“But It Was a Great Deal…” The True Cost of Fast Fashion
“This is a story about clothing. It’s about the clothes we wear, the people who make them, and the impact the industry is having on our world. The price of clothing has been decreasing for decades, while the human and environmental costs have grown dramatically. The True Cost is a groundbreaking documentary film that pulls back the curtain on the untold story and asks us to consider, who really pays the price for our clothing? Filmed in countries all over the world, from the brightest runways to the darkest slums, and featuring interviews with the world’s leading influencers including Stella McCartney, Livia Firth and Vandana Shiva, The True Cost is an unprecedented project that invites us on an eye opening journey around the world and into the lives of the many people and places behind our clothes.”
What is Fast-Fashion?
Fast-fashion: it’s an industry established on the artificial demand for new clothes based on the shift from the traditional 2-4 seasons per year to 52 seasons per year; once a week styles change, new clothes fill stores, and you are made to feel out of trend in pieces after only days of owning them.
It is cheap clothing suggesting that our wardrobes are disposable, only encouraging our throw-away culture; products so cheap people don’t care about literally tossing them in the garbage.
It is the constant production of new styles, combined with endless sales and discounts that fuel a compulsive consumer culture rooted in discontentment. It is disregarding quality over quantity, and contributing to the degradation of human rights and natural resources.
Fast fashion is the textile waste a company produces by making mass amounts of clothes but only selling a fraction of those clothes. It is exploitive labor practices involving children, abusive working conditions, and pitiful wages. It is pollution involved in the transportation of clothing around the world, and contamination of water, as well as hazards for workers and their community members due to the use of dangerous chemical dyes and additives.
It’s a Human Rights Issue…
With 97% of items being made overseas, we are increasingly disconnected from the people who make our clothing, and from an awareness of how our clothing is made. 85% of the 40 million garment workers around the globe are women, and are among the lowest paid workers in the world (making mere cents every day) nothing close to a living wage.
In addition to the financial negligence taking place, rights and protections are virtually nonexistent: harassment, overwork, assault, inhumane conditions, and rape are only some of the horrors faced by women and their children in the garment industries around the world. Workers are locked in rooms, forced to work without breaks and without nourishment; children come to work with their mothers because it is unaffordable to send them to school, and if not also workers themselves, they are still in danger from the working environment and the men overseeing the production processes.
Helpless victims stuck in a vicious and perpetual cycle of oppression and abuse.
The human factor of the garment industry is too big to ignore- without it, there would be no garment industry.
It’s an Environmental Issue…
The fashion industry is the second largest polluting industry in the world, only behind the oil industry.
That pollution comes by way of production of fashion, and of consumption of fashion: the world now consumes about 80 billion new pieces of clothing every year.
This is 400% more than the amount we consumed just two decades ago.
Cotton represents nearly half of the total fiber used to make clothing today. More than 90% of that cotton is now genetically modified, using vast amounts of water as well as chemicals. Cotton production is now responsible for 18% of worldwide pesticide use and 25% of total insecticide use. The largely untested impacts of these chemicals on both the land and human health are beginning to be questioned by those working in the industry. As our skin is the largest organ, these chemicals are passed into the bloodstream of the people wearing these clothes.
It takes approximately 7,000 gallons of water to make one pair of jeans from start to finish- that’s about how much water one person will consume over the course of 6-7 years.
Mass leather production is also linked to a variety of environmental and human health hazards. In addition to the resources required in raising the livestock needed, the leather tanning process is among the most toxic in all of the fashion supply chain. Studies have found that leather tannery workers are at a far greater risk of cancer, by between 20% – 50%.
Garment workers throughout the production process are exposed to harmful chemicals on the job, while the waste generated pollutes natural water sources leading to increased disease for surrounding areas.
As new clothing comes into our lives, we also discard it at a shocking pace.
85% of clothing ends up in landfills. The average American now generates 82 pounds of textile waste each year, with the average garment only being worn 3x before being trashed.
And because of the overwhelming amount of clothing that may be donated, intended by individuals to be bought by someone else, a large portion of items taken to thrift stores or clothing drop-boxes end up being bundled and shipped overseas. There it often still ends up in landfills, and is burned as a source of heat for cooking food, sanitizing water, or just keeping warm.
We often imagine people in poor countries being without proper clothes because they can’t afford them; but in reality, they have so many clothes available to them due to this form of dumping that it can often lead to the failing of their own local business and crafts because there is no demand for handmade local pieces or fashions.
The System is Flawed…
Planned obsolescence, abuse of power, greed… so many factors play into the broken system of the fast-fashion industry. A vicious cycle of exploitation. It is a daunting situation. But you can make an impact in changing it for the better, primarily by voting with your dollar.
What Can You Do?
