By Linda Chen and Hitomi Nakamura 
 

Imagine hanging out with friends on a nice weekend and you come across a pair of jeans you really like. You took it to the fitting room and looked up, finding yourself looking more attractive than ever.  

Now, between the moment you fall in love with that pair of jeans and when you pull your wallet out, what has gone through your mind? Price? Quality? In or out? What to match it with? How often will you wear this? Sustainability? Err ok – maybe not the last one.  
 
  
Fast fashion? Since when? 

As reported by a 2016 McKinsey study on sustainable ways to approach fast fashion, ‘on average Americans buy a new piece of clothing every five days’ and 90% of them are thrown away even when they are still good to wear! 

Cheap, mass-produced clothes create the trend that is fast fashion. Alex Crumbie, a director and writer at the Ethical Consumer Research, explains that fast fashion is “fast” in terms of the changes in fashion and the rate of production. Before the first swing machine was introduced in 1846, clothes were all hand-made. Indeed, that is troublesome and time-consuming. So, when did fast fashion come into the picture?  

Though World War II might sound like the farthest thing from fashion, Sara Idacavage’s article on the origins of fast fashion notes that standardized production during this time actually ‘contributed to an extremely rapid fall in the price of clothing’ and sped up the cycle of fashion. By the 1960s, youngsters were already enjoying the affordability and trendiness of fast fashion clothes. Christopher Breward’s book, ‘Oxford History of Art: Fashion’ confirms this as it is pointed out that retailers like H&M and Zara were wise to find ways in which they could get ahead of other competitors by lowering costs and increasing production of their fashion products for satisfied consumers.  

Now, if mass production sounds very far away, as an active social media user, you must have heard of the acronym, Outfit of the Day (OOTD). With its origins dating as far back as 2010, the seemingly innocent internet trend is in fact guilty of encouraging overconsumption, devaluing clothes and the labor that made it on popular social media platforms like TikTok. Mina Le, an influential fashion commentator, breaks this down for us in her video, ‘TikTok is kind of bad for fashion’ :

Environmental problems concerning fast fashion 

To keep up with the ever-changing trends, fast fashion brands mass produce clothes which often leads to massive clothing waste. According to a 2013 report from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, more than 500 million kilos of abandoned clothes are buried in landfills almost every year in Australia, not including the other 95 million exported overseas, 60% of the waste consists of synthetic fibers that will never degrade.  

Imagine clothes weighing as much as 80,000 elephants underneath our feet that will be there forever. It shouldn’t be hard to understand why, sustainability-wise, it is a bad idea to throw away clothes like tissues. On top of that, a lot of natural resources are required in the production of fast fashion clothing. Take jeans for example, according to the UN’s estimation a single pair of jeans calls for 7,500 to 10,000 liters of water. If that is too big of a number to imagine, considering a person generally drinks three liters of water a day, that is more than seven years’ worth of water supply.  

To keep prices cheap, clothes are made from harmful materials. As a business network for the fashion industry, Common Objective (CO) explains that textile dyes are often used in fast fashion manufacturing are cheap but toxic, as they pollute clean water. Research commissioned by the Friends of the Earth supports this, as a polyester shirt, which comprises fossil fuel, produces an average of 5.5kg of carbon dioxide and each time you wash the shirt, tiny pieces of microfiber are released – ending up in the ocean. 
 
‘The fashion industry accounts for about one-tenth of global greenhouse emissions due to ‘its long supply chains and energy intensive production’, writes Christine Ro. While you are being frugal in buying trendy clothes that you will only wear less than a few times, you are also sabotaging the environment that you depend on to live.  

But what can you do now? Do you have to give up buying clothes since they are harmful to the environment? With sustainability quickly becoming one of the hottest topics, a new trend of slow fashion now awaits.
 

Slow fashion can help! 

As illustrated by Christopher Marquis in his research, recent waves of new designers have proposed the idea of slow fashion with multi-functional, timeless, comfortable and stylish pieces. Marquis also notes that slow fashion are clothes which value quality rather than trend as they are expensive, but last longer.  

The term “slow fashion” was introduced by fashion and sustainability pioneer, Kate Fletcher, emphasizing that this type of fashion is ‘quality-based rather than time-based’. While some might say that they don’t want to spend so much money on clothes, doing the math and dividing the price by the times you wear the items, it is not a bad deal.   

In addition to encouraging shoppers to be more mindful with their clothes, slow fashion aims to balance out the consumption and pollution issue by “[taking] into consideration all aspects of the supply chain and in doing so, aims to respect people, the environment, and animals” said Kristi Sommer, founder of Encircled. While people hesitate to make these changes because of the expenses involved, what higher prices means is more budget for fashion brands to invest in finding materials that minimize harm to the environment.  

This forces people to be conscious of their decision when shopping, because people would usually like to keep the clothes for a longer period if they invest money in them. In short, it puts less weight on the environment.  
 

It’s not the only option 

For people who find slow fashion clothes a financial burden but want to contribute to sustainability, there are alternatives such as: upcycling, recycling, resales and rentals. Mina Le suggested that upcycling and altering old clothes are cost-efficient, environmentally friendly ways to keep up with the trends.  

Brands like Uniqlo also encourage consumers to recycle garments at their stores so they can be remade into new products and given a new life. With the assistance of websites and social media platforms, resales are now a feasible option if you feel like profiting from your clothes and fundraising for the next item in your wardrobe.  

In contrast, buying second-hand clothes gives you the opportunity to get quality clothes at a much lower price and renting is always a good option when you don’t want to look after a big, fancy dress for 365 days, only to wear it once a year. 
 

Let’s be kind to the Environment 

While fast fashion is cheap and trendy, the negative impact it has on the environment should not be overlooked. The next time you’re out shopping, please think about whether you will wear those clothes often.   

Slow fashion on the other hand is expensive, but special. The more you wear it, the more likely you will cherish it. Find your favorite clothes. Enjoy your fashion and let’s be kind to the environment.