In recent years trend cycles across the world have been ever increasing, shopping has become more accessible through the internet, fast fashion snuck in – offering the latest trendy clothes you could afford with your loose change. Fast fashion is defined as inexpensive and trendy clothes that rapidly emulate runway...
In recent years trend cycles across the world have been ever increasing, shopping has become more accessible through the internet, fast fashion snuck in – offering the latest trendy clothes you could afford with your loose change. Fast fashion is defined as inexpensive and trendy clothes that rapidly emulate runway or celebrity trends in clothing at an absurd pace. It may sound too good to be true that you can buy trendy looks so soon after seeing it at a runway show – because it is. Although fast fashion has a low price it has a high cost, causing massive environmental and social problems on a global scale.
The Environmental Problems
Textile wastage in Australia has increased paramount over the past two decades since the boom of fast fashion. Fast fashion has been producing far more clothes than we need, implicated by the fact one in six Australians have thrown out a piece of clothing after wearing it once. Furthermore, every ten minutes in Australia, six tonnes of clothing is sent to landfills. The majority of fast fashion clothes are made up of cheap to produce man-made fibres such as polyester, nylon, rayon and so on. This serves only to compound the negative effects as these fibres can take hundreds of years to degrade in our landfills.
The Social Problems
Not only does fast fashion wreak havoc on the environment in Australia, it also affects the people making it on a global scale. On average, four cents of every dollar we spend on fast fashion clothes is received by the garment workers who make our clothes (it can even be as low as two cents of every dollar in Bangladesh). The majority of garment workers have to deal with massive production targets, all the while receiving abuse, working in cramped spaces and no overtime compensation.
How Can You Help?
It is simple for us to do our part in minimising the effects of fast fashion – we need to look at how we brought clothes prior to the boom of fast fashion. As was done in the past, resort to buying clothes when seasons change or you outgrew something. Shop for styles that suit you and not celebrity or runway styles. Consulting a knowledgeable and credible personal stylist can help direct you to find your best look and which Australian labels to buy from. If you feel you have a good grasp on your personal style, but would like to know which brands are ethical, Baptist World Aid Australia provides yearly reports and grades 400 brands available in Australia on their efforts to reduce child labour, slavery, exploitation and environmental damage. Australian labels such as Elk, Bassike, Outland Denim and Kowtow are among the higher grades and provide amazing styles to compliment many styles.
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