CONSUMERISM
Fast Fashion
by Shaya
what is fast fashion? why is it bad?
Fast fashion is low-priced clothing, and when it goes
out of style, it is disposed of in ways that are not good
for the environment. Fast fashion also includes using
poor materials, which could be clothing with a lot of
lead. It is bad for the people buying the clothes and for
the environment in which the clothes are disposed of.
How is it consumerism?
700 gallons
Consumerism is when you get things you
don't need that hurt others. Fast of water is
fashion consumerism because of the used to
waste that the extra clothes make.
These clothes end up in landfills that can make one
harm the environment around them. An
example is in Chile they receive around
cotton
126,000 pieces of clothing, most of shirt
which end up in illegal landfills.
What brands contribute to it?
Shein
Shein has low prices, a streamlined manufacturing, and marketing
strategy which makes the company stand out. All these make the
company stand out. This company is using AI technology to identify
what people like and makes it a piece of clothing for theory users to
buy. Shein is making too many clothes, and not all of them get sold. This
is consumerism, these clothes create waste. 85% of their clothing
ends up in landfill but they have said that they reuse the rest of them.
Shein grew in popularity during quarantine, the company's sales are
more than 150% and are continuing to grow (the graph shows it).
h&m
H&M is one of the most popular brands
in the USA. They have lower prices and
cheaper materials. This brand is not
sustainable and it is estimated to make
around 3 billion pieces of clothing per
year. with the many different ways that
they are known for fast fashion, they
still try to seem sustainable. they have a
sustainable clothing line, they are pricy
compared to their normal clothes and
only make a fraction of all their clothing. H&M is still growing and is spreading
the fast fashion business to many different places. H&M is getting more
popular and making more of an issue for the environment and creating more
waste.
how to prevent buying from fast fashion
companies?
In this day and age, many companies support fast fashion, to avoid purchasing
from them take the time to look into the brands. I talked about some fast
fashion companies, but there are more than just those, like Zara, Boohoo,
Fashion Nova, Uniqlo, Urban Outfitters, Mango, Pretty Little Thing, Gap, Wish,
Cider, Victoria Secret, etc. Doing your research is important because buying
from these types of companies supports the bad things that come with fast
fashion.
what is slow fashion? is it a
solution?
Slow fashion is awareness of the
process materials and designs of 25% 80%
clothing. Slow fashion is the opposite
of fast fashion, it promotes better
quality and longer-lasting clothing. 25% of fast fashion
Some brands like Aritzia and Lululemon
have spoken about how they are clothing stores are left
supporting slow fashion. Slow fashion un sold
has been increasing because of
customers' high demand.
advantages and disadvantages of fast
fashion
+
Profits for seller
Fast fashion has immense profits for the sellers because of the way
that their clothes are made. They are cheap and take not too long to
make so the profit is big.
Affordable clothing
The clothing is cheap because of the not good quality material which is
good for the buyers since many people can not afford expensive
clothing.
In-demand clothing for shoppers
Fast fashion always keeps up with the new trends and makes new
clothing for them. The clothes are always trendy and in style so you can
get the latest trends for cheap.
-
Encourages throw-away mentality
Throwaways mentally are when you wear something once or twice
and then throw it away. Fast fashion stores have cheap clothing and
cheap materials, with that the clothes are really bad quality and you
can only wear them twice
Bad labour workplaces
Fast fashion companies have cheaper clothing, it is hard to get that
cheap clothing without having some type of issue with the labour
system. For example, shein has allegedly used child labour within the
past 4 years
Stolen designs
Many fast fashion companies steal many of the designs of hard-
working people. This is not good because of the money they make
through the design even though the artist doesn't get credit.
how does it impact the enviorment?
Fast fashion has many disadvantages, the
biggest issue is the impact on the
environment. Carbon emissions are a big
issue in the transporting of fast-fashion
clothing. For example, Shein and Temu mostly
come from China which produces about of
carbon emissions. The unsold clothing ends
up in landfills that affect the environment around it. If it does not end up in
landfills they are burned. Fast fashion clothing releases 500,000 tons of
microfibers into the ocean, the same as 50 million plastic water bottles. Fast
fashion is bad for the environment, it is getting worse and worse and
everyone needs to do something about it.
