From the search to the discovery of the item you’ve been looking for all along, I can’t deny that shopping is one of my favorite activities. I love finding unique things and keeping up with the latest trends.
However, with my limited, college-student budget it has become more of a challenge for me to find the styles I crave at an affordable price. I now love searching online for the best deals I can find, it’s almost like a game to try to find the most inexpensive version of the item I’m looking for.
All of this searching for killer deals has led me into a new realm of shopping, fast-fashion companies.
Fast-fashion is when fashion retailers optimize specific parts of the garment supply chain so that they can bring the latest styles and trends to mainstream consumers at an affordable price.
The idea of getting the newest styles quickly, at prices I can afford seemed like a brilliant idea at first glance, but as I’ve been writing this blog I have learned a lot about the dirty side of the fashion industry and fast-fashion has come up numerous times.
As enticing as fast-fashion may be, there are several issues with the concept and companies that thrive off of it.
First, fast-fashion is a huge and growing contributor to climate change. The New York Times reports that, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, the amount of textile waste in the United States has increased by more than 800 percent from 1960 to 2015, the population has only grown by about 78 percent during that time period.
The garment industry is the seconds largest industrial polluter, behind oil, and generates about 10 percent of global carbon emissions. This increase in carbon emissions is destroying our climate and we need to make changes now.
Another issue with fast-fashion is that it exploits workers both in the United States and overseas. A big reason why fast fashion companies can sell their products at such a low cost is that the people who are making them work in under unhealthy conditions and are paid dramatically less than they should be.
Garment factories in the U.S. often hire recent immigrants, a lot of them here illegally, by doing this they are able to get away with paying people less than minimum wage, even though it is illegal.
A final issue with fast-fashion that should encourage consumers to change their buying habits is that fast-fashion items can end up costing you more than better quality, more consciously produced items.
Purchasing a $30 pair of shoes from Forever 21 might seem like a great deal in the moment, but how many times are you really going to be able to wear them before they start to crumble? The answer is probably no more than 10. But, if you went to Nordstrom and bought a similar pair for $120, they would last you many more wears than 10.
It’s hard to think economically like that in the moment, but if we can commit to thinking deeper about our purchases we can save ourselves money and help the environment heal.
Cover photo by Daniel von Appen on Unsplash.