Fast Fashion in China: A Humanitarian Issue - BORGEN (2024)

FAQs

What is fast fashion in China Borgen magazine? ›

In sum, fast fashion in China means poor work conditions, unlivable wages and overproduction. However, this does not have to be the case in the future. Fast fashion is often defined as “cheap, trendy clothing” that mimics or is very similar to items seen on celebrities or in fashion shows.

In addition to environmental issues, fast fashion garments spark a lot of ethical concerns. They are often made in sweatshops where underpaid workers are employed for long hours in unsafe conditions and are exposed to harmful chemicals used in textile production.

Most of China's purchases are fast fashion – mass produced, cheap, short-lived garments. The result: China throws away 26 million tons of clothes every year, less than 1% of which is reused or recycled, according to state news agency Xinhua. The environmental cost of this waste is huge.

Most of its clothes are “fast fashion,” which means they are mass-produced, cheap, short-lived garments. This has resulted in China throwing away 26 million tons of clothes every year, creating a big waste problem. The country has 654 landfills and many of them have filled up ahead of schedule.

Much modern clothing is not made to last. Due to super-fast production, designs are generally not well stress-tested before sale, and cheap synthetic fabrics are used in order to keep costs low. Much of it will end up in landfill after only being worn a handful of times.

Fast fashion's benefits are affordable prices and instant gratification for consumers, more profits for companies, and the democratization of stylish clothing. On the downside, fast fashion is also associated with pollution, waste, the promulgation of a "disposable" mentality, low wages, and unsafe workplaces.

It dries up water sources and pollutes rivers and streams, while 85% of all textiles go to dumps each year. Even washing clothes releases 500,000 tons of microfibres into the ocean each year, the equivalent of 50 billion plastic bottles.

Like the term suggests, fast fashion is designed to be quickly manufactured and sold, simultaneously the rights of the workers are stripped just as fast. They're forced to work in unsafe environments with wages barely enough to cover the cost of a single meal.

Plastic fibres are polluting the oceans, the wastewater, toxic dyes, and the exploitation of underpaid workers. Fast fashion is big business, and while the environmental costs are rising, experts say there is another way: a circular economy for textiles.

Fast fashion relies on the construction of cheap and disposable garments that are made and distributed at very fast rates. Not only has it caused many disastrous effects on our society and the environment, but it also largely impacts the mindset of young consumers.

When did fast fashion start in China? ›

The origins of fast fashion date back to the mid-20th century, around the 1960s to 1970s. As China had just finished their political reign under communist leader Mao Zedong, the country needed to accelerate their economic growth rate to keep up with the rapidly advancing globe.

According to Statista Digital Market Outlook report data, there are three major factors contributing to this immense growth: high disposable income, fashion trends, coupled with Chinese consumers' willingness to pay more for high-quality products.

Do Fast Fashion Statistics Vary by Country? 10 countries dominate the market for retail purchasing: China 40 billion, USA 17 billion, India 6 billion, Japan 3.3 billion, Germany 2.2 billion, UK 2.1 billion, Russia 2 billion, France 1.5 billion, Italy 1.3 billion and Brazil 2.3 billion.

There are many reasons for the success of fast fashion in China. First, the country has a large population with a growing middle class that has more disposable income. Additionally, Chinese consumers are becoming more and more aware of global fashion trends and are eager to adopt them.

The analysis reveals that cheap labor, firm size, product quality, foreign ownership, availability of local input materials, new product development, preferential market access and working conditions are the major factors that help gaining competitiveness in apparel exports during the post‐MFA period.

The disadvantages of fast fashion include –

not paying fair living wages to workers, poor working conditions, child labor, environmental destruction from hazardous chemicals, plastic-derived materials, and increasing amounts of water pollution and textile waste.

Welcome to the world of fast fashion. Fast fashion is a relatively recent phenomenon. During the 1990s, retailers began to introduce trendy, cheaply-priced, poorly-made clothes on a weekly basis, intending to match the breakneck pace at which fashion trends move.

Fast fashion relies on cheap, disposable clothing that is produced quickly and sold at low prices, encouraging consumers to buy and discard clothing at an alarming rate. As a result, landfills are overflowing with discarded clothing, and textile waste is piling up.

Fast fashion accelerates supply chains and drives costs down to meet constantly evolving consumers' demands. Fast fashion brands and retailers employ factories in faraway countries where labor costs are very low. They offer jobs to local underdeveloped communities trying to make a living.

Affordability is a major factor that drives consumers to choose fast fashion over sustainable options. While some brands offer more affordable sustainably-made items, fast fashion brands can produce garments at a much lower cost than sustainable fashion brands, allowing them to sell their products at a lower price.

What is the solution to fast fashion? ›

Shop for second-hand clothes at thrift stores or charity shops to give clothing new life. If you can't get to the physical stores, many will post their stock for purchase on their website for easy online shopping. Sites like Poshmark and thredUP are also fantastic resources for buying and selling used clothes.

Doubling the use of our clothes would, for example, cut the garment trade's climate pollution by nearly half. Shutting down worldwide clothing production for a year would be equal to grounding all international flights and stopping all maritime shipping for the same time period.

These unsold garments are often burned, as it's cheaper and easier for the company than finding a way to reuse or recycle them. Apart from wasting resources, the fast fashion industry pollutes waterways with toxic dyes, and increases the number of microfibres in the ocean through the use of fossil fuel-based fabrics.

