Everybody loves cheap and trendy clothes. Who doesn’t? Those clothes we usually buy at H&M, ZARA, and those similar brands are what we call ‘Fast Fashion’, and now let’s talk about it!
Fast fashion is a term used to describe design, manufacturing, and marketing methods focus on rapidly producing high volumes of clothing, in regards to the changing trends. It is also to be sold at a low price point.
The word ‘fast’ itself refers to how quickly the retailers can move a clothing design from the catwalk to stores, to take the advantage of a trend. The idea of fast fashion itself might seem pretty gratifying, on the other hand, it also has a big and negative impact. These fast fashions are meant to be sold according to the newest trends and aren’t meant to be kept in the long term, resulting in how people will quickly search for the latest product, and discard the ones they have. High amounts of discarded clothes will create massive textile waste. Those wasted clothes will soon end up in a landfill, being burnt, and causing harmful impacts to the environment. Fast fashion definitely has some impacts on us and the environment, as it forms a toxic system of consumption and makes them one of the world’s largest polluters.
Fast fashion impacts on the environment:
It contaminates clean water, as water is being used to wash off those clothes that may contain toxic textile dyes. It also pollutes the air. While producing some fabrics such as polyesters or nylons, and distributing products, the fashion industry produces gas emissions. Polyester itself was made out of fossil fuels, which also contributes to global warming.
The risk could also come from the massive amounts of discarded clothes. At least, about 57% of discarded clothes will end up in the landfill, which will be incinerated and release toxic gases into the environment.
Looking at all those impacts fast fashion could give on the environment, no wonder the fashion industry is the second-largest polluter in the world, just after the oil industry. Even after knowing all these, it is not that easy to change our minds to stop consuming fast fashion. Those impacts to the environment might seem far away and don’t have any correlation to us, humans. We tend to be indifferent. So here are some of the impacts of fast fashion, on us humans, as we need to be informed that this is a serious situation, a real danger, we are all impacted by this, and we need to be aware of it. As it cheap, and fashionable, but at what cost?
This is a “fast” fashion, produce according to the latest trends. As soon as we buy it, new trends will come up, and the ones we have will be outdated. This impacts us to keep craving for the latest clothing, growing the improvident and consumptive behavior.
Most of the clothes are made out of low-quality materials, as the fundamental of the fast fashion industry: suppress the production cost to produce cheap products. Do we still want to use those low-quality products on our body, not to mention those materials may harm our body?
Then are there any solutions to be fashionable but still environmentally friendly?
Introducing you the “Sustainable Fashion”. It is a term that describes, manufactures, marketing, and the usage of garments in the most sustainable manners, in order to be more considerate to both aspects, environment, and economics. There are some ways you could do to apply these “sustainable fashion” terms to our daily life :
Do thrift! Thrifting is one of the best ways to keep those discarded clothes recycled. Thrifting also comes up with many benefits, such as you don’t have to be afraid of having the same clothes as anyone else because thrifting comes in limited stocks.
Donations! Instead of discarding your clothes, do donations! There’s a lot of people in the world who are in need of clothing, you can donate some of your unused clothes for them (make sure they’re still feasible to use).
DIY your clothes! Another idea instead of discarding your clothes, you could do DIY. Makes some craft out of your unused clothes, you can make a bag, dolls, and many other things out of them.
Buy from “slow fashion” brands, which produce high-quality clothes. Slow fashion brands produce high-quality clothes which could be used for the long term. Also, the materials are stronger and softer, so they should not be harmful to our body.
As for the environment, sustainable fashion could reduce the world’s water pollution, carbon emissions, and large amounts of waste, as sustainable clothing company's best practices:
Less water usage
Use renewable energy to manufacture their products
Use recycled or eco-friendly fabrics in their clothing
Fair wages for all employees working in the factories
As for us, there are plenty of benefits you can get from using sustainable clothing, you can reduce the world’s water and air pollution, support fair labor practices, and also it gives you a gratifying experience. If you can go fashionable by being sustainable, why not both?
Written by: Jessica S. / XIIA3
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