The Dark Side of the Fast Fashion Industry.
Making you a garment is not as easy as you, buying it. Getting rid of is even harder.
You can have anything you want in life if you dress for it.
— Edith Head —
Fashion is an expression. Unlike many other forms of expression, fashion is much easier for everyone to comprehend. Though you are interested in fashion or not, you always look for clothes that represent you. Even if someone is the most boring, or the grumpiest of all, still they have the most boring and grumpy dresses that say a lot about them. Therefore, without a doubt, fashion is and will be a part of our life.
Don’t get my word for it. American citizens are expected to spend over 1.2 Trillion dollars on fashion on every holiday season. That is roughly the entire worth of Apple Inc. spent in one season. Researchers suggest that some people might get into a state of high when they shop. Yes, the brain receptors that fire up when they shop, are similar to the ones when someone smokes up.
In the past decade, America went into an all-time high in shopping. In 1980, an average American bought about 12 pieces of clothing per year. According to Dana Thomas in her book Fashionopolis, an average American now buys over 68 articles of clothing every year. All this is thanks to the new business modules adopted by companies like Zara, H&M, and Fashion Nova. Fast fashion companies create garments that keep updating every week. And they cost just a fraction of the price any other mainstream fashion brand product will cost you.
Mostly they highjack the trending fashions and produce them to the market at a much lower price. Usually, a fashion company takes over 12 months to get the design manufactured and out in their stores. But with the fast-fashion business module, they do it in 3–4 months. They sell dresses that cost over $500 if you buy from high-end fashion brands, for less than $50. All that is done by cutting down on the design cost and utilizing lower grade materials and other lead time. In simpler terms, they make disposable fashion.
This has taken a toll on all top league fashion brands. One time, Kim Kardashian tweeted furiously for ripping off her 1998 Thierry Mugler dress by Fashion Nova. Within 24 hours of Kim shown in that outfit, Faison Nova launched a very similar dress that costs only $50. Instead of 2 seasons, fast fashion brands have 52 seasons (we call it weeks).
Now, I am not here to pass judgments on new business models. It’s the land of the free. Who am I to judge the fundamentals of capitalism? But I do have some concerns that have a direct impact on everyone including myself.
Earth is suffering due to fashion.
Now we all know the humanitarian impact the fashion industry has on people. The odds of a child making the T-shirt you are wearing right now is not zero. In the meantime, we don’t even consider the environmental impact the industry has on the world.
Currently, the fashion industry is contributing to 10% of all humanity’s carbon emissions. That is more than international flights and maritime shipping combined. is the second-largest consumer of the world’s water supply and pollutes the oceans with microplastics. Water is used in almost every stage of a garment. From producing the yarns to dying the fabrics and curing materials. It is estimated that 24 years’ worth of drinking water is used to make one cotton shirt.
Unfortunately, synthetic fabrics are even worse. Polyester, Nylon, and Spandex use over 350 million gallons of oil per year. The material called Viscos that is used in most garments uses raw materials that come from ancient or threatened forests.
From the start of the production up until the end, you got to use a lot of toxic chemicals. In most cases, the governments in counties that manufacture these garments, do not bother to make sure they get refined before getting into the water supply.
Now, this is only the manufacturing part of the story. Getting rid of the cloths is a whole new challenge which we don’t even see.
An average American throws away over 80 pounds of clothes every year. Multiply that by 350 million Americans! Almost all of this turns into trash without recycling. Now you might wonder. You donate your clothes, right? Or at least give them up for recycling. But that is not entirely the end of the story. Just one Salvation Army in the United States produces over 18 tons of unwanted clothes every 3 days. Again, this should be a good sign right? More clothes at the Salvation Army mean more people are donating.
While that fact remains true to its face value, most of these clothes which they can’t resell nor donate within a month, end up in massive dumps. Later, they ship it back to 3rd world counties by the tons. There, almost all of that will get either incinerate or dumped. From all the fabric used for clothing, 87% of it will be either incinerated or dumped.
Fake eco marketing
Now all these large conglomerates know that we care about our planet. As a result, they are forced to work on methods to make sure that their carbon footprint is minimized. While some projects are underway that are truly effective, most of the companies spend more on eco advertising than trying to make a real difference.
They puff up their branding with buzz words like “sustainability” and “responsible usage” to misguide the audience to think that their products are now ecofriendly. Yet, if you have a closer look at those products, most of them are almost as equally harmful as any regular piece of cloth. Dresses that claim to contain wool that has only 3% of wool and 97% synthetic materials, labels that carry a recycled sign, yet it was only the label that was made out of recycled material, and jackets which claim to have a coating of ecofriendly polyester, yet everything else is pure oil. All of this is just to give the illusion of eco-friendliness to make you feel secure about what you buy.
It is always easier to complain. But if what can we really do to support the environment is a different question to be answered.
What can we do about it?
None of this is directed to convince you not to buy clothes. It is something essential to every human. Even fashion is a part of our lives which we can’t really get rid of. But the way you consume the industry can be the difference that the world seeks right now.
Just by wearing your clothes 9 additional months, can reduce the carbon footprint is has on earth by 30%. If everyone manages to use one used garment every year. That is equivalent to getting rid of half a million cars off the road for one year. And as usual, constantly being active and sensitive about the environment always pushes the manufacturers to become more and more ecofriendly.
Therefore unlike most of the burning issues in the world, where who can’t make a notable impact, this is an instance where you get to make a meaningful contribution. Just by wearing your clothes longer, and by buying second-hand products more, you can delay the adverse effects significantly.
Of cause, these are not absolute solutions for the issue. But it can at least delay the process. As a responsible citizen, I would take that bargain. So next time when you browse through the internet to buy clothes because stores are still closed due to COVID, make sure you think again if that piece of garment is worth the cost. Not the price on your credit card, but the cost you make to the planet you live in.
