Within the past decade, we have seen a huge change in the fashion industry. This includes changes in clothing style, stores, prices, productions, and more. We as a society are constantly evolving, therefore our fashion does as well.
I was unaware that this could possibly become an issue until I learned more about the current fashion industry. Notice how many of today’s clothes have become significantly cheaper and easier to access. It is also important to mention how quickly a clothing trend can become popularized and later replaced by a new one, possibly within the next week. This is all a consequence of fast fashion.
Essentially, it is a type of business model that profits off cheap labor and materials in order to create clothing items quickly. Clothing collections are mass-produced at a rapid pace, as well as at a low cost, in order to keep up with ongoing trends. Companies that follow fast fashion are expected to have these popular items in stores literally overnight as the demand for them has greatly increased.
The desire from consumers for cheaper and trendier clothing has caused a spike in how often they have decided to shop. An activity that once was a monthly, possibly yearly event has evidently become a weekly one as people no longer have to wait for things such as “seasonal” items to come in store. They can attain ANY item of clothing they wish all year round.
I remember wanting to dress like my favorite celebrities, influencers, and other people on social media all the time growing up but thinking I would not be able to because I would not have the access or finances to buy the same clothing. With fast fashion, people can do it with just a click of a button.
I found myself guilty of feeding into the appeal of fast fashion, I found out that it was not just one problem that it caused, but more of a cascade of problems.
The main issue I wanted to address is the detrimental effects it has on our environment. Fashion is one of the most polluting industries on the planet, next to oil drilling, and fast fashion especially worsens it.
Due to all of the pressures that fast fashion companies face, like reducing the costs of their items while also speeding up the production, it causes them to negatively impact the environment by using cheap, toxic dyes on inexpensive materials which pollutes clean water for agriculture.
We must also address the fact that garments are being produced at an expeditious speed which generates more clothes than we need. This results in the clothes being disposed of by the consumers as soon as the ‘trend’ is over. This creates an immense amount of textile waste since the clothes being bought will most likely only be used once or twice.
By doing this, companies must decrease their production costs and their solution is paying their workers less, using child labor, and having unsafe working conditions.
There are many things we can do to help stop this issue. While fast fashion seems like a better alternative for finding more affordable clothing, it becomes a problem when people are taking advantage of the cheapness and buying these items in bulk. By reducing the number of items we buy when shopping fast fashion, it would be a good start to helping end this problem. Another alternative would be thrifting your clothing as it is also a more affordable solution. Lastly, it is important to think about the quality of the clothing item. If it is made with better material, you are more likely to reuse it multiple times!
Tag us on Instagram @HerCampusSJSU and tell us where you like to shop for clothing!