Fast fashion is the highly profitable global industry that mass-produces cheap, low quality clothes and accessories. It continuously creates fashion trends and gets products ready for sale quickly.
Fast doesn’t last. Poor quality clothing may last only a few washes and wears, and increasingly consumers see fast fashion as disposable - to be worn a few times and replaced by the next inexpensive item or latest trend. The industry strives to make production faster and cheaper, both creating and responding to consumer desire for new products in increasing quantities, and brands use data and tech to make online shopping ever more attractive. In the UK, where consumers wear an item of clothing on average only 14 times, we buy more clothes per person than any other country in Europe.
What’s the harm?
Fast fashion responds to and fuels our throwaway culture and inevitably, someone must pay for this cheap consumerism. Garment factory workers in countries like Bangladesh, China and India as well as in the UK (where the textile industry is largely based in Leicester) experience inhumane working conditions as clothing businesses chase cheaper costs to increase profit. Employees - often women and children - receive less than the living wage and work long hours in unsafe conditions. After the 2013 Rana Plaza tragedy when a garment warehouse collapse in Bangladesh killed 1,134 workers and injured 2,500 more, the world woke up to inhumane working conditions. But modern slavery and illegal practices remain as the business model continues to encourage overconsumption and generate excessive waste.
The fashion industry as a whole is a big polluter. Huge volumes of water are used in cotton production and dyeing (it’s estimated around 2,000 gallons of water are used to make a typical pair of jeans), and water use is unregulated in many areas. In textile hubs like Dhaka city in Bangladesh - home to the Rana Plaza tragedy - groundwater levels are dropping by up to one metre per year. Leather tanning and fabric dying also release chemicals into water supplies, leading to pollution from hazardous chemicals. Vast amounts of textiles are landfilled or burned and brands often destroy stock that is “out of season”. Synthetic fibres (like polyester, nylon and elastane) are made from processed fossil fuels and clothing treatments including domestic washing releases microplastics into the water systems and oceans.
If nothing changes by 2050 some estimate the industry will be responsible for a quarter of the world’s carbon budget. Change must happen.
The good news is, it’s possible for you as an individual to make change. Remember, the fashion industry chases you, the consumer. Your buying choice affects its future. What can you do?
- Don’t buy anything! Take our challenge and avoid buying fast fashion for three months. That’s a season. Can you wear last Spring’s wardrobe? Upcycle your clothes? Try new combinations? Loving what you already own is the most sustainable option.
- Buy used. If you’ve found treasures in charity and vintage shops before you’ll know this can be fun and interesting. Try it. You’re more likely to find something unique or good quality here than from fast fashion sites - and you’ll probably save money. You can also use resale websites like eBay and Vinted.
- Look at upcycling, recycling or clothes swapping sites to find items new to you. It’s an interesting way to shop or change items and gives real value to your clothes.
- Purchase second-hand clothes that do good for the planet and fundraise for WWF at the same time. Browse our WWF page on Thrift+ and all donations will come back to us, helping us to continue fighting for out world.
- If you need to buy new, invest in quality items that will last instead of disposable temporary trends. Building a capsule wardrobe of essential items that fit your classic taste for years - not weeks - can give you your own sense of style and free you from fast fashion’s endless cycle of change.
- Be aware that many retailers aren’t honest about how sustainable their products are. Watch out for ‘greenwashing’: marketing spin many businesses use to make them seem more environmentally-friendly. Often information given is misleading and can lead customers to make ill-informed buying choices that support harmful practises.
Changing our fashion buying habits can seem hard. Buying disposable fashion can appear to make life easier. But if we think about our purchasing choices; consider what we already own and realise that by making a change we can bring a sense of value to our clothing, we may see that in reality our need for fast fashion is not a need at all.
It’s all about feeling good in our own clothes.