Fast Fashion Speak

Do you speak fast fashion?

Fashion has become an integral part of our lives. However, the rise of fast fashion, characterized by rapid production and consumption, has brought about detrimental consequences for our planet.

Fast fashion, driven by low-cost production and quick turnover, has captivated consumers around the globe. From the likes of Boohoo.com and Shein, its affordability and accessibility have led to an increased demand for new clothing items at the lowest possible prices, again and again and again. Whereby fashion houses would produce only two collections per year to coincide with the seasons, now fast fashion brands are dropping new fashion collections every week.  Shein, the Chinese fast fashion retailer, adds up to 1000 new pieces to its site every single day.

Mass choice, low price, mass wastage, low wages.

With social media and advertising campaigns promoting constant fashion reinvention, consumers often feel pressured to stay on-trend, fuelling the fast fashion business. Unfortunately, this cycle of overconsumption has severe implications for our environment.

Carbon footprint

According to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the fashion industry is responsible for around 10% of global carbon emissions in manufacturing processes, transportation, and end-of-life disposal.  More than 30% of clothing produced each year is never sold and ends up in landfill.

Water consumption and pollution

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) estimates that it takes approximately 2,700 litres of water to produce a single cotton t-shirt, equivalent to what one person drinks over three years. Water-intensive processes, including dyeing and finishing textiles, contribute to water pollution through chemical discharge.

Waste and landfill

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation states that the equivalent of one garbage truck of textiles is landfilled or incinerated every second, releasing pollution into the atmosphere. Synthetic fibres take hundreds of years to break down – the mountain of clothes dumped in the Chilean desert can now be seen from space.

Poverty and inequality

Fast fashion's harmful effects extend beyond the environment. Many fast fashion brands outsource production to low-wage countries, where workers face exploitative conditions, pitifully low wages, and long hours. The Fashion Revolution organization reports that approximately 80% of garment workers are women, often enduring unsafe working environments.

Let’s talk about slow fashion.

To mitigate the impact of fast fashion on climate change, slow fashion brands are emerging to educate consumers on how fashion choices can have a wide-reaching detrimental impact on people and planet.

For these sustainable brands, changes to business models to innovative solutions is bringing amazing change. Take for instance Unfolded, who only product items once they have been ordered, leading to less wastage and keeping prices lower.

But it is not just a revolution of manufacture that has the power to make change.  

Sustainable, conscious marketing can become a force for good for its direct influence on world views, attitudes, culture and lifestyle. Talking about sustainability and slow fashion to consumers who care about staying on trend can be powerful but for true change, collective action is needed.

To ensure sustainable fashion becomes a permanent choice rather than another trend, media and marketing needs to take responsibility for the fast-fashion-speak woven into modern day culture. From “retail therapy” to “life is short, buy the dress” to watching a “haul”,  the normalisation of fast fashion and mass consumption is everywhere.

Encouraging sustainable alternatives and supporting ethical brands involves disrupting the narrative of society. This means rejecting and not support fast-fashion-speak wherever we hear or see it.   To advocate for transparency, fair labour practices, and environmentally conscious production, we need to consider that the phrases and words we are so used to hearing, are no longer socially appropriate or ethical.

As brands and as consumers, we all have the power to demand change by adapting language and ensuring that fast fashion and unconscious shopping is recognised as deeply ‘unfashionable’.