As you may know, Fast Fashion is a growing problem today. Brands like Shein, Forever 21, Temu, H&M, Zara, and FashionNova are just a few popular fast fashion brands. So, what exactly is fast fashion? Fast fashion is a phrase used to describe brands that produce clothing, usually the latest fashion trends, inexpensively and almost always unethically, and then sell it. However, the problem goes beyond it just being ‘unethical’ and ‘inexpensive to produce.’ 

For clothing to be produced inexpensively, it has to be made by people who are willing to work for little pay. But, these people aren’t always willing to work like that. For example, Shein, a very popular fast fashion designer, has been accused of forced labor, particularly concerning cotton sourcing from the Xinjiang region of China, where Uyghur forced labor has been alleged. Shein admitted to “finding instances of child labor within its supply chain,” which prompted criticism and raised concerns about its supplier monitoring and due diligence. Over the past several years, people have reported finding disturbing messages written on the tags of their Shein products, saying things like “help me,”  “please send help,” “SOS,” and more. One specific instance occurred not long ago, where someone received their order and found a disturbing message on the tag: “I have dental pain.” This spread like wildfire across social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram, which helped to raise awareness of the forced labor that exists in the fast fashion industry. 

Another issue that fast fashion poses to the world is the environmental effects. Fast fashion is a significant source of carbon emissions, with the industry accounting for about 10% of global emissions. On top of this, fast fashion encourages disposability, leading to tons of textile waste ending up in landfills across the planet every year. Also, the industry relies on resources like cotton, which requires large amounts of water and pesticides, leading to soil degradation and water scarcity. These environmental effects are extremely impactful to the well-being of the planet and all life within it. With carbon emissions already being at a high rate, fast fashion does no good to the environment. 

Fast fashion also has a great impact on today’s culture and society, especially with social media. Popular influencers on platforms such as TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and more pose a threat to the younger generations in the world, as they are more susceptible and vulnerable to trends like fast fashion, which sometimes are directed towards them. As we all may know, your devices collect your data, whether it be from Google searches, text messages, or Amazon searches, to generate advertisements for you. So, with that being said, if you were to search up “Black leggings with pockets for less than $20” on Amazon, you would probably get an ad online for black leggings with pockets for less than $20 later on. This algorithm often pushes out fast fashion brands like Temu and Shein, especially on Facebook, where the audience tends to be older and likely unaware of the harm fast fashion poses to the planet. 

So, if you frequently shop online, try to avoid fast fashion brands. An affordable alternative is secondhand clothing, which is attainable at your local thrift store or through apps like Depop and Poshmark, which I use frequently. The prices may be daunting, but the consequences of them are certainly not.