One can draw a comparison between fast fashion brands and fast food chains easily. You order a burger from a fast food chain; it is ordered, cooked, and packed up in roughly six to seven minutes. Now, clothing.
A trend—or let's be specific, a cheetah print top—was very chic last year, remind you. They become popular one fine day, and the next thing you know, they are at every store you visit daily, with different patterns and styles. From cheetah prints to streetwear, to Y2K nostalgia, to oversized fits (graphic tees, baggy pants), to “it’s 2016,” to cottage-core. Everything mentioned above are a couple of fashion trends altered within the past year itself. Emphasis on "the couple."
Every one of these clothing genres can be found in stores like Zara, H&M, Westside, etc. One more common factor about them is that their production is done at high volumes in an inexpensive manner, rapidly, according to the current fashion trends.
Now, take a moment. Fashion changes quickly—within a week. These stores produce clothes accordingly, so they launch another collection within that week. So, according to my calculations: Well, that is A LOT. This is fast fashion, where clothes are made rapidly and inexpensively at high volumes. But at what expense?
Fashion trend alteration has become as volatile as the economic markets. One week you are wearing the most “stylish,” “cool” fit, and in the next, it’s outdated. Fashion changes because of several reasons. A famous celebrity like Ariana Grande wears a high ponytail in 2014, and the rest of the population is walking with the same hairstyle. Brands like Nike and Adidas make a clothing or accessory item which is a “statement piece” for an individual, and now everyone has it in their closet.
It is exactly like a market. The competitor's product is at its utmost, and then another company or commodity enters the market and outruns the competition. And now everyone is after the “new trend.” What happens to the obsolescent? It goes into the landfills along with the other old-fashioned products from before.
So, is fast fashion ethically wrong? Yes, it is. Every single old-fashioned, out-of-style clothing item, product, and accessory is in a landfill at this very moment. Remember polka dots, bows, and Barbie pink? Every single one of those clothing pieces an individual owned related to that style is now in a landfill somewhere. All thanks to fashion trends and fast fashion.
Additionally, fast fashion significantly contributes to child labor because of its rapid, low-cost production demand. The complex supply chains allow for these exploitative practices, often in countries with weak enforceability of labor laws.
Where in the supply chain does child labor occur? Raw Material Production. It is highly prevalent in agriculture, specifically in cotton fields, where the minor is exposed to harmful pesticides and extreme heat. These are the fast fashion economy's true colors. Fast fashion results in every machine-made clothing item piling in the landfill and minors working for hours, day and night, for their families' welfare.
Counterarguments can be that clothes are made at a rapid pace where consumers can buy and retailers can sell latest-fashion clothing in a matter of days or weeks. Due to their mass machine production, they are cheaper and affordable. Retailers of fast fashion allow consumers to have vast accessibility and choices via online or physical stores. It creates jobs and an economic impact by driving economic growth toward the manufacturing sectors.
Though these points show the advantages of fast fashion, runway trends still allow mass production, creating environmental issues and ethical trade-offs. Which makes one truly question: what are the ethics of fast fashion?
-Anannya Wanage
