Today I want to talk to you about fashion. I am a big fan of clothing, jewellery, lingerie and shoes. I am sure you are too and cannot resist those beautiful earrings or top you saw in the shop. Did you know that the latest trend is to buy a dress of low quality/cost just to wear it once? Why is that? Because we do not want to wear the same thing twice? Do we actually know the impact on the planet and our economy? Let’s talk about fast fashion.
You will find several articles under this category:
1- Fashion vs fast fashion from 1800 until now
2- The supply channels and workers
4- The economic impact and your financial impact
5- Sustainable or conscious fashion: does it exist?
Fast fashion: what does it mean?
This term was first used during the 1990s when Zara described its production model as a mission to bring the designers collections on the rack of the store in only two weeks.
With the pressure of the competition, the willingness to earn more money and push you to buy more, the big textile companies had to review this term and its definition. Today, fast fashion represents a whole economic system. Fast fashion retailers are presenting more than 50 seasons per year compared to the normal 4 seasons that were done previously and always at a lower price.
For you to buy those new clothes every week, they pursue you with advertisements, offering you low price product (due to its lower quality).
According to the Cambridge dictionary, fast fashion is defined as “clothes that are made and sold cheaply, so that people can buy new clothes often”. To this definition, I would add a part that Investopedia talks about: “Fast fashion became common because of cheaper clothing, an increase in the appetite for fashionable clothing, and the increase in purchasing power on the part of consumers.”. Fashion used to be a luxury. You would buy one or two pieces that were handmade from your country and reuse them. Today the big companies try to offer to the consumer cheap “fashion” clothing made in suspicious conditions. This is You cannot pay the bills but you can buy many clothes….. You will have different clothes every time you go out so mentally it feels good right? However the financial impact and environmental is still here, it will just come later.
When I was researching fast fashion I realised that not only the big retailers are guilty but us too.
Going through the web I stepped upon Merriam-Webster dictionary and definition of fashion before and now: from Azeen Ghorayshi “In 1985, we bought roughly 31 clothing items per year; now [in 2012] we snap up twice that many thanks to “fast fashion.”
Fashion in the 19 century:
In the 1800s fashion was different versus today. Fashion was a luxury. People of high class or with a lot of money would have their dress made. Most of them were unique and fully customisable by the buyer. The middle class and lower class would still make their clothes, even have their sheep for the wool.
The fashion revolution began in 1830 with the first sewing machine.
This is when you began to see the upcoming of small shops, with products of similar pattern like dresses for instance, which was praised by the middle class. Whereas the lower class still was making their clothes at home.
Fashion in the 20 century:
With the innovation in the sewing industry, more and more garments factories opened. After WWII, the making of standardised products increased and consumers began to see the value into the mass-production: cheaper products. However, this low cost was due to the low condition and low salary those garments were made in. The workers were mainly immigrants that needed to overwork to be paid a “decent” salary. In NY in 1911, a fire destroyed the Triangle Shirtwaist factory killing 146 of immigrant workers.
During the second part of the 20th century, a shift came through. Young people wanted to break with the old trends and be able to follow fashion trends while buying clothes regularly.
The 21st century:
In the late 20th century beginning of 21st, H&M opened and offered to the customer exactly what they wanted: fast fashion. Cheap clothes that are bought easily and new designs every other week. Instead of buying an expensive high-quality piece (which they cannot afford at the moment), you can buy multiple pieces that you will wear once but that does not look like having a financial impact at the buying moment.
Before the 21st century, most of our clothes were still made in the country of selling with workers that are paid a low but “decent” salary. Today, they are made in third world countries, with no clear rules on the employment cost for the brand and their work environment compared to the “western” world.
Few to no rules are in place in term of the way they are treated as well as the products they use which are dangerous for the environment and the people living there. Big companies are making a huge profit over clothes we buy every day but still people in Bangladesh, India etc.. are significantly impacted by the tough conditions. Today we begin to realise this impact so retailers decided to create “conscious” collection: are they playing us? Are they actually trying to make a difference?
In the next article, we will look into the supply chain and what are the “rules” in place that protect garment workers.
The fashion industry changed when people began to think that being fashionable that it is not anymore having a piece from a couture Maison or a unique piece but when you can buy clothes that you never wear twice; it makes you feel richer. How can we revert that?
Let us know:
Do you believe that the making of clothing can change? Let us know!
I also would love to know if you have any insight and want to participate in the next article. I would like to personally thanks Shannon Clare for her help on this subject.
Feel free to follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and write to us for any new ideas. We cannot wait to hear from you!
