Annie Zhu - Q2 Blog #3 - Fast Fashion is NOT Okay
Many criticisms have been raised about the nature of American consumerism, such as in the mountains of cheap supermarket snacks, seasonal holiday shopping crazes, and unethically sourced products. I’d like to talk about a large contributor to the third category: fast fashion.
The dishonest practices of corporations like SHEIN and Temu are well-known, exposed time and time again, yet they’re still allowed to sell in over one hundred countries. It's not as if their customers can’t afford clothes that are more than five dollars. Mass clothing hauls have taken over social media, and one purchase can often add up to hundreds of dollars in the pockets of SHEIN.
And now for a more uncomfortable fact: most of our favorite brands are fast fashion. All of us, whether we notice or not, are participating in this global trashing of our ecosystem.
Abercrombie & Fitch, Urban Outfitters, Brandy, Forever 21, GAP, and so many more. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a customer of many of these shops--I’ve watched GAP’s “Better in Denim” collab with KATSEYE at least ten times now--but no amount of hype ads or marketing campaigns can erase the millions of metric tons of CO2e it is responsible for each year. We as consumers need to be mindful about where we spend money, even if that means relinquishing those baggy jeans that fit our aesthetic.
Many of the polyester/nylon/rayon/acrylic clothes sitting in people’s closets are going to be thrown away within two to three years. These are non-biodegradable plastics, aka they pollute the environment! But the harms of fast fashion aren’t just limited to a short clothing life cycle. Microplastics are released when we put them in the washing machine, and they shed naturally too.
No wonder why so many politicians deny climate change: it’s easy to ignore a problem that “doesn’t exist.” The elite profit off of everything and everyone, plowing through ecosystems and human labor to grow their buck bigger and bigger.
Humanity cannot simply ignore this problem. Fast fashion is fueling the exploitation of human rights, depleting the earth's natural resources, and causing irreversible damage to society.
The issue of fast fashion is really daunting. Naturally, it feels more convenient to adopt a mindset of helplessness: “I’m only one person, what can I even do?” Plus, not everybody can afford to boycott unsustainable brands because they tend to be the ones that are most accessible to socioeconomically-disadvantaged individuals. Still, it is vital for us to fight together. Everyone works toward sustainability at a different pace, but the important part is that we continue to do so. Minimize financial support to guilty brands wherever possible; call for large corporations to take accountability and stop being implicit; use the media and mass communications to put pressure on fast fashion companies, so they are forced to address unethical practices; and, on a personal scale, search for greener alternatives.
Photo: Dr. Seuss' The Lorax (2012) EXCLUSIVE Trailer - HD Movie/Rotten Tomatoes Trailers YouTube
Hi Annie, I appreciate your dedication to the topic of fast fashion. Shein and Temu have been slowly taking over markets all over the world and everyone always talks about it. The brands names are thrown around like an insult, which they are. But another aspect of your blog that I admired was your acknowledgement of other world renowned brands participating in unethical production and manufacturing. A phrase I've often heard is that brands like Amazon and Shein have the same quality items, so why pay Amazon level prices for Shein level clothing. I believe this is what drives people towards purchasing from unethical brands like Temu and Shein. Every brand worth anything logically has to participate in some type of unethical manufacturing to reap the billions of dollars in profit that they do. But their high prices are often not worth it for many people, thus leading to a rapid increase in sales for Temu and Shein. I admired your unfiltered take on fast fashion and its negative effects on society and ethical morals. Thanks for writing!
ReplyDeletesorry, I just realized that none of my links transferred ðŸ˜
ReplyDeleteif you guys are still interested, I put them below in the order they appear in my article:
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/aug/05/shein-fined-1m-in-italy-for-misleading-environmental-claims-about-products
https://directory.goodonyou.eco/brand/abercrombie-and-fitch
https://www.wildmag.co.uk/post/zero-emissions-zero-accountability-the-truth-about-urban-outfitters
https://remake.world/style-2/brandy-melville-cost-fast-fashion/
https://pirg.org/articles/forever-21-fast-fashion-may-be-ending-up-in-landfills/
https://www.vogue.com/article/vestiaire-expands-fast-fashion-ban-to-include-gap-zara-urban-outfitters-and-more
https://docs.publicnow.com/viewDoc?filename=33720%5CEXT%5CE41A22CFC51E5CE513286B01E413D7808C050C9A_D103191023520F0C605994853A7AB2CE24135EB5.PDF
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0269749119341065
https://www.collectivefashionjustice.org/articles/fast-fashion-built-on-exploitation
http://earth.org/fast-fashions-detrimental-effect-on-the-environment/
https://www.thecommons.earth/blog/7-affordable-alternatives-to-fast-fashion
Hi Annie! As someone who has shifted to sourcing my wardrobe from second-hand (AKA Depop), this topic is one that I feel very strongly about. I totally agree with your stance about how fast fashion has led to an overconsumption culture in which people just buy way too much stuff and just end up wasting it.
ReplyDeleteI also want to bring to your attention to how fast fashion has damaged the mechanics and artistry of making clothes. I have recently started buying things from the 2000s and 1990s, and I have noticed a decline in quality. The jeans I have bought from Hollister recently are thinner and flimsier compared to jeans that were made more than twenty years ago! They make poorer-quality clothing, leading us to buy more, which in turn causes more pollution.
I admire your stance on this topic, as I have also seen an influx of brands like SHEIN and Edikted in thrift stores (which resellers take and try to pass off as “vintage” on Depop), and while these give people of the lower class access to trendier clothes, thrifting has become more expensive due to the increase of people taking clothes and trying to resell them for profit. I look forward to your next post!
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ReplyDeleteHello, Annie! I love how you point out the problems with fast fashion and how they pollute our world in various ways. I myself get a terrible rash whenever I wear something with too much polyester, so I’m probably a bit biased against these brands in general, but I certainly agree with your assertion that we need to stop these large brands from profiting off our environment. However, I’m a bit skeptical as to how exactly we would accomplish this, given that most of these individual brands are owned by a couple of companies, and as long as they have one brand making money, they still rake in the cash. After all, everything these big companies are doing are meant to rake in cash, from making clothes that practically disintegrate from too much use, to basically using slave labor. I find it hard to see a future where we stop big companies from continuing their practices, but I certainly do support raising awareness of these practices.
ReplyDeleteHi Annie, when I read your title the first time I was really scared because my previous understanding of fast fashion was just throwing on the first clean thing I see in the morning and that is something I live by as someone who doesn’t really care for dressing too nice. In regards to your blog I think your stance on fast fashion is really interesting. I’m not into fashion myself so I was completely unaware that brands such as Hollister and Abercrombie were considered fast fashion. I think the reason fast fashion has been enabled by the public is that it caters to the majority of people. While it is undeniable the environmental effect that fast fashion has, I cannot help but agree with those who support it. It isn’t within everyone’s means to spend large amounts of money on clothing, especially when you can get a stylish, attractive outfit for a half or even a third of the price it normally would be. America’s problem of fast fashion is so widespread that it feels almost impossible to think that there is a way out. I think it is funny that some politicians and government officials fail to recognize that climate change is a real issue by ignoring facts and numbers which is possibly another contributing factor to this growing issue. Rather than stepping in and regulating prices or attempting to somehow make affordable clothing a reality to put an end to fast fashion, they sit back in DC and refuse to acknowledge the problem entirely. Annie I enjoyed your blog this week a lot, it brought up an issue that is very interesting and I myself was completely unaware of and I appreciate your perspective on it.
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