Styled By Em

Fast fashion is a term that gets thrown around a lot, but most people don’t truly understand what it is. If you shop at places like Zara, H&M, and Topshop, then you take part in fast fashion. Our world today is obsessed with shopping, we are a consumer heavy society. On Mary Claire's website it was stated that women are now buying around 64 pieces of clothes each year which is way more than the average of 15 pieces a year in the 1980's. This increase in consumerism was caused by celebrities and influencers.

Fast fashion is creating trendy clothes that don't last long, because there are thousands of trends that come in and out of the limelight. People love jumping on current trends, making these fashion retailers create styles and products within months unlike their usual year of creating a line, putting it on a runway, and then putting it in stores. Retailers are skipping all these steps and just throwing their products straight to the consumers. Don’t get me wrong, this sounds like a good thing, because now us, as normal middle class humans, are getting that high fashion look at discounted rates. Zara and H&M love knocking off high end fashion pieces which is a big part of the fast fashion industry, and the fact that they create this with cheap material and in so little time, makes it great for us.

Another factor of fast fashion is social media. The increase in Instagram influencers has inspired people to constantly be posting their outfits and whatever they’re doing for the day. This creates a "I already wore that outfit and everyone saw it on my Instagram, so I can’t wear it again" mindset. It's giving people another reason to continue buying new clothes almost every week. In The True Cost, it was said that "instead of two seasons a year, there is now fifty-two seasons," meaning that instead of the traditional fall/winter and spring/summer collections most companies used to use, companies now create different items almost every week. The continuous posting on social media and the increase in collections go hand and hand in the fast fashion industry.

This increase in creating products and consumers wearing things a lot less longer has been very harmful to our planet. I just want to say H&M is probably my all-time favorite store, so I get it, I love the high end style for low price look as much as the next girl, but I try to buy from second hand and reuse/repurpose my clothes as much as I can. The Guardian stated in 2015, textile factories created more greenhouse gasses than airplanes and shipping boats. This industry is becoming too harmful for our environment to handle. That's why donating and selling your clothes, and buying second hand can be one step in helping our environment. If people start buying at least one used item a year this can save around 6lbs of CO2 admissions. That's why buying second hand is our friend, WE LOVE THRIFTING.

Fast fashion has created faster production in clothing but has tremendously hurt our environment. Below is a chart created from McKinsey Global Fashion Index and it's a chart of well-known brands known as McKinsey's "Super Winners" and their profits in 2017. This shows how much fast fashion has grown and how much money people put into these businesses just to buy new clothing. Remember you can be fashionable and be kind to our Earth too. #ShopResale