Fast fashion can be appealing. Replicas of high fashion at a more affordable price make you feel like you can be fashionable on a budget, but fast fashion isn’t all it’s cut out to be. The price of making low-quality reproduced pieces of current trends and selling them at a much lower cost is higher than you think. Below, we discuss the ramifications of fast fashion and why it’s best to steer clear of it.
What Is Fast Fashion?
The term fast fashion is used to describe low-quality apparel rapidly produced based on industry trends and sold for almost nothing. How is it possible to sell the apparel at such a cheap cost? The reason it’s achievable is because workers are underpaid and the clothes are made poorly. Because the clothes are considered affordable, many people buy them, but because they are of such bad quality they are barely worn and subsequently quickly thrown away. In the meantime, the fast fashion industry is profiting heavily while exploiting people, resources, and the environment.
Human Cost of Fast Fashion
The workers who produce fast fashion are treated poorly, not paid adequately, and often work under questionable conditions. In April 2013, there was a deadly garment factory incident. The tragedy happened in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where the Rana Complex collapsed. There had been concerns about the structural integrity of the building and repeatedly asked to close. The dark side of fast fashion often involves worker exploitation.
Child labor, unsafe working conditions, and exposure to hazardous materials like solvents and adhesives used in shoe production are just some of the disturbing realities. A decade later, Forbes reports that under pacts, major international buyers agreed to pay for factory inspections. The inspections of about 2500 factories determined corrective actions factory owners needed to complete, at their expense, to continue to do business with foreign brands and retailers
Fast Fashion Waste
Modern clothing produced through the fast fashion model is not meant to last. The clothes are not typically stress-tested and are produced with cheap synthetic fabric. The rise of polyester as fashion’s favorite fabric goes hand-in-hand with the explosion of cheap, low-quality clothing. At a significantly lower cost than cotton by the pound, polyester allows brands to churn out garments at breakneck speed. Making polyester and other synthetic fabrics takes a lot of energy and pollutes the air and water.
Because of the chemicals involved, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) labels a substantial amount of textile plants as hazardous waste generators. This pollution harms both land and water, destroying habitats, introducing harmful chemicals and microplastics into waterways, and worsening climate change through greenhouse gas emissions.
Sustainability in Fashion
According to Leeds, fashion can become 80% more sustainable by 2030 with continued investment and full-scale adoption of existing recycling technologies. The biggest hurdle is balancing consumer desire for affordability and constant newness with profitability. For fashion brands, the answer lies in creating a more sustainable model with a focus on eco-friendly design, production, and marketing.