Fast Fashion:
Cheap to Purchase,
But at What Cost?
Have you ever bought a shirt or pair of jeans that fell apart after the first wash? It was most likely a fast fashion garment.
According to Merriam-Webster, fast fashion is "an approach to the design, creation, and marketing of clothing fashions that emphasizes making fashion trends quickly and cheaply available to consumers."¹
How do you know if a brand is fast fashion? Some dead giveaways are ultra-cheap prices (think t-shirts for $10), constant sales (read: 40% off today only!), and new items coming in seemingly every week.
Fashion is a $2.4 trillion dollar industry²
Fast fashion brands are at the top of the pack, counter-intuitively beating out luxury and value brands alike. Inditex, which owns fast fashion brands such as Zara, H&M, and Pull&Bear, has a market value of $111.17 billion, outperforming luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton and Hérmes, as well as athletic brand behemoths Nike and Adidas.³
How did the fast fashion industry get so massive?
For most of human history, people have made their own clothing.
Then in the 19th century, the Napoleonic Wars in Europe and the Civil War in the US created a demand for the mass production of military uniforms,⁴ made possible for the first time by the Industrial Revolution. Ready-made clothes were commonplace by the end of the 19th century.⁵ By 1958, women's clothing sizes were standardized in the US, although this standardization system was unpopular and subsequently withdrawn in 1983.⁶
In the 1960s, most people bought their clothing from department stores, but the 1970s represented a shift by retailers who began manufacturing their own clothes, "giving them direct control over the manufacturing and distribution process."⁷
Fashion trends have historically been created on the runway, leaving them inaccessible to the masses. Fast fashion undermines this cycle by producing trends quickly and inexpensively. The 1970s marked the emergence of fast fashion and ultimately a "paradigm shift in the retail world."⁸
Companies such as Zara and Forever 21 are able to produce garments from inception to completion in as little as two weeks.⁹ In today's Instagram era where every outfit worn is documented, people don't want to be seen twice in the same outfit, making the demand for fast fashion is incredibly high. It's is quick and affordable to throw out and purchase an entirely new wardrobe to fit with the trends.
Industry Impact to the Environment
We're keeping garments in our closets for less time.
According to A New Textiles Economy, a report by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, clothing use is down 36% compared to 15 years ago.¹³
Despite using all those resources, fast fashion garments don't even last very long. According to the New York Times, the average fast fashion t-shirt lasts less than 10 wearings.¹⁴ That makes the cost per wear of a $10 t-shirt from H&M essentially a staggering $1 per use. Compare that to a $30 t-shirt that lasts 8 years. The cost per wear goes down to a mere $0.15 per use.
With all that being said, clothing production is still rapidly on the rise. So, where do all these clothes end up?
However, not all hope is lost.
Within the industry, reports are being published such as the Ethical Fashion Report, which rates companies based on their policies, transparency and traceability, auditing and supplier relationships, worker empowerment, and environmental management.¹⁵
Climate policy initiatives are taking place at an international level such as the Green New Deal in the U.S., the recently passed UK Climate Plan, and the UN Alliance for Sustainable Fashion.
What can consumers do to help?
- Try out the 333 Challenge—this minimalist challenge invites consumers to wear 33 items or less for 3 months.
- Take part in the #30Wears Challenge—Created by Livia Firth, founder of Eco Age, this challenge embraces slow fashion by encouraging consumers to keep clothing items for at least 30 wears before retiring pieces from their wardrobe.
- Sign the pledge to stop supporting fast fashion and instead switch to sustainable alternatives.
Shop Sustainable Brands
- Second-hand stores and thrift shops
- $: For Days, Honest Basics
- $$: Everlane, Madewell
- $$$: Patagonia, Reformation
- Subscription Boxes: Stitch Fix, Frank And Oak
Endnotes
1. “Definition of Fast Fashion,” Merriam-Webster, accessed November 22, 2020, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fast+fashion.
2. “Home,” The UN Alliance for Sustainable Fashion, accessed December 8, 2020, https://unfashionalliance.org/.
3. “Combined Top 200 Fashion Brands, Public/Private,” Fashion United, 2020, https://fashionunited.com/i/top200/.
4. Vox, Why Women’s Clothing Sizes Don’t Make Sense, 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QwlT5f7H1c&ab_channel=Vox.
6. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
7. Jim Zarroli, “In Trendy World Of Fast Fashion, Styles Aren’t Made To Last,” All Things Considered, accessed December 8, 2020, https://www.npr.org/2013/03/11/174013774/in-trendy-world-of-fast-fashion-styles-arent-made-to-last.
8. Ibid.
9. Annie Radner Linden, “An Analysis of the Fast Fashion Industry” (Bard College, 2016), https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1033&context=senproj_f2016.
10. “Home,” The UN Alliance for Sustainable Fashion, accessed December 8, 2020, https://unfashionalliance.org/.
11. “Fashion and the SDGs: What Role for the UN?” (Geneva, Switzerland: UNECE, March 1, 2018), https://www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/RCM_Website/RFSD_2018_Side_event_sustainable_fashion.pdf.
12. 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/blog/2019/01/numbers-economic-social-and-environmental-impacts-fast-fashion.
13. Ellen MacArthur Foundation, A new textiles economy: redesigning fashion's future, (2017, http://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/publications).
14. Kendra Pierre-Louis, “How to Buy Clothes That Are Built to Last,” The New York Times, September 25, 2019, sec. Climate, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/climate/sustainable-clothing.html.
15. Libby Sanders and Jasmin Mawson, “The 2019 Ethical Fashion Report: The Truth Behind the Barcode” (Baptist World Aid Australia, April 2019), https://www.change.org/p/quit-the-fit-pledge-to-stop-fast-fashion?use_react=false.
Visual Sources
1. Women with H&M bag: Photo by Fernand De Canne on Unsplash
2. Cream button-down blouse: Photo by Taisiia Shestopal on Unsplash
3. Grayscale windows: Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash
4. Shopping mall: Photo by mostafa meraji on Unsplash 5.
5. Dress made of plastic: Photo by Noah Buscher on Unsplash
6. Mannequins: Photo by Nick Shandra on Unsplash
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