The fashion industry is constantly changing and an incredibly competitive environment. To stay relevant as a clothing brand, a company must be able to mass produce efficiently with high profit margins. This can be achieved through changes in materials and changes in the production process of the goods. Fast fashion is a strategy that companies such as Forever 21 use as a way to compete with the prices of other large fashion stores.
Fast fashion is when a company attempts to replicate fashion trends and produce large quantities at a low price (Joy 2012). Trends in fashion come and go very quickly and this may cause people to throw away clothes that are no longer in style. Trying to manufacture goods at low-cost means that they must be made of lower quality materials. Production of manmade objects always has some negative effects on the environment. Fast fashion, however, is bad for the environment in more ways than one. The pollution that is created is bad enough, but most of what is produced also ends up being thrown away.
A cheap way to produce clothes is to use synthetic fibers that are unable to break down on its own (Schlossberg 2019). Since clothes are made with non-decomposing materials, if they are not properly disposed of then the clothes will just become more pollution. Another way that big companies cut costs is by doing the bare minimum for wages and safety. Not only is fast fashion bad for the environment, it is also extremely dangerous and leaves the people that produce the clothes with low wages that are nearly impossible to survive off of. One company in particular that creates terrible work environments is Forever 21.
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A lot of big-name clothing brands such as Nike are widely known for sweatshops and terrible working conditions, but one that makes their money from fast fashion is Forever 21. To help fight against corporations that abuse developing countries, the Bangladesh Accord was created. This helped to ensure that workers would have safer working conditions, however, as of 2017, Forever 21 had still refused to sign (Benton-Collins 2017). Being created in early 2013, that means even after four years Forever 21 refused to improve the conditions of their factories. They are putting the lives of people that work for them at risk for the sake of saving a small portion of money.
Forever 21 represents fast fashion because the company manufactures cheap and easily mass-produced goods that go along with the fashion trends of the times. One main fabric is cotton and lots of pesticides are used in the cultivating process (Claudio 2007). Excessive use of pesticides can be damaging to the environment. Although some of these clothes go to developing countries and can be used by people still, others are left in landfills with no chance of decomposition. That is not the only problem with clothing assembly. The mass production of this clothing is the most harmful part of the fast fashion industry.
The industry is accountable for a significant portion of the water-waste and carbon emissions on earth (UN Environment Programme). Fast fashion is terrible for the environment from start to finish. With the production causing huge amounts of pollution and then being thrown away after short usage it returns to nature as a non-decaying piece of waste.
To conclude, fast fashion is a huge part of the fashion industry for the general public. By producing a large amount of low-quality supply, they are able to ride the current fashion train to easy profit. During the production stage, fast fashion creates a significant portion of the world’s pollution and the end of its cycle is the clothing being pollution itself. In the factories owned by these large businesses, there are people working for low wages in unsafe working conditions that is caused by the greed of people in the fashion industry.
Works Cited
- Schlossberg. (2019), How Fast Fashion Is Destroying the Planet. New York Times, Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/03/books/review/how-fast-fashion-is-destroying-the-planet.html
