Fast Fashion Social Impacts And How It Affects Society (2024)

FAQs

Fast Fashion Social Impacts And How It Affects Society? ›

Fast fashion is severely criticized for its negative social impacts. It doesn't promote decent work conditions, gender equality, diversity, or inclusivity. Instead, retailers foster a culture of discrimination, harassment, and violence.

Major environmental and social impacts

Extreme weather, wildfires, and droughts are also results of greenhouse gases. Depletion of non-renewable resources. Garments from fast fashion are typically made from nylon, acrylic, and polyester. These materials, made from petroleum, take around a 1000 years to biodegrade.

Social factors affecting fashion include cultures, norms, lifestyle, demographics and population changes. For example, a small clothing manufacturer needs to create styles that appeal to those of different cultures, especially if those cultural groups represent large enough segments of its market.

There are many negatives social impacts in the apparel industry with rising consumption, low cost apparel and the shift to offshore productions in developing countries. These negative impacts occur throughout the supply chain. Labor abuse is a huge issue within the apparel industry.

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.

Fast fashion promotes the throwaway culture, excessive consumerism, and makes clothes disposable commodities. Many consumers make purchasing decisions based on their emotions. Retailers use that behavior and tap into the subconscious of consumers.

According to the World Economic Forum, fast fashion makes shopping for clothes more affordable, but it comes at an environmental cost. So, even though people are buying less, the clothing is also lasting lass. Therefore, throwing them away more often and, of course, producing more trash.

Social change occurs due to various factors such as demographic, technological, cultural, political, economic and educational. These factors often act in concert resulting in changes either in a serial manner or something in parallel too.

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. Fashion encourages to modify or amend all those customs that are rigid and have no relevancy anymore.

Social and economic factors include factors such as income, education, employment, community safety and social support. The choices that are available in a community are impacted by social and economic factors. These choices include our abilities to afford medical care and housing and to manage stress.

How does fast fashion affect human rights? ›

Fast fashion is a threat to human rights as much as environmental preservation, with companies implementing inadequate labour conditions and low wages that detrimentally affect workers' quality of life.

Clothes influence how we look at someone. They help create an idea of what we think about their personality. Wearing what makes you comfortable is a statement, and people will respect your individuality. This is an essential detail of why fashion is important.

Cultivated Brand Image and Increased Awareness

It is easier for Fashion Brands to create a brand image and build awareness amongst their customers as they are more visible to their audience. Sponsored posts and digital ads help brands to create more audience-based content hence engaging with more customers.

The sector is also an important source of plastic leakage into the environment. With between 200 000 and 500 000 tonnes of microplastics from textiles enter the marine environment each year, the textile industry amount for 35% of microplastics pollution in the ocean.

Rapid consumption of apparel and the need to deliver on short fashion cycles stresses production resources, often resulting in supply chains that put profits ahead of human welfare.

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.

The low quality of fast fashion clothes also means that many garments can't be reused. Even if they are made available, the pace of trends mean that customers are less willing to buy them as they become outdated.

What is fast fashion? Fast fashion is the mass production of cheap, poor quality, disposable clothing. To give you an idea of the scale of the problem, the fashion industry churns out a gargantuan 80 billion garments a year. That's over 10 for every person on earth. And it's 400% more than it produced 20 years ago.

Major sources of social change include population growth and composition, culture and technology, the natural environment, and social conflict.

There are three main theories of social change: evolutionary, functionalist, and conflict. The evolutionary theory of social change gained prominence in the 19th century. Sociologists latched on to Darwin's theory of evolution, applying it to society.

What are examples of social change? ›

Examples of social change in American society include the civil rights movement, LGBTQ rights, feminism and environmentalism.

Depending on how they are used, clothes can be combined and worn to reveal a part of our identity. It is fair to say that clothing and fashion are forms of communication that are exclusive to human beings. Through them, we convey our tastes and lifestyles, and acquire a sense of belonging to a group.

Clothing is an expression, image and personality of a culture, because from clothing can be reflected the norms and cultural values of a nation. Clothing tends to be inseparable from the culture of society, because it is influenced by habits, customs that exist in society.

