Fast fashion is a segment of the clothing industry characterized by the mass production of low-priced clothing. Fast fashion made its debut in the 90s, when Western brands began relocating their factories to Asia and South America, where working conditions were severely neglected. Most of the workforce in the textile industry is made up of women, but children too, who work up to 20 hours a day in unhealthy conditions. Indeed, to maintain their low prices, fast-fashion brands act to the detriment of thousands of employees in the textile industry by imposing mediocre wages.
Moreover, to maintain their low prices, fast-fashion brands will also use non-renewable petroleum-based materials such as polyester, elastane, nylon or acrylic. Furthermore, the intensive cultivation of cotton - the most widely used material in the clothing sector - is responsible for polluting the surrounding soil and rivers. The production of just one ton of textile is responsible for the pollution of 200 liters of water. Fast fashion companies encourage over-consumption not only by offering poor-quality clothes that don't last long, but also by introducing new clothing collections up to 36 times a year.
Through their monster marketing campaigns, these companies promote their products enormously and use various sales to entice us to buy.
This whole cycle of renewal is at the root of the over-consumption of clothing in our society. Indeed, since they are mass-produced, the materials used are not sustainable, and brands continually renew their fashion cycles to encourage further over-consumption and waste.
In order to reduce everyone's ecological footprint and raise awareness of the effects of fast fashion, we'd like to offer you an alternative to this industry by selling second-hand clothes.
With that in mind, here are a few ways you can help reduce fast fashion and, ultimately, help our environment.
- Educate yourself on the subject and find out more about how you can make a difference.
- Raise awareness of the cause.
- Shop at thrift stores.
- Boycott fast-fashion brands.
- Find out about the origins and practices of brands before you shop there.