How much do you know about fast fashion?
If you’re a fashion-conscious person, you’d know how rapidly trends change these days. Especially since the advent of social media, what’s ‘in vogue’ or fashionable today may overnight be considered boring or not-in-style. At times, it’s just so hard to keep up, isn’t it? We’re well and truly living in an era of fast fashion, where trends change in the blink of an eye.
Now rewind to your grandparents or even parents’ time. Things were much simpler while they were growing up, weren’t they? Back then, fashion trends changed only seasonally. Designers, too, launched new clothing lines and styles only 3–4 times a year. In contrast to the fast fashion of our current time, that was an age of slow fashion.
Let’s dive into the nitty-gritty of fast fashion and examine its positive as well as negative impacts.
Understanding fast fashion
Simply put, fast fashion is the mass production and sale of fashion items, such as apparel and accessories at a rapidly-changing rate. This means that instead of designing and making clothes seasonally, that is, four times annually, fashion brands now produce new styles every week or so. Why is this? It’s because they need to keep up with the rising demands of the fashion industry as well as the modern consumer.
For those of you under the impression that fast fashion is a new concept, it’s hardly so. It first emerged in the late 20th century, thanks to the growth of supply chains and the creation of advanced and quick response manufacturing methods. H&M and Zara are two global brands that are famous for their indulgence in fast fashion.
The upside of fast fashion
The main upside of fast fashion is the affordability of products. Since the companies need to produce new fashion items frequently, they try to make them as inexpensive as possible. This has two advantages—it enables them to attract potential customers and survive in the competitive market.
Likewise, fast fashion also pushes companies to produce more diverse sizes to draw a wider customer pool. This enables people of all shapes and sizes to try out the latest trends. So, in a way, we can call fast fashion inclusive. It aims to merge the gap between high end and high street fashion.
That being said, just like everything else, fast fashion also has its downsides. Let’s examine them.
The downside of fast fashion
To make fashion products affordable, companies often end up using cheap raw materials, such as nylon and polyester. Unfortunately, this hampers the durability of items. Consequently, after a few wears and washes, they start showing signs of damage, such as tearing and colour fading. As a result, consumers are frequently forced to discard the items within a short time span. This is how the items sometimes end up in ditches or landfills. Over time, the non-recyclable items are often burnt, leading to the generation of harmful greenhouse gases. In fact, on average, the growing fashion industry releases approximately 10% of annual carbon emissions.
Additionally, although the fashion industry mostly depends on machinery for production, fast fashion often compels companies to hire cheap, human labour. Workers are also paid measly sums and forced to work overtime. In this way, the fashion industry exploits them shamelessly.
So, the next time you throw away your clothes or shoes, think twice! Instead, try repairing, recycling or donating them. You can also engage in thrift shopping. That’s also an evolving fashion trend, you know!