Fast fashion: What is it and what are the environmental effects? – The State News

But what exactly is fast fashion?

Department of Community Sustainability and Environmental Science and Policy associate professor Adam Zwickle said fast fashion is described as the mass production of garments for customers at a rapid pace. 

“Traditionally, there’s that big lag time between when a factory is retooled to make this pair of jeans compared to that pair of jeans,” Zwickle said. “The idea, as far as I understand, behind fast fashion is to be like, ‘Okay, there’s a new TikTok with this cool shirt, so let’s make 10,000 more of them and do it real fast’.”

Fast fashion brands are mostly advertised through social media, generating popularity among users. Journalism freshman Grace Jenkins said the key behind fast fashion is the ability to keep up with fashion trends circling on social media. 

“I think that especially through social media, like Tiktok and Instagram, Tiktok shop and all that, there’s been lots of trends going by and with fast fashion, it’s all about trends,” Jenkins said. “So people will just buy as much as they can and then throw it out as soon as the trend’s over, and an easy way to do that is with Shein and TikTok Shop and stuff like that, because it’s cheap and it comes right to you.”

Another key aspect of fast fashion is the low prices, attracting customers and popularity. Special education freshman Paige Anderson said individuals are more likely to be open to purchasing cheaper clothes.

“It’s just so cheap, and people are willing to buy what’s cheap,” Anderson said. “And, it’s easy to get because a lot of them are online stores.”

Especially for college students, Zwickle said finance is a large factor in choosing where to shop.

“If you’re a low-income family, if you’re a poor undergraduate student, you often can’t afford to buy the nice clothing that’s going to last you decades,” Zwickle said.

Similarly, Director of the Residential Initiative on the Study of the Environment (RISE) Dr. Laurie Thorp said the rise of fast fashion brands is due to a mix of social media and its remarkably low prices.

“People are always looking for, you know, low, low cost,” Thorp said. “And I think also we’ve got a population that’s (on) TikTok and social media way too much, we know it’s not healthy for us, and here’s another example of this. People are being strongly influenced by what they’re seeing in their social media, and that combined with the low cost, has become really toxic.”

However, despite its popularity, fast fashion has not been environmentally conscious. According to Thorp, there are a variety of reasons as to why fast fashion is so harmful to the environment. 

“A lot of it goes to Southeast Asia, and they’re just giant mountains of clothing that are being dumped, largely in the southern hemisphere,” Thorp said. “And you know, that’s just a biological disaster to be dumping clothing, and not even finding a way to reuse it or shred it or recycle it, and can be completely attributed to our addiction to fast fashion. You also have to look at what kind of dyes are being used, and usually the cheapest form of cotton, that’s probably pesticide-laden (is used). We have really no way of even knowing what kind of impact that the whole life cycle of that piece of clothing has because it’s out of our hands and then it gets dumped.”

Similarly, Zwickle said the utilization of natural resources to create these fast fashion garments is also environmentally harmful.

“It’s primarily resource usage in terms of water and energy,” Zwickle said. “So all clothing manufacturing takes a lot of water. You can think of it as upstream and downstream effects, or inputs and outputs. So those are what’s required to make clothing. And then you have the downstream effects, which is where they end up.”

For Anderson, the quality and materials of her clothes purchased from fast fashion brands directly correlate to environmental harm.

“My tops that I get from there and stuff, they don’t last me very long, so I end up throwing them away, and not actually recycling them or giving them to Goodwill or something,” Anderson said.

Fast fashion doesn’t only harm the environment. Thorp said these brands also add labor concerns in addition to environmental harm.

“The labor practices that are involved in these, we can call them sweatshops, where people are being paid pennies an hour to assemble these clothing, often in really poor conditions,” Thorp said. “Often they have seven day work weeks. They’re paid very poorly. They’re housed together in poor housing, so the labor conditions (are) associated with that clothing.”

Although there are many harmful effects caused by fast fashion, why do students choose to purchase from these brands?

Jenkins said it’s in part due to the popularity of party culture at MSU.

“The party culture is really big here,” Jenkins said. “So getting cute, going-out tops or something like that is really popular, (and) a lot of us are just broke (and) just got to get by. So, it’s an easy way to get clothes fast.”

Jenkins said shopping with fast fashion companies is beneficial when having strict financial restrictions.

“At the same time, especially as a college student, when you don’t have much money, it’s very hard to be able to shop sustainably,” Jenkins said. “So that’s why I personally do get into fast fashion sometimes, and I think a lot of students do too.”

However, when it comes to environmental sustainability, there are many options to obtain eco-friendly clothes. Zwickle advised to consider the 3 R’s: reduce, reuse and recycle.

“There’s cool vintage stores in town and using, you know, the old adage of reduce, reuse, recycle,” Zwickle said. “I’m assuming reducing your clothing purchases only works if you don’t need any more clothes. So you know, paying attention to your wardrobe and not buying unnecessary things would be number one. Number two (is) reusing. So vintage clothing or secondhand stuff. Sometimes you find some really cool stuff there. Sometimes I take my clothes to secondhand store mostly to assuage my guilt. But hopefully somebody finds something good in there.”

Thorp said to try and start purchasing from companies that use sustainable practices when creating the clothes, such as Patagonia and Smartwool.

“I would just encourage students to start to read labels and look for companies that have a really strong sustainability statement on their website, where they trace the origins of their fibers, where you can get to know the farmer, or know that where the fabric is, (where) the cotton is grown, or the wool, how the wool is grown,” Thorp said. “That’s what you want to support, and you think it’s going to cost you more, but that clothing is going to be with you for probably multiple generations.”

Anderson said she tries to purchase more expensive, but nicer quality clothing.

“(When) I spend my money on nicer clothes, like clothes that last me longer, I feel like I don’t get rid of (that much) clothes that way, because I like them and they’re better quality,” Anderson said. “But like the Shein tops and stuff, I find myself donating and throwing away.”

Jenkins said purchasing from small businesses and supporting them is another sustainable way to obtain clothes.

“I mean small businesses like Etsy, or you can go through Depop,” Jenkins said. “Stuff like that is perfect.”

However, when it comes to environmental sustainability, Zwickle said it doesn’t have to happen overnight.

“Even the most sustainable person is going to take a plane trip across the country or something, and blow up their carbon footprint in one day,” Zwickle said. “So, telling people it’s okay to still enjoy life, that’s the key to getting people to change, I think.”