I’m sure we’ve all heard it by now: fast fashion harms our planet and uses slave labor in under-developed countries. Thanks to documentaries like The True Cost and a handful of social media gurus speaking out, we understand how fast fashion is harmful, but we hear less about our role in helping to solve the problem than the plain fact that there is a problem. Many media sources that touch on this issue take the angle that it is the producers’ responsibility to solve the problems, and it is. However, producers won’t solve the problem until their consumers force them to. This means that we need to change how we shop if we want what we buy to change. This is the first installation of a weekly column that will focus on what we, low budget college students trying to keep up with the latest tailgating trends, can do to help lessen the fashion footprint. With that, here are 9 terms we need to know to begin our sustainable shopping journey.
1. Fast Fashion
The name was inspired by fast food, easily accessible, cheap, and not always exactly what it says it is. Fast Fashion is the clothing companies (Forever 21, H&M, Target, Fashion Nova, the list goes on and on) who make clothes at the cheapest possible production cost in the fastest time possible to make the biggest profit margin possible.
2. Fashion Cycle
Contrasting with how runway designers do it, with only two seasons Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter, fast fashion retailers have created 52 micro-seasons. New trends for every week so that consumers are constantly buying to stay on trend. New trends mean what we bought four weeks ago is now “basic” so away they go.
3. Sweatshops
Sweatshops and slave-like labor conditions, including child labor, are how companies make it possible to update their new in sections on a near-daily basis. Most of these major factories are in places like Bangladesh and Indonesia where labor laws are severely lacking allowing big companies to get away with underpaying and mistreating their workers.
4. Textile waste
Because of the constantly changing trends, people are throwing out their clothes more quickly than ever, these clothes end up in landfills where they can’t biodegrade and just pollute the water with their synthetic fibers. There are also huge amounts of waste in the process of creating the clothing. This combination makes the clothing industry the second highest polluter, surpassed only by the oil industry.
5. Slow Fashion
Slow fashion isn’t necessarily the opposite of fast fashion, it’s not inherently expensive, nor is it necessarily hard to access, though it can be both of those. Slow fashion merely refers to clothing companies that practice ethical processes.
6. Biodegradable clothing
Biodegradable clothing, or organic clothing, is apparel made from fabrics that are naturally occurring rather than synthetic so when the time comes that they are thrown away, they can degrade naturally back into the earth with minimal harm.
7. Reworked Clothing
Vintage or out of style clothing that has been altered to make it unique and trendy. Reworked clothing is becoming more and more common. Reworked clothing can refer to DIY’s or items that are resold after being updated. Just don’t confuse reworked clothing with the imitation trends you see in Urban Outfitters, (That means those distressed mom jeans, and cropped champion hoodies).
8. Recycled clothing
Also known as thrifting, second-hand shopping or resale. Recycling clothing is a great way to find unique pieces for fair prices. By shopping, selling, or donating in the second-hand clothing cycle you can help to reduce the waste problem in fashion.
9. #30wears
The hashtag is a digital movement that encourages shoppers to be conscientious of the use they are getting out of the items that they are buying from fast fashion. The hashtag suggests that if you aren’t going to wear an item of clothing a minimum of 30 times then buying it would be wasteful. This mindset is not only good for your planet, but for your bank account as well.