Many times
as consumers, we look at our shopping habits when it comes to clothing in terms
of how much we are spending, where we are spending our money and the comfort
and wearability of our clothes.  These
things are all relevant.  However, one area that is becoming increasingly important to consider for value-driven
shoppers and for those who are concerned about the environment is the true
impacts that our clothing purchases have on the future of Earth and the lives
of humans living on it right now.

Today is the
first of a 2-part blog series about Fast Fashion versus Sustainable Fashion.  Whether you care about the environment or
not, I heartily believe it is important for all of us to take a look at our
decisions as consumers and understand these topics so we can make our decisions
coming from a place of knowledge.  The
decisions we make today will impact not just our own lives, but the lives of
our children and grandchildren and cannot be ignored.

Clothes could have more meaning and longevity if we think less about
owning the latest or cheapest thing and develop more of a relationship with the
things we wear

Elizabeth L
Cline, author of Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion 

Part one of
this series will focus on Fast Fashion. 
I will share what it is and its impact. 
Next week, I will dive into Sustainable Fashion.  I am passionate about this topic and hope you
are willing to dive in with me here and learn something new so you can make
better-informed decisions. 

So, what
exactly IS Fast Fashion?  Here is the
official definition:  the rapid
production and consumption of inexpensive clothing, often inspired by the
latest runway trends.  It prioritizes
quick and cheap manufacturing to provide affordable, trendy garments to
consumers.

Honestly, this is how many women shop.  Have you
ever popped into Target or Walmart and purchased clothes there?  You have just purchased Fast Fashion.  What about shopping online at Shein, H&M,
Zara, or ASOS?  Yep, those are all Fast
Fashion.  So, why is it a problem? What’s the big deal?  I
would take it a step further and say it’s not just a problem, it’s a very pervasive problem.  

Women buy fast fashion because it’s a quick
fix to feel trendy.  Many times, the
clothes are also very inexpensive, so when you buy them and wear them only a couple
of times, you don’t have guilt over it. 
Or, because the quality is low, you may wear it and wash it a couple of
times and then the fabric is stiff or the seams start to pull apart, so it gets
thrown in the trash.  Again, you don’t
feel TOO bad, because it was so cheap! 
So, what’s the big deal? It didn’t cost a lot of money. Here are
some facts about Fast Fashion:

• It has a
  huge impact on the environment.  In fact,
  it is estimated to be responsible for about 10% of global carbon emissions and
  20% of global wastewater contamination due to dying and treatment
  processes.  In addition, because of the
  reliance on non-renewable resources to make manmade fibers, contributes to
  resource depletion. Fast Fashion also contributes to massive amounts of Textile
  Waste because the clothing is inexpensive and therefore seen by consumers as disposable and ends up in landfills.  Because many manmade fibers are not
  biodegradable, they just pile up. You can’t burn them because they are made of
  plastic so there is nowhere for them to go.

• It has
  social and ethical impacts as well. 
  Manufacturers of Fast Fashion generally have poor working conditions
  including child labor as one of the practices. 
  Because the clothes must be so rapidly turned out, children are hired in
  the industry because there are not enough adults to create the product.  Even when adults work at manufacturing
  facilities, they are paid poorly at poverty levels, forced to work long hours, and aren’t given workers’ rights. And migrant workers are trafficked and forced
  to work in these unsafe conditions as well because, again like with children,
  to keep up with the demand, workers must be found to keep up.  In addition, these facilities are very unsafe because the
  chemicals used to make the fabrics are detrimental to the health of the workers
  and also to the consumers who wear the garments. Scary, right?!

Here are
some additional statistics relating to consumer behavior and how it has been
impacted by fast fashion.  These issues
become cyclical because Consumers purchase Fast Fashion, so more Fast
Fashion is made. 

Think about the news cycle when Kate Middleton wears a dress
more than once.  Or when you see a starlet in something twice.  It’s
rare.  In the book “Overdressed:  The Shockingly High Cost of
Cheap Fashion” the author Elizabeth Cline references an ad by TJMaxx where
a Customer says with pride, “I never wear the same thing
twice”.  I know that I have found myself thinking this when I’m
invited to a fancy event.  I want something new instead of wearing
something that I have in my closet and have been seen in.  But I have been making a more
intentional effort for those events to see what I can pull from my arsenal in
my closet as I have learned more about this serious issue.

Here are
some quick statistics about Consumer behavior in Fast Fashion:

• A study by
  Greenpeace found that the average American wears a garment just 7 times before
  it is discarded.
• The EPA
  reported that the average American discards 70 pounds of clothing and textiles
  each year.
• A report by
  McKinsey found that the average consumer purchased 60% more clothing in 2014
  compared to in the year 2000, but only kept each garment for about half as
  long.

As you
should be able to see, this is a huge problem socially, environmentally, and
ethically.  Many consumers are not aware
of the role they have in this cycle, so I hope that this post has given you
valuable awareness of the issue. It is sometimes easier to just bury our heads
in the sand and ignore the problem, but my goal is for more people to take the
information to heart and decide to make a better future for our children and
their children and even for people across the globe that we don’t even know. Our choices matter.

In next
week’s blog post, I will share all about Sustainable Fashion:  what it is, why it’s important, and how you
can make responsible decisions when it comes to purchasing Fashion.

Stylishly
Yours,

Michelle

*I used
ChatGPT to help with research for this blog post*