What is Fast Fashion and how did the business get started? Have you ever discovered where and how your clothes are being made?
The following article presents the main differences between Sustainable Fashion and Fast fashion.
Image from Tumblr. Artist from https://nevhada.com/post/184809005474/some-tipsinspo-for-eco-friendly-fashion-buy
Sustainable Fashion (also known as Economically friendly, ethical, or second-hand fashion).
Eco-Friendly (Sustainable) Fashion means creating and buying apparel or merchandise in thoughtful solutions that won’t harm the planet or living beings.
Ask yourself the next time you make a purchase, will you be wearing it multiple times again? Do you love how it looks on you? Is the product worth the quality and value? Is this product worth the pollution and waste on the environment?
So What Exactly is Fast Fashion?
Fast Fashion is a term used to describe how companies of the fashion industry are producing products, selling them at affordable prices, and endangering employees around the world.
Solene Rauturier explained, “Fast fashion can be defined as cheap, trendy clothing, that samples ideas from the catwalk or celebrity culture and turns them into garments in high street stores at breakneck speed.” (2018)
“The word “fast” describes how quickly retailers can move designs from the catwalk to stores, keeping pace with constant demand for more and different styles.” (Bick and others, 2018)
It has been said, “while fast fashion offers consumers an opportunity to buy more clothes for less, those who work in or live near textile manufacturing facilities bear a disproportionate burden of environmental health hazards.” (Bick and others, 2018)
In 2013, the reality of Fast Fashion was revealed to the world when Rana Plaza (a clothing manufacturing company in Bangladesh) collapsed over 1,000 employees.
For more information about this tragedy, read this article at... https://www.businessinsider.com/r-is-fast-fashion-worth-the-cost-to-workers-environment-asks-film-2015-5
“The first step in the global textile supply chain is textile production, the process by which both natural and synthetic fibers are made.” (Bick and others, 2018)
The advantages are that companies can produce massive amounts of merchandise at rapid rates while serving their consumers at cheap prices. Customers may not know they are buying clothing that is manufactured in illegal factories all around the world.
The Fast-Fashion companies are rapidly growing worldwide.
The disadvantages are impacting the Earth, people, and animals. Those who purchase from these companies may unintentionally help them to continue to return the investment in the same business. People may not know or understand the major impact of Fast Fashion.
As Snehal Motkar listed, “Fast Fashion is unsustainable because it has a short product life cycle… The retailers make closest copies of the original which involves reputation risk and using lowest cost labor amounts to labor exploitation making it an ethical issue.” In the end, the brands and stores that sell this type of merchandise, are also producing cheap and poor-quality apparel.
Want to learn more about the DISADVANTAGES of Fast Fashion, copy & paste the link at... https://businesszeal.com/fast-fashion-its-disadvantages
Here are more references to help you understand.
“The global textile and garment industry (including textile, clothing, footwear, and luxury fashion) is currently worth nearly $3,000 trillion… The world market for textiles made from organically grown cotton was worth over $5 billion in 2010.
About 90% of clothing being sold in the U.S. is made from cotton and/or polyester. These fabrics are involved in many health impacts in the manufacturing and production processes. “Polyester, a synthetic textile, is derived from oil, while cotton requires large amounts of water and pesticides to grow.” (Bick and others, 2018)
Research has been done to prove consumer behavior in different countries. The University of Queensland has found, “Globally, we now consume about 80 billion new pieces of clothing every year --- 400% more than we were consuming just 2 decades ago.” (Australia writer, 2018)
You can find out more about how the environment is being affected by copying and paste this URL… https://sustainability.uq.edu.au/projects/recycling-and-waste-minimisation/fast-fashion-quick-cause-environmental-havoc
“Textile dyeing discharged into local water systems, releasing heavy metals and other toxicants that adversely impact the health of animals in addition to nearby residents.” (Bick and others, 2018) Retailers are selling large amounts of merchandise at cheap prices which encourages consumers to support the fast fashion business.
Textile dyeing is the process of application of color distributed evenly on textiles (such as fiber, yarn, fabric, or garments). Felt Magnet explains the many dyeing methods and stages of textile dyeing here…
“Textile dyeing discharged into local water systems, releasing heavy metals and other toxicants that adversely impact the health of animals in addition to nearby residents.” (Bick and others, 2018)
LEARN HOW FAST FASHION STARTED IN HISTORY AT...
It’s About Time We Start Doing Our Research!
How are our clothes and accessories being made? Do you want to know where our apparel is being manufactured? How is the environment where the employees work? What are these companies using their profits for? Are they investing in their employees and their work conditions?
I do want to know who is physically creating the clothing that I paid for. I want to know the differences between FAST FASHION and SUSTAINABLE FASHION.
If you want to learn more about how dominant the fast fashion business has increased over the years, read the article at... https://ehjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12940-018-0433-7