Sustainability of Fast Fashion — Whats the problem?
Fast fashion is defined as ever changing clothing trends, where people buy clothes from retailers, online shops, without the intention of wearing the piece of clothing on a continuous basis. However long the trend lasts!
As a regular shopper on Depop, there is a great array of clothes available at the click of a button, with specific categories, trends, where you can set up your account to suit your wants and needs. Fast fashion is a dangerous element of retail as it puts the market in a constant cycle.
Among these cons are:
- Depletion of Non-Renewable Resources
- Emission of Greenhouse Gases
- Use of massive amounts of water and energy
As you can imagine, clothing requires a significant output of all of these to produce clothes for the masses, predominately the west. This creates a back pedal on all the bad areas that it is built upon. Retailers such as ASOS, Boohoo, Pretty Little Thing, are constantly updating and reinvigorating their stock and their product lines.
In 2018, Burberry were ousted for burning £28 Million of their own stock to ‘protect its brand’. This was primarily to keep their brand ‘exclusive’. Moreover, Cartier and Montblanc, had to buy back £430 million of stock between 2016 and 2018, much of which would of simply been thrown away. More than 1100 people died in a garment factory collapse in Bangladesh in 2014, yet no one hears about it. There simply needs to be more transparency from the west in regard tom the fashion industry.
Ultimately, there seems to be no solution to the problem, that is until mass reforming and regulating will commence, preventing such brands from disingenuous activity that only aims to protect their brand, but does nothing for the protection of the market and the environment.
What can you do to help?
Seemingly, the solution will only help with the help of the consumers. Buying from secondhand retailers, recycling and re selling your own unwanted clothes, using second hand sites such as Depop and Vinted to keep up with the latest trends; there are many things that the consumer can do to help put an end to fast fashion.
‘The most environmentally sustainable jacket is the one that’s already in your closet’
- Patagonia’s chief product officer, Lisa Williams
