Fast Fashion And The Ugly Face Of The Clothing Industry

You may have wondered before about the real cost of producing a pair of jeans or shoes, and whatever your expectations for it, the actual price is much higher. That fast fashion is the ugly face of the clothing industry.

While every year the world is filled with discounts, offers, and whole months of spurs and sourcing as many products as possible, whether you need it or not, the planet is facing real danger from this growing consumerism, especially when it comes to clothing.

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The idea of ​​fast fashion is based on three quick processes:

Fast Production: produce larger quantities in a short time
Quick Sale: Offers, discounts, and express delivery services that ensure you get the product in the quickest time
Rapid Wear: A shirt that has only been worn once or twice is old and needs replacing

And then, repeating this cycle from the beginning, as the intensive clothing industry comes as a result of changing fashions more than once during the year, which creates the need for consumers to keep up with them, and thus consumerism increases.

The world has witnessed an increase in unsustainable consumption rates, and the value of products that maintain their quality for long periods has declined.

In a study referred to by The Guardian, many women believe that jeans have become old after their second use of them. It goes in two directions, on the one hand, the efficiency of clothes manufactured deliberately by other brands decreases, and on the other hand, the desire to keep pace with new fashion increases on the part of consumers.

The Actual Cost Of Fast Fashion

The consumption of vast resources needed to manufacture these clothes is one of the most prominent criticisms directed at this sector, as the clothing industry is the world’s second-largest water-consuming sector. To help you visualize the amount of water wasted, you have to think about the average amount of water you need to drink daily for two and a half years..yes that is the amount!

The process of dyeing clothes comes as the second-largest polluter of water in the world, as water bodies are affected either by the process of disposal of dyeing waste or by disposing of clothes by throwing them in rivers, seas, and others.

According to a World Economic Forum report, the express clothing industry also affects the climate; According to a World Economic Forum report, the clothing industry accounts for 10 percent of carbon emissions, more than those from air travel and shipping combined.

In addition to the number of issues the fashion industry raises on the planet and the environment; it also presents ethical problems related to the situation of workers in the factories of the most famous brands, especially in Asian countries, where the worker suffers from poor salary and the lack of human conditions that enable him to work correctly, as well as For non-respect of international labor covenants concerning organizational matters such as vacations, adherence to specified working hours, and others.

Slow Fashion Reaction

Several international organizations have adopted many principles to make the garment manufacturing process slower and more sustainable. The Washington-based World Resources Institute has called on major companies to devise ways and materials to manufacture clothing in a way that extends its life.

The call to replace environmentally harmful materials with other more sustainable materials has also become an active solution, as the United Nations launched a program called the “Alliance for Sustainable Fashion,” and has already adopted several major brands such as Gucci, which adopted animal fur-free products, as well as Adidas that announced

New York Fashion Week is one of the most critical initiatives launched in 2020 to raise awareness of this issue and encourage consumers to be wiser in their spending, as well as awareness campaigns aimed at making individuals more informed about their purchasing decisions and encouraging them to repurchase used clothes as a part policy of reducing production and recycling.