Fast fashion: The force behind our consumption addiction
Image by Rio Lecatompessy on Unsplash
The increasing popularity of social media and influencer culture has precipitated a generation of compulsive buyers. To keep up with the latest fashion trends, we’re consuming far more than we ever have done. In fact, on average, we now buy 60% more clothes than we did at the start of the century.
The likes of Shein, Boohoo, Missguided, H&M, and ASOS churn out thousands of new items every week, so we can wear our trendy new piece a handful of times - or maybe even once - before a new trend cycle begins. In a matter of months or less, the garment that we so desperately sought after will be out of fashion, tempting us to discard it and purchase the next best thing on offer.
Garments sold by fast fashion companies are usually cheap to buy, but at what environmental and ethical cost? From unfair labour practice to widespread ecological destruction, these retailers directly profit off the exploitation of people and the planet.
What is fast fashion?
Fast fashion refers to the fast production of garments on a very large scale. As well as the production rate, the trend turnaround, development of new styles, process of buying, shipping times, and the life cycle of a garment are all very fast.
Clothing and accessories for sale in fast fashion stores and online tend to have a low retail price. As per the mentality that buying more for less is better value for money than buying less for more, many people now purchase large quantities of items from the same retailer. But if these companies are still making huge profits from selling cheap clothing, how much are their garment workers being paid?
Sites such as Shein and Zaful always have ‘sales’ and ‘discounted prices’ to create the illusion that the buyer is bagging a one-off bargain for a high quality product. However, clothing from fast fashion brands is almost always non-durable and of sub-par quality. So if they lack longevity, what kinds of fabrics are used to manufacture them? And how many of these garments will invariably end up in landfill?
Micro-trends and the influence of social media
Fast fashion is contingent on perpetual, short-lived trend cycles known as ‘micro-trends’. Micro-trends are all the rage for a very limited time; when the current season ends, so does the trend. Sometimes micro-trends can last between three and five years, but more often than not they are fads that only retain popularity for as little as a few months.
These trend cycles are only becoming shorter and shorter. The social media boom has led to the emergence of fashion influencers, who are paid to promote up-and-coming trends. From viral hauls on TikTok, to promoted YouTube videos with discount codes, to daily Instagram photos of influencers in brand new outfits, we are inundated with social media content that convinces us that we simply cannot have enough clothes. We are constantly made to feel like our wardrobes are outdated, and with endless fashion inspiration and affordable clothes on the market, it’s very difficult not to succumb to the latest trends.
Influencers will often wear an outfit just for one Instagram photo, and then never wear it again. The normalisation of disposable or single-use outfits has caused us to adopt the attitude that it is somehow shameful and taboo to outfit-repeat. In fact, 1 in 7 young women consider it socially unacceptable to be photographed in the same outfit more than once, and a third of young women in the UK deem an item of clothing “old” after having worn it once or twice. This social pressure to buy a new outfit for every event or potential photo opportunity has contributed to overconsumption and thereafter a rise in the number of discarded out-of-fashion garments. In 2019 alone, single-use outfits generated 208 million pounds of waste.
The environmental cost
Placing a hefty Zara order may give us that temporary dopamine hit, but the environmental damage is often permanent.
The global apparel sector is actively contributing to the climate crisis - after the gas and oil sector, it is the second largest polluting industry in the world, responsible for 1.2 billion tonnes of annual greenhouse gas emissions.
Polyester, which is used in approximately 60% of garments, releases a colossal volume of carbon dioxide into our atmosphere. But the problem doesn’t stop with greenhouse gas emissions: when we wash fabrics containing polyester, the amount of microplastics that seep into the ocean equates to 50 billion plastic bottles. This compound cannot decompose in the ocean and spreads through the food chain as a result.
Water usage in the fashion industry is also a huge ecological issue. Cotton is one of the more popular materials in textiles, and although we are often under the illusion that it is more sustainable than synthetic fabrics, it needs a lot of water. According to Fashion Revolution, one kilogram of cotton is required to produce one pair of jeans and a t-shirt, taking up around 10,000 litres of water. On an annual basis, the global apparel industry uses a total of 93 billion cubic metres of water - the volume needed to meet the consumption requirements of five million people.
Many fashion companies produce more than can be sold, for example, online fast fashion giant Shein adds thousands of items to its website each day. This results in monumental amounts of waste, and any excess usually ends up being burned or in landfill. It is estimated that the industry accounts for 92 million tonnes of textile waste every year.
A lot of fashion brands have now started throwing the word ‘sustainable’ around, but, in reality, less than 1% of second-hand garments are recycled into new clothes. Branding clothes as sustainable or eco-friendly is usually nothing more than a ‘greenwashing’ marketing tactic - it deceives consumers into thinking that they are making an environmentally conscious choice by buying from a particular company or range. But the reality is that less than 1% of second-hand garments are recycled into new clothes.
Any eco-friendly claims made by fast fashion brands are wholly insincere; while they continue to mass produce garments, they continue to exacerbate the global climate emergency. Until these companies stop adhering to micro-trends, slow down production rates, and opt to use sustainable materials, their practices will never be conducive to environmental sustainability.
Find out more about how you can spot greenwashing here.