Fast fashion has an enormous environmental footprint for both its production and disposal. Clothing production requires a considerable amount of energy and resources, while it depends on toxic fabric dyes and other chemicals that contaminate fresh water. Fashion produces a tenth of the world's carbon emissions.

The right to clothing forms an aspect of the right to an adequate standard of living, and as such, is regarded as something that needs to be ensured so as to prevent people from living below the poverty line.

Workers in the garment industry are required to put in 14 to 16 hours per day, seven days a week, and endure verbal and sometimes even physical abuse from managers. Oftentimes, workers are exposed to harmful substances while working without enough ventilation. Accidents and injuries are also frequent.

Fashion production makes up 10% of humanity's carbon emissions, dries up water sources, and pollutes rivers and streams. What's more, 85% of all textiles go to the dump each year (UNECE, 2018), and washing some types of clothes sends significant amount of microplastics into the ocean.

Fashion keeps a society lively through different new styles and subsequent changes. Fashion promotes social changes from time to time and also respects traditions and customs in society.

Fast fashion is a design, manufacturing, and marketing method focused on rapidly producing high volumes of clothing. Fast fashion garment production leverages trend replication and low-quality materials (like synthetic fabrics) in order to bring inexpensive styles to the end consumer.

The fast fashion industry exploits workers, often in Eastern countries. The conditions of garment workers in sweatshops fall under the category of modern-day slavery. Cheap clothes require cheap labour.

What is the biggest fast fashion brand in China? ›

First came fast-fashion giant Shein. Now other Chinese brands are gunning for the same success. As manufacturing becomes less profitable in China, Goodways Group has begun to make and market its own brand of clothing to Chinese and overseas consumers.

The Hanfu, Zhongshan suit (Mao suit), Tang suit, and cheongsam (qipao) are the four most distinctive types of traditional Chinese clothing.

The three major fast fashion brands in China are Zara, Uniqlo, and H&M. Uniqlo opened its first fashion store in China (Shanghai) in 2002, followed by Zara and H&M, which entered China fast fashion market in 2006, 2007, respectively.

With more than 100,000 manufacturers, China's garment industry is huge and employs over 10 million people.

In past years, China has accounted for as much as 40 percent of all clothing brought into the country. The U.S. Commerce Dept. reported that apparel goods coming from China were down nearly 7 percent in the one-year period to $28.35 billion.

Cities and Regions with Clothing Manufacturing in China. It's not an exaggeration to say that almost all clothing products are made in China. There are around 50 textile clusters in China.

The fast fashion industry in China is dominated by four international brands —— H&M, Uniqlo, Zara and Muji. Through the investigation on the data of these enterprises, the sales of these four top brands in 2019 and 2020 are presented in Table 2.

The roster of China's up-and-coming sustainable fashion brands includes klee klee, SiiZU, Ziran, R Collective, ICICLE, Angel Chang, Krop and Bastine, to name a few. Chinese pioneers taking the global fashion stages, these brands are growing to convert the country's traditional consciousness.

The target audience for fast fashion is consumers aged between 18 and 24, while women and young girls consume fast fashion more than any other demographic group.

At one of the factories, workers get a base salary of 4,000 yuan per month — the equivalent of roughly $556 — to make at least 500 pieces of clothing per day, but their first month's pay is withheld from them, per the investigation.

What luxury brands failed in China? ›

Luxury brands may be less susceptible, but numerous fashion retailers, including Bershka, Pull & Bear, Stradivarius, Old Navy, New Look, and Superdry (to name a few), failed to break through the competitive chaos and lure shoppers away from domestic options.

In addition to its low labor costs, China has become known as "the world's factory" because of its strong business ecosystem, lack of regulatory compliance, low taxes and duties, and competitive currency practices.

What Companies Are Involved With Fast Fashion? Both traditional and newly established clothing brands alike are responsible for fast fashion. As the oldest fast fashion giant around today, mega-retailer H&M (short for Hennes and Mauritz) opened in Sweden in 1947 and only made it to the States in 2000.

Despite the rapid growth of the Chinese economy in the last decade, more than 482 million people in China – 36% of the population – live on less than $2 a day.

There are several reasons why fast fashion brands have been so successful in China: Location: Many of the leading companies are based in China or have a strong presence there, which means that they can quickly respond to changing trends.

It's not an exaggeration to say that almost all clothing products are made in China. There are around 50 textile clusters in China. Guangdong, Shandong, Zhejiang, Fujian, and Jiangsu are the 5 provinces that account for 70% of the country's total textile production.

Chris Xu, the founder and billionaire behind the company, primarily owns SHEIN. SHEIN leverages a real-time retail business model, where fashion trends are created out of social media platforms like TikTok, which are quickly turned around as products available for shopping online.

One such is Urban Revivo — often known as the Chinese version of Zara. Established in 2006, the Guangzhou-based label even surpassed Uniqlo and took the first place in Tmall 618 Shopping Festival women's clothing sales and has opened stores in overseas markets as far back as 2016.

CHINA'S RISE TO FASHION

China is also currently the second largest apparel market in the world, taking up 18.4% of the total market worth of $1,773 billion USD. Evidently, these numbers are still in large part due to the elite, as they are in most countries.