The Dangers of Fast Fashion: Simone B

In the Sixth Street Community Center we learned about a lot of important current events, but what was the most interesting and personal to me was the crisis in the fast fashion industry. According to an article from the Fair Trade Certified website, the fast fashion industry is made up of 80% women. They work 10-15 hours a day, and only earn 60-70% of men's wages. This industry abuses and exploits innocent workers, to produce mass amounts of cheap clothes for uninformed people to wear. Due to a rapidly changing fashion industry, new trends, and increasing numbers of consumers, there is a high demand for “trendy” new clothes. Micro-trends are a major issue that leads to the overproduction of cheap clothing. Especially nowadays, because of social media and different types of advertisements, what is considered “trendy” changes very often, and clothing companies have to keep up with demand. These trends come and go in the span of months, creating a lot of waste. Most popular major companies, such as Shein, Brandy Melville, Forever 21, Zara, and more, contribute to fast fashion and are able to continue the cycle because they have a lot of customers.

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People buy fast fashion for a multitude of reasons. Fast fashion is cheap and easily accessible but it is extremely harmful to the environment and directly contributes to climate change in many ways. For example, it uses a lot of textile dyes that leak into the oceans. These dyes are actually the second-largest water pollutant globally. These pollutants and dyes are harmful to ocean animals, farmers, and workers. In addition, clothes made by big, capitalist, and inhumane companies use cheap fabrics that contain microplastics, which are non-biodegradable and contribute to a whole other issue of plastic in the environment. Not only that, but fast fashion is responsible for a whopping 10% of humanity's carbon emissions, more than all international flights, and maritime shopping. The intriguing harm of fast fashion is important to me because I used to be a consumer of this industry before I knew how harmful it was. I was like most people, and bought whatever, just because it was cute, without knowing that every dollar I spent was supporting and encouraging these major companies, and in turn, hurting the environment. But after learning a lot more about clothing and how such mass amounts are made in order to keep up with such high demand, I have tried to be more aware of what I buy.

Although you can’t un-buy things, there are many alternatives to buying from major companies. Thrifting is a great option that is also very affordable and charitable. By buying used clothes, it limits the need for such great unethical production of clothes, and gives a new home to clothes that someone may have just grown out of, rather than it contributing to the already mass amounts of waste we have. Another alternative can simply be hand-me-downs, reusing clothes, (ex. Your parents’), which is very harmless and easy to find some super cute stuff! You can also buy from various environmentally friendly brands, many of which are listed in the zine I worked on. These smaller brands are typically more expensive because they require higher-end materials, in order to avoid the dangers of fast fashion. But, if you are able to afford it, it is a great option. I am grateful that I have been able to learn so much about this topic, and hope to educate others.

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