Fast Fashion Is Cheap, Trendy, And Destructive—It’s Time To Slow It Down
“Fast fashion” is a buzz phrase but what does this term really mean? And as we continue to encourage the fashion industry to move towards a more sustainable and ethical future, it’s helpful to know what we’re up against.
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.
“Fast fashion is harmful to the environment, garment workers, animals, and, ultimately, consumers’ wallets.”
These cheaply made, trendy pieces have resulted in an industry-wide movement towards overwhelming amounts of consumption. This results in harmful impacts on the environment, garment workers, animals, and, ultimately, consumers’ wallets.
Read below to better understand the fast fashion movement’s history, context, and impact—and check out our list of 35 Sustainable Clothing Brands Betting Against Fast Fashion for ethical alternatives.
A Brief History of The Fashion Industry
Up until the mid-twentieth century, the fashion industry ran on four seasons a year: fall, winter, spring, and summer. Designers would work many months ahead to plan for each season and predict the styles they believed customers would want. This method, although more methodical than fashion today, took away agency from the wearers. Before fashion became accessible to the masses, it was prescribed to high society, and there were rules to be followed.
It wasn’t until the 1960s that a well-timed marketing campaign for paper clothes proved consumers were ready for the fast fashion trend. This resulted in the fashion industry quickening its pace and lowering costs.
“Nowadays, fast fashion brands produce about 52 “micro-seasons” a year—or one new “collection” a week leading to massive amounts of consumption and waste.”
However, it wasn’t until a few decades later, when fast fashion reached a point of no return. According to the Sunday Style Times, “It particularly came to the fore during the vogue for ‘boho chic’ in the mid-2000s.”
Nowadays, fast fashion brands produce about 52 “micro-seasons” a year—or one new “collection” a week. According to author Elizabeth Cline, this started when Zara shifted to bi-weekly deliveries of new merchandise in the early aughts.Since then, it’s been customary for stores to have a towering supply of stock at all times, so brands don’t have to worry about running out of clothes. By replicating streetwear and fashion week trends as they appear in real-time, these companies can create new, desirable styles weekly, if not daily. The brands then have massive amounts of clothing and can ensure that customers never tire of inventory.
While brands like H&M, Topshop, and Zara have been the brunt of overproduction complaints, even luxury brands measure growth by increasing production. According to Fast Company, “apparel companies make 53 million tons of clothes into the world annually,” and the amount has surely increased since the article’s original release in 2019. “If the industry keeps up its exponential pace of growth, it is expected to reach 160 million tons by 2050.”
Is Fast Fashion Bad?
Many people debate what came first: the desire for fresh looks at an alarming rate or the industry’s top players convincing us that we’re behind trends as soon as we see them being worn. It’s hard to say, but there is no doubt that we thirst for the “next best thing” every day of our consumer-driven lives. (“10 Things I Hate About You,” anyone?)
Yet, with this increased rate of production and questionable supply chains, corners are inevitably cut. Clothing is made in a rushed manner, and brands are selling severely low-quality merchandise. There isn’t enough time for quality control or to make sure a shirt has the right amount of buttons—not when there is extreme urgency to get clothing to the masses.
The fast-fashion manufacturing process leaves a lot to be desired, and pieces are often thrown away after no more than a few wears. The same urgency that throws quality out the window also keeps the costs of these garments incredibly low. Companies like Topshop and Fashion Nova are greatly concerned with their bottom line and are banking on the “ocean of clothing” they churn out for profit.
These brands earn millions of dollars while selling pieces cheaply because of the sheer number of items they sell, no matter the cost or markup. And garment workers are undoubtedly being paid well below the minimum wage. In the documentary “The True Cost,” author and journalist Lucy Siegle summed it up perfectly: ”Fast fashion isn’t free. Someone, somewhere is paying.”
“Fast fashion isn’t free. Someone, somewhere is paying.”
Moral lines get blurred, however, when factoring in how much more accessible and size-inclusive fast fashion can be. Ethical fashion advocates have worked hard to unpack this complicated narrative, but the cost and exclusive-sizing are still barriers for many.
