It seems that everyone is talking about fast-fashion and its impact on the world. However, not all of us know exactly what that is. But don’t worry, we are here to explain that to you in the simplest way so that the next time you find yourself in a conversation about it you know exactly what to say.
Definition
Fast-fashion is the term used to describe clothing designs that move quickly from the catwalk to stores to meet new trends at a cheap price.
Examples
Zara, Primark, Fashion Nova, Bershka, Topshop or Boohoo are just a few of the many brands that can be identified with fast fashion.
We could say that any brand that sells strictly what is “in season”, has low or medium quality clothing and low prices can be identified with the term.
Impact
- The annual value of clothing discarded prematurely is more than $400 billion.
- Making a pair of jeans produces as much greenhouse gases as driving a car more than 80 miles.
- Discarded clothing made of non-biodegradable fabrics can sit in landfills for up to 200 years.
- It takes 2700 liters of water to make one cotton shirt, enough to meet the average person’s drinking needs for two-and-a-half years.
- Garment workers, primarily women between 18 and 24 years of age, in Bangladesh make about $96 per month.
- 20% of industrial water pollution comes from textiles treatment and dying.
- 1.5 trillion liters of water are used by the fashion industry each year .
We could continue to go on but if we did we’d never finish writing this article.
Solutions
- Choose organic and natural fibers that do not require chemicals to be produced and need low water consumption (linen, recycled fibers, etc.).
- **Look for garments with certification label **controlling chemical content such as OEKO-TEX®, GOTS, or BLUESIGN®.
- Choose sustainable brands.
- Buy less but of higher quality.
- Buy second-hand, vintage, recycled/upcycled or organic.
- **** Rent your clothes with TRIBALBI.****
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