slow vs fast fashion
the Slow vs fast fashion dilemma
With globalization, trends, and more people being able to afford much more with their salaries, the fashion industry is getting bigger and bigger every year, but, Is the current fashion industry sustainable? What consequences does it have on our planet and how can we change this?
The facts are that fashion production makes up 10% of humanity’s carbon emissions, dries up water sources, and pollutes rivers and streams. What’s more, 85% of all textiles go to the dump each year (UNECE, 2018), and washing some types of clothes sends significant amount of microplastics into the ocean.
We will be discussing what is Fast Fashion, what is Slow Fashion, and what choice we should make to reduce our carbon footprint.
what is fast fashion?
Fast fashion is the term used to describe clothing designs that move quickly from the catwalk to stores to take advantage of trends. … Fast fashion describes low-priced but stylish clothing that moves quickly from design to retail stores to meet trends, with new collections being introduced continuously.
Fast fashion has an enormous environmental footprint for both its production and disposal. Clothing production requires a considerable amount of energy and resources, while it depends on toxic fabric dyes and other chemicals that contaminate freshwater. Fast Fashion produces a tenth of the world’s carbon emissions.
Today, the fast fashion industry’s indisputable leader in the Spanish retail group Inditex, which owns a family of brands including Zara, Mango, and Massimo Dutti, among others. They introduce clothes and trends almost every week at a very cheap monetary price (With a very high humanitarian and environmental cost) and throw out all the clothes that are not sold in that period of time.
what is slow fashion?
Slow fashion, is a concept describing the complete opposite of fast fashion and part of the “slow movement”, which advocates for manufacturing with respect to people, the environment, and animals.
Why Do We Even Need A Slow Fashion? Sustainable or slow fashion encourages the use of locally produced, biodegradable fabrics which have little to no adverse effects on the environment. So these fabrics can eventually return to the ecosystem, once you are done wearing them.
One of the advantages of slow vs fast fashion is that slow fashion encompasses awareness and an approach to fashion that considers the processes and resources required to make clothing. It advocates for buying better-quality garments that will last longer and value fair treatment of people, animals, and the planet along the way. So, slow fashion is considerably better quality than fast fashion, although sometimes it can be pricey, but you don’t have to buy new clothes every month like with fast fashion.
slow vs fast fashion
It is pretty clear already that this slow vs fast fashion dilemma is resolved, slow fashion wins! But, why isn’t everyone buying it already? Why are people keep shopping from fast fashion brands only to find themselves throwing a ton of clothes they don’t need, clothes that have already left a very big carbon footprint in our world and were made with sweat and hard work of underpaid workers.
There are many reasons for this, one of them is that although fast fashion if let free would destroy our planet, it is cheaper, and many people would prefer buying a $6 pair of jeans that will last a month rather than a $65 pair that will last 10 years.
But that is not the main reason for the unpopularity of slow fashion in the slow vs fast fashion dilemma, the biggest issue is that the majority of people don’t even know what fast fashion is. When did you first hear about fast fashion? Do you know anyone personally who also knows what that means? Most likely, no. And that is surprising considering how bad fast fashion is to our planet and other people.
How are people going to choose between slow vs fast fashion if they don’t even know what that means? Even if some people have heard about fast fashion, they have a vague idea of what that is and think it’s some kind of crop top that starts running from the closet.
The best thing we can do to help slow fashion win the slow vs fast fashion dilemma is to be informed. The next best thing to do is spread the word so that at least people know what those terms mean, then action should be taken.
Summary
The slow vs fast fashion dillemma is something that will be talked about a lot in the near future, and hopefully, people start taking action so that we and our planet can stand a chance at survival.
