Fast Fashion

Fast Fashion

What is it?

Fast fashion is cheap, trendy clothing, that takes ideas from the runway or celebrity culture and turns them into garments at an alarming speed and low cost. It has recently become more popular with Gen Z and Millennial culture, as these young adults strive to be on trend and fashionable.

Why is Fast Fashion Bad?

Fast Fashion’s impact on the planet is huge. The pressure to reduce costs and speed up production time means that environmental concerns are very low priorities. The use of cheap, toxic textile dyes is a prominent issue – with the fashion industry the second largest polluter of clean water globally after agriculture.

Garment workers are also exposed to dangerous working conditions with very low wages.

Animals also see negative consequences from the Fast Fashion industry, as the toxic dyes that are released in waterways and microfibres that can be ingested by ocean life. Leather and fur garments also put certain animals at risk.

Finally, Fast Fashion harms buyers themselves, encouraging the “throw-away” culture because of both the built-in obsolescence of the products and the speed at which trends are produced.

How do Popular Brands Hold Up?

Forever 21 is one of the bigger companies that utilize fast fashion as their basis. From low worker wages, to cheap, unsustainable, unethical materials, they are certainly one to avoid. Similar brands include H&M, ASOS, Zara, Shein, Revolve, and Victoria's Secret.

Below is a list of Eco-friendly, sustainable, and ethical clothing/ accessory brands. They range in price and styles.

Pact: Organic, ethically sourced.  $$

Everlane: Ethically sourced. $$

Groceries Apparel: 100% recycled fabrics, organic. $$

Tentree: Plants trees for every purchase. Organic, ethically sourced, vegan friendly. $$-$$$

People Tree: Fair trade, sustainable. $$$

Patagonia: Look for recycled materials garments. $$$

Fair Indigo: Organic, Ethically made, sustainable. $$$

TascPerformance: Built by bamboo, sustainable, organic. $$-$$$

United by Blue: Organic cotton, Recycled Polyester, certified B-Corp, and for every purchase, they remove a pound of trash from waterways. $$

Allbirds: Footwear that minimizes its carbon footprint using sustainable materials: (Even the shoebox is made of 90% recycled cardboard!) $$

Sea2see: sunglasses and frames made from 100% recycled ocean plastic. $$$

4Ocean: bracelets made from recycled glass and polyester, and for every one purchased, they remove a pound of plastic from oceans and coasts. $$

How to Spot Fast Fashion Garments. From Eluxe Magazine

Check the materials. Unless they’re made from vintage, upcycled or waste fabrics, the textiles used by  sustainable clothing brands should be made from recyclable, renewable materials like linen, hemp, or silk. Organic cotton is okay, as it is biodegradable and (unlike ‘normal’ cotton) isn’t GMO – but it does take a lot of water to produce.

As for leather – unless it’s recycled from old car seats, coats and the like, sorry – it’s not eco-friendly. The same goes for fur.

Examine the company's CSR policy (corporate social responsibility)

Always take these with a grain of salt – to keep shareholders happy, companies tend to exaggerate the good in their CSR reports and ignore the bad

Look beyond the obvious. What does a company do to reduce their enviro impact beyond textiles, dyes, and ethically paid workers?

Beware of anything made far away! Fast fashion brands like H&M, Primark and Joe Cool can only exist because the slave-like working conditions of their Chinese, Bangladeshi and Cambodian employees and a blind eye turned to environmental regulations keeps prices low, low, low.

Solutions to Fast Fashion

Buying from Eco-Friendly brands. This will take some research, however it is worth your time and effort.

Buying Eco-Friendly fabrics. Buying clothes made from fabrics like organic cotton, recycled polyester and wool (amongst others), can help to ease the burden placed on the environment by fast fashion.

Wearing out Clothes. The longer you make your clothes last the less often you’ll have to buy new clothes and feed into the system of fast fashion; ways to make your clothes last longer include, buying quality pieces, wash less, dry your clothes on clothing racks and learning basic mending skills.

Donating old clothes to organizations/charities that will either recycle the materials for future use or resell them.

Raising Awareness about the problem of Fast Fashion. Fast Fashion is something that the general population is unaware of. Educating on what it is, how it affects the environment and affects their daily lives (economically) can be the first steps in getting people to care and make a change.