Recently fast fashion is having an even faster turnaround with hundreds of stores all across the country shutting down and leaving thousands of people unemployed. Fast fashion is the term given to fashion industry brands that have such a quick timetable for their new trends that they must create their clothes as quickly and cheaply as possible. Because of this, the products are made with cheap fabric and encourage their clientele to throw away the clothes once they go out of style in the next few months. Likewise, the working conditions of those who are employed by these brands are less than suitable. Basically, fast fashion is bad for the environment and bad for the people involved.
But fast fashion has begun to meet its downfall. Dozens of companies like Wet Seal and Walmart are closing hundreds of their stores across the country. Why this sudden bankruptcy? We don’t know for sure. Possibly, this end of an era could have to do with the insane popularity of online shopping. Possibly, it could have to do with the new trend of having organic everything, from food to shoes. It is hard to tell exactly what is influencing all of these stores to go out of business, but one thing is for sure, this could be beneficial to the environment. With all the quick turnaround fashion, many of it gets thrown away into landfills. In fact, 5.2% of municipal solid waste generation is textiles. That’s 21 billion pounds of clothes per year, which is a lot.
Although the departure of these many stores is not going to make the earth cry, it will put thousands of people out of work. Some of the biggest companies you can think of (Macy’s, Sears, Walmart) are also closing their stores or even selling their companies all together. This puts a ton of people out of work.
One possible theory that is being discussed is that Amazon is completely taking over these businesses. Technology surpasses brick and mortar, and in the age of online shopping, we have no time to actually go to a store to buy things. Although many of these fast fashion companies are going bankrupt or out of business, Amazon continues to make the climb up the ladder of success. This calls into question if fast fashion is going all together, or if just another form is on the rise. Although people seem to no longer support fast fashion stores, it could be a possibility that fast fashion online stores are still on the rise.
According to Business Insider, as the new top dog, Amazon, seems to be pushing all other major retailers out of business. Although many apparel chains claim that they will address their use of fast fashion and try and increase their quality, their cries are not heard. Amazon has put pressure on many major retailers.It might just be the time make everything digital.