What’s going on in the Fashion Industry?
Why should I be concerned about the fast fashion industry? What impacts does it have on the environment? Why is it important to know who made my clothes, where they were made, and how?
A resource page for you to dig deeper into the reality of the fashion industry.
Mass produced and cheaply made clothing that follows the fast paced trends of the fashion industry. It’s designed to make us want to buy more because the clothes won’t last or stay on trend very long, and they are considered disposable. New collections are produced so quickly that there are always different clothes in the store, you could go back weekly and it will be different.
What is fast fashion?
What’s wrong with the fast fashion industry?
Fashion Culture.
The rate at which clothing is being produced, consumed, and disposed of is incredibly alarming, but it has become normalised. It’s normal to buy lots of clothes regularly because we want something new, it’s encouraged to have a new outfit for every occasion, and routine to clean out our closets and have garbage bags full to donate. The number of times we are wearing our clothes is reducing, and sometimes we don’t even wear them at all after we buy them. Surprisingly, we are okay with that because they are so cheap and we aren’t that invested in them. The current relationship we as a Western society have with our clothes is not a healthy one, it needs to shift quickly for us to make the difference that is needed.
Environment.
With clothing production at an all time high, the environment is getting severely damaged. The amount of new and finite resources being depleted for clothes that are worn for the shortest amount of time is irreversible. There are extreme amounts of waste and pollution from the production and transportation of the clothes around the globe. With clothing being perceived as disposable, clothes are getting discarded at rates at which we cannot handle. On average, Canadians get rid of 37 kg (81 lbs) of clothing each year, lots of which ends up in the landfill or incinerated and releases toxic fumes. Yes, a large part of it is donated, but the recipients of those donations are not able to keep up with them, and some of the clothes are such low quality that they are not even worthy of resale.
Human Rights.
The fashion industry was built on slave labour, and is still exploiting workers in modern day slavery, let’s just call it what it is. Fashion brands have meticulously sought out the cheapest places to produce mass amounts of clothing with the least amount of labour standards to protect the workers health and safety to garuantee maximum profit. The standards and conditions in which clothes are produced are appalling where workers are verbally, physically, sexually, and financially abused, and even killed. These factories were created to get away and thrive on this inhuman treatment, and make it almost impossible to fight back or be treated fairly. People’s lives are constantly in danger from the conditions in which they work, and they have no way to protect themselves or their families.