By Tia Rawlings
Some of the country’s favourite brands such as Primark, Urban Outfitters, Shein, Pretty Little Thing and Zara, all sell fast fashion products.
What is fast fashion? “Fast fashion is a design, manufacturing, and marketing method focused on rapidly producing high volumes of clothing. Garment production utilizes trend replication and low-quality materials (like synthetic fabrics) in order to bring inexpensive styles to the public,” according to The Good Trade.
“These cheaply made, trendy pieces have resulted in an industry-wide movement towards overwhelming amounts of consumption. Unfortunately, this results in harmful impacts on the environment, garment workers, and, ultimately, consumers’ wallets.”
Pretty Little Thing were exposed last year when customers discovered that their products were Fruit of the Loom (an inexpensive, basic clothing brand) with a Pretty Little Thing label stitched into the seam, the Sun reported.
And yet, millions of people still buy from these brands. Why? Because despite the sustainable and ethical concerns, they’re easier on the wallet.
The endless creation of new clothes comes with a heavy environmental price. The fashion industry is currently responsible for more annual carbon emissions than all international flights and maritime shipping combined, according to a study by Princeton University.
So, why do people still buy fast fashion?
“I buy from Shein and fast fashion, which is quite bad, but it’s cheap and you get a lot for your money. I have charity shop stuff as well; I’ll spend more on clothes if it’s a fancy dress or something or like an event outfit,” said Nancy Wilkinson, 18, a first-year student in Events Management from Lancaster.
Many people find that fast fashion is more accessible and cost efficient than sustainable fashion, which is a big part of the problem. Fast fashion brands also keep up with trends regularly, getting new stock in constantly and putting the old stock on sale to keep up with new emerging trends and customer demands.
Ross Pollard, APAC Fashion Editor for MilliOnAir Magazine told a panel of students at London Metropolitan University at a debate on fast fashion yesterday: “A lot of these products are only being made because they sell.”
Essentially, if the customer continues to buy a company’s product the company will keep producing them, he said. But the cause of the problem is much broader than it appears. There are many steps involved in the fast fashion industry rather than just pointing fingers at the big brands, we should recognise that customers have a huge impact on the issue too.
Caroline Ash, Director at Fashion Enter/Fashion Capital and another one of the panellists, said: “We can’t just blame one sector of the industry. We all have a part to play.”
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