Rewear and Reuse What You Already Own: the most sustainable piece of clothing is the one you already own- the same goes for every area of your life. So do your best to breathe new life into your current wardrobe and work hard to keep the clothes you already own out of landfills. Whether you originally purchased from a fast-fashion retailer or not, the damage has already been done, but now you can minimize the future damage your clothes will potentially create.
Buy Second-Hand: After focusing on what you already own the next best place to purchase “new” clothes is through buying second-hand. We already know that we have a huge waste issue when it comes to our clothes, which is why purchasing second-hand clothing (yes even if it was originally made in an unsustainable way) is the next best way that you can fight fast-fashion. By keeping second-hand clothes out of landfills you are doing a big part to reduce textile waste and reduce the incentive that fast-fashion retailers have to continue pumping out new styles.
Support Sustainable Clothing Brands: Slow-fashion brands may be more expensive than the cheapest fast-fashion brands out there, but you are becoming much more intentional with your clothing purchases and opting for quality made clothes that you will own for many years to come. And be proud of the fact that your purchases are helping to support real families around the world, rather than lining the pockets of monopolistic businesses. If you can’t shop second-hand first, look to support brands that are producer-focused and hold to rigorous fair-trade standards.
Long-term, slow down your participation in clothing “seasons”, and when you are shopping for clothing, ask yourself if you are likely to wear an item at least thirty times; strive to wear clothing that are free from harmful synthetic dyes and made of natural fibers.
Finally, you can join the Fashion Revolution: Be the change you want to see in your wardrobe. Fashion Revolution (fashionrevolution.org) represents millions of consumers who want change their shopping habits and also commemorates Rana Plaza by putting pressure on the brands to increase transparency and empowers consumers to be inquisitive about #whomadetheirclothes.
Resources for More Information
Regarding fast fashion, if you could only watch one thing to learn more, I would recommend The True Cost movie, whose trailer is at the very top of this post. That documentary covers all the key components and issues involved in the fast-fashion industry, and is sometimes available on Netflix (it is also available on Youtube for a small fee, as well as on Amazon Prime). Definitely my top recommendation.
The following videos are additional resources that shed light on fast-fashion. If you don’t have time to watch The True Cost or can’t access it, these videos below do a nice job of offering the same information with more personal insights and practical applications for how to address the problem of overconsumption and it’s contribution to the fashion industry. There is an endless amount of information you can find online on this topic, but these videos are a great starting point!
This video discusses the consequences of clothing disposal, more than production of clothes. Very well done and informative, a refreshing perspective. Follow clothes after they’re donated to see where they end up; there’s an extreme excess in clothing in our world, and so just because we donate something doesn’t mean it will be bought and reworn and loved. Solution: buy less!
Discusses the history of fast-fashion, and the social and environmental impacts of it, as well as alternatives to fast-fashion brands. I am a regular view of Sarah’s Youtube videos- she puts out great content, I encourage you to check out her channel!
A brief overview of the problems of fast fashion; goes over the 5 r’s of sustainable clothing/shopping: refuse, reduce, reuse, repair, recycle; swap/rent clothes, thrift/shop secondhand, support sustainable/ethical brands…
Fast-fashion allows consumers to buy more, but results in our wearing items less often, and disposing of them at an alarming rate. Discarded clothes are shipped overseas, or end up in landfills. How can we address the environmental problems involved in fast-fashion while still meeting our clothing needs throughout different seasons in our lives? Rent the Runway desires to change the relationship consumers have with the clothes they wear, and help get more milage out of clothing items. Demand is stimulated, which drives people to buy products they don’t need; Patagonia advocates for buying once, buying well, and mending clothes to have a longer lifespan.
What is Fast Fashion? (1:10), Fast Fashion’s Worth (2:32), Planned Obsolescence (4:01), Fast Marketing (5:50), Overconsumption (7:12), Cheap Labor (8:32), The 2013 Rana Plaza Collapse (10:25), The Resource and Energy-Intensive Fabrics (13:07), Your Cheap Clothes Travel More than You Do (15:42), Slow Fashion (16:51)
If you need motivation as you learn how to consume better, and to consume less, the Minimalism Documentary is a must-see. I’ve watched it at least a dozen times. The best way we can break the cycle of fast-fashion, rooted in discontentment and mindless consumption, is to simply consume less; use what you already have. And then you can be confident that you aren’t contributing to a broken system.
Thank you so much for the time and effort you invested in gathering facts that we can benefit from. I had no idea. I will watch the videos as I have time. You have given me a lot to think about. Thank you! You inspire me!
Thank you for reading, I so appreciate it! It’s definitely a learning process, and can seem overwhelming. But small changes can make a big difference, and I take comfort in knowing that I’m doing the best I can for now. Definitely try and watch the True Cost if you have time and can only watch one; though the others are good, too:)