WHAT'S SO BAD ABOUT FAST FASHION?

So recently I have decided to focus some of my blog on my big passion - sustainability! Today I thought I would talk about the fashion industry and explain why it is really problematic!!

The issue:

The fashion industry is having a noticeable impact on the environment. Water sources are becoming polluted with dyes and chemicals, depleting precious natural resources. Landfill is overfilling with old waste garments and thousands of workers are being exploited every year. Due to a lack of legislation, it is not a requirement for brands to be transparent about where and how their garments are sourced, leaving customers in the dark. The climate crisis means it is now more vital than ever that consumers are aware of their carbon footprint, yet consumption levels within the fashion industry are higher than ever. 
The volume of clothing purchases has increased by over a third in the past decade due to the availability of cheap, online fast fashion brands.

This week, it hit the papers that Boohoo have been paying their garment workers in Leicester just £3.50 an hour. If that isn't a big enough reason to avoid it I don't know what is. 

Until recent years, companies sourcing was kept under wraps. Working conditions and cheap manual labour was hidden from the public eye. The lack of traceability within the fashion industry for its on-going problematic behaviour. Consumers are not made aware at a national, regional, or international level where their products are being manufactured. The sourcing process is usually the most unethical aspect of fast fashion. The transport and importation miles are of course challenging, but if sourcing were to be localised it would not be as much of an issue. The fast fashion industry relies on an ‘80% female dominated workforce’, which is mostly dependent on impoverished women who will work in exploitative working conditions for below minimum pay. This is something that brands will not make easily accessible for public viewing, but it is essential consumers know where their garments come from if we want to create change within the industry.

Wokewashing:

Do not be fooled by fast fashion brands bringing out articles about their eco-clothing lines or their wholesome feminist slogan tops!!! The nature of the industry encourages low pay and few rights for its workers. For example, in 2018, Bangladesh raised its minimum wage from 60 euros a month to 85. However, this is still not a sufficient wage for the number of hours worked, which means women are forced into doing overtime in order to survive. The lack of organisation within these factories makes it hard for women to strike and create trade unions, as paid jobs are few and far between in these impoverished LEDC’s, meaning managers can fire the workers and instantly re-staff with other desperately poor women. The irony is fast fashion brands such as Missguided and Pretty Little Thing claim to support female empowerment, by launching ranges with fun slogans from feminist culture, yet they are reliant on a female workforce who have almost no rights or benefits.

Even if the environmental impacts of fast fashion isn't shocking enough, you need to stay strong and avoid these brands for our sisters all over the world. They have no rights, can barely afford food and are being exploited. YOU NEED TO CARE.

How will change occur?

Consumer knowledge is one of the main drivers for shopping ethically. If customers are made aware of the long-term effects fast fashion has on the environment, this could be enough to break the cycle of excessive mass consumption of low-quality products. Louise Crewe suggests that “luxury” goods may seem less desirable if their sourcing and supply chain is based on unethical, toxic, or immoral practices, especially if they come at human or environmental cost, which I think is incredibly true.

For many consumers, being made aware of alternatives is often enough to sway them from unethical practice. The rise of online consumption has given power to the digital fast fashion powerhouses, but it could be argued that if there was heavier advertisement of second- hand fashion and thrift stores, it may attract more business. The given nature of charities means there is limited funding for advertising and marketing campaigns. This is the opposite of unethical brands and popular fast fashion companies, which endlessly bombard our screens with adverts and cheap deals. With millennials being a generation reliant on social media, technology, and online shopping, we are key contributors to this disposable fashion culture.

Louise Crewe also compares fast fashion to addiction, where consumers are reliant on their next “quick fix” and become restless waiting for their next purchase. Instead of buying an item and using it until it wears out, the industry now encourages an endless greedy cycle of consumption, with dramatic negative impacts on the planet. It is not just every season anymore, brands are expected to bring out new lines every few weeks, at the lowest possible cost. I can RELATE to this!! I used to buy outfits every weekend and have constant pink plt/missguided delivery bags (hate myself). But the last fast fashion item I bought was in October 2019 and was a pair of jeans from ASOS! It is never too late to change your buying behaviours and ditch fast fashion.

I have heard of fast fashion, but what is slow fashion?

