Say no to fast-fashion.
What is fast-fashion?
Simply put, fast fashion is the design, creation, and marketing of clothing that focuses on only the cheap and quick production and sale of products. Fast fashion disregards the consequences that come with rapid consumption. These are consequences such as the exploitation of unfair labor laws/ wages and disastrous environmental impacts.
In our fast-paced economy, many brands strive to constantly overstock stores and satisfy consumer demand. In an effort to do so, brands such as Forever 21, Urban Outfitters, Shein, and many other well-known companies source labor overseas, where there are often inadequate labor laws protecting workers.
Forever 21 is the epitome of fast fashion in the United States. With non-existent environmental policies and workers not paid living wages, this well-known brand produces trendy clothing as quickly as trends can change. They produce cheap clothes— cheap in both price and quality.
Forever 21 encourages its consumers to buy without second thoughts and buy continuously as if they never have enough clothing. And due to the company's use of low-quality materials, their customers often end up needing to do so.
Today, people are willing to throw away perfectly good products in order to make room for the next "thing".
As consumerism increases worldwide, cheap and quickly made clothing takes an increasing toll on the environment. In 2014, it was recorded that people purchased 60% more clothes than they did in 2000. This toxic mindset of consumerism is encouraged by capitalism— ultimately creating unnecessary waste and becoming harmful to the environment. Modern fashion insatiability has resulted in carbon emissions, dried-up water sources, polluted rivers, streams, and oceans. 85% of all produced textiles go to the dump each year and washing some types of poorly made clothes sends thousands of bits of plastic into the ocean.
So what are some solutions to fast fashion?
Begin investing a little more money in better (and fewer) pieces of clothing. Though you may have to spend more initially, well-made clothing has a longer lifespan, so you save more in the end anyways!
The easiest way to reduce waste and the unethical processes of fashion is by buying second-hand. Whether through resale websites/apps or going to your local thrift store, wearing second-hand gives clothing a new cycle of life. Rather than becoming part of the 85% of textiles that end up in the dump annually, they can be worn for many more years.
Buy from sustainable brands: As I briefly mentioned in my last post about sustainability, there are many brands out there that produce clothing with transparency. They don't hide their production processes, but instead detail their ethical and eco-friendly methods. (ex. Outdoor Voices, Patagonia, Sézane, Reformation, etc.)
Learning about the implications of fast fashion has made me become more conscious of my clothing purchases in the last few years.
As many of my friends may know, for the past 3 years, I have taken up a hobby of creating my own dresses for all my formal dances. This year, for my senior prom, I challenged myself to create a dress that was both low-cost and low-impact on the environment (and in all honesty, the chances of me finding a dress in-store that could appease my pickiness was slim to none).
This resulted in a dress that in total cost me approximately $8 and is made of entirely second-hand, repurposed materials.
The materials used were as follows:
spools of thread from an arts & crafts reuse center ("Scraps" in Denton, Texas)
2 thrifted curtains
1 thrifted bedsheet
recycled from previous projects: zipper, hook & eye closure, bodice boning, tulle
After initially sewing the dress, I spent about 70 hours hand-embroidering the skirt. In total, I spent about 100 hours working on this dress. So unfortunately, although my prom dress was low in cost this year, the labor was definitely VERY high.
"End Fast-Fashion" embroidered on skirt:
After 100 hours of sewing, I thought I deserved a night out. Unfortunately, with the current pandemic that has undoubtedly affected every one of us, my senior prom was originally canceled to abide by social distancing guidelines. However, because of the blessings of having a small school, we were able to plan a small-scale version of prom! It would've been real REAL sad if I wasn't able to wear this dress after all this time! So finally... here she is!
Happy prom!
Admittedly, making my own prom dress is definitely a very extra way of doing my part in ending fast fashion.
So don't feel too much pressure to pull out your mom's sewing machine after reading this. By no means do I want you to feel guilty for loving the clothes you buy from stores like Urban Outfitters and Forever 21.
Wear what makes you feel good and try to wear it for as long as it'll last you!
Making this dress was an interesting way to introduce some of the people around me to an important movement of environmental conservation. I wrote this little post in hopes that you can become more conscious of the processes and consequences of the products we choose to buy, wear, and promote!
So if the idea of "ending fast fashion" even crosses your mind the next time you go shopping, I would feel more than accomplished.
x Joy
