What is Fast Fashion?

Take a look at the clothing in your closet, the clothing you’re wearing right now, would you have guessed you are contributing to one of the world’s largest forms of environmental destruction?

If you take a look at the tags of your favorite brands, you’re most likely to see that these clothing items came from foreign countries, what you don’t see is the various destructive processes that allowed these clothing items to end up at your favorite stores in the first place. In today’s generation the fast fashion industry has become a big phenomenon with brands such as Fashion Nova, H&M, and Zara being the most popular as well as the most destructive to our environment. As trends and styles are constantly in flux, these brands pump out garments that use factory labor, pollute the oceans, as well as create tons of landfill waste. The trend of fast fashion is gaining widespread popularity, and it’s proving to be harmful to our environment’s development.

Although thrifting should be supported as a growing trend as it directly combats this massive issue, we need to keep in mind that, for others it’s a way of surviving and putting clothes on their family’s back. Oftentimes people will buy an oversized shirt or buy an undersized kid’s shirt and wear it as a crop top to make certain fashion statements. That oversized shirt could have been one of the very few things in that store that fit a plus sized person and those kids’ clothes that aren’t meant to be worn as crop tops could have been the only kids’ items in the store for those that cannot afford to shop fast fashion.

Throughout this blog I will be highlighting what fast fashion is, the many ways it’s destroying our environment, the unethical implications behind these massive industries, and finally solutions that can lessen the damage behind these major powers.