The Impact Of Fast Fashion On Society And The Enviroment
Introduction In this essay I will be focussing on the impact of fast fashion especially the effect it has on our society and the future and the enviroment. I will be focusing on lecture number 5 based on the ‘Design and Consumer culture’. I was inspired to write this essay based on this topic discussion as I am interested in the impact it has on us and our society. As Customer culture is a fundamental piece of life today. The visual language of buyer culture frequently gives significance through recognising and characterising ourselves through the things we want to purchase. In this essay I will be focussing on discussing areas such as the vast change of production of the fashion industry, especially looking at the influence and rise of fast fashion. The importance of advertising in the fashion industry and the negative associations that go with this. The impact it has on smaller independent business, and the production and the labour of making the clothes in the industry. And looking at the impact that this has on our planet and the environment. History of bespoke and fast the change The production of modern day fashion design has changed dramatically. Compared to the ‘bespoke’ fashion in the 1900s this has had a vast change over the past decade. As before clothing was bespoke and custom made to more or less fit each individual. Where tailors and seamstresses played a large impact with designers. As usually designs and collections were made a season year ahead. Each individual would preferably like to have access to a tailor.
However, that is a change where now we have ready to wear, pre-made clothing where it comes in standardised sizing. The way we buy our clothes in the modern era has had a vast change over the past years. For example the Current era of fast fashion for example the fashion brand ‘Zara’. Where this is a vertical integration business. Therefore it helps streamline its own costs and fast production process as it is all done in house. Cheap clothing fast fashion The fashion industry is giving this concept into our heads ‘of we do not buy it now, it’s not going to be available’ A race to the bottom on price and quality that is an unsustainable model. Due to fast fashion clothing is now cheaper than ever before and at a very low cost. There are new products and fashion lines multiple times a week. This means that almost 80 billion items are manufactured a year - mostly ending up in a landfill. This is due to the rise in fast fashion where consumers are buying and throwing away faster than ever. Fashion trends are coming in and out of style quicker than ever before. Adverting rise Fast fashion needs a high level of advertisement to be able to stay relevant. From the rise of advertising to consumers where we feel the need to buy more items of clothing to ‘keep up with the trends’. As fast fashion replace items that sell out with a different style. This means we as the consumers constantly want to buy new clothes and the latest fashion. ‘Pretty Little Thing’ - “Our buying and Design teams are always identifying the most up to date and current trends to our customers,” ‘Primark’ - “This design is part of the wider cactus/geometric trend identified by our buying team”. Seems to be the case where the larger brands are putting fault on there ‘buying/design’ teams, to smaller independent business. There was a case where an independent business where the woman went through severe brain surgery. Where she designed and printed her own designs as a statement to enforce what she had gone through in her tough times. The brand ‘Next’ made an almost exact replica of this. She wrote to them and then there response back was ‘We acted quickly to remove the product from sale, donated the remaining garments to charity and our profits from the few garments sold to a scamp & dude’. There has been multiple occasions where larger brands have been stealing indecent business ideas and designs and selling them world wide. Where smaller independent business have been struggling to rise this as an issue as they are up against a world wide multi-million profit businesses.
Fast fashion has made this very hard to enable for there voice to be heard. Another example of this would be the brand ‘Boden’ - “Customer research and emerging trends drove the creation of the crown rather than fable heart… there was no copyright issue”. As stealing and copying smaller independent artists and designers is not design. This is just fast fashion following trends to be enable to stay relevant. As you can be inspired by artists and designers although they should not be allowed to replicate the design. ‘Pretty Little Thing’ - “our teams take inspiration from a range of platforms including social media, the catwalk, as well as styles worn by celebrities. ” Enviroment Due to the constant over consumption of fast fashion, the quality especially of the material used has down graded. This has high environmental impacts. Mainly in the fibre and materials factories and designers use. Especially using ‘polyester’. This is petroleum-based fibre that requires large amounts of fossil flues for manufacturing. According to Forbes - 70 million barrels of oil a year. This is a problem as polyester is a non biodegradable substance. It can take from 20-200 years to degrade depending on the conditions. It is one of the leading causes of micro plastics in the oceans. As when washed the polyester in the clothing shed fibres that then find their way into large water streamers which is bad for the environment. Garment production in unregulated factories has resulted in toxic chemicals often used to create viberant colours prints and fabric finishes. These chemicals can enter our body through our skin and harm workers. Dumped into the streams and rivers polluting the water and soil in near by areas. The fashion industry is the 8th most polluted industry in the world in terms of green house gas emissions and is responsible for 92 million/4% of the world’s annual solid waste. Waste Cheap fashion means we are throwing our clothes away at a unpresident rate. 3/4 landfills are filled with textile waste. Average American sends 81 pounds of textiles to landfills each year. Driven to a large cause of advertising campaigns saying ‘out with the old in with the new’ this is by far not reflected by the price tag. In Britain more than 300,000 tonnes of clothes end up in landfill every year. It is the fastest growing category of waste in the country, also a global problem. There is a high wastage especially in the ‘designer’ brands, as they cannot be seen to be sold at a lower price. Therefore some brands choose to bin there stock. Brands may choose to insinerate there old stock rather than donate it was it may ruin there imagine. (Zara worth 13 billion dollars) it takes 14-21 days from inception to sale.
Some businesses have chooseVFV to sort this problem. As ’Rent the runway’ where it has 10 million members, you can rent items of clothes to wear for an occasion and then return it. This is saving wastage. Although largest dry cleaning company in the world, it is getting more mileage out of clothing as it’s helping to tackle the waste of clothes. Borrowing clothes trying to change the relationship with the clothes they wear. An item is worn a lot more then it is being shared across a variety of people. Only 20% of clothes are worn on a regular basis. ‘Patagonia’ philosophy is to buy once, but well and mend clothing for a longer life span. The largest single repair facility in North America, and mobile mending services around Europe and America. Patagonia anti-fashion environmental message has resonated with people who buy into there vision. To help enable to make consumers keep there products for longer was one of the main ideas of the brand. It’s hope is to try and help inspire other brands to help tackle the environmental impact of fast fashion. Bad labour Due to fast fashion being at a very low cost and affordable to the consumers. This is due to having cheap labour and sweat shops. In Bangladesh the average worker is gaining 33$ per month. How ever the living wage per month is 60$.
Working in these inhumanly conditions and paying low wages when working 14-16 hours a day. The workers are in hazardous working conditions. Where they may be a victim to sexual harassment and have no say in the trade unions and the defending rights etc. Most of these fashion houses ship from China/Asia where child and slave labour is allowed. Conclusion Fast fashion has a lot of negative effects on the environment and society. In order to tackle the throw away culture brands and consumers need to change there behaviour towards this subject.
