The Problem With FAST FASHION: negative impact

You get a new email notification:

“We just dropped our new collection! Check it out!“

You immediately go over to their website and see tons of new clothing pieces. Like so many other people, you don’t stand still and think about what goes on behind this new collection.

How come these fast fashion brands drop new collections faster than I can choose my outfit in the morning?

For real, it seems like there’s a new collection every month.

Of course it’s nice to look good and feel confident in clothing. But is it really necessary to bring out a new collection every month? It seems like it is. Otherwise, these brands wouldn’t do it. It must bring in a lot of money for the fast fashion brands.

Do we really want to promote this though?

You may not know what goes on behind the scenes. Maybe you know the workers don’t get paid enough as they deserve. Or you know about the toxic chemicals they use.

But do you really know how bad things are?

In this article I will show you the dark side of fast fashion. I really hope that you will take the time to read this and possibly share it with the people around you.

You don’t need to completely change your lifestyle after reading this. But being aware of what goes on behind the (fast) fashion industry is very important. You can start with small changes!

Slave labor

Let’s start with one of the biggest problems of fast fashion brands: slave labor. Because let’s be honest with each other, that’s what it really is.

Most of the clothes are being made in low-wage countries, mostly in Asia. The people that work in these factories get paid 5 cents per clothing piece they make. They have to work for 18 hours a day.

To put that into perspective, we only work 8 hours inclusive breaks with our 9 to 5. So they work 10 more hours a day.

I have a few questions! When? How?

What is this called, working a job? That’s not a job, that’s slave labor. And remember, they get paid a maximum of 5 cents per clothing piece! It’s absolutely ridiculous!

The statistics shown above are not made up. An undercover investigation by Channel 4 found out that these were the conditions people had to work in for Shein factories.

Before you go: “Yass! I scored a cute flower dress for 12 dollars!”

Remember that a young woman paid a high price for it. She isn’t a free human being. She is working every day of the week up to 18 hours a day. She can only dream of having a picnic in a flower dress…

Dupes a.k.a Steals

Another problem of the fast fashion industry is that they steal designs. If you scroll trough the website of Fashion Nova, the designs look quite unique. But when you start to dig deeper, you will see that lot’s of these designs come from elsewhere.

It’s sad to see that the designs of small designers get stolen by big brands. A lot of the time these big brands get away with it.

Why would you wanna wear a dupe or something else. I mean, yeah it’s cheaper. But it will also make you look cheaper. Don’t buy these fake designer bags, or real bags for that matter.

It’s better to spend your money on clothing that represents you. Not something that represents ‘money’.

Furthermore, it’s better to invest in pieces that leave a positive impact on the people and the planet. A famous concept that you might have heard before is the 3 P’s. They stand for People, Planet and Profit.

Brands and entrepreneurs can focus on these 3 P’s to not only themselves benefit from their success. But also the people that worked for/with the brand and the planet itself.

Cotton: the innocent fabric?

Don’t think so, baby!

If you just look at the stats, you will see how much of a problem the cotton industry is. So here we go…

The cotton industry makes up for 16% of the total world’s pesticide consumption.

90% of all the cotton in the US was Genetically Modified, GMO. Furthermore, it’s in the top 4 of GMO crops being produced.

I’m probably gonna write more about this very soon. I read a few articles on this topic and it completely blew my mind!

Cheap = bad quality = waste

This is the last problem of the fast fashion industry that I want to address. As you read the heading, you may already have an idea of what I am going to say.

Fast fashion only focuses on 1 P, the P of Profit. As a result, they don’t care about how they make a huge profit. But someone has to pay for these huge profits… Yup! The People and Planet are paying for it.

Let me explain how!

So they want to make a profit. You can do that with quality or quantity. Fast fashion brands make profit focusing on quantity.

The motto is bigger and better, which means more in store.

They don’t spend time on examining different fabrics and searching for ways to improve the quality. As a result, the quality is very low.

They actually benefit from this. Fast fashion brands create a system in which the clothes don’t last very long. Every season we need to buy new clothes since the old ones break. Which means that we buy more clothes from these stores. Smart, isn’t it? But is smart better?

A quote I wanna share

A quote that I heard somewhere that really resonates with this is the following:

The more knowledge you gain, the less wisdom you have.

And I am going to end this article here. You can check out my other articles in my journal. I really hope that this article opened your eyes in some way. Please share it with people you know, I believe this is a message that needs to be heard.

Hi, Love!

Let me know (in the comments) if you buy a lot from fast fashion <3 I love reading comment from you guys!

Let today or tonight be an enlightening time and may you connect with nature. Take a deep breath and get in touch with your energy. Just be in this moment!

You can leave your name and email below, if you want to stay in contact with me. And if not, I hope you will have an amazing life full of love and joy!

May our souls meet again!

-xx- Nella

Visit my other blog to find out what my style is and to see feminine, yet edgy outfits: