by Tori Newby ’22

As teenagers with little money to spend on clothes, stores like H&M and Forever 21 often attract us with affordable prices and their ability to stay on top of the latest trends. Online retailers, such as Zaful and Shein, use Instagram as their platform to advertise trendy, low-cost clothing. With the option to purchase a bathing suit or pair of shorts for $8, higher-end clothing stores are much less appealing. However, the cheap clothes that reside in many teenagers’ wardrobes often are a product of fast fashion: inexpensive clothing made cheaply and rapidly to keep up with demand. Although fast fashion retailers, including H&M, Forever 21, Zaful, and Shein, may be able to produce clothing quickly and cheaply, they do it unethically.   

Fast fashion retailers often release new clothing several times per week, rather than four seasonal collections. The CEO of fast fashion brand Fashion Nova said that the company introduces 600 new styles weekly. Rather than restocking the shelves with the same clothing once it is bought out, these companies release new clothing as a replacement. Shoppers are then encouraged to update their wardrobes regularly to keep up with new, popular styles. A 2015 survey of 2,000 women discovered that many women will wear most items in their closets an average of 7 times, which is a custom that fast fashion only encourages. Practices of disposable fashion are extremely wasteful; up to 85 percent of all textiles worldwide go into the landfill each year. H&M burns tons of clothing annually in which they deem unfit to be sold, despite their promotion of recycling. 

In addition to the environmentally damaging consumer culture, the fashion industry produces one tenth of the world’s carbon emissions, and textile dyeing is the second-largest polluter of water worldwide. 

Besides the environmental cost of fast fashion, there is also the human cost. Fast fashion companies often produce their clothing in factories overseas in which workers have limited or no labor protections. Although several clothing brands assure their customers that the workers are paid at least the legal minimum wage, in many manufacturing countries (India, China, Bangladesh, etc.), the minimum wage is a fifth of the living wage. Garment workers are also often expected to work overtime without additional pay, which can be a 14-16 hour workday, 7 days a week. In 2019, Fashion Nova was under investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor for underpaying workers, but the company denied the workers’ claims.

The health and safety conditions in overseas garment factories are dangerous, as they often have limited ventilation and force the workers to breathe in toxic substances. The collapse of a textile factory in 2013 in Dhaka, Bangladesh killed 1134 garment workers, and proved that the fashion industry was doing something wrong. This disaster brought attention to the fashion industry and consumers demanded change, but seven years later, working conditions have not significantly improved. 

Even with all these harmful consequences, many consumers are not willing to spend more money to support ethical practices. Luckily, shopping at second-hand clothing stores has become more popular, where customers can purchase clothes at a low cost while helping to reduce the environmental impact of fashion.