Inexpensive and Trendy clothing that takes its inspiration from designer brands and catwalk couture is comprised today in something called ‘Fast Fashion’, fast fashion not only provides economic savings but also immediate satisfaction, the satisfaction of knowing you bought something that looks so expensive, for a cheap price. But there’s a twist, the consumer may not pay a large sum of money but a hefty amount is being paid by the world. No money compares to life and fast fashion costs a mighty environmental price. The fashion industry today emits more carbon emissions per year than all international aircraft and maritime freight combined.
According to a journal called “How clothes harm the Environment” by Tala Tabishat, “Fast fashion is critically challenged because it exploits workers, its environmental impact, and the detrimental effects of a growing global second-hand clothing trade on textile manufacturing in the Global South.” Fast fashion pollutes river streams. Global Fashion Agenda (GFA) & The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) tell us that the fashion industry is a major consumer of water, using approximately 79 trillion litres per year. As stated by the United Nations Climate Change, it is responsible for 20% of industrial water pollution from textile treatment and dyeing and contributes 35% (190,000 tonnes per year) of oceanic primary microplastic pollution. As stated in a report by Quantis, It also generates massive amounts of textile waste (>92 million tonnes per year), much of which ends up in landfill or is burned, including unsold products.
Along with harmful environmental effects, fast fashion is also a dangerous working space, with workers required to work for 14–16 hours per day, seven days a week. Workers are not paid adequate wages and work in undesirable working conditions. According to UNICEF & The Guardian, Child labour is a common practice among fast fashion manufacturers, because much of the supply chain involves unskilled labour and some tasks are better suited to children than adults.
Credits: Child Labour in Fast Fashion
Children are viewed as docile labour who go unnoticed, making them easier to control. Employers can get away with it because the fashion supply chain is so complex that it is difficult for them to oversee every stage of production. This enables the employment of young people who are unfamiliar with significant corporations or consumers. Children are low-skilled labourers with no voice, making them an easy target. Labour tends to be outsourced to countries with fewer safety rules, no unions, and no pay legislation.
While fashion is a powerful form of self-expression and the fashion industry has been critical to economic growth and development, current rates of consumption and production cannot be sustained without aggravating the environmental risks.
But, there is a solution, an easy way to not end but reduce the environmental price. This solution presents itself in the form of “Slow fashion”.
A sustainable fashion brand called Good on You states that Slow Fashion has seen increasing support in the last few years as consumers demand higher sustainability and ethical standards. The statistics presented by TheRoundup org, 38% of Vogue readers buy as much sustainable fashion as possible, and 46% say that they sometimes buy. Only 2% are not interested in making sustainable purchases. ⅓ of US consumers would buy all their clothing at a sustainable store if they knew where to find one.
by: @consciousstyle, Slow Fashion is a mindset
Sustainability has become a fad. An article by https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/?from=mdr, mentions that slow-fashion items last longer and result in direct and indirect cost savings over time. It furthers the argument that mending and reusing clothing is preferable to throwing it away. Slow fashion promotes using eco-friendly resources like sustainably grown fibre crops.According to an article called “Ethical foundations in a sustainable fashion” by Kirsi Niinimäki, the slow fashion system can mean more social justice and better working conditions for textile factory workers, while by slowing the system, it is possible to increase the end price of the product and invest in better factories. Slow fashion also means a cleaner environment, with less industrial production waste and cleaner production.
Even though, slow fashion is expensive in comparison to fast fashion, it depletes the harsh environmental and social price we have to pay. The motto of fast fashion is “creating a false desire for new looks.” It tricks you into thinking you need something terribly when, in actuality, you can get by without it. Slow fashion is a more firmly rooted strategy that helps provide a solid basis upon which to build. The slow fashion movement is simple to support, is growing quickly, and appears to be the next new thing.
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