What is fast fashion?
Fast fashion is the design and mass production of clothing that replicates trends and uses low-quality materials to make garments at breakneck speed to meet consumer demand. The idea is to get the newest styles on the market as fast as possible, so shoppers can access the pieces while they are still popular & discard them after limited use. When Zara first hit the American markets, the NY Times used the word ‘Fast fashion’ to describe the store’s goal, Zara claimed that it would take them only 15 days to manufacture a garment straight from design to being sold on racks. However, many people think of ‘fast fashion’ as a relatively new concept that is commonly associated with Zara and H&M but it is a term given to a constantly evolving production system that has been gaining momentum since the 1800s.
The history of how fast fashion came into being
Before the 1800s fashion was slow and expensive, an individual had to source their material, hand sew it, and then make a garment out of it. All of this changed after the Industrial Revolution which introduced new technology like sewing machines leading to the establishment of textile factories and garment shops which made the production of clothes less time-consuming, lowered the prices, and subsequently marked the beginning of mass production of clothing. Around this time, sweatshops emerged which outsourced their work to ‘sweaters’ or people who worked from home for very low wages. Around the 1960s and 1970s the young generation could use their wages to buy clothes and fashion began to be used as a medium of self-expression. Many retail shops opened and companies started to export their production to developing countries for cheap labor. In the late 1990s and 2000s, fast fashion started to rise as online shopping took off, and brands like H&M and Zara took over the high street. These brands took the designs off of runaways and reproduced them at a sickening speed. As everyone could now ‘afford’ fashion it is easy to understand how this phenomenon spread its wings.
Role of Consumer Behaviour in fueling the fast fashion industry
It is not an unknown fact that brands perpetuate the cycle of overconsumption by capitalizing on consumer’s desire to buy more clothes by constantly releasing new lines of clothing at affordable prices. This accessibility to new articles drives them to buy more than what is necessary fueling the vicious cycle of overconsumption. According to a study by a group of scientists from MIT & Stanford, humans see purchasing clothes as a rewarding form of entertainment. They found out that when the subject of a particular piece of clothing they wanted to buy came up, the pleasure centers of the brain were activated. Similarly, when consumers can obtain clothing at a cheaper price, they get the maximum sense of pleasure. Big brands fuel this fire and create something similar to an addiction also referred to as ‘retail therapy’ among the younger generation. Corporates implement many strategies to monetize this and drive their profits including intentionally producing clothing with a lack of durability and selling them at extremely low rates. Brands rapidly bring fashion from runways to consumers instigating a fast change in trend this coupled with the low prices of the articles creates an urgency among the customers that leads them to buy new clothing.
Social Media and influencer culture are one of the major driving forces of fashion consumerism. Social media via influencers promotes new clothing styles to millions of people increasing consumer demand followed by a surge in production by the fashion coorparations. A study on Quick Commerce commissioned by Meta states that 35% of people discover brands through influencers and 30% of them make purchases based on their recommendations. This phenomenon is caused by FOMO -the fear of missing out which provokes consumers to partake in fleeting trends. Moreover, the rise in visual media platforms like Instagram where
Why is Fast Fashion so controversial?
A report by the NY Times predicts that Zara changes its designs every two weeks on average and is alone responsible for churning out 840 million garments for its 6000 stores worldwide. Additionally, The New York Times reported that H&M, as of 2019, churns out three billion garments a year and was sitting on $4.1 billion worth of unsold clothes. This blindingly fast pace at which clothes are manufactured, worn, and discarded comes with its own set of adversities. This pace is supported by the company’s speedy supply chains which rely on outsourced and often underpaid labor from factories overseas, this process is environmentally damaging and extremely resource intensive.
Environmental Impact
If we open our wardrobe we can pick out pieces of clothing we haven’t worn for the longest time. To back it up a study from the University of Manchester says that 12% of the clothes in a women’s wardrobe could be considered as ‘inactive’. These clothes ultimately wind up being dumped into landfills or incinerated. A report by BBC estimates that 92 million tonnes of textile waste is created each year, which is equivalent to a garbage truck disposing off at a landfill every second and this statistic is only predicted to increase by 2030.
The white cotton t-shirt and blue jeans that are staple fashion pieces in everyone’s wardrobe require around 10,000 liters of water, highlighting the water-intensive nature of the fashion industry which accounts for almost 20% of the total waster-water generated. From the production of synthetic fibers like polyester and nylon to the chemicals used for dyeing to garment manufacture, transportation, and overconsumption by consumers to ultimately being discarded it is a resource-heavy operation and releases harmful greenhouse gases( like methane and carbon dioxide), contributes to water and plastic pollution at every step of the way. It is noted that the industry is responsible for almost 10% of the total greenhouse emissions which is more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined.
Now the one thought that comes to mind is that the clothes that are discarded can simply be recycled right? Wrong. The clothes we wear are made up of a complicated blend of yarns, polyester, fibers, man-made filaments & metals. Take for instance, a pair of blue jeans, it is made of a blend of components including yarns and elastane, and contains buttons, zippers, sewing thread, etc. This is a labor-intensive & time-consuming process which makes it hard to effectively separate them for recycling. Globally only 12% of the clothes sent are recycled.
Zara and H&M, two of the major players in the fast fashion business are not without controversy when it comes to sustainability and green practices. They have been accused of ‘Greenwashing’ – a practice of making false or misleading claims about the environmental benefits of a product or service. H&M’s recycling campaign which encourages customers to bring old clothes that are further recycled has been criticized for its lack of transparency while Zara has also been sued for using misleading marketing strategies to promote the company’s sustainability practices.
Social Impact
Textile Industry is a labor-intensive business, and these brands outsource their labor from developing countries that contain a majority of women. It employs approximately 75 million factory workers from countries like Bangladesh, India, Vietnam etc but only 2% of them earn a living wage. To give you an understanding about minimum wage it only covers ⅕ of the amount needed to make ends meet. The working conditions are poor, unhygienic, and unsafe (workers are exposed to cancer-causing chemicals from the dyes) In 2013, close to 1000 laborers were killed and over 2500 laborers were injured in Bangladesh due to the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory is an epitome of how unsafe these sweatshops are. These sweatshops are located in developing countries with little to no regulation on labor laws so if the workers try to challenge their rights they might risk losing their jobs. These laborers work 16 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Increasing awareness among the younger generation
More and more of the younger generation has become aware of the climate crisis. There has been a sudden shift in the consumer attitude as the fast fashion industry strives to become more sustainable. According to a 2015 Nielsen Survey, 66% of consumers say they would be willing to pay more to buy from companies that are environmentally and socially ethical. According to a report by McKinsey and Company consumers are seeking greater interest in the resale market and second-hand clothing. The same report also suggests that the growth of the fashion industry in 2025 is expected to be sluggish with only a slight increase in revenue compared to 2024. The customers are returning to the in-store experience at the pre-pandemic levels and the online marketplaces are expected to see a drop in their share prices from the pandemic high. Besides this, there has also been increased involvement of government regulations with the EU backing policies to make fast fashion more durable and recyclable.
