One of the major concerns behind the production of clothing and fashion is the idea of fast fashion, especially those products made in sweatshops. We have all heard of the term fast food, where we can purchase relatively unhealthy foods on the go in order to suit our fast-paced lifestyle, fast fashion serves on the same platform. Fast fashion is “an approach to the design, creation, and marketing of clothing fashions that emphasizes making fashion trends quickly and cheaply available to consumers” (Webster). has made the production of goods cheaper, but the impacts greater. Because prices are low, consumers consider this clothing to be disposable, where the investment is seen with very little risk. But, the cost that goes into this production is quite large.
It is very common for companies to outsource their product to a different country where both materials and labor are cheap and regulations are low or easy to counter. The term “sweatshop” is not defined very easily, as most anti-sweatshop groups describe it as “an institution where employers violate two or more labor laws- from the prohibition of child labor, to health, safety, fire and building codes, to forced overtime and the minimum wage.” But, many favor a looser use of the term sweatshop because this definition “can oversee the many low-wage employers who might meet minimum wage and safety requirements, but seldom provide their employees with an adequate standard of living” (Miller 2004). In most cases, ending the practices of sweatshops would require great political and social interference and actually wouldn’t even benefit the employees. Most, if not all the time, working in sweatshops is the only answer to escaping poverty.
“Fast fashion encourages consumers to buy heaps of items, discard them after a few wears and then come back for another batch of new outfits” “In 1985, we bought roughly 31 clothing items per year; now [in 2012] we snap up twice that many thanks to “fast fashion” –Azeen Ghorayshi
While most of this blog may seem depressing because of all of the environmental and social impacts that come from the fashion industry, there is hope. The growth in ethical consumption behavior and sustainable fashion is increasing. To an outsider, “fashion and sustainability may seem like two inherently contradictory concepts; the former is defined by hedonism and short product life cycles, especially in fast fashion, while the latter implies ethics, durability and the reuse of products” (Lunblad). Sustainable fashion is not easy to define as the concept encompasses a variety of terms like organic, green, fair trade, sustainable, slow, eco and so on which all attempt to highlight the wrong doings of the fashion industry such as animal cruelty, environmental damage and worker exploitation
Many brands have taken on sustainable initiatives and have created new business models that involve new processes in order to minimize their impact. Consumers are also becoming not only aware but have developed a sense of responsibility when it comes to shopping.
Patagonia is a (common) example of how a company can make clothing sustainable while also generating profit. ***facts about Patagonia***
It’s easy for someone, like me, to go into Forever 21 knowing that many of their items are produced in sweat shops but it’s another thing for me to care and restrict myself from purchasing, which is a common gap for many that we must bridge. Studies have shown that there is an increasing ethical concern in the context of fashion, and consumers are more concerned with their purchases if the products have