My Thoughts on: Fast Fashion

Okay, let's talk about fast fashion. Fast fashion is where inexpensive clothing is produced rapidly by mass-market retailers in response to the latest trends.

When I was in high school, Superdry was the biggest brand that you had to have. I (fortunately) never got on this trend. But my school was flooded with kids running around in their pink and black or orange and black, waterproof, Superdry coats. Another big trend in high school was Cath Kidston bags and yes, I was in on this trend. For all the lucky ex-high school kids who don't know what Cath Kidston is, let me explain. There was a take-over of bags from this shop in my school. These bags were oil clothed and made to last forever. However, as the Superdry and Cath Kidston trends died down, fewer and fewer people bought their coats and bags to school. Now, what I find funny about this is that these products were not cheap and were definitely meant to last. And although I am definitely didn't jump on the waterproof, Superdry coat bandwagon, I was guilty of hoarding Cath Kidston bags in the back of my wardrobe until I recently donated them. And this is a classic example of fast fashion.

I would love to say that fast fashion affects children more than adults, but in reality, I don't think it does. Yes, if children go to school and see everybody wearing a Superdry coat, they are going to want one too and eventually when people stop wearing them, they will stop too. But I think adults are just as inclined to go into shops like H&M or Primark and browse the sale rack. I think fast fashion is marketed more towards adults. For instance, every advert for clothing on Tv is for aimed at adults, even the clothes for children is marketed towards parents as the clothing is described as being 'durable and easy to wash', which I can almost guarantee, the children will not care about. 

So, there are a few reasons how fast fashion is impacting our environment. First of all, textile dyeing is the second largest polluter of clean water globally, after agriculture. The amount of energy and dye it takes to colour clothes is crazy and with clothes going and out of trend as fast as they do, it creates an even bigger carbon footprint. Secondly, any waste we create as humans is not great. So many clothes start at full price in the store, then go to the sale rack for really cheap and are then just thrown away when not sold. In reality, chains should be donating clothes or putting non-sold items to better use. Thirdly, most popular clothing stores use polyester in their fabrics as it's cheap and durable. However, when you wash polyester garments they shed microfibres that add to the increasing levels of plastic in the ocean. Microfibres are really small and can easily pass through water and sewage, making their way straight to the sea. Which is exactly what humanity should be trying to avoid.

How can we do to combat fast fashion? It's simple really, donate, reuse, resell and try to avoid bigger retailers. Of course, I am not saying boycott shops like Zara, TopShop and H&M forever, but after you have used and loved some clothing, donate it. Don't bin it. If you have a whole in a loved jumper, don't throw it away, sew it back up. Also, shop more in charity shops. The amount of bargains I have found in my local thrift shops is crazy and to think that I could have paid full price for a less environmentally friendly version in a high-street shop is ludicrous. 

Reduce, reuse and recycle is important - even when it comes to clothes. 

Thank you for reading this post.