Shopping Fast Fashion Mindfully, Is It Possible?
Contrary to current social media