Social values can be used to understand the motivations of fashion innovators. By understanding motivations, more effective marketing strategies can be developed by targeting the values and goals of fashion innovators. Human motivation – comprised of various needs, motives, and goals – is explained.

Socially factors are things that affect someone's lifestyle. These could include wealth, religion, buying habits, education level, family size and structure and population density. What may be acceptable in one country, could be a possible no-no somewhere else.

Negative SDOH include poverty, poor access to education, employment status, unhealthy housing, and exposure to a general disadvantage.

We've mentioned that four key elements that affect social change are the environment, technology, social institutions, and population.

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.

The fashion style for most teens is influenced by the individuals they surround themselves with. Most teens feel that they need to fit in. The majority replicate fashion around them to get feel worthy and valuable. Teens use fashion to maintain friendships and boost their self-regard.

It draws in thousands of people, generating about $887 million per year. In addition, fashion week brings in $11 billion in wages and $2 billion in tax revenue annually. This industry opens jobs in marketing, design, research, manufacturing, and more.

How does fashion affect mental health? ›

Mental health effects

If you're constantly picking up your outfits keeping in mind what society considers ideal, then eventually your self-esteem may take a hit. A poor body image may lead to negative thoughts about yourself.

Fashion can be used as a means of analyzing social class and social change due to its role in reflecting and shaping social identities and cultural values.

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.

Fast fashion retailers are motivated by how much profit they can turn, and by paying so little in wages, not only is the profit margin increased, the workers are also trapped in a cycle of poverty.

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.

The Dark Side of Fast Fashion

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.

The Darker Side of Fast-Fashion

Fast-fashion production is outsourced in countries like India, Vietnam, China, and Bangladesh with cheap labor. This raises other concerns in relation to the exploitation of workers who work in unsafe and inhumane conditions with zero safety net and low wages.

The rising consumers' demand for trendy and affordable clothing, the availability of low-cost labor overseas, quick manufacturing and communication innovations cause fast fashion.

What is the environmental impact of fashion shows? ›

Researchers measured the impact of buyers and designers traveling to attend international shows during four major fashion seasons and found the amount of carbon emitted in one year was about 241,000 tons — or equivalent to the energy used to light up the Eiffel Tower for 3,060 years.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF SLOW FASHION? With slower production schedules, smaller collections, zero waste designs, and the use of sustainable materials, Slow Fashion brands aim to reduce the textile waste and the consequent pollution.

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.

The Dark Side of Fast Fashion

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.

While the fashion sector is booming, increasing attention has been brought to the impressive range of negative environmental impacts that the industry is responsible for. Fashion production makes up 10% of humanity's carbon emissions, dries up water sources, and pollutes rivers and streams.

How widespread is waste in the fashion industry? The short answer is: extremely. The long, and more detailed answer is: it's estimated that 92 million tons of textile waste is created annually by the fashion industry.

In addition, the equivalent of a truckload of clothes is burnt or buried in landfills every second, further increasing the industry's carbon footprint. Furthermore, creating textiles is an energy-intensive process that demands an excessive amount of petroleum.

Global Fashion Industry Waste

Up to 100 billion garments are produced by the fashion industry every year. And each year, as much as 92 million tons of clothing ends up in landfills. Only 20% of textiles are collected for reuse or recycling globally. Almost 60% of all clothing material is actually plastic.

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.

Economic Downsides of Fast Fashion

Moreover, the unsafe working conditions that these workers are subjected to, have consequences on their health, predisposing sickness and injuries to the labor, thereby negatively impacting the global economy's workforce.

What are the pros and cons of fast fashion environment? ›

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 may surprise you to learn that the fashion industry produces about 10 percent of annual global carbon emissions, which is more than all maritime shipping and international flights combined. What's more, fashion's emissions of harmful greenhouse gases are projected to grow by more than 50 percent by 2030.

Clothes can take up to 200 years to decompose

100% cotton clothing can break down as quickly as a week. However, clothes made of plastic-based materials do not break down easily. They may take up to 200 years to decompose! For this reason, it is important to keep them out of our landfills.