Fast Is Not Free.

The consequences of the fast fashion industry on people and the planet

By Dr Alana M James

Over the past decade, fast fashion has become a widely used term recognised by fashion lovers nationwide, often evoking images of brightly lit stores, crammed with racks and racks of new affordable clothing. What makes this business model unique is its ability to bring catwalk inspired fashion to the masses, as quickly and as cheaply as possible, allowing everyone access to the latest, trend-led products. Fast fashion brands deliver new stock to their stores every 1-2 weeks so that the customer can see some new items every time they go shopping. Even high-end brands such as Ralph Lauren are trialling a new system to deliver products to stores within just 16 days.  

 So, what’s not to love you might ask? Well unfortunately, this speed and frequency of new products often relies on cheap manufacturing, frequent consumption and short-lived garment use, all of which begin to leave their mark on the world and the people around us.

How fast is fast?  

As the speed of the fashion life cycle continues to gain momentum, fast fashion is no longer fast enough for the appetite of many fashion consumers with a new business model emerging to take fast to a whole new level. Ultra-fast fashion brands aim to deliver 1000+ new styles to store every week, offering constant new styles to their customers. This model operates regardless of season or sales, encouraging over-consumption and a disposable attitude towards clothing. Many of these brands operate exclusively online, meaning that a lack of bricks-and-mortar stores allows the price of products to also remain very low. This, coupled with a heavy use of UK factories means that garments can be made quicker than overseas competitors, whilst remaining at very competitive prices. While UK production can help reduce carbon emissions due to the reduction in transport, fashion produced at these speeds and in these volumes often results in negative social and environmental consequences.  

 The recent emergence of the ultra-fast fashion business model is indicative of the current direction of growth within the fashion industry, an area which encourages consumers to gain momentary pleasure from low quality, inexpensive garments before purchasing again. Fashion consumers are fundamentally gaining pleasure, albeit brief, at the expense of people and the planet. With consumption levels rising and the cost of fashion falling, consumers appear to be buying more fashion items but paying a much lower price, despite the effect of inflation on material, labour and transport costs.

Why is fast a bad thing?

“fast is not free, someone, somewhere is paying” Lucy Siegle (2011)

In 2013, an eight-storey factory collapse in Dhaka, Bangladesh would forever change the way that the fashion industry considered the social impact of fashion production. On the morning of 24th April 2013, thousands of garment factory workers arrived at their machines in the Rana Plaza factory complex as usual, despite owners receiving advice to close the building the previous day due to unsafe building conditions. The pressures being placed on the factory owners to complete orders for western brands such as Primark, Mango and Matalan, were being passed on down the value chain, with workers being threatened with their jobs if they did not continue to work. Shortly before 9am, it took 90 seconds for the factory floors to give way, resulting in 1,134 workers being killed, an incident that unions described as ‘mass industrial homicide’. 

Despite some progress being made in the 7 years since the incident, workers continue to live in poverty, not being able to afford the most basic of necessities for their families. Pay for instance, remains critically low, despite a pay increase in 2018, 11,600 workers were arrested and threatened with their jobs for participating in strikes to fight for their right to be part of a worker’s union, otherwise known as freedom of association.

While this behaviour is often associated with the lower, value-end of the fashion market, these issues are not exclusive to fast fashion retailers alone, with luxury brands now mimicking operations and being newly labelled as fast luxury. A lack of progress on social standards has also been evidenced recently with the on-going global pandemic, which has halted fashion production and consumption due to lockdown procedures. Many brands are refusing to pay their supplier factories for goods that have been made, but are no longer needed in the slowing of retail. Consequently, factory owners are left unable to pay their workers meaning thousands of families are going without even the very basics in life such as food.

What other effects is fast fashion having?

In addition to social and environmental impact, the effect that the speed of consumption is having on the fashion calendar cannot be ignored, with brands moving from the traditional two seasons per year (spring/summer and autumn/winter) to a continuous drip feed of new products to store. At the higher levels of the fashion market, this shift has been reflected in the creation of additional collections in the fashion calendar with pre-seasonal collections (e.g. Pre-fall, Cruise, Resort) entered as interim events. The practical consequences of these changes however are based on the volume of clothing being produced and made available to customers, encouraging over-consumption and frivolous purchasing behaviour. 

Belgian designer, Dries Van Noten, has utilised his recent period of lockdown to bring together a number of the industry’s influential players to create a forum to drive forward change in the fashion calendar. Their published open letter calls for realigned fashion deliveries (reflective of the seasonal weather patterns) and prevention of early discounting.

The industry has increasingly moved to an out-of-sync delivery of fashion meaning that fashion products were increasingly being delivered and showcased up to six months in advance, not reflective of real-time seasonality. Consequently, this triggered early discounting of stock to help increase slow sales, as shoppers do not want to buy winter clothing during summer months and vice versa. Many sectors of the industry have become over-reliant on frequent and early discounting to maintain steady sales, reducing the consumer value and appreciation of the craftsmanship of the product. Van Noten’s proposal aims to reduce the number of collections per year, releasing pressure from the previously established pre-collections from designer brands. 

What is next for fashion?

The growth being evidenced in the ultra-fast fashion market sector is the epitome of why this speed of production and consumption cannot continue if fashion is to be produced responsibly. The speed and volume of clothing being produced to satisfy the demand of sales places intense pressure on the garment supply chain, resulting in social and environmental compromise occurring. Despite the awareness of such issues rising amongst fashion consumers, many remain in the dark, unaware that their fashion habits are contributing to the climate crisis and human exploitation.

However, it is not all bad news, with people starting to show small changes in their daily behaviour, with concerns ranging from the impact of single use plastic to the environmental benefits of turning to a vegan diet. This awareness is also starting to reach consumer wardrobes, with the volume of consumption and end-of-life disposal options being widely discussed. 

And for all the negative consequences of COVID-19, this period of slower living and reflection has presented an opportunity for what is being described as ‘a chance to rewrite the fashion system’. Let’s hope this really is the tipping point towards a more responsible future for fashion. 

This article is part of a series written by Alana with a new sustainability issue discussed each month. Next up: What does a responsible fashion business look like?