The Danger of Fast Fashion
What is Fast Fashion?
Over the decades the fashion world has changed quiet dramatically. If someone mentions the 70s you can easily create an image in your head of how people dressed. Bell bottom jeans, bright flashy colors, the age of disco. When the future generations look back at our generation, there won’t be a prominent look. This is the age of ‘aesthetic’ where there is the most evident diversity in how we show up in the world. You no longer dress for your occupation, but for your personality, and some only dress for the seasons trends.
Fast fashion is the leading cause of pollution, and is causing overconsumption, making the generation of ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ be put to shame.
In the fashion industry there are stores like Ralph Loren, Chanel, Christian Dior, etc. They have stellar craftmanship, and their reputation comes with a heavy price. There are also brands like Temu, SHEIN, Zara, etc. They have poor craftman ship, nothing lasts, and honestly that is the point.
Fashion has 52 micro-seasons every year. What was once seasonal changes due to weather, is now grossly overdone, to create the need for us to consume. For us to be with the trends.
What is the impact?
Enviormental
The fashion industry creates 52 million tons of clothing every. single. year. That amount is not set in stone either, it will continue growing over the next generations. More importantly than that 11 million tons are being thrown away every year. That means that 4.7% of all clothing that is created, is being destroyed.
The fabrics these companies use are full of harmful chemicals that are bad for the environment, so when they eventually end up in the landfill, they hurt the soil it is on, and they rarely ever decompose. So the clothing you buy off of SHEIN and use for a month before it breaks, will end up in the landfill impacting the earth longer than you are even on it.
Toxicity
Tributyl Phosphate - causes skin irritation, suspected to cause cancer, harmful to aquatic life
Dimethyl Fumarate - harmful in contact with skin, causes skin and eye irritation, cause allergic reaction on the skin, causes respiratory irritation
Disperse Dyes - over time it is found that a large percentage of the population is allergic to these dyes. Micro-dosages over time have an impact on heath
These three chemical compounds were commonly found in fast fashion clothing. These three are all harmful to our heath over time. While the impact may not be noticeable, over time it has been tracked and studied, and we have seen a large impact on the health of human kind.
Ill-treatment of the trade
At this point I do not believe it is a secret that most brands create their products over seas in order to reduce costs. More than just reducing the cost due to living conditions, many workers don’t get a living wage. 75 million factory workers world wide with less that 2% earning a living wage.
During the pandemic wages dropped 11% and many workers had to work for free for months on end in hope of eventually receiving any type of payment.
Women are 80% of the garment workers in foreign countries. They range from the age of 18-35. They suffer from gender discrimination, where they are verbally and physically abused. They are also sexually harassed.
What Now?
After reading this article, I hope that you can see in a new light the heavy impact that you make with every purchase you make. While in the time it is now in our strength to destroy these companies, we can diminish them with our dollar. Quality clothing has a cost, but the cost of Fast Fashion is much higher than what you think you are paying for.
