With the high turnover in fashionable clothes and the newest trend, the rate of production is fast, as is the purchase, delivery, and disposal of clothes. The massive increase in fast fashion has devasting significance in our lives. In this blog, we have described what is fast fashion, why is fast fashion bad, its impact on our lives, and why it has become so popular. So, without any delay, let’s find out its solution.
What is Fast Fashion?
Fast fashion is basically a business model that prioritizes cheap, trendy, and disposable clothes. These new clothes are inspired by the latest catwalk looks or celebrity culture at a low cost to deliver frequent new collections. In the fast fashion business model, workers are not paid adequately, clothes are poorly made, widely purchased, rarely worn, and quickly thrown away. The basic goal of fast fashion is to enter the newest styles in the market in a jiffy, so a fashion hunger gets and wears the latest trends and gets style on a budget. This idea encourages the fashion famines to spend money on more apparel that they use for a shorter time.
“Fast fashion is like fast food. After the sugar rush, it just leaves a bad taste in your mouth.”
The History of Fast Fashion
Well, it is easy to understand how this wonder caught on fire.
In the late 1800s, fashion was slow as people used their own materials, such as wool or leather, to prepare and texture them and then make new clothes. At that time, the Industrial Revolution introduced new tech like stitching machines. With that revolution, clothes became easier, faster, and inexpensive to make. At the start of the 1900s, the term fast fashion was introduced when Zara landed as an emerging clothing brand. Fast fashion was created by Zara as a mission to take only $15 for a garment from the design stage to being sold in stores.
However, in the mid-1900s, youngsters were making new trends, and find own fashion style. So, making their own fashion style and clothing became a method of personal appearance. But there was still a distinction line between high fashion and high street fashion. In the late 1990s, fast fashion retailer brands took the designs from the top fashion houses and replicated them rapidly and cheaply. Low-cost fashion reached its peak as online shopping took off and fast fashion retailers took over high-street fashion. The fast fashion retailer brands took the designs from the top fashion houses and replicated them rapidly and cheaply. Now everybody can buy on-trend clothes whatever they like and whenever they want.
Why is Fast Fashion Bad?
Fashion hungers enjoy inexpensive and trendy clothes. At the same time, fast fashion has been criticized for its impacts on different things and is known for calling for change ASAP.
Polluting the Earth
The main reason why is fast fashion bad is that it impacts our planet. The cost reduction and production speed make the environmental corners more likely to be cut. The production speed of clothes means the customers throw out clothes even more, making massive textile waste. Industries using cheap materials and toxic dyes are polluters of clean water. Cheap textile products like polyester contribute to global warming and plastic pollution. Conventional cotton needs large amounts of water and pesticides. It causes a lack of risks in water and competition for resources between companies and local people.
The continuous demand for fast fashion raises stress on land clearing, biodiversity, and soil quality. Moreover, the procedure of making leather also affects the environment, with 300 kg of chemicals added to every 900 kg of animal skins tanned.
Misuse of Workers
Another impact of why is fast fashion bad is that it exploits workers. Workers work in dangerous environments, for low salaries, and without fundamental human rights. Industries find laborers with low standards in salaries in quasi-legal factories. Many renowned brands have now become a mark of this issue. They give their workers nothing, with some under half the minimum wage. According to the reports, the claims of offensive working conditions and underpayment of workers are well-founded and significantly true, and these issues are widespread in the fast fashion model.
So, the cheapness of a product means that the person who manufactures it pays very little.
Pressuring Customers
Another main impact is the customer itself for why is fast fashion bad. Fast fashion encourages a throw-away culture due to the product’s inherent uselessness and the speed at which trends change. So to keep up with the new trends, fast fashion pressures the customers to buy more and more, which eventually leads to dissatisfaction. New trends have also drawn criticism on intellectual products, as some big designers claim that retailers have illegally produced their designs.
How Did Fast Fashion Become So Popular?
When clothes are so cheap, customers buy even more, which is why the whole clothing industry has grown to make seasonal trends and replace a previous focus on quality and durability. Right now, an average US citizen buys almost 70 pieces of clothing every year. But spends less than 3.5 percent of its budget on the clothes. However, only 2 percent of clothes sold in the US are manufactured in the US.
Because of so much hunger from the customers, fashion brands are now releasing clothes while sometimes refreshing their stock every week. Some of the biggest players in the fast fashion retailers are Zara, Shein, UNIQLO, Forever 21 Topshop, Gap, Primark, Victoria’s Secret, Urban Outfitters, Boohoo, Pretty Little Thing, Missguided, Mango, and H&M, among many others.
Is Slow Fashion the Solution?
Now you know about fast fashion and why is fast fashion bad. Slow fashion has become widespread in reaction to fast fashion and its impact on the environment, consumers, and laborers. Slow fashion supports manufacturing labor, the environment, customers, and animals.
“Less is Always More.”
Brands need to design, test, and invest in the business models that recycle the clothes. Meanwhile, consumers should buy secondhand clothes, and opt for minimalist fashion to reduce the consumption of fast fashion. Additionally, governments should engage in the fashion industry to address the environmental effects of fast fashion and make the fashion industry more justifiable.
