What’s the problem with fast fashion?
A crash course
JUMP TOA very brief history of fast fashion
Hudsons Bay Company in Edmonton, 1912. (Archives of Manitoba, H4-200-1-4)
1800s
Clothes are primarily made in the home or by dressmakers. The Industrial Revolution lays the groundwork for modern manufacturing.
Early 1900s
Department stores begin to flourish and ready-to-wear clothing becomes more common. Ladies’ suits are considered affordable at about $15 ($380 today).
1940s
During WWII, clothing is rationed in many countries, including Canada. People focus on mending and upcycling to maintain clothes as long as possible.
1940s–50s
People become accustomed to mass-produced clothing, but the fashion industry still produces clothing for four seasons a year. Polyester is invented.
1960s–70s
Young people seek personal expression through cheap, trendy clothing, increasingly made from polyester. Massive textile mills open in countries with low labour costs.
Teenagers in London, 1969. (The National Archives UK via Flickr)
1990–2000s
The term “fast fashion” is used for one of the first times when Zara opens its flagship store in New York City. Stores like H&M and Forever 21 get daily shipments so there is always new product.
2020s
Secondhand clothing sales are way up, especially resale. Ultra fast fashion companies emerge selling extremely cheap, largely synthetic clothes. Their average shopper is a 35-year-old woman who makes $65,000 per year.
How fashion affects people
Dangerous factories
Garment workers in Bangladesh demand safe factories on the one-year anniversary of the Rana Plaza collapse. (Solidarity Center via Flickr)
Tazreen Fashion factory fire
In November 2012, the Tazreen Fashion factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh, was piled high with extremely flammable fabric and yarn. Then a fire broke out on the main floor, trapping everyone above. When the workers tried to escape, gates locked them inside and ground floor windows were barred. 117 people died.
After the fact, it was discovered that Walmart – whose garments were made at that factory – had blocked reforms that would have made them responsible for improving factory safety (New York Times).
Rana Plaza collapse
The day before the building collapsed, workers in Dhaka’s Rana Plaza noticed large cracks in the concrete walls. The building was evacuated and workers at several businesses in the building were sent home, but the garment workers were forced to come back the next day.
The next morning, April 24, 2013, Rana Plaza collapsed killing 1,134 people and injuring 2,500. It remains one of the deadliest industrial accidents in history.
This disaster brought the working conditions of garment workers into the mainstream news. Brands only learned their garments were manufactured in Rana Plaza when their tags were discovered in the rubble: Joe Fresh, Walmart, and the Children’s Place, but also luxury brands Gucci and Prada.
“The worse the dangers get, the more business comes in, so the government has no incentive to fix anything.”
Scott Nova, executive director of the Worker Rights Consortium (quoted by CNN in response to the Rana Plaza collapse)
When buying a $10 T-shirt, it’s easy to assume that it was made by a robot or some kind of T-shirt dispenser. In reality, skilled workers sew every seam on every garment.
Their wages account for not more than 3% of the retail price (Clean Clothes Campaign).
(Solidarity Center via Flickr)
All clothes are handmade.
Unliveable wages
The fight for a living wage
In October 2023, a decade after Rana Plaza collapsed, thousands of garment workers in Bangladesh took to the streets to demand a living wage. The ensuing violent clashes with police left at least three dead and resulted in the arrests of over 100 protesters (Al Jazeera).
The demand was for minimum wages to increase from $95 per month (USD) to $208 (CNN Business). Even that would have been well below the Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies’s estimated living wage of $302. When the new minimum wage of $113 was announced, it was quickly rejected by unions. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina responded, “If they take to the streets to protest at someone’s instigation, they will lose their job, lose their work, and will have to return to their village” (Al Jazeera).
Just a few months earlier, union leader Shahidul Islam was murdered when he visited a factory to urge management to settle two months of unpaid wages (Human Rights Watch).
Unpaid wages
This is how the garment industry works: big brands demand lower prices from factories and factories find ways to deliver on those prices at the expense of wages and safety measures. It’s a relationship in which multinational corporations hold all the power. Their goal is to get the cheapest product and they can easily move to a different factory to get it.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit globally, the fashion industry temporarily stopped. In Canada, spending on clothing dropped 85% between March and April 2020 (Stats Canada) and what we did buy changed – lots of pyjamas and not a lot of pants or bras (Adobe Analytics via CNBC).
