The Fast Fashion Problem
What is fast fashion?
Fast fashion is cheap, disposable clothing that is produced rapidly by mass-market retailers to keep up with the latest international trends. It is usually produced rapidly at high volume and sold to consumers at cheap prices. As a result, the quality of the clothing pieces are often compromised to minimise manufacturing costs as much as possible. This business tactic encourages customers to regularly purchase and get rid of clothing in order to stay on top of fashion trends.
Fast fashion became popular in the late 90s and early 2000s when major fast fashion retailers such as H&M, Zara, and Topshop were taking over the fashion market worldwide.
Why is fast fashion a problem?
Due to an increasing consumer demand for the latest fashion trends, the market for fast fashion has become increasingly more competitive and ultimately led to brands dropping prices in hopes to gain market share. Furthermore, it causes a negative impact on our environment. The fashion industry is considered one of the highest polluting industries in relation to emissions, pollution, loss of biodiversity and waste. It is responsible for an estimated 10% of global CO2 emissions, which is higher than the combination of international flights and shipping.
According to the Department of Agriculture, Water, and the Environment, Australia is the second-highest consumer of textiles per person in the world. The average Australian consumes around 27kg of new clothing per year and disposes of an average of 23kg of clothing to landfill each year. Moreover, very few of the discarded clothing pieces are actually being recycled as 87% percent of the total fibre and materials used for clothing is incinerated or sent to a landfill. To add to this, globally, 35% of the microplastics found in oceans can be traced to textiles, making them the largest source of microplastic pollution in the world’s oceans.
Due to the short span of trends and sheer amount of clothing that is being produced by clothing manufacturing companies, many of their workers are not working in healthy environments. Many fashion companies also choose to have their subsidiaries in countries like China, India and Bangladesh due to their leniency on labour laws and standards. The fast fashion industry employs approximately 75 million factory workers worldwide. Of those workers, it is estimated that less than 2% of them make a living wage, thus unfortunately contributing to modern slavery.
How can we help?
At a consumer level, it is our responsibility to take initiative and purchase from brands and retailers that are ethical brands that have a sustainable supply chain and do not contribute to fast fashion. Additionally, we should also be aware of which clothing pieces we actually need and can wear for a sustained period of time; refraining from buying clothing pieces just to satisfy micro trends. Hopefully as consumers display a preference for sustainable fashion, major brands can move towards ethically sourcing and producing their products to keep up with consumer demand.
However, it is understandable that some consumers are unable to afford clothing pieces from slow fashion brands. As such it is also advisable to thrift or buy clothing from op shops.