FAST FASHION - A termite to fashion industry

Hold up scrolling for a while. Turn to see the tag of the T-shirt you are wearing. What brand is it of? How is it made? Where does it go once you're done using it? Is it impacting the environment and the society in any way?

History has shown that a garment industry has helped developing countries gain their momentum to become a developed country where the availability of cheap labor and lenient laws and regulations are the key reasons for the shift. The ready-made garment industry led to the fashion industry and eventually to fast fashion.

Fast fashion is a sector that has been created to meet the rapidly changing preferences of a consumer immediately at a low cost and hence, consumer behavior becomes its driving force. The fast fashion industry, running behind profits, caters to these consumer needs by producing new designs each season at a low cost which attracts the consumers. The fast fashion industry is one of the multi-billion-dollar global fashion industries with the low-quality products, made to sustain through only a few washes.

Today technology allows consumers to access large amounts of information surrounding the latest trends or styles and then want what they see on the public figures. The consumption of fast fashion reflects social aspirations through the identity people try to convey.

But since our resources are limited and human wants are unlimited, they end up over utilizing the resources. The used garments end up in the landfills and exploit the environment. Not just environmentally, it is unethical in the way fast fashion runs. Prices are low because of cheap quality. Moreover, the people working behind the production is another way of slavery. Working for long hours with low pay in factories. Modern slavery happens more often than we think.

Most of the policies in India work on the assumption that humans are rational beings, which isn’t necessarily true. The same was mentioned in chapter 2 of the 2018-19 economic survey called Policy for Homo Sapiens, Not Homo Economicus. This means that simply providing the information to the consumer would never help because of the gap between action and intention.

These consumers believe that time is brief and there is a limited amount of time for them to get the product they want. It’s been recognized that fashion brands and retailers use this motive to increase their sales. There is no physiological or psychological end to how much clothing people are willing to buy. These consumers continue to buy substandard clothes because they are partially amazed by how cheap these are.

I’m running a social media campaign against fast fashion on Instagram. The link for the same is attached below. Follow it to learn more.

https://www.instagram.com/fast.void.fashion