Are you seeing the term “Fast Fashion” everywhere lately, but you’re not exactly sure what it means?
Fast Fashion is trendy clothing that is typically produced quickly and cheaply. These pieces fit all the new trends and come at an affordable price but with the low cost, the clothing is also low quality. Have you ever bought a super cute top that basically fell apart after washing it once or twice? How about a pair of jeans that became threadbare faster than you can say ‘thigh gap?’
It seems that fashion has become similar to fast food recently. Fast food has the pervasive dollar menus, and fast fashion has $5 t-shirts and $1 flip flops. We have blink-and-you’ll-miss-it fashion trends like tye-dye (that’s ending soon, right!?), which are similar to flash-in-the-pan food trends – remember the KFC double-down?
Why is Fast Fashion Bad?
Great question! Fast fashion’s negative impact spans a few areas:
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- Fast fashion is bad for the garment workers who produce the goods and typically aren’t paid a living wage
- In general, if a piece of clothing costs $19,99, then that means the person who produced that clothing was paid $0.19. Yes, nineteen cents.
- 85% of workers are women, and they make an average of $3/day, which is far less than the united states minimum wage
- Environmental Impact
- The fashion industry is responsible for 10 percent of the world’s carbon emissions, which is more than the emissions from all international flights combined. This adds up to a huge environmental impact!
- Fast fashion also produces 20 percent of global wastewater, which is mostly caused by toxic textile dyes that make their way into our water sources as unstable fabrics break down
- Textile Waste
- And finally, there’s just a lot of clothing that is totally underutilized. As fast fashion companies churn out more affordable clothing 80 billion apparel items are purchased annually, and studies show that each piece is only worn 7 times on average.
- Fast fashion is bad for the garment workers who produce the goods and typically aren’t paid a living wage
How Can You Spot Fast Fashion?
Low, Low Prices
First off, if it’s too good to be true, it probably is. As much as I love a good bargain, $5 t-shirts and $1 flip-flops really are too good to be true and the are many hidden costs and implications to the mass production of new pieces.
Materials Matter
Today more than ever, it’s important to consider the raw materials that make up your new clothes before you make a purchase. Did you know that polyester is produced with petroleum and won’t break down for almost 400 years and also can release millions of micro-plastics into our water through your washing machine?
Once I started researching, I was genuinely surprised at how popular fabrics and modern textile production today relies on toxic chemicals and fossil fuels! Some materials you might want to avoid include:
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- Acrylic: Is not recyclable or biodegradable, and manufacturing the fibers involves highly toxic substances (acrylonitrile) that can impact the health of factory workers and potentially those who wear the fabric.
- Nylon: Made from petroleum and the production of nylon is very water & energy-intensive
- Polyester: As mentioned above, this fabric is not biodegradable, and is certainly not sustainable.
- Spandex: This one hurts, especially with the popularity of athleisure. However, the production of spandex requires a lot of raw materials and toxic chemicals, along with being energy-intensive, and the elasticity wears off so you just have to replace the clothing frequently.
- Rayon/Viscose: OK, so this is made from wood pulp, which doesn’t seem too bad… but it depends on how the pulp is treated – is it bleached and/or treated with harsh chemicals? What kind of wood is used to make the fabric, is deforestation monitored and is there a plan to re-plant the trees?
You can find some great guides to fabrics if you want to do more research: TrustedClothes.com, Independent, GreenChoices.org.
Where Is it Made?
As the supply chain has evolved in recent years, our clothing is now produced all over the world, including the developing world, which means garment workers might face long hours and low wages. There are also environmental costs and a carbon footprint involved to ship the clothing items to the United States.
How Can you Stop Supporting Fast Fashion?
Support Slow Fashion
I’m planning an entire blog post digging into slow fashion! I have recently been building out an eco-friendly capsule wardrobe, researching sustainable fabrics, and seeking out ethical brands to support.
Shop Intentionally
The clothing industry, and especially fast fashion retailers, invests heavily in the marketing of new clothing on social media, showing off the latest trends and generating consumer demand. In recent years I’ve been consuming less, researching natural fabrics, and investing in ethical fashion. Yes, it’s more expensive in the short term but in the long run, this is a great way to reduce my environmental impact!
Transparency
More and more brands are disclosing their guidelines, values, sustainable practices, and rates of waste. If you can’t easily find this information on a brand’s website, you should be concerned. Email them, Tweet them – do your due diligence and find out as much information as you can!
Are you exploring the world of sustainable fashion, yet? Weigh in below in the comments!