Fast fashion: definition, impacts and alternatives.
In recent years, many major fashion brands known for the variety of items they offer at unbeatable prices have also gained notoriety for being associated with the spread of a phenomenon that has generated much discussion for its negative impact – particularly on the environment: fast fashion.
A kind of low-cost fast food applied to the fashion sector, and a standard-bearer of overconsumption, this commercial process began to develop in the late 1990s, and has reached its peak today, constantly pushing its limits with the sole motto being the principle of profitability.
Unfortunately, the fast fashion model's ability to generate capital is matched only by the extent of the environmental and social damage it causes.
From its concept to its negative repercussions and its alternatives, this article dissects the issue of fast fashion in detail.
Fasten your seatbelts!
What is fast fashion?
Fast fashion refers to a branch of the clothing industry that manufactures mass-produced consumer goods in huge quantities, at very low cost, to be sold at very low prices.
Over time, the term fast fashion, known for several decades in the eco-sphere, has become democratized to the general public, thanks - or because of - brands that have made it their business, building empires by using ever more economical and profitable production processes.
So much so that fast fashion, literally “fast fashion”, is now giving way to ultra fast fashion; a form of commerce that no longer offers collections every season, or even every month, but now every week, or even in some extreme cases, every day.
This production of such varied items, sold at such low prices, logically leads to a buying impulse in the consumer; and when overconsumption and overproduction feed off each other, it's a snowball effect.
Unfortunately, the suffering and negative effects of this practice are dramatic, and impact both the planet and the health of the people exploited at the bottom of the chain to fuel the production of these businesses.
The disastrous environmental and social consequences of fast fashion.
Gigantic CO2 emissions.
The production, processing, and transport of all the raw materials (cotton, plastic polymers, metals, etc.) needed to make sneakers, clothing, and fashion accessories are the source of large quantities of greenhouse gases.
In addition to these energy expenditures, the relocation of production plants to developing countries in the Global South, such as India, Bangladesh, or Vietnam, involves long distribution chains, which, while profitable, further increase the cost.environmental footprint related to the transport of clothes once manufactured. It is estimated that a fashion item in the fast fashion circuit travels on average more than 60,000 km, before arriving in the hands of its buyer, or 1.5 times the distance to go around the Earth.
While in the best-case scenario this transport is handled by rail or cargo ship, sometimes shipments are transported by air. The challenges of air transport for the fashion industry are the same as those for tourist travel, because an airplane emits far more carbon into the atmosphere, which causes global warming, than transport by land or sea.
All of this combined makes the fashion sector to date the second most polluting industry in the world, after the oil industry.
Overexploitation of natural resources
Fast fashion relies on the production of huge quantities of clothing, sneakers and accessories, which inevitably require a lot of textile material.
When these are of natural origin, the plants that compose them require enormous amounts of water to grow.
When the articles are of synthetic origin, they require the extraction and transformation of significant petroleum resources, which in turn require large amounts of energy and water.
It is estimated that the textile industry uses 4% of the world's available drinking water each year, making it the third largest water consumer in the world. Groundwater depletion, erosion, and climate change are just some of the environmental problems caused by fast fashion.
Impact on the environment and degradation of ecosystems.
Fast fashion is characterized by encouraging people to consume, making them addicted to a form of materialism, in which buying no longer meets a need, but becomes a way of life.
This overconsumption relies on the production of large quantities of poor-quality textiles, which, as with planned obsolescence in the digital world, create the need to regularly buy new items to replace old, disposable clothes, sneakers, or fashion accessories. This waste of resources means that in Europe, 4 million tons of clothing are thrown away every year.
This excessive production involves the use of large quantities of chemicals for clothing treatment and pesticides in the cultivation of raw materials such as cotton. These practices have environmental consequences, contaminating soils and waterways. and to pollute the oceans, This harms underwater animal species, in addition to terrestrial wildlife.
Finally, regularly replenishing massive stocks of items necessitates the destruction of a large portion of unsold collections; recycling these items is more expensive than destroying them. In addition to being unsustainable, these production methods result in millions of textile pieces being discarded into the environment, ending up burned or piled up in open-air landfills in impoverished countries, where the stacked fashion items decompose and slowly release their chemical processing agents, residues, and dyes into the soil.
Exploitation of workers and social misery.
Who hasn't heard in recent years about the treatment inflicted on Uyghur populations, forced to serve the productivity of textile giants in inhumane conditions?
Worldwide, some 75 million workers are employed in the textile industry, and while not all operate under these conditions of extreme exploitation, a large proportion of these people suffer from working in conditions unfavorable to their well-being.
To ensure maximum revenue, for decades, fashion giants have been relocating their production to developing countries, where they can exploit cheap labor.
Producing in developing countries allows these brands to amass unbeatable profit margins. This is done at the expense of the well-being of women, men, and sometimes even children, who perform repetitive tasks over very long hours for extremely low wages.
With the focus on meeting performance targets, factory staff may be required to work in unsanitary facilities and perform risky tasks without protection, such as handling chemicals, which exposes these individuals to the risk of developing various pathologies.
Animal abuse and the decline of biodiversity.
Ultra-fast fashion contributes to the slaughter of millions of animals for the exploitation of their skin, fur, or wool. But animal suffering doesn't end with the slaughter of these animals, who are often raised in inhumane conditions beforehand.
Locked up, deprived of access to daylight, treated with regulating drugs, sometimes beaten, they suffer all types of ill-treatment throughout their short lives.
Moreover, pollution of natural habitats and deforestation, in addition to raising the level of CO2 in the atmosphere, lead to the disappearance of the habitats of many wild animal species, which contributes to the collapse of biodiversity.
Slow fashion, simplicity, second-hand: solutions to combat fast fashion.
While reversing the trend of fast fashion depends on political decisions and choices made by companies in the fashion sector to redirect their business model towards a more ethical form, the consommateurs.trices They also have a significant role to play in building a more sustainable fashion industry.
Learn about the harmful effects of fast fashion.
No action without reflection. For adopt responsible habits and to consume differently, it is important to start by questioning our real needs, in order to differentiate them from our impulsive purchases.
It is also important to redefine the moral requirements we expect from the brands we support through our purchases by raising ethical questions:
Do we want to favor the purchase of fashion items made in Europe, or made in France? Are we committed to supporting a sustainable fashion brand that cares about the health of the people who provide its services? Do we want to turn to... vegan brands committed which preserve the welfare of animal species ? Are the clothes we buy the product of eco-responsible fashion, which emphasizes production using... eco-designed materials, in order to preservation of the planet ? Or, that justifies the actual price of a fashion item?
All these questions lead us to adopt a fresh perspective, in order to better understand the issues and problems raised by the model established by fast fashion.
Consume items from sustainable fashion brands.
Turning your back on fast fashion doesn't mean you have to stop dressing well or stop enjoying yourself. On the contrary, in recent decades, many ethical brands inspired by slow fashion have emerged.
It's time to be curious and take the opportunity to discover these new clothing, accessory, and brands shoes, often locally produced, designed using innovative, eco-responsible, high-quality materials, and manufactured by people who are fairly regarded, like COG and our sneakers vegan recycled produced in Portugal.
Adopting a simpler lifestyle to reduce consumption.
Buy less but better. take care of your sneakers, Prioritizing the mending of one's clothes, opting for recycling, second-hand and pre-owned items, rather than systematically turning to new shoes, clothes and accessories, helps to reduce consumption, and allows one to become even more deeply rooted in a personal “slow” and sustainable approach to say no to fast fashion.
Our ethical shoes as an alternative to fast fashion. All
Together for sustainable fashion in response to fast fashion.
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The COG team.