What is "fast fashion"?
Fast fashion is a business model that has become increasingly popular in the fashion industry. It involves quickly producing low-quality clothing, cheaply, to meet the latest fashion trends. Manufacturers produce these products in bulk to leverage demand, and the process includes speedy design, production, and marketing to provide consumers with varied styles at a lower cost. However, manufacturers don't pay the price, but a lot of other things do. Such as worker exploitation, environment pollution, and mass production waste.
Fast Fashion Facts
“Fashion accounts for 20 to 35 percent of micro-plastic flows into the ocean”.
(The State of Fashion, McKinsey 2020)
Nearly 70 million barrels of oil are used each year to make the world’s polyester fiber, which is now the most commonly used fiber in our clothing”
(Forbes, 2015)
“Washing, solvents, and dyes used in manufacturing are responsible for one-fifth of industrial water pollution”
“The textile sector still represents 10 to 20 percent of pesticide use.”
(The State of Fashion, McKinsey, 2020)
“The average American throws away around 81 pounds of clothing yearly”
(Saturday Evening Post, 2018)
“93% of brands surveyed by the Fashion Checker aren’t paying garment workers a living wage”
(Fashion Checker, 2020)
“The fashion industry is responsible for 8% of carbon emissions”
(UN Environment, 2019)
“Bangladeshi tannery workers often work without basic protective equipment […]. Partly as a result of this, they have only a one in two chance of living beyond the age of 50”.
(European Parliament, 2020)
“The fashion industry is highly greenhouse gas intensive, with estimated emissions ranging between 2 and 8 percent of the global total.”
“Three out of five fast fashion items end up in a landfill”
(Clean Clothes Campaign, 2019)
“68% of fast fashion brands don’t maintain gender equality at production facilities”
(Ethical Fashion Guide, 2019)
"To make just one pair of denim jeans, 10,000 liters of water is required to just grow the one kilo of cotton needed for the pair of jeans. In comparison, one person would take 10 years to drink 10,000 liters of water."
(United Nations, 2018)
Want to learn more?
Here are some great resources to help you discover what you can do to reduce fast fashion
Books
Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion, by Elizabeth L. Cline (2012)
Fashionopolis, by Dana Thomas (2019)
To Die For, by Lucy Siegle (2011)
Wardrobe Crisis: How We Went From Sunday Best to Fast Fashion, by Clare Press (2016)
Stitched Up, by Tansy Hoskins (2014)
Slave to Fashion, by Safia Minney, (2017)
Loved Clothes Last, by Orsola de Castro (2021)
