Fashion — the faster the better?
This might be true for a lot of things. Not so much when it comes to fashion. But why is that? Time seems to be running faster, can’t it be expected for everything else to try and catch up with this trend? And also…what does fast fashion even mean?
It seems that not so long ago, the term fast fashion just popped up and has been all around ever since. Try to google it and you’ll be swamped with over 3.8 billion (!) results. Nobody is gonna try and work their way through that jungle of information.
We want to help you understand what caused this awareness for fast fashion, the impact it has on us, our environment and things we can do about it.
What is Fast Fashion?
There are several definitions of fast fashion out there. Their choice of words might differ but they all come boiling down to this:
A quick and cheap way of designing, making and distributing copies of the latest fashion trends. Fast Fashion ensures a constantly changing range of fashion items is made available to customers at a low price.
How did Fast Fashion start?
We’ll need to jump back in time quite a bit to understand how the fashion industry has evolved to what it is now.
Before the 1800s, fashion items could only be made with resources that were available and easily accessible at that time. But it’s not like you could just go ahead and find the fabrics you like and then make clothes out of them. You’d actually have to raise your own sheep or find someone to buy the wool (or leather) from, spin and weave it,…Yes, it does sound like quite the process, right? That’s because it was!
Couture came in four seasons, spring, summer, autumn and winter. It was only available for the high society.
With the Industrial Revolution, new technologies, clothing factories and bulk production of clothes emerged. The sewing machine was invented and small workshops (or even sweatshops) started making clothes much faster, cheaper and now available to the middle class.
The beginning of the 20th century brought the first big incident: a fire in a New York factory killed more than 140 workers as a result of poor safety measures and working conditions. This might sound familiar because it reminds us of the 2012 factory fire that killed 112 people in Bangladesh.
In the 1960s, young people discovered the cheaper and fast made clothes as a way to express themselves. Demand increased and brands started outsourcing their production to developing countries to meet their customer’s needs and reduce production costs — drastically!
Since then, speed has been the driving force in the fashion industry. In the 21st century, you can now not only buy the latest fashion trends online — basically while watching them walk down the runway — but also expect to find a significantly cheaper option within a matter of days.
Zara has decreased its lead times (the time it takes from designing a product until it’s available for purchase in stores) to about two weeks, continuously bringing new fashion items to market. Online fashion brands such as Bohoo.com or Missguided even mention lead times of as little as a week. The pace has picked up to a point of no return.
What impact does Fast Fashion have on people and our planet?
Fashion used to be a seasonal thing — remember the four seasons we mentioned earlier? Meanwhile releasing new collections on a weekly basis has become the new reality. The conveyor belt of new fashion products has been programmed to run on the lowest cost possible, while making sure that items are replaced and customers’ wardrobes updated as often as possible.
While production of clothes has increased significantly over the past years, the number of times items are being worn has decreased. Where do all the items go, that have only been worn a few times? They end up in landfills, creating ridiculous amounts of textile waste.
And that’s only what happens at the end of the production cycle. The textile production itself accounts for a bigger carbon footprint than all flights and shipping combined. The use of cheap, toxic dyes and inks for printing has made the fashion industry the second largest polluter of clean water.
As if this wasn’t bad enough, cost cutting measures come at a price, too. How can you lower the production cost of a fashion item? By finding a cheaper option for the two things that make up those cost:
1. Fabrics
Most fabrics that are used in fast fashion items are man-made and almost entirely plastic fibres. Polyester and nylon are the most popular ones — they are extremely cheap and account for more than half of all apparel products.
The process of making these fabrics is not only energy intensive but also requires petroleum — quite similar to single use plastic. And we all know what plastic is doing to our planet. Even though clothes are not always thrown out after single use, they still shed microfibres every time you’re washing them. Buying a plastic bottle or a fast fashion piece — the impact on our oceans is the same!
2. Labour
We’ve already mentioned that most brands started outsourcing their production to developing countries. That in itself is not necessarily a bad thing. But what is, is that many brands are trying to keep their costs low by pushing factories in developing countries to compete against each other.
The only way those factories can stay in business is by lowering their prices even more — at the cost of their factories’ equipment and their workers’ wage. Not being able to invest in proper safety measures has already caused many deaths and will result in even more if things don’t change.
Reports have shown, that in many developing countries, such as Bangladesh and Vietnam, very little to none of the garment workers make a living wage. Paired with dangerous working environments and the lack of basic human rights, the true cost of fast fashion are way higher than those 9.95€ you’re paying for that brand new shirt.
The future of fashion — how to make change happen?
It is pretty clear that things need to start slowing down. It’s mainly on us as a consumer to be more mindful of the choices we make — if there’s no demand for fast fashion, there won’t be a need for supply.
So what can we do to make this change happen? We love Vivienne Westwood’s advise and can only encourage you to follow her three easy steps to support the slow fashion movement:
1. Buy less
This is probably the most obvious step. Buying less doesn’t mean you won’t have diversity in your wardrobe. Why not swap clothes that you don’t enjoy as much anymore with a friend? Or just organise your wardrobe and try to find new outfit combinations that you haven’t thought of before.
2. Choose well
There are so many brands out there, why not pick the one that uses high quality, eco friendly materials? Choose small brands that disclose their ethical and environmental credentials. If it’s a made to order option, even better. This way the brand isn’t contributing to even more waste by making products that might not end up being bought.
When it comes to options, choose the healthy, environment friendly one. You can still wear a fun statement shirt but go for the brand that uses toxic free inks for their prints. That doesn’t mean they’re less fun!
3. Make it last
Choosing high quality products will make this last step even easier as they’re build to last. Just don’t forget to take proper care of them by paying attention to their washing instructions and then wear them — until they’re worn out!
Support us on our mission and build your way to a sustainable and eco friendly wardrobe! And don’t forget to make it fun — here are some pieces that make sure you do!
Originally published at https://whatsambesays.com on April 24, 2020.
