Fast Fashion: The Hidden Costs
Cheaply Expensive?
Did the cardigan you bought this year cost you less than what it did two years ago?
If you don't remember, The Wall Street Journal might have an answer for you. Between 1990 and 2018, real prices of clothing and footwear halved in the United States.1
Fast fashion is defined as "inexpensive clothing produced rapidly by mass-market retailers in response to the latest trends."2
Flip side of the story.
The chart below shows us only one half of the story.
It depicts how clothing expenditure as a fraction of retail expenditures has fallen over the years. At first glance, it looks like we are spending less on clothes, which is good isn't it?
Now let's look at the other half of the story first.
Prices in the apparel industry have indeed risen at a lower rate compared to other retail items. This explains why a fall in proportional expenditure on clothing does not necessarily reflect a fall in consumption.
My closet door doesn't shut anymore.
The pictogram below shows the boom in the fast fashion industry, which is expected to nearly double in size by 2029 against its value in 2009.
Apparel brands know how you feel when you look at someone wearing the same clothing item that you recently purchased. To cope up with the demand for this "newness", their inventories are growing faster than other retailers.
Do we wear what we buy?
A German company, Movinga conducted a study amongst 18,000 plus households across 20 countries, aiming to capture insights on the amount of waste in clothing, food, and household items.
The chart below summarizes the study results. It shows the average percentage of clothes in the wardrobe utilized by individuals in each country. Do the results surprise you?
Before you look at the chart below, think of how many apparel items do you own.
A survey conducted in a Middle Eastern country, with respondents from varying demographics, showed that majority of the people own 50 to 100 clothing items.
Why should we be concerned?
Does this mean we are simply wearing plastic?
Photo by Oksana Kuz from Pexels
Photo by Oksana Kuz from Pexels
Who is responsible for this?
Only the brands we "love" or our governments as well?
Every year, the Uzbek government forces 1.5 to 2 million schoolchildren, as young as nine years old, to miss school for two months and assist with the cotton harvest.4
The tree map below shows the estimated value of commodities imported to the European Union, which have been assessed to involve child labor. It is alarming to see how fashion related commodities, highlighted in red below, have a sizeable value of imports associated with child labor.
Still not distressed? Try using the region filter below for Central and Southern Asia to further understand the magnitude of the problem.
And if you think these purchases drive livelihoods, only 18 cents of a €29 shirt go to the worker.5
What can we do?
"Fast Fashion is not free. Someone somewhere is paying."
The heat map below reflects the savings in emissions, energy and water, that can be achieved by averting production of each item of apparel. It shows how your clothing decisions can make a difference: curtail the demand for fast fashion and the supply shall follow suit.
From unethical exploitation of labor to irresponsible waste management practices, the fast fashion industry is a long way from calling itself sustainable.6
An evidence of this is how only 100 brands have committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 30% as ratified by the United Nation’s Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action.7
But the formula for customers is simple...
Buy Less. Reuse More. Recycle Often.
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You are what you wear.
References
1. Carol Ryan, “The Hidden Cost of Cheap Fashion Could Catch Up to Investors,” The Wall Street Journal, May 21, 2021, https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-hidden-cost-of-cheap-fashion-could-catch-up-to-investors-zara-old-navy-11621556298.
2. “Fast Fashion,” Oxford Languages, accessed November 15, 2021.
3. Elizabeth Reichart and Deborah Drew, “By the Numbers: The Economic, Social and Environmental Impacts of Fast Fashion,” World Resources Institute, January 10, 2019, https://www.wri.org/insights/numbers-economic-social-and-environmental-impacts-fast-fashion.
4. Pauline Overeem and Martje Theuws, “Fact Sheet Child labour in the textile and garment industry,” SOMO, March 2014, https://www.somo.nl/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Fact-Sheet-child-labour-Focus-on-the-role-of-buying-companies.pdf.
5. “Fashion’s impact in numbers,” CNN Style, accessed November 20, 2021, https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2020/09/style/fashion-in-numbers-sept/.
6. Jaxx Artz, “7 Sustainable Ways You Can Fight Fast Fashion at Home,” Global Citizen, July 26, 2021, https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/fast-fashion-how-to-be-sustainable/.
7. “Fashion’s impact in numbers,” CNN Style, accessed November 20, 2021, https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2020/09/style/fashion-in-numbers-sept/.
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