Fast Fashion – Notes from One Confused College Student to Another
By TFN Writer: Ragi Vyas
Fast fashion is bad, there is no doubt about it. By now you’ve probably encountered multiple reports, TikToks, and maybe even lectures telling you all the reasons as to why this is the case. The reasons listed range from worker exploitation and health risks to intellectual property theft and negative environmental impacts. On one hand, fast fashion is widely criticized, on the other hand, there is an increase of fast fashion consumption.1 Why is this?
Before we dig deeper into why there is an increase of fast fashion consumption,2 let’s define the term. Merriam-Webster's Dictionary defines fast fashion as “an approach to the design, creation, and marketing of clothing fashions that emphasizes making fashion trends quickly and cheaply available to consumers.”3 A common misdefiniton of fast fashion is that it only entails pieces that conform to the latest trends. Shopping fast fashion also entails any and all shopping from brands that are defined as fast fashion brands.4
One of the root-causes to the success of fast fashion is the throw away-mindset. The throw away- mindset is a consumerist mindset that refers to people who view clothes as disposable and replaceable. The most alarming belief is that clothes are made to be replaced.5 To follow trends you need to be buying new clothes all the time, right? This might not actually be the case, even though we are made to believe that it is.
Here's my attempt at explaining how the throw away-mindset allows fast fashion brands to be fast fashion brands:
Two consumers walk into a store. Consumer A walks in thinking that they are there to buy a piece of clothing because that is what is trendy right now, there is no thought of keeping this piece for a long time as trends change fast. Consumer B walks in thinking that they are going to find a piece that they’ll be able to use for a long time while the piece still remains in good condition.
The throw away-mindset is affecting both of these consumers even though one of them clearly has more of a sustainable mindset. The throw away-mindset allows fast fashion brands to take advantage of consumers like Consumer A. Consumer As shopping habits mean that brands can produce clothes of poorer quality because there is not a demand that clothes maintain quality for a long time when they are going to be disposed of soon anyway. This also affects Consumer B as they now don’t have the choice to buy clothes that will maintain quality as the standard is low-quality clothes.
Now, you may say that Consumer B can just find their clothes at another, perhaps more sustainable, store. You’re completely right! However, as you can read in Ollie Roloff’s “A Basic Guide to Retail in Chicago”, smaller and independent stores are becoming harder to come by, making it harder than necessary for consumers like Consumer B to shop sustainably. If you’re the kind of consumer that does their research on brands and where to shop, you’re sure to find these places. If, however, you don’t find the time to do this, or are too lazy (because let’s be honest, how much free time do college students actually have) sustainable fashion is simply not accessible enough.
Something to have in mind that Consumer A cannot necessarily be blamed for the fast fashion industry. There are multiple layers to the problem, and a single consumer’s mindset is just one of them. This consumer changing its mindset, however, does have an impact. If one person's mind can be changed, other people’s can too. If people are informed and educated on the subject, companies will have no choice but to switch to a more sustainable fashion industry.
Now that we know this, how do we actually see to it that we are conscious of our shopping habits? It both is and isn’t as hard as it sounds. For us as college students it can many times feel totally infeasible to only shop from sustainable brands, whether it be because of lack of money (admit it, we’re all broke) or lack of resources (how do we even know what is sustainable?).
To give you an idea of a possible way to go I’ll be sharing my own journey and a few tips and tricks that I learnt along the way. Let me preface this by saying that I still buy from fast fashion brands (unfortunately) but that there are more sustainable ways to go at it (consumerism in this day and age can never be 100% sustainable).
My journey
My journey to understanding sustainability did not start as an effort to help improve the environment, or to work towards better working conditions in sweatshops,6 it actually started as an effort to save money.
About a year ago I got accepted to UIUCs school of law as an exchange student, it was time to start saving money! Before I had gotten this news, I was a frequent guest at my local H&M store and shopping was, and still is to a certain extent, a favorite pastime of mine.
Now, here’s something you should know about me. I am very interested in fashion, however, that doesn’t mean that my style is very interesting. I like to keep it simple and keep pieces in my closet that I can mix n’ match as I go.
