In a world where our wardrobes can be bought from anywhere that provides internet, people’s fashion sense is constantly evolving in order to keep up. With the unending flow of new trends and fads, fashion industries have continuously pumped out more and more clothes and designs. This phenomena has gotten its own name from those who work in the fashion business: “fast fashion.” For those unfamiliar with this term, Investopedia provides a simple definition. “Fast fashion is the production of inexpensive designs that move quickly from the catwalk to stores to meet new trends.” Businesses such as H&M, GAP, Forever21, Macy’s INC, J.C. Penny and Kohl’s are well-known clothing stores that participate in this new trend of production. Yet, in a world built on the assumption that consumers want a high-fashion styled article of clothing at a low price, it can be difficult to see the threat it poses to society.
When one takes a look at how clothing used to work in the world, it shouldn’t be too shocking to realize how much people really treasured each article they owned. Sara Idacavage, from the website Fashionista, speaks of the difficulty in the past of obtaining fabric. “People had to make special orders and wait for just the material to make a shirt because they had to rely on sheep to get wool, and then wait for the yarn to be spun,” Idacavage stated. With so much time, effort and money going into the production of just one article of clothing, people expected a new pair of pants to last them a lifetime. If they had a tear, they would fix it, and if they grew out of them, they would hand them off to a family member.
As time went on and it became easier to produce clothing, fashion retailers appeared in the game. By the 1940s, retailers had bought about 4 seasons of clothing that they would release a year: spring, summer, fall and winter. Then as these fashion industries grew and globalized – like H&M – people started to care more and more about fashion. People wanted to stay up with the latest trends without spending a lot of money. People wanted to keep up with trends and buy the new fashion, so the fashion industry made more clothes and more styles. This cycle continues to repeat over and over again until one is left with the 12 seasons of clothing a year one sees today.
These clothing companies had so much to make, they started using cheaper materials to make cheaper products in order to compete with other people in the fast fashion industry. In fact, before a companies new line of clothing is even sold out they’re already on the next season. This causes thousands of un bought clothes and fashions to get thrown away. In fact, Debra Drew from the World Resources Institute states that Briton – a British fashion company – throws away two-thirds of its un bought clothes instead of recycling or donating them.
It’s a harmless task to create all of these clothes that just end up getting thrown away anyways. There’s a lot of toxic waste that comes from the production of clothing, from the use of machines to the dyes that are put in the clothing. Pasty Perry from The Independent talks about how even the cheap fabric they use to make these clothes is harmful. The most popular fabric used for fashion right now is polyester and when polyester garments are washed, they shed microfibers which add to the increasing levels of plastic in the ocean. People are hurting their own planet just so they can keep up with the newest trends.
While fast fashion may be fun, it’s really doing more harm than good. Save up money for something nice that’ll last you a lifetime. Create your own style instead of letting it create you. You don’t have to have the latest runway clothes in order to be happy. You’re cute already – crappy clothes won’t change that.