In response, brands cancelled their orders, many of which were already in production. According to a survey of Bangladesh garment factories in March 2020, when orders were cancelled, 72% of brands refused to pay for materials (e.g., fabric) already purchased and 91% refused to pay for production that had already taken place (Center for Global Workers’ Rights). Without payment from brands, factories couldn’t pay their workers – who already earn significantly less than a living wage.
(ILO Asia-Pacific via Flickr)
In garment factory tragedies, the same thing can usually be said of the victims: most of them were young women.
Gender-based violence
Like most countries, Bangladesh’s garment workforce is predominantly female. Of garment factory workers, 61% are women, most of whom hold the lowest paying jobs (ILO). Women also bear the brunt of unpaid domestic labour (ILO).
Gender-based violence in the fashion industry is common (ILO). In Lesotho, a 2019 report revealed “a widespread incidence of rape, sexual assault and harassment at multiple garment factories” (The Guardian). Women’s employment depended on their “willingness” to be raped by their male employers. One of the factories was a major supplier for Levi’s.
How fashion affects the environment
The Turag River in Dhaka, Bangladesh, is polluted by untreated wastewater from garment and dyeing factories. (Nushrat Yeasmin/REACH via Flickr)
Toxic chemicals
Dead rivers
Communities in China, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and India all face the same problem: their rivers – used for food, washing, spirituality, and recreation – are biologically dead. Largely to blame are the garment factories and tanneries that dump untreated wastewater straight into waterways (CNN). This wastewater contains toxic chemicals and heavy metals like lead and mercury (RiverBlue).
As the pollutants build up in the rivers, sunlight can no longer penetrate the surface and aquatic plants and animals die. When this water is used for irrigation, carcinogenic textile dyes end up in vegetable crops (CNN).
It’s not a coincidence that corporations choose to manufacture garments in countries with limited environmental regulations. It’s a strategy – and countries seeking their business weaken the rules to encourage them to come (ILO). Even if rules are in place, they may not be enforced.
There is hope though. When countries do begin to mandate wastewater treatment, the rivers come back to life.
Synthetic dyes and fabric treatments
Polyester is plastic
Polyester, acrylic, spandex, nylon, and most “vegan” leathers all come from the same source: fossil fuels. These synthetic fibres already make up 69% of new textiles and that number is expected to grow to 75% by 2030 (Synthetics Anonymous).
The ways fossil fuels and plastic waste contribute to climate change and environmental degradation are well-documented. Like other forms of plastic, synthetic clothing is permanent whether it’s sitting in a landfill or washed out to sea.
Microplastics
Every time you wash synthetic garments they shed microplastics. These travel through the sewage system and end up in lakes, rivers, and oceans, which in turn end up in our drinking water. A 2017 study found microplastics in 94% of drinking water samples taken in the United States (The Guardian). Microplastics have also been found in aquatic life (including one in three fish we eat) and human lung tissue (Synthetics Anonymous).
Recycled polyester
Aiming to appear more sustainable, many brands are turning to “recycled polyester,” which is PET from plastic bottles that has been turned into textiles. PET is an easily recycled form of plastic that could be repeatedly made into new water bottles. By using it for clothing, we give it one last stop before the landfill (Synthetics Anonymous) and recycled polyester still has the risks of microplastics and dyes. The high demand for rPET clothing has also led to another problem: it might not be recycled at all (Apparel Insider).
The system that fuels it all
Too many clothes
The biggest issue in the fashion industry today is the volume of clothing that is produced.
Good ideas in fashion are often countered with: “but is it scaleable?” But one of the biggest problems is the scale. Our current economic system prioritizes profit above all else and that means churning out more clothes faster for less money, which is the driving force behind the dangers outlined above.
