person buys annually. This is evident through the vast amount of textile waste found in landfills. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, over 4 million tons of textile waste contributed to landfills in 1990, whereas 11.3 million tons of textile waste contributed to landfills in 2018. The amount of textile waste is increasing at an alarming rate and is a large concern in regards to environmental conservation.
People are buying more clothes than they used to before, and the only way this can be justified is if the clothes are produced cheaply. This is why fast fashion has now become synonymous with labor exploitation. Companies achieve cheaper prices by employing individuals to make clothes at a less-than-livable wage. Along with this, employees work with cheap, low-quality materials that aren't made to last. The amount of stitching and hemming required to manufacture an item can lead to a higher price, therefore, the material used by fast-fashion brands results in poorly made clothes that are not designed to last as long.
Although low prices and low-quality materials do not guarantee that a company is using labor exploitation, there are still ways to shop more consciously. Of course, buying thrifted or secondhand items is a more sustainable option that does not contribute to labor exploitation. However, the most sustainable clothes you can wear can be found in your own closet. Buying so many clothes from any brand or thrift store can often lead to unnecessarily throwing away reusable clothes, which continues to contribute to landfills and that extreme amount of waste that we should aim to eliminate.
Laura Brill — March 13th, 2022