The Human & Environmental Impact of Fast Fashion
All of the elements of fast fashion—trend replication, rapid production, low quality, competitive pricing—have a detrimental impact on the planet and the people involved in garment production.
Brands like Boohoo, for example, use toxic chemicals, dangerous dyes, and synthetic fabrics that seep into water supplies, and, each year, 11 million tons of clothing is thrown out in the US alone. These garments—full of lead, pesticides, and countless other chemicals—rarely break down. Instead, they sit in landfills, releasing toxins into the air. Fast fashion’s carbon footprint gives industries like air travel and oil a run for their money.
“Many of us are familiar with the news about Nike sweatshops, but they’re just one of the many fast fashion brands violating human rights for the sake of fashion.”
In addition to environmental impact, fast fashion affects the health of consumers and garment workers. Harmful chemicals such as benzothiazole—linked to several types of cancer and respiratory illnesses—have been found in apparel on the market today. As our skin is the largest organ of the body, wearing these poorly made clothes can be dangerous to our health.
This danger only increases in factories, towns, and homes where fast fashion is made. For example, according to the Environmental Health Journal, conventional textile dyeing often releases “heavy metals and other toxicants that can adversely impact the health of animals in addition to nearby residents” into local water systems.
The health of garment workers is always in jeopardy through exposure to these chemicals. And that doesn’t even take into account the long hours, unfair wages, lack of resources, and even physical abuse. Many of us are familiar with the news about Nike sweatshops, but they’re just one of the many fast fashion brands violating human rights for the sake of fashion. The people who make our clothes are underpaid, underfed, and pushed to their limits because there are few other options. Instead, we can proactively support garment workers and fight for better conditions and wages.
Qualities of Fast Fashion Brands
Here’s how you can spot fast fashion brands when shopping online or in-store:
Look for rapid production, are new styles launching every week?
Look for trend replication, are styles from a particular brand cheaply made versions of trends from recent fashion shows?
Look for low-quality materials, are fabrics synthetic and garments poorly constructed, made only to last a few wears?
Look where manufacturing is taking place, is production happening where workers receive below living wages?
Look for competitive pricing, is new stock released every few days and then discounted steeply when it doesn’t sell?
The Rise of Slow Fashion
“It’s encouraging to know that there are brands, communities, and individuals out there fighting for the planet and the safety of garment workers.”
Although the fashion industry as a whole is guilty of committing many crimes against people and the environment, it is most evident when it comes to fast fashion. Society’s obsession with consumerism may make it hard to quit, but better options are out there.
Slow fashion offers an alternative, with mindful manufacturing (sometimes including vertically integrated and in-house production), fair labor rights, natural materials, and lasting garments. It’s encouraging to know that there are brands, communities, and individuals out there fighting for the planet and the safety of garment workers.
By buying garments from responsible brands, speaking up for social responsibility and accountability, and going through secondhand shops, we can ensure agency and that we’re advocating for the environment and others.
Audrey Stantonwas born and raised in the Bay Area and is currently based in Los Angeles. She works as a freelance writer and has an exciting venture of her own in the works!Audrey hopes to continue to spread awareness of ethical consumption.
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.
Support minimalism: Slow Fashion items may be more expensive but you don't need as much when you know they'll last! Wash less. Sometimes it is enough to air-out clothes or partially remove stains before putting them in the washing machine. If washing, choose on cold and skip dry cleaning.
Fast fashion creates new styles every week. Design and production time have decreased dramatically. Many fashion brands and retailers can sketch, produce, and distribute new garments inspired by the latest trends in a very short time. The large variety of style choices is very appealing to buyers.
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.
In the clothing industry, fast fashion is the business model of replicating recent catwalk trends and high-fashion designs, mass-producing them at a low cost, and bringing them to retail stores quickly, while demand is at its highest.
WHAT'S THE DEFINITION OF FAST FASHION? Fast fashion has three main components from the consumer's perspective: it's cheap, it's trendy and it's disposable. It makes purchasing clothes on impulse easy and affordable.