Anyways, I made a game plan for saving money, step 1 was to spend less money (duh). To do this I decided to first build a capsule wardrobe. This is my first tip n’ trick for you! The idea of a capsule wardrobe is to have a few pieces that you can mix n’ match to create a wide array of outfits.7 Capsule wardrobes ensure that you always have a piece of clothing for every event and can help you when you’re trying to justify a purchase of something you don’t actually need (in the true nature of a mom, “we have it at home”). So, to save money, I had to spend some. My approach to building a capsule wardrobe was to go through the clothes I already owned and see what would work best as a base (there are multiple resources that can help you build a capsule wardrobe, google it!), and then buy whatever it was that I didn’t own. I made sure to try and buy clothes of good quality, even though they were not always from the most sustainable brands. In the six months that followed my building a capsule wardrobe I didn’t buy a single new piece of clothing (I had to get seasonal stuff after that) and I saved so much money and time in trying to plan out outfits.
Photo from: https://hypebae.com/2023/3/clarks-torhill-flip-book-style-guide
When it was time for me to get new pieces I decided to Marie Kondo it!8 Whenever I would go to buy a new piece of clothing I would ask myself if the piece brought me joy. Yes, seriously. Look at a piece of clothing, stare into its soul, and ask yourself “does this piece bring me as much joy as a chipotle bowl after a long day of midterms?”. The happiness you are looking for is not the rush you may get from shopping (addict-warning!), but if looking at the piece makes you feel happy to own it. For me, the answer was no 99% of the time!
This time around I decided to try other methods of shopping than H&M. I turned to sustainable brands, thrifting, upcycling and sharing clothes. Here are my notes on these methods.
Sustainable brands
Buying from sustainable brands was harder than I thought. First up, figuring out what brands are sustainable can be a hassle. A page that really helped me was goodonyou.eco - a page where you can search for brands and see how sustainable they are. The other problem was that shopping from sustainable brands is often more expensive. I put a lot of thought into pieces I would like to potentially buy as they were investments. Another problem I encountered was the selection of clothing. Many sustainable brands only do basic pieces. Even though I like keeping my wardrobe simple, this was a little too simple for me. I ended up buying basic stuff from more sustainable brands, and more fun stuff from other sources.
Photo from: https://nuvomagazine.com/style/rave-review-upcycled-fashion
These are pieces from the Swedish Brand Rave review that exclusively upcycled clothing. Their pieces are not exactly affordable but are great inspiration!
Thrifting
Thrifting is very fun, but also time-consuming. When thrifting these are the things I kept in mind:
Go in with a list of things you need, it is very easy to stray away from your goals.
Always look at the quality of clothes when shopping, if something looks cheap, skip it. It won’t serve you for long.
All in all, thrifting is very fun but can also be exhausting. Something to keep in mind is that thrifting is not always as sustainable as it sounds. Many thrift shops unfortunately end up sending clothes to landfills whether it be because of bad quality clothes or lack of space. Being conscious in what you are shopping helps prevent this. If you don't buy things you don’t want, there is less of a chance of you donating them to thrift shops, and the clothes ending up in landfills. Note! For many people shopping at thrift shops is their only option, I’m not telling you to stop donating clothes, all I am saying is to skip the unnecessary shopping as many of the donated clothes end up in landfills anyways.
Upcycling
Upcycling is my favorite thing to do. Depending on the type of upcycling you want to do you’ll need different types of tools. I, as an example, have a sewing machine which makes the upcycling process way faster. It is of course possible to sew with a needle and thread too! A tip for my UIUC-readers, there are resources at campus that’ll allow you to use their sewing machines and other tools after going through basic training!
Photo from: https://shoprestatement.com/blog/what-is-upcycled-clothing-the-facts-behind-the-trend/
Read their article on upcycling!
Sharing Clothes
This is nothing new. It’s been done in generations, whether it be between siblings, or strangers on the internet. The basic concept is that multiple people can wear the same piece. This of course has some prerequisites to it – same sense of style, size, resources to actually buy sustainable pieces. This concept is something I have been specially introduced to during my exchange here at UIUC.
Maybe sharing your clothes will take you on an adventure too!
To conclude:
Fast fashion is bad, however, it is very hard to avoid in today’s day and age. To contribute to sustainability there are a few conscious choices you can make.
Be aware of the “throw away-mindset”!
Build a capsule wardrobe.
If you need to go shopping, think “does this bring me joy?”
When you do go shopping, try to avoid fast fashion.
https://www.businessofbusiness.com/amp/articles/fast-fashion-is-hot-its-also-making-the-world-hotter/
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/fast-fashion.asp
I believe many people have become desensitized to these conditions, they are of course not to be overlooked but the harsh truth is that many don’t think of these factors when shopping. Making it about yourself, however, helps in understanding the situation at hand.
SOOO AMAZING!!!!!! MY FAVOURITE WRITER!!!
Ragi! I loved this!! You give solid solutions for such a complicated problem! Great article :)