Author: Madeline Rihn

Merriam-Webster defines the term fast fashion as “an approach to the design, creation, and marketing of clothing fashions that emphasizes making fashion trends quickly and cheaply available to consumers.” In other words, fast fashion companies such as H&M, Zara, and Forever21 follow a low quality/high volume business model, cutting costs on production and materials in order to sell more and more items to the consumer. It is an industry driven by a goal of maximum output and thus, maximum profit, and it shows: the former CEO of H&M, Stefan Perrson, is worth $19 billion. Amancio Ortega, founder of Zara, is worth $69.7 billion. 

The fashion industry hasn’t always been like this. Before the 20th century, and even just in the past 50 years, the norm for the fashion industry was running on two seasons a year: spring/summer and fall/winter. Now, many industry professionals note the existence of at least 52 “micro-seasons” a year, with new styles and collections unveiled by companies every week to keep up with rapidly changing fashion trends. 

The low cost of fast fashion is undoubtedly paid for elsewhere, most notably within the realm of labor rights and environmental issues. A larger output of clothing means that clothing is lower quality, leading to increasingly greater outputs of waste; it is estimated that Americans dispose of about 12.8 million tons of textiles each year. In order to keep costs low, most textile production is outsourced, where manufacturing is marked by low wages, poor working conditions, and even child labor. 

1. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Spinning Jenny.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 7 Aug. 2019, www.britannica.com/technology/spinning-jenny.
2. Idacavage, Sara. “Fashion History Lesson: The Origins of Fast Fashion.” Fashionista, Fashionista, 8 June 2016, fashionista.com/2016/06/what-is-fast-fashion.
3. Lohr, Shannon Whitehead. “5 Truths the Fast Fashion Industry Doesn’t Want You to Know.” HuffPost, HuffPost, 19 Oct. 2014, www.huffpost.com/entry/5-truths-the-fast-fashion_b_5690575.
4. Reid, Lindsey. “Fast-Fashion: Unethical and Unsustainable.” UAB Institute for Human Rights Blog, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 24 Oct. 2018, cas.uab.edu/humanrights/2018/04/26/fast-fashion-unethical-and-unsustainable/.
5. Schlossberg, Tatiana. “How Fast Fashion Is Destroying the Planet.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 3 Sept. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/09/03/books/review/how-fast-fashion-is-destroying-the-planet.html.
6. Stafford, Victoria. “How Fast Fashion Hurts Workers.” Green America, 8 Aug. 2018, www.greenamerica.org/blog/factory-exploitation-and-fast-fashion-machine.
7. Stanton, Audrey. “What Is Fast Fashion, Anyway?” The Good Trade, The Good Trade, 8 Oct. 2018, www.thegoodtrade.com/features/what-is-fast-fashion.
8. Zarroli, Jim. “In Trendy World Of Fast Fashion, Styles Aren’t Made To Last.” NPR, NPR, 11 Mar. 2013, www.npr.org/2013/03/11/174013774/in-trendy-world-of-fast-fashion-styles-arent-made-to-last.
   

Author: Penny Saltzman

Browsing the racks and shelves of any goodwill or second-hand store, lends itself to the overwhelming presence of pieces from fast fashion companies. Forever 21, H&M, Abercrombie, and almost any other brand you can think of is most likely a product of the fast fashion industry. To refresh, fast fashion is a dual meaning term for what designers intend to be in style for a very short time, yet also what we end up throwing away after only a couple of uses. I thought that I was doing my part by not remembering the last time I had walked into a retail store. However, I now feel that without trying to que others into this issue, that I am merely a bystander to a much larger problem. This essay will outline who is impacted by fast fashion. Other than the environment, both the buyer and the manufacturers absorb the greatest harm. Fast fashion seems to thrive on a cycle of cheap material and labor costs. Even though people from a wide variety of socio-economic backgrounds benefit from fast fashion, people who do not have the means to afford “high fashion” often slip into supporting fast fashion. Further, people who cannot afford fast fashion end up supporting second hand options before they go to the mall. However, this string of logic is very hard to prove and support. A lot of the fast-fashion clothes that make it to Good Will have only been worn once or twice, hence why they are able to be re-sold. Eventually, the real pitfall is that these clothes will end up in the trash after very few uses. 

