Cheap: low in price; not costing a great deal; worth more than its cost.
Fashion: a popular trend, especially in styles of dress and ornament or manners of behavior; a manner of doing something.
When my daughters were in middle school, shopping trips would yield large piles of clothes; mostly functional, but some bought on a whim, just because it was cheap.
During their high school years, our shopping trips became very different. We still collected a large number of garments, each of us carrying a big pile, but before we hit the checkout counter, we examined each item critically: Was is really needed? Was is produced in an at least somewhat sustainable way? Was the material used safe for us and the environment?
The first question alone reduced our piles by at least half. The following two questions lead to more reduction. The items we ended up buying were thoughtfully selected and usually well-made pieces that we really enjoyed.
Fast fashion has made it more difficult than ever before to stay on trend; for the consumer and the industry. The result: Consumers, all of us, are looking for cheaper garments, knowing too well that they will be out of style in just a couple of months or even weeks.
You may unintentionally be purchasing products that are made by people working in unsafe conditions, are coated with toxins and pesticides, or are made with unsustainable materials as producers, aiming to meet our needs, are outsourcing their production to less expensive locations, often in Asia.
So then what does “less expensive” really mean? Less expensive for whom? Let’s take a closer look at the true cost of inexpensive, fast fashion. Hint, it’s not what we’re paying for it.
We are consuming 500% more clothing than two decades ago. Thinking about it, that’s really not that long ago. Much of the clothing sold now by major U.S. retailers is made under sweatshop conditions in developing countries.
As we all don’t have infinite space in our closets, we are throwing out more clothing too — an estimated average of 68 pounds of clothes per U.S. consumer per year. That’s a lot.
We are often sacrificing quality for quantity as fast fashion has quickly become the contemporary model to mass consumerism — buying and selling as much as possible, as quickly as possible.
Global Labor Justice published two reports detailing the exploitation and mistreatment of Asian female garment workers, which includes physical abuse, sexual harassment, and poor work conditions.
These facets of everyday factory life have created a climate of fear and intimidation to maintain worker submission and achieve fast fashion’s high production demands.
To keep up with the fast fashion machine’s appetite for new trends, the Global Production Network falls victim to aggressively high production targets. Overburdened workers are often subjected to forced overtime with little to no pay.
Legally-mandated lunch breaks aren’t always a certainty. Brands are squeezing the factory to make the garment for less and less. The factory in turn has to push its workers, asking them to work long hours to meet quotas, for very little pay, often in unsafe conditions.
Less expensive also does not include the environmental costs. The fashion industry requires large amounts of energy and water to operate. Amazingly, it can take 2,700 liters of water to produce the cotton needed to make a single t-shirt.
There are also a lot of chemicals added in the production process which are often discharge freely into the air and water surrounding the garment factory. These chemicals end up in the drinking water of the communities causing diseases like cancer or serious mental and physical disabilities.
This is a problem that involves us all, this is a problem based on the clothes we are choosing to wear. As a consumer, you have the power to change how popular clothing companies manufacture your clothes, one piece at a time. What if we would all start to choose differently?
Let’s decide to buy only what we really need. With the money we save, let’s buy only sustainable quality items that we can enjoy.
Our collective choices will make a huge impact on the clothing sector. We can come together now and say enough is enough and change the fashion, aka “the manner of doing something.”
Sources: https://www.greenamerica.org/ & https://www.worldwildlife.org/.
Juliane Saary-Littman
Port Washington
