We all know the broke college student narrative: eating cheap ramen noodles, scrummaging for quarters to clean laundry, getting excited for anything that’s advertised on campus as free. On top of maintaining classes, there’s a need to maintain yourself by having a social life, going out and having fun. You’re only this young once! But at the same time, you can’t be seen wearing the same outfit twice.
Enter fast fashion: Forever 21, H&M, Charlotte Russe and Rue21. They’ve provided us with the latest fashions similar those straight off New York Fashion Week’s runway. And even though we love them for it, they’re a problem.
Cheap clothing is damaging to the environment, the economy and other companies trying to use their work to help the greater good.
New trends are churned out weekly so we’re made to feel out of style, and prompting us to buy new items to stay up to date with the latest fashion trends. Merchandise at these stores operates to produce low quality at a high volume and thus creates a cycle — aka wear that cute $5 ring for a week and your finger will turn green. (Ya, they do that ON PURPOSE.) According to Huffington Post, Americans throw out over 68 pounds of textiles per person per year, which ultimately just end up in landfills. These items aren’t made of materials that last past a couple of seasons on your body but synthetic, petroleum-based fibers that take decades to decompose in landfills.
There’s also the issue of exploitation of workers. Companies profit off low-wage workers in countries overseas like Taiwan, Indonesia, Vietnam and Bangladesh. In this 3-trillion dollar industry, only two percent of apparel companies source from suppliers that pay their workers a fair and living wage. Children are often subject to these conditions, forced to drop out of school and help their families sew before the sun goes down. Even though there are machines to apply those tiny details to that sequin dress, they’re expensive and many companies don’t invest in them.
Things are political now (not that they weren’t before), but companies like Forever 21 have jumped on the bandwagon of producing items with political messages. Recently, the company was called out for this shirt that has the word “woman” printed in different languages. It would have been fine and all, buyers could’ve proudly donned their support to women of all nationalities, except the design was copied. Not only is it eerily similar, but the original designer gave 25 percent of the proceeds to Planned Parenthood. This wasn’t a first for Forever 21 either; they also produced a “Wild Feminist” shirt similar to the company Wildfang, whose proceeds also go to Planned Parenthood and the ACLU.
To conclude, it’s not that I’m against fast fashion. I get it — it’s cheap, and you can stay up with the latest trends.Sustainable fashion is hard to come by and sometimes even harder to buy. I just find it more important to stand up for the people both producing the items and those whose designs were created first for a cause.
My advice: slow down on how much you purchase, demand better conditions for workers and support those who create for equality.