A large multinational corporation cannot be sustainable
We’ve seen the “sustainable” collections from big brands. Usually they are full of recycled polyester, sometimes even more synthetics than their regular line. An organic cotton shirt can be sewn in an unsafe factory where workers are not paid a liveable wage. Even the most sustainably made garment becomes unsustainable if it is worn twice then discarded. Big brands’ “sustainable” clothes are simply a marketing tactic to get you to buy more – which is the opposite of sustainability. This is why I prefer calling it slow fashion. Fashion brands can’t commodify the concept of slowness.
It comes down to the fundamental structure of corporations. A publicly traded company necessarily places shareholders’ profits above all else – because if it doesn’t, the company fails – so any move they make is to increase profit and they can only do that through further exploitation, which is not sustainable. A company whose CEO commissions luxury yachts while workers aren’t paid a living wage is not ethical.
But before you feel helpless, remember that capitalism has only been around for 500 years. It’s not inevitable. And the definition of capitalism is not “all buying and selling.” Capitalism is wealth hoarding. We can definitely stand up to that.
Cheap clothes – for whom?
Income equality around the world
Too much of a good thing
Where do our clothes go?
Exact numbers are hard to find and therefore this is a rough collage based on various data sets: 1 Fashion Takes Action; 2 The Atlantic; 3 SMART; 4 Apparel Insider.
The city of Accra, Ghana, is home to one of the largest secondhand clothing markets in the world. 30,000 people work in Kantamanto Market selling clothes shipped from the global north. The OR Foundation estimates that about 15 million garments arrive at Kantamanto Market each week, roughly 40% of which ends up as waste (Apparel Insider).
According to The OR Foundation founder, Liz Ricketts, “Accra lacks the landfill space for this clothing waste, so much of it is burned in the open air, swept into the gutter from where it eventually makes its way to the sea, or dumped in informal settlements where Accra’s most vulnerable citizens live.”
At the same time, the rate of garment production and consumption is ever-increasing. From 1960 to 2018, the amount of clothing and footwear sent to American landfills increased almost tenfold (EPA), while the population less than doubled. And from 2000 to 2018, clothing waste doubled.
No fabric or technology will make up for the quantity of clothing we consume.
A warehouse processes bales of unsold secondhand clothing. (MPCA Photos via Flickr)
Sustainable technology in fashion
Next gen materials
Textile recycling
For a long time textile recycling – really downcycling – has been limited to chopping up fibres to use for carpet padding or repurposing cotton garments as industrial rags.
In the past few years, there have been several pilot projects of chemical textile recycling, with the aim of being able to recycle textiles into new textiles. Through various methods, chemical textile recycling is able to separate fibres (e.g., the cotton and polyester fibres from a T-shirt). Many forms of chemical recycling still use high volumes of toxic chemicals and/or energy which undermines environmental benefits (Fashion Takes Action).
Ultimately, the capacity of textile recycling is nowhere near the amount of clothing being produced and discarded. While this technology is exciting, it cannot be used to defend ever-increasing production volumes.
Progress toward a sustainable fashion industry
Legislating ethical working conditions
Bangladesh Accord
After the Rana Plaza collapse in 2013, over 200 clothing brands, mostly from Europe, as well as worker's’ unions and factories signed the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh. Unlike many other agreements, it is legally binding and requires brands to help pay for safety upgrades.
In its first eight years, the Accord conducted over 38,000 factory inspections at over 1,600 factories. By January 2021, 93% of issues identified by the Accord were fixed. These upgrades included things like clear and accessible emergency exits, reduced fire hazards, and structural capacity plans. Set to expire in summer 2021, the Bangladesh Accord was ultimately renewed and expanded.
Garment Worker Protection Act
Contrary to the positive connotations of “Made in USA,” Los Angeles has long been known for its sweatshops, employing undocumented workers and paying them by the piece – as low as $3 per hour – to work in poorly ventilated rat-infested rooms (LA Times). In 2021, California’s Garment Worker Protection Act was signed, requiring garment factories to pay at least minimum wage and holding brands partially responsible for these wages.
The Fashion Act
In 2024, New York state passed
Extended Producer Responsibility
In 2024, California passed the first extended producer responsibility law for the apparel and textile industry in the US. Producers will be required to form a producer responsibility organization (PRO), through which they will create textile recycling infrastructure and comprehensive plans for implementation by 2030 (Anthesis).