นำทางบันทึก: Fast fashion
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"Fast Fashion, an industry that destroys the environment faster."

When people shop for cloth they will choose the one with design and materials they are comfortable with, this seems to be individual, right? But there are actually more reasons that encourage people to shop for new clothes such as: "I wear these clothes too often", "I don't have clothes to wear anymore" and "I should have this item", and the society that encourages them to always buy new clothes and stuff.

 

In the past, only the rich or the upper class people can afford fashionable clothes. But when the era changed, The middle-class population now can easily access fashionable clothes too, including the presentation of fashionable clothes, that encourage people to follow trends.

 

When the need arises quickly, production needs to be done faster and with a larger quantity (mass product) as well. In order to do this, they need to lower the cost of producing the products, affecting the quality of the merchandise. That's the reason why many people are against fast fashion, it is a poor quality product that can be wear only a few times, then you have to throw it away. Some of the clothes are even replicated from the clothes that were trending at the time, people can afford luxury brands at lower prices. And the release of the new collections also makes people want to buy new ones, to keep up with trends.

 

Hasan Minhaj is a famous satirical microphone soloist. She explained in Priot Act in the episode " The Ugly Truth of Fast Fashion", that the traditional clothing brands usually release a lot of new clothes in just a few seasons debut, that takes months or more than a year to design, and release it. But in the 80s, Zara brand has changed the clothing business model, by combining two techniques, the first one is "Quick Response Manufacturing", when there is a new trend, these companies tend to catch up quickly by replicating that design.

 

How do these products are legal? The answer is that most of the replicas are not fakes, because the replicas are just designs that are similar to the originals. It does not refer to the name of the original brand or claim itself as the original.

 

The second technique is dynamic assortment. When they can figure out social trends and produce them quickly, why would they keep them instead of releasing them and see how much they can earn. Zara said that they release new clothes every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, instead of releasing 2-4 new collections a year like other brands, they decided to release new clothes 52 times a year instead(data from The True Cost in 2015).

 

“We wanted to experience luxury without paying full price, making Inditex, the main company of the Zara brand, to become the largest retailer in the world. And it makes Amancio Ortega, the founder of the Zara brand, the seventh richest person in the world with nearly $70 billion in revenue,” Hasan said.

 

Besides Zara, the most explicit example of fast fashion there is also other brands such as H&M, Topshop and Fashion Nova that have been claimed as well. Although some brands don't seem like fast fashion at all, because it has simple designs that are suitable for long-term use, and difficult to fall in trend, it doesn't mean that the brand doesn't support fast fashion. Because the production process will indicate which brands really do support fast fashion.

 

Anika Kozlowski, an eco-fashion expert, and a professor of fashion design said that fast fashion has started with a business structure or capitalism that can operate with unlimited resources. Causing many people to forget that, if they keep taking those resources and throwing them away over and over again, one day they will never exist again. Anika also told us that we can move on with sustainable fashion, without forgetting the fun of being creative.

 

These days socialism and capitalism, make people believe that having a lot of clothes, new and up-to-date increases their value.

 

Many people may know how much each process to produce clothes has damaged the environment on earth. But may still don't know that there are even a lot more other things that got affected by this industry as well.

 

According to The Guardian, in 2015 textile factories had created more greenhouse gases than international flights, which also included sea freight.

 

The latest YouGov Omnibus research showed the amount of waste in Thailand. 77% of adults threw away some clothing last year, and 40% left more than ten items of clothing last year, and in 2017, a quarter of all respondents, or 25%, threw away at least three items of clothing that they only wore once.

 

The fast fashion industry is also suspended as the second-largest thing that causes water pollution.

 

In term of resources, growing cotton to make clothes requires a lot of water. Also, synthetic fiber such as polyester, nylon, and spandex, requires nearly 342 million barrels of oil per year to produce. There is even rayon or viscose more than 33% of the fibers have been used in fast fashion. The factories have to destroy the forest to bring the wood, then turn them into the fabric, known as viscose, which 70% of the wood will be burned into ashes, so there is only 30% left that is useable.

 

It's not just the environment that got affected by the fast fashion industry. But in order to produce lots of products, the amount of illegal labor will increase, causing pressure on wages. Many things will suddenly change due to the arrival of new technologies, and energy shortages that will affect the consumption of life on earth.

 

If you think that donating clothes to the needy would be the best way out, you are wrong, try read this information first and think about it once again, donation center named Salvation Army in New York found that every three days, there are 18 tons of clothing that donors don't need because the condition is too bad. So in the end those clothes were thrown away in Africa or Kenya, or either go into a grave or be burned anyway.

 

So, is there any way to deal with these clothing without causing pollution in long term?

 

To have a place in the world of capitalism, many brands decided to use sustainable production methods. That doesn't affect the environment, including better human livelihoods.

 

Sustainable fashion is a concept that people began to pay attention to it in the 21st century, because old-fashioned production caused many problems. So they created new ways to produce clothing, that can coexist with society without causing too much trouble.

 

Popular fashion brands like Gucci had started using the EP&L system, their goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50%, known as REDD+ projects. “G7 The Fashion Pact" aims to encourage

the fashion companies to have more

responsibility on the environment. Lots of popular brands agree with this and also willing to cooperate.

 

Eco-friendly clothing has become a hot topic in the past two years. Many expensive clothing brands have announced that they are phasing out fur and leather, and moving towards a better source of supplies.

 

Influencer DB's 2019 data, has revealed that Influencers pay the most attention to the fashion industry. And some people also wear more clothes that already exist, and also support second-hand and vintage clothes.

 

Does the concept or trend of sustainable fashion, that cares for the environment effective enough to be a solution to this problem? An article from I-D magazine raised this question, in an article titled "It's too late for ethical fashion" by Sarah Jane Strickland, even many people now consider the environment, but in reality, it might not help that much. If fast fashion continues due to other factors like shipping or packaging, which requires a lot of energy and resources in each process.

 

But this idea could be even worse, if some brands or companies have done "greenwashing" or claim that they are producing sustainable, eco-friendly, and environmentally friendly products but in reality, it wasn't like that. It's just a project to make consumers feel that they are responsible for the environment, and feel free to use their products.

 

For example, Inditex's 2018 annual report claims that 88% of the waste generated after production is recycled. But after that, they found out that the products are actually sold in stores, that do not include the company's waste. Or some brands have social responsibility programs (CSR) that encourage people to donate old clothes, by giving the donators discounts on shopping for new clothes. But in the end, over 90% of the clothes that got from donations end up in a grave or a landfill anyway.

 

Most of the time these kinds of products have high quality, causing the price to be high as well, not everyone can afford these products. So they have to continue using the clothes which have a similar design, but with a lower price.

 

"The actual way to recycle fabrics is that we have to rip the fabric into little pieces, then digest them, this process is called re-extrude,” Anika said, dyeing and blending fabrics is a good way to solve this problem, but there is still lots of world's clothing production waste.

 

Although many brands have started paying attention to the environment and creating projects to save the world, it may not be as effective as expected.