Fast fashion refers to the mass production of cheap, stylish clothes, resulting in significant environmental and labor issues. Mary Jo DiLonardo has worked in print, online, and broadcast journalism for 25 years and covers nature, health, science, and animals.
In addition, on a deeper level, fast fashion allows lower income individuals and families to purchase more items of clothing that are modern and trendy. Because of this, low-income individuals can wear styles comparable to those of their more well-off peers, thus mitigating the impacts of classism through clothing.
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.
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.
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.
In order to afford low prices for consumers, fast fashion manufacturers use cheap labor in factories that often have unsafe working conditions, low wages, and long hours. The garments produced are of low quality using cheap materials that do not last long and have negative environmental impacts.
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.
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.
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.
Only 15% is recycled or donated, and the rest goes directly to the landfill or is incinerated. Synthetic fibers, such as polyester, are plastic fibers, therefore non-biodegradable, and can take up to 200 years to decompose. Synthetic fibers are used in 69% of our clothing.
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.
Ditching fashion would lift a huge burden off our planet. We'd save water (used in crop-growing and dyeing processes) and carbon dioxide emissions (from the industry's energy use). And we'd also prevent pollution from the fertilisers and pesticides used in cotton farming, and hazardous chemicals used in dyes.
Clothing production consumes resources and contributes to climate change. According to Fashion Revolution, the raw materials used to make fast fashion clothes require land and water, or the extraction of fossil fuels.
Environmental impact of fast fashion. The fashion industry is the second largest contributor to environmental pollution. Toxic chemicals, dyes, and other pollutants enter the environment through the production processes. This, in turn, has severe health and environmental impacts.
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.
1. 92 Million Tonnes of Textiles Waste is Produced Every Year. Of the 100 billion garments produced each year, 92 million tonnes end up in landfills. To put things in perspective, this means that the equivalent of a rubbish truck full of clothes ends up on landfill sites every second.
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.
Fast fashion brands produce high volumes of synthetic, petroleum-based garments in developing countries, creating high levels of emissions and textile waste. In recent years, fast fashion leaders have adopted sustainability initiatives, including sustainable supply chain management (SSCM).
Fast fashion makes use of a lot of cheap materials that use microplastics, for example, such as polyester and rayon. So instead, opt for items made from sustainable fabrics that are more durable, require fewer resources to produce, and are made of little to no microplastics.
Enter slow fashion. Simply defined as the opposite of fast fashion, slow fashion opts for a more sustainable approach to making clothes. Specifically, it hones in on reducing both consumption and production.
Clothing produced by fast fashion brands are oftentimes made from cheap materials, like polyester and acrylic, and not built to last. These materials shed when the clothes are washed and end up in our oceans, then in the food and drinks we consume. The fashion industry is the second most polluting in the world.
The apparel industry has the ability to provide dignified jobs for impoverished communities rather than forcing them further into poverty. While increased prices make many Fairtrade products inaccessible to those in poverty, a significant number of people who buy fast fashion have the means to buy Fairtrade.
The French environment agency (ADEME) recommends choosing clothes made with organic cotton, recycled cotton, or polyester. According to the recycling methodology, it can reduce the impact by up to 99%.
According to an analysis by Business Insider, fashion production comprises 10% of total global carbon emissions, as much as the European Union. It dries up water sources and pollutes rivers and streams, while 85% of all textiles go to dumps each year.
There are many alternative options to buying fast fashion including shopping at second-hand stores, organizing a clothing swap, renting clothes, and adopting new habits to help you resist the urge to buy fast fashion items. Here is a complete list of the top tips for avoiding fast fashion: Buy second-hand.
“Many of us are familiar with the news about Nike sweatshops, but they're just one of the many fast fashion brands violating human rights for the sake of fashion.” In addition to environmental impact, fast fashion affects the health of consumers and garment workers.
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.
In the case of natural materials, the garment is then shredded into fibers via machine; these fibers are then cleaned and re-aligned in a 'carding process' before being re-spun into yarn. Depending on its intended purpose, different types of yarns are blended to create a stronger fiber for reuse.
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