The most easy affect to draw upon is the workers that produce fast fashion. Starting in the cotton fields, we see workers in harsh farming conditions paid below minimum wage. After that, factory workers in developing countries work long hours performing tedious or non-stimulating tasks all so that a t-shirt saying “I hate Mondays” hits the racks. To unpack this in more detail, often times when we look at a tag on our clothing, we have no idea where it was produced, most likely if it is made anywhere other than the United States. Even US working conditions are flawed. The cost of living has risen while wages have remained largely static. In third world countries the same thing is happening, however, they are experiencing industrial growth at the same time. 

Essentially, anyone that handles the clothing, starting from the planting of cotton seeds to the weaving of textiles, is impacted by the process. As seen in the environmental impact section, the harm that fast fashion induces on people is equally induced on the environment. Privileged consumers of fast fashion can easily replace the item when they are done wearing it, others that cannot afford this may end up wearing it until they no longer can and then throwing it away. In either case, if the item rips beyond the point of repair, it will just end up in the trash. There is also an impact on the people who collect the trash and or have to sort the clothes at a Good Will or second hand store. This is often a minimum wage job where workers are on their feet, exposed to warehouse conditions. 

Author: Soyeon Jang

What is the correlation between fashion and environment? Why do we need to care about it? Surprisingly, the fashion industry has a harmful impact on the environment. In fact, it is the second largest polluter in the world, right after the oil industry.

Water Pollution

In most of the countries where garments are produced, untreated toxic wastewater from factories dumped directly into the rivers. Wastewater contains toxic substances such as mercury, lead, arsenic, and more. These are terribly harmful for millions of people living near the river and the health of aquatic life. 

• 20% of industrial water pollution comes from textile treatments and dying
• 200,000 tons of dyes are lost to effluents every year
• 90% of waste water in developing countries is discharged into rivers without treatment

Water Consumption

The fashion industry is a major water consumer. During dyeing and finishing process for clothes, it uses large quantity of fresh water. For example, it can take up to 200 tons of fresh water per ton of dyed fabric. Cotton is also a big factor to use large amounts of water. Nearly 20,000 liters of water are needed to produce just 1kg of cotton.

• 1.5 trillion liters of water are used by the fashion industry every year
• 200 tons of fresh water are needed to dye one ton of fabric
• 750 million people in the world do not have access to drinking water

Greenhouse Gas Emission

The apparel industry emits a high quantity of greenhouse gases because of the energy used during its production, manufacturing, and transportation of millions of clothes consumed all around the world each year.

• 23kg of greenhouse are generated for 1kg of fabric produced
• 70 million oil barrels are used every year to produce polyester
• 400% more carbon emissions are produced if we wear a cloth 5 times instead of 50 times

Microfibers in our Ocean

Every time we wash garment such as polyester and nylon, nearly 1,900 microfiber get released into the water, and goes into the ocean. These microfibers are ingested by small aquatic lives and  they are eaten by small fish. Small fishes are eaten by bigger fish and eventually microfibers will comeback as foods that we eat everyday.

• 190,000 tons of textile micro plastic fibers end up in the oceans every year

Waste Accumulation

Large quantity of garments get wasted each year. As reference, a family in western world throws away an average of 30 kg of clothing every year. 72% of our garments are made out of synthetic fibers. Synthetic fibers such as polyester and nylons can take up to 200 years to decompose 

• 15% of our clothing only are recycled or donated
• 5.2% of the waste in our landfills are textiles
• 3 years is the average lifetime of a garment