What Is Fast Fashion?
Fast fashion is a business model where brands offer new collections of clothing (Fashion) in a very short period of time (Some produce new collections every 2 weeks). This is done to help keep their customers coming back and increase their buying frequency.
These brands are many and sacrifice quality while saving money on salaries, safe work environments, fabrics, dyes, etc… In fact, some estimate that the quantity of fast clothing produced is from 70–100 billion items each year.
Why Is Fast Fashion Bad for the Environment?
This business model is bad because the massive quantity of fashion, mentioned above, produced in such a short period of time, comes from resources and practices that are not responsible. Plus, the mindset that the companies endeavor to promote is that clothing is and should be disposable. Therefore, when you are done with that t-shirt or dress just throw it away, there is plenty more where that came from.
Due to this mindset, every 1 second a new garbage truck load of laundry garbage is produced, (See the photo above from National Geographic of a real laundry landfill in Chile) and some of this garbage still has the original price tags!
How To Switch To Sustainable Fashion
Now that you have the basics (Very basics) of fast fashion, there are several ways to change your fashion habits to be more sustainable.
- Send old clothes to thrift stores
- Recycle damaged clothing
- Buy fewer trendy pieces of clothing.
- Properly care for your existing laundry with our laundry best practices and tips found on our monthly blog.
- Shop in thrift stores and second-hand websites such as Poshmark or Ebay.
- Shop your own closet, and if a piece doesn’t fit you well, consider having it altered by a local seamstress.
- New clothes should come from responsible, or locally made and resourced businesses.
Some American Made Businesses*
You can discover your own favorite sustainable brands, by learning more about fast fashion at Eco Fashion World
*Note businesses change and so do their practices, ethics and their quality. The sites listed above are here because, when this article was written, they were made in America. Always do your research before purchasing from any brand.