A four letter word. It makes our hearts flutter, our palms sweat with excitement and like any true addiction, leaves us wanting more... SALE. This word creates a subconscious sense of need and an ‘I must have it now’ attitude.
The fast fashion industry relies on the impulse buying of clothes, and the instilling urgency to purchase the latest trends after seeing them on the runway. Now more than ever the industry is thriving due to the ease of buying your favourite items with just a click of a button.
Trends affect the lifecycle of a product. Take jeans for example; we have seen skinny and mom jeans come into fashion, but now flares are all the rage. We have all been guilty of wearing a piece of clothing to fit in, for it to then sit in our wardrobe until it is thrown away and becomes another object in the scarily growing landfill. Your old skinny jeans are probably sitting there right now.
I remember I bought a new top for ‘own clothes day’ at school. Even though I had a plethora of clothes in my wardrobe, I complained to my Mum that I had nothing to wear - I said as I watched the shirts spill out from my ever-growing mountain of clothes. However, the impact of this behaviour is all too daunting as the fashion industry produces over 92 million tonnes of waste and consumes 79 trillion litres of water each year.
Are we a generation addicted to buying the latest trends and clothes that have 50% off? Between 1996 and 2012, Europe observed a 40% increase in clothing purchases. The real answer for this growth is that the industry has become cheaper in its initiatives. This includes using inexpensive fabrics, such as polyester, to facilitate for the ‘see now, buy now’ attitude of our materialistic society.
Even though brands are beginning to adopt sustainability ranges, massive issues still prevail - poor labour standards and chemical pollution from the dyes used are among the worst. Some argue that sustainable fashion is a trend and has been twisted by major brands to fit the current fashion standards.
Instead of being fast and trigger-happy, we need to create a sustainable and slow fashion industry that reduces the impact of global warming. If you want to follow a trend which truly matters, reduce, reuse and recycle.
Edited by Katie Wheatley
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