Essay Sample about Fast Fashion
Genz the generation bound to write the wrongs of our ancestors That's of course if our own fast fashion shopping choices don’t get in the way first. A controversial grey area in our society's fight for a better future involves fast fashion. ‘fast fashion’ by definition is “inexpensive clothing produced rapidly by mass-market retailers in response to the latest trends”. Through the use of environmentally damaging materials, unethical labour practices, high wastage and a misconception buying fast fashion is a good option for low-income households, buying through these websites contradict the desire for a better world we are so desperate for.
The fashion industry relies on polyester and cotton to make the majority of its items. Polyester produces large quantities of fossil fuels in its manufacturing process, is non-biodegradable and is one of the leading microplastics in our oceans due to tiny fibres breaking off in washing machines then flowing into our oceans. The most commonly used alternative to polyester is cotton. Cotton uses large amounts of pesticides in its crops and also requires a significant amount of water to produce, taking more than 6,800 litres of water to produce a single pair of jeans. Fast fashion has the same detrimental effects on the environment as regular fashion but is worse because they produce clothing at a substantially faster and large rate. Fast fashion is accelerating the rate at which our clothing choices are negatively impacting our environment, this could potentially cement a deadly fate for the entire human race.
Our planet may not have families and feelings, but the workers working night and day in sweatshops making your cute new pair of fast fashion jeans certainly do. ‘Sweatshops’ are workplaces, such as factories, with morally wrong, poor or illegal working conditions, these are where almost all fast fashion is manufactured. Sweatshop workers experience extremely low pay, high workload and unsafe working conditions, which have already led to countless fatalities. These sweatshops deliberately seek out easily exploitable children and women living in poverty. When a child as young as six leaves school and goes into these sweatshops they lose the opportunity to get proper education, leaving them to spend the entirety of their lives in these factories. Their children take on the same jobs in hopes of being able to help their family then, like their parents before them, they lose their education, make very little and get stuck in these situations forever. It is crystal clear fast fashion sweatshops thrive on both exploitation of people experiencing poverty and the intergenerational loop these families get stuck in.
Day one, a cute new shirt. Day two, a shirt with a small rip. Day three, merely fabric in a rubbish bin. This is not an abnormal life cycle for a fast fashion garment. This is because fast-fashion retailers cater to micro-trends, which are short-lifespan fashion trends. Fast fashion is the only part of the fashion industry that can supply products for the latest micro-trends because they are the only place garments can go from the drawing board to stores in less than 2 weeks. With most micro-trends set to go out of fashion in a mere couple of months or weeks and be discarded, producing decent quality garments is an unnecessary extra cost for producers. Fast fashion produces mainly short lifespan micro-trend items alongside the poor quality of said products is why the equivalent of one rubbish truck filled with discarded clothing is put into landfills or burned every single second.
The argument that low-income families cannot afford regular clothes and should shop fast fashion in actuality isn't a valid reason to shop fast fashion but really a poor attempt to try and justify putting fashion garments above common morals. Fast fashion prices may be affordable, but since low quality, microtrend centred garments are what they specialise in none of their products will actually be ‘worth it.’ If someone struggling financially has to keep replacing their clothes because of poor quality and them being considered atrociously ugly overnight, it's clear this isn't the money-savvy option it is hyped up to be. If money truly is the problem for fast fashion consumers it’s lucky there are many other affordable, stylish options to get your clothing from.
Fast fashion puts its low cost, high-profit agenda over all else in our world and that can be seen in the form of their environmentally damaging production, unethical labour and a final product that gets discarded more and more every second. Fast fashion stores are not and will likely never be a good place to shop at this is why society needs to educate themselves on the dangers of fast fashion and encourage others to get their clothes from one of the many far greater alternatives. The only way we can fix our society is if we can all choose the entire fate of the human race over our own personal wardrobes.
