What is Fast Fashion?

The Characteristics of Fast Fashion

How can we identify fast fashion in our day-to-day lives?

Most of the clothes we see on the high street come under the bracket of “fast fashion,” and here’s why.

They’re Cheap and “Trendy”

Fast fashion thrives on quickly capitalising on the latest trends. It’s known for its ability to rapidly produce trendy clothing at low prices, often relying on unsustainable shipping methods like flying clothes across the globe to get them into stores faster.

Previously, inspiration came from the runway a few times a year, and was translated into affordable items for everyone. Today, this process has sped up significantly, with most brands producing 52 new collections a year. As a result, shops are constantly stocked with fresh items, creating a continual pressure to buy something new in order to stay on trend.

The low cost of the clothes is often achieved by using very inexpensive fabrics and mass production techniques, which keep prices low while allowing brands to offer a wide range of different styles.

There’s a High Turnover and a Wear-it-once Mentality

Fast fashion is known for its high turnover rate, meaning unfortunately it often feels easy to throw out, and replace with something new. New collections are constantly being churned out, and ads, influencers and the media are feeding us a narrative of: “you must have this new thing in order to fit in.”

The fast-paced production means that most garments are designed to be worn only a handful of times before they either go out of fashion or begin to wear out. This keeps production costs low, and brands are aware that consumers likely won’t want to wear the clothes a few months down the line anyway, so why bother making clothes that will last physically, if no one wants to wear them?

This contributes to a cycle of relentless consumption and disposal. Of the estimated 53 million tonnes of clothes manufactured annually, 73% end up in landfills or are incinerated. (Recovery Worldwide).

Shop pre-loved instead

What is The Environmental and Social Impact of Fast Fashion?

Waste and Pollution

The environmental impact of fast fashion is pretty hefty. The industry is one of the biggest contributors to waste and pollution, with millions of tonnes of textile waste ending up in landfills each year.

The production of fast fashion also involves hazardous chemicals and toxic dyes, which can contaminate water supplies and harm ecosystems. With the short lifespan of these garments, the environmental damage is magnified even further.

Resource Depletion

The demand for rapid production means the demand for a lot of natural resources - and the planet is struggling to keep up.

From raw materials to water and energy, the fashion industry is quickly depleting our resources, which is a very unsustainable trajectory, contributing to environmental degradation and water scarcity. Yikes.

Labour Exploitation

The fast fashion model relies on everything being as low cost as possible to drive the price of the clothes down.

That means cheap materials, but also cheap labour.

Production is frequently outsourced to countries where the labour costs are the lowest in the world, and regulations are less strict.

With limited oversight on manufacturing, significant ethical concerns arise. Many garment workers face dangerous working conditions and receive extremely low wages, keeping them in poverty and at risk. These practices raise serious questions about the ethics of fast fashion and the treatment of the workers who make these clothes. Want to learn more? This documentary on Shein is a truly eye-opening watch.

At Reskinned, we’re working for the planet and the people, and tackling the fast fashion model also means making sure people aren’t employed in unsafe conditions for too-low wages.

Unfortunately, the cheaper your garments, the lower the labour costs. So please remember that the next time you buy something uber-cheap - every item we wear is made by a real person.

Shopping Pre-Loved Instead of Fast Fashion

One of the best ways to avoid contributing to fast fashion’s environmental impact is by choosing to shop pre-loved over new.

You can still bag a trendy bargain and wear the same fast fashion pieces if you like, but you’ll be giving them a second life and keeping them from going to landfill.

Buying pre-loved means you generally know something is better quality. The things you buy have usually already been worn and washed, and cheap fast-fashion items won’t be able to be reworn for long. Because the price of something pre-loved is usually cheaper than new too, you’ll be able to get better quality regardless of your budget.

Better quality = being able to wear your clothes for longer, and not having to buy unnecessary new stuff.

You can find our latest pre-loved fashion here.

Remember to rehome your old clothes once you’re finished with them too - so they can go on to be worn and loved time and time again.

Because the impact isn’t just the clothes that we buy, we can also make a positive impact by clearing out the things we don’t wear, and giving someone else the opportunity to pick up something pre-loved instead of shopping fast fashion.

Find out how to rehome your old clothes and get your hands on some exclusive discounts in exchange.