What is Fast Fashion?
What is fast fashion, what are the negative impacts and how to identify greenwashing tactics + fast-fashion brands.
We’ve all heard the term “fast fashion” but how many of us know what it actually is?
In short, fast fashion is the production and consumption of cheap, low-quality clothing that follows the latest trends. The Good Trade describes it best as “a design, manufacturing, and marketing method focused on rapidly producing high volumes of clothing. Fast fashion garment production leverages trend replication and low-quality materials (like synthetic fabrics) in order to bring inexpensive styles to the end consumer.”
It’s making really low-quality clothing at an exorbitant rate at the expense of human dignity & the environment. Whether it’s the slave wages or excessive waste that got your attention, no one can argue that the fast-fashion industry has become a global issue that must be addressed.
Poor Pay & Living Conditions. Beloved brands are violating human rights for the sake of fashion. The rate that companies are expecting to produce creates an unsafe work environment for the garment workers. Moral lines are getting blurred as the bottom-line is the pinnacle of success while workers are expected to work with toxic chemicals, in unsafe conditions, receiving little to no pay. Find out more about a day in the life of a fast-fashion worker here.
Excessive Waste. Each year, the fashion industry produces 92 million tons of textile waste. That’s a lot of waste specifically from fashion. Not only is the excessive waste a problem, but the synthetic fibers (which aren’t biodegradable) that are used to make the low-quality pieces require a high amount of energy, contributing to high carbon emissions. At the rate we are unsustainably consuming and discarding clothes, mounds of unrecyclable textile waste are being dumped into third-world countries, as pictured below.
How To Identify Greenwashing + Fast-Fashion Brands:
Greenwashing is a form of misleading advertising that makes a product/service/activity appear to be more environmentally friendly or less environmentally damaging than it really is.
Greenwashing is attempting to capitalize off of sustainably sound products; in an effort to combat this growing issue, consumers need to consume less mindlessly and think more consciously about each purchase. Follow these tactics below to identify greenwashing & fast-fashion brands.
Rapid Production. Are they consistently putting out new looks?
Synthetic Fibers. Fabrics matter: look to see what the clothing is made out of.
Manufacturing Labels. It doesn’t need to be made in the USA but pay attention to where your clothes are coming from.
Competitive Pricing. If it’s made cheap, it’s going to be cheap.
Proof of Claims. Saying your sustainable is one thing; factual evidence and certifications are critical in an overpopulated unsustainable industry.
Another great resource about greenwashing is linked here for those interested in learning more.