Harsh Facts About Fast Fashion Every Shopping Lover Needs To Know
“Life is a party, dress like it.” — Audrey Hepburn
We all love fashion, don’t we? Have you ever heard anyone from an older generation say they only bought 1 or 2 outfits a month? Those were different times when clothes were only bought as and when necessary; it was a luxury back then.
“I love new clothes. If everyone could just wear new clothes every day, I reckon depression wouldn’t exist anymore.”― Sophie Kinsella, Confessions of a Shopaholic
Have you noticed how we suddenly shifted to quotes about ‘right clothes’, ‘perfect shoes’ and ‘THE dress’ you should have? We all somehow got sucked into this infinite loop of getting more clothes and dumping even more just because we have pictures wearing them & everybody has already seen us in them.
Here are some of the facets of the fast-fashion industry.
Take a look!
The concept of fast-fashion started out in the US in the 1990s where a relatively large amount of clothing was made available to the public at low & affordable prices.
Americans are purchasing five times the amount of clothing they did in the 1980s. The US imports 1 billion garments from China alone. Only 15% of the discarded clothes get recycled. The rest of them are filling the landfills worldwide.
84% of unwanted clothes from the United States went to the landfill or incinerator in 2012. Clothes are mostly made from non-biodegradable materials.
You don’t need anybody telling you about how fashion & seasons change way too frequently these days. That is the basic essence of fast fashion.
Why do you think your clothes are so cheap? Of course, they are imported from developing countries like Bangladesh, India etc.
Sometimes, the workers are even forced to work for as little as 6 cents per hour!
To meet the vast requirements of the demand for fast-fashion, mass production is thereby required. Wait till you read the lasting impacts it is having.
The increased demand for cotton has lead to the planting of genetically modified (GM) cotton in India. This resulted in high costs of seeds as well as higher use of pesticides which is harmful to nature. What you see in the picture is GM cotton on one side as compared to the organic cotton plant on the other.
Because of the increased amounts of seeds, India is observing an alarming rate of farmer suicides as they cannot afford it & their entire livelihood basically depends on it.
In today’s world, we think & judge ourselves as well as others on the basis of clothes or brands. That’s because our minds are being conditioned in such ways by the media.
Yes, the it is said to be the second most-polluting industry in the world after the oil industry.
You’ve seen a glimpse of what fast-fashion is doing to the world. Do you think that new sweater or the cute dress you wanted right away, it is all really worth it?
This summarizes what is going in the fashion industry today.
That is all for now. But isn’t it something to think about? Where are we going, what are we doing, what impact do our actions have on the planet? These are only some of the questions we need to think about.
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