Fast Fashion – What is it?

Fast Fashion is when fashion retailers take catwalk designs to stores, meeting new trends with inexpensive designs. Retailers will introduce new products multiple times in a week to stay on trends and demands. The fashion industry is one of the biggest in the world, accounting for 2% of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) showing how much of an impact it will have socially and environmentally.

The fashion industry is getting cheaper and faster than ever, often having categories which are £8 and lower. Consumers tend to browse across sites, to compare prices and will go with the cheapest option which may not necessarily be the best made one. This may seem like a blessing, but it is a curse too. Being a student, it is hard to justify spending a lot on clothes, so the cheaper the better, but we should ask ourselves why is that dress only £8? Globally, we now purchase about 80 billion new pieces of clothing every year—400% more than we were purchasing just two decades ago.

Digital technology like online shopping has dramatically changed the retail industry. Consumers no longer have the need to go out to retail parks as they can order clothes from the comfort of their home. They can also order multiple different sizes and colours so they know that the shop will be successful.

Another pulling point that online shopping has is that there are usually free returns so you can return your purchases easily, so consumers are more likely to try new things when shopping online. Online payment, like Apple Pay, has made shopping even easier as you can do it from your phone with no need for payment cards to be out but just your thumb. This is easy for young people on the go as it is convenient but also can become addictive.

There has been a dramatic change over the past decade as clothes are produced so quickly due to demand that the quality is no longer there. There are no specific measurements which will perfectly fit you but a range of set sizes which will have to do. Not only are consumers buying more clothes now but the rate at which clothing is being discarded is also increasing – so people are throwing things out more and not recycling. The average person buys more items of clothing and keeps them for about half as long as 15 years ago.

Missguided is a brand which contributes to the fast fashion industry. Recently, Missguided released a bikini for £1 which caused a huge media buzz and the product sold out in a matter of hours. This could be seen as a blessing as it’s so cheap, consumers are saving money, but you have to step back and think why is it this cheap? The £1 bikini shows us that the workers must be paid low wages as the price of the product reflects the conditions of the worker. Missguided works alongside influencers to increase their popularity and start trends with their new stock. Missguided has popular social media accounts allowing consumers to be up to date with the new trends, making them more inclined to purchase products.

‘Planned obsolescence’ is a strategy that Fast fashion companies may use where clothes are designed that fall apart quickly. This means to design garments to wear out, lose shape or fall to pieces easily force consumers to keep buying new clothes. This then leads to the consumer paying more and the company gaining a higher profit. Consumers often have a set of clothes for a season then completely replace them when they become out of fashion.

Sites like Depop are more sustainable making them a much wiser choice to shop from; you can buy second-hand clothes which are still fashionable. Depop offers bargain clothes which are second hand, it is like a fashionable online charity shop. Slowly the stereotype of second-hand clothing being old and untrendy is changing. Now consumers want to stand out so vintage and retro purchases are ideal for them. A shocking 38% of consumers have never brought clothes from a charity or vintage store. The Charity Retail Association estimates there are 11,200 charity shops in the UK, with each one having an average of 72 customer transactions per day. So, using second-hand sites or charity shops allows the clothing demand to slow down as consumers are recycling old clothes.

What can you do to make a difference?

Start to use charity shops and second hand clothes rather than buying new items every time, to decrease the demand of new products. Do not buy a new outfit for every occasion you may have, reuse outfits you’ve already got. Overall, we need to come together to make next seasons trend climate conscious; everyone needs to begin to make an effort not to contribute to the fast fashion curse.