How Fast Fashion Is Changing the Industry

The Real Cost of Fast Fashion

Fast fashion is a big deal; we sometimes overlook it, but it's there. Fast fashion changes consumers' minds; it tells us, " Oh, that shirt is $3 on Shein” and we miss the value of the shirt. A small company may be selling a shirt that looks very similar but costs $40. But why? The reason may shock some.

The Fast Fashion Machine 

Fast fashion companies can add upwards of hundreds of thousands of new garments to their sites each year. This comes with a cost; first, let's talk about the extraction and sourcing. Most, if not all, fast fashion materials are derived from fossil fuels, which are really cheap for manufacturers to source and use in production.

The Real Cost

 After the manufacturer sources the materials, they move on to production. In production, most fast fashion brands and manufacturers use unfair labor practices where employees do not get paid a fair wage and are not given the proper PPE. Also, in production, harsh chemicals are used to wash, dye, and treat fabrics. These chemicals are not processed correctly, leading to chemicals leaching into our soil, water, and air. This can harm the local environment, but it can also harm us.

Shipping and Disposal

The last touch for these brands is shipping them to our homes on heavy planes and/or cargo ships. It doesn't end there once it is in the customer’s home and they wear it two times it either ends up at a thrift store like Goodwill, where it may be inclined to the same fate if you just threw it away yourself.

 What Can You Do?

To break the cycle, you can shop small at places like Zero Waste Daniel, where the garments are made out of materials that already exist: like cutting room scraps or even new materials that would have otherwise been destined for the landfill. Or even just shopping at your local thrift shops to keep perfectly good items in the cycle.

Easy isn’t Always Easy

While fast fashion can seem like the easiest option, look at each of your dollars as a vote each time we give to fast fashion; they see our vote and keep making more so they can fulfill us. But when we shop small, the fast fashion brands don't see our vote, meaning that they don't have to fulfill as many people. This translates into having clean water, air, and soil, and fashion being made with quality over quantity, and puts our money into the hands of actual people and not mega corporations.  

sources; sylvanapparel.com zerowastedaniel.com photos; StevenK/Shutterstock.com