 The slow fashion movement was created by Kate Fletcher, a leading academic in sustainable fashion. The slow fashion movement urges consumers to think twice when shopping, if they choose good quality items that are made to last, then they should not have to consume as much. The slow fashion model relies solely on consumer education, without this, the whole model would be unsuccessful. Consumers need to feel passionately about change if they want to implement it and potentially pay more for individual well-made items, but less overall.

So what are the key issues in the fashion industry, what should I be looking out for?

Transparency is one of the most problematic areas in the industry, the sheer lack of educational and accessible resources at consumer level means the issue can easily go unnoticed. It is also the first step in holding brands accountable for their unethical human rights and the environmental impact of their business practice.

Fashion Revolution began the campaign ‘#WhoMadeMyClothes’ in 2019, to improve transparency within the fashion industry. They believe that consumers will change the way they shop if they can see the origins of their garments. The fashion industry began its transparency turnaround after the 2013 collapsing of the Rana Plaza factory, which caused more than 1,000 deaths of garment workers in Bangladesh. The incident caused a devastation to families all over Bangladesh and became the focal point for change within the industry. After saving as many injured workers as they could, emergency responses then began to search for garments amongst the rubble to understand which brands were responsible for such dire working conditions.

In a recent article for magazine Elle, Binkley (2020) explains “Designers are taking steps to fight industry waste—but real change requires a shift in our mind-set.”. Reiterating that consumers really are the issue. Our insatiable wardrobe appetites mean companies are profiting from our greed, but if we demanded change at a local level, brands would follow. Hundreds of years ago when production was always localised and family ran, it connected the consumer to the source. This contrasts to modern day production methods where overseas workers are separated from the products of their own manual labour. 

The lack of traceability therefore allows consumers to psychologically disengage with where their products come from, due to production being so far down the supply chain and untraceable. Undoubtedly, better transparency within the fashion industry would shock consumers and make them aware of their culpability in the issues. 

As a solution to this, Fashion Revolution started the ‘Fashion Transparency Index’ in 2015 as a way to hold brands accountable for their unsustainable practices. The report investigates brands with a minimum turnover of £320 million. So far, only 250 brands are signed up to the scheme, which is an increase of 50 since 2019. This allows consumers to see how ethical their favourite brands are and make informed decisions about where to shop. Go check it out!!! 

Is sustainable fashion accessible for everyone?

Long story short- no. It is easy for affluent people to preach about shopping sustainably/buying from slow fashion designers but finding fashionable items via charity shops and thrifting can be really time consuming and inefficient. As a student, I still can’t afford to buy directly from slow fashion designers where garments are of a higher quality/price as it isn’t doable for me. However, I do get all my clothes second hand through apps such as Depop and eBay and it can be done on a budget I promise!

I totally understand that  at consumer level, it is hard to find information about the environmental impacts of each garment, unless you decide to shop at a fully transparent brand where waste and production methods are shown. However, honesty and transparency often carry a price tag. When researching consumer relationships with sustainable fashion, many studies showed a great deal of consumers ‘care’ about where they shop from but would not necessarily pay more for an ethical alternative.

In 2019, e-commerce platform Nosto carried out a study of 2,000 UK and US based shoppers. The research also revealed that although consumers expected more sustainable practice from brands, they did not always want to the cover the associated costs of ethically sourced items. Sustainably sourced products are usually associated with a higher cost, but ethical practice should not be a luxury. The disposable fashion culture encourages wastefulness; making garments feel expendable and impermanent, increased mass production has normalised poor practice and low prices. The consumer survey by Nosto (2019) also revealed that while 52% of consumers want the industry to be more sustainable, only 29% of consumers would pay more for sustainably sourced items. In light of this, it became apparent there was a disconnect between the idea of sustainable fashion, and actually paying more and supporting it.

There are of course affordable sustainable options, and price does not always increase with a cleaner supply chain. However, most businesses operate on the bare minimum model which allows them to produce as many garments as possible for the lowest price and tends to disregard the environmental impacts. (Missguided, Nasty Gal, Boohoo, PLT). The most sustainable method of consumption is not consuming at all. If you can actively try to re-wear your clothes, shop less and move to second hand consumption you will be doing the best you can for mother nature <3