What is fast fashion?
- Clothing is produced as cheaply as possible
- A high turnover rate: multiple fashion trends per season
- Production in low-wage countries
- Often environmentally unfriendly production
- Even expensive clothes can be fast fashion!
How did the current Fast fashion industry emerge?
We earn more, and spend more money on clothing
The percentage of income spent on clothing has increased from 2 - 5% of disposable income to 10 - 15% of disposable income in Europe.
We are continuously enticed and influenced to make purchases online
More frequent clearance sales and stunt prices in stores
Until 1984, the Netherlands had the law limiting clearance sales which stipulated that there could be a maximum of 2 clearance sales per year for 19 days, following the summer and winter collections. Since the abolition of the "law limiting clearance sales" (max. 2 times a year clearance sales) in 1984, stores have been allowed to stunt with low prices all year round and consumers have become accustomed to low clothing prices.
Today's fashion industry
Currently, the majority of fashion offerings consist of fast fashion products. Trends alternate at lightning speed and fashion brands change their (inexpensive) collections very often. Since the year 2000, our clothing consumption has more than doubled. On average, one garment worn only seven times. The fast-changing fashion industry fuels a desire in us as consumers to always wear "something new," and keep up with the latest fashion trends.Fast fashion clothing is often of poor quality
The big fashion chains are only concerned with one thing, profit! This profit depends on our desire to want to wear new clothes. So why not help this desire a little? Big chains produce hundreds of millions of garments a year. The sooner these clothes wear out, the sooner we are back in the store buying new clothes. By using textiles that need to be made cheaper and cheaper, it is the quality we sacrifice first.
The production conditions under which Fast fashion clothing is made are often problematic. Some 47 million people worldwide work in the garment industry, 85% of whom are women. Often the clothing is produced in sweatshops in low-wage countries under harrowing conditions. The majority of seamstresses earn no living wage, resulting in inhumanly long work weeks. In Asian garment factories, seamstresses often make work weeks of 60 to 90 hours.
The environmental impact of fast fashion is huge
The production of 1 cotton T-shirt requires 2500 liters of water and 20 cl of chemicals. One pair of jeans requires 7000 liters of water. Global cotton production consumes 22.5% insecticide and 10% pesticides of the total quantities used worldwide. It is therefore produced in gigantic numbers, and at a high rate. Unfortunately, it is also the case that of this production, much of it goes unsold. Of the 950 million garments that entered the Dutch market in 2020, 790 million were sold. That means 160 million garments remained unsold, which in effect means wasted resources. That number is expected to increase further due to fast fashion.
Subsequently, these fast fashion clothes are often thrown away
In the Netherlands, we throw away 235 million kilos of textiles per year, of which only 28 kg (2018) end up in thrift stores. Of the 40 pieces of clothing that each Dutch person throws away each year, 24 go to the garbage.
Slow fashion is on the rise!
How can you become a more conscious consumer? It starts with educating yourself, reading up, and most importantly opening yourself up to change. Buy sustainable and fair clothing! Buy local, buy second-hand and buy from independent designers. When we start doing this we can make a difference together. Slow fashion is on the rise and the "silly" image around it is old-fashioned.
With more and more attention being focused on this issue, the Fast Fashion industry has been receiving more and more criticism lately. Consumers are becoming more conscious and buying more fair clothing. As a counterpoint, companies in this industry are spending millions on campaigns to show them in a better light. They launch "conscious collections" or donate a portion of the proceeds to charities.
But despite these devious marketing techniques, we cannot ignore the truth: fast fashion is one of the dirtiest and most harmful industries in the world! To be specific: The fashion industry is the most polluting industry in the world after the oil industry.
Together towards slow fashion
Fortunately, the movement of producers and consumers is growing to change this burdensome fashion system. No more mass production but sustainable fashion that lasts a long time, has low environmental impact and is produced under humane conditions.
More and more initiatives can be found that, each in their own way, contribute to making the clothing industry more sustainable. We list a number of fashion alternatives for you. Vintage, fair, green or vegan fashion, what do you find most important?
Vintage fashion is a sustainable alternative to fast fashion. Because if you reuse other people's clothes, no new resources need to be tapped and the clothes do not have to be produced (under poor working conditions). Fortunately, the supply of vintage clothing has grown significantly in recent years.
Green fashion is another alternative that contributes to the movement toward slow fashion. The main goal of green fashion is to reduce the environmental impact of the fashion industry. There are several ways to make fashion more sustainable. Both the quality of the clothes, the materials used, the energy consumption for their production and their transportation determine this.
If you would still like to buy something new, you can turn to fashion brands that sell Fair Trade fashion. Fair Fashion focuses on fair clothing produced under humane conditions. This can be in a developing country, but also for example in the Netherlands by people with a distance to the labor market.
Choose the clothing container, not the dumpster!
Have you run out of a piece of clothing or is it worn out? Then be sure not to throw it in the trash, because there are still plenty of useful purposes for it! Unfortunately, every year we throw awayabout 135 million kilos of textiles in Netherlands. Unfortunately, only about a quarter of that is still recycled. And that while even broken clothes can still be reused. Find a container near you, or drop off a your bag of old clothes at an H&M store. In short, complete the slow fashion circle again!