Image by Katie Rodriguez on Unsplash
The exploitation of garment workers
Fast fashion giants are notorious for mistreating and underpaying their garment workers. For the purpose of cheap labour costs, western apparel brands often locate their factories in the Global South, where health and safety regulations are virtually non-existent. Fashion brands know they can maximise their profits by withholding working rights from their employees. In fact, they choose to take advantage of poor folks because they know they are likely to accept any work, regardless of how low the pay or dire the conditions.
The Rana Plaza collapse in 2013, which killed 1,134 garment makers in Dhaka, Bangladesh, uncovered the ugly truth about the substandard conditions that the fashion industry forces its employees to work under. The textile factories are often highly unsafe; fires and accidents are not out of the ordinary, and workers are also typically forced to inhale toxic substances and fibre dust due to the lack of ventilation inside the buildings.
It is undeniable that the exploitation of textile workers is an issue of racial injustice. It is rooted in Europe’s dark colonial past, whereby black and brown people were exploited and oppressed for the financial gain of white folk. The legacy of imperialism and its effects on non-white people will continue as long as the as the fast fashion industry perpetuates modern-day slavery.
Modern slavery in the apparel industry is also a feminist issue: it disproportionately impacts women of colour, who make up 80% of garment workers across the world. Despite the fact that fast fashion brands are complicit in the ill treatment of millions of women, they are, rather ironically, the same brands that capitalise off employing ‘female empowerment’ messages in their marketing campaigns.
According to Oxfam International, a CEO of one of the top five leading fashion companies only has to work four days to earn what a Bangladeshi garment worker does in her lifetime.
Garment makers in Asian countries, such as India, Bangladesh, and China, are generally required to work 14 to 16 hour days, every day of the week. Their wages are not sufficient for covering the costs of the basic human needs of a family, so they are often forced to work overtime into the early hours of the morning. However, sometimes they are not even paid for overtime, but are forced to accept the extra hours out of fear that they may be sacked or punished if they do not comply.
In some countries, fashion companies have refused to pay suppliers for pre-ordered materials, so manufacturers cannot afford to pay their employees. This will also cause hundreds of thousands of garment makers to lose their jobs.
In an interview with Maggie Zhou for Refinery29 Australia, Aja Barber, slow fashion consultant and author of Consumed, is very forthright about how our overconsumption of fast fashion impacts those in traditionally pillaged countries, from the industry’s production model to the disposal of garments. As she puts it: “At the beginning of your fast fashion cycle, it is harming a non-white person in the Global South. At the end of your fast fashion cycle, it is harming a non-white person in the Global South.”
But the exploitation of textile workers isn’t only an issue overseas: production sites in the UK have also been known to significantly underpay their employees. Boohoo has recently been called out for paying garment makers at their Leicester site under half of the minimum wage. The Alison Levitt Review into the Boohoo Group PLC’s Leicester supply chain found that “The allegations of unacceptable working conditions and underpayment of workers are not only well-founded but are substantially true.”
What is the solution?
It is true that the fast fashion industry is not only responding to our demands as consumers, but also generating it in the first place. We must call out the CEOs of these companies, who have made billions from an industry that is environmentally destructive and relies on slave labour.
For students and those on low incomes, buying from fast fashion stores may seem like the only option - it’s very cheap, and everyone deserves to buy clothes that they feel comfortable and confident in. That being said, we must also hold ourselves accountable for the damage caused by our hyper-consumption habits. We can all do more. First, we need to become conscious consumers, that is, think about what we’re buying before we buy it. Consider: Is this a micro-trend? Will this item date? How much will I wear this item? Is the fabric durable? Do I already have a similar piece in my wardrobe? Do I need the same top in three different colours?
There are more sustainable ways of adding to our wardrobes, though it is important to recognise that being able to make more sustainable choices requires some level of privilege. Slow fashion brands are great, but they also come at a higher cost and are not accessible to everyone. However, those that have the financial means to pay a bit more should try to spend more on one timeless higher quality piece from an ethical brand, rather than 10 cheap items from a fast fashion brand that lack longevity. To find out the ethical ratings of your favourite brands, try the Good On You app for free.
Buying second-hand clothes where possible is also a great alternative. Thrifting has been gentrified, particularly on Depop and in curated vintage stores, where sellers often buy garments from charity shops and resell them for triple the price, but it is still possible to find cheap items. If you see an item you really want from a fast fashion brand, search for it on Depop, Vinted, eBay, Vestiaire Collective, or Hardly Ever Worn It first - it’s likely that someone will be selling it, and for less than the retail price.
And although it takes a little more time to sort through clothes at charity shops, we should not neglect them as there are often some great finds. If you can sew, upcycling and reworking garments is also a really good option.
The crucial point is that we cannot put the blame on the consumer, but the industry itself. However, we must recognise that the more we buy, the more garments are produced to keep up with increased consumer demand. We all need to make an effort to buy less, and wear what we already have more often.
Unravelled UK is a campaign led by young people that aims to tackle the fast fashion industry’s unsustainable and unethical practices. They are predominantly focusing on increasing the number of charity shops and their preloved items, encouraging young people to consider sustainable fashion options, and urging others to avoid buying clothes made from new and raw materials. Others like Garment Workers United, the Clean Clothes Campaign’s PayUp movement, The Fashion Revolution, and Fair Wear Foundation are doing important work to fight for the rights of exploited garment workers. Please donate or lend your support to these campaigns in whatever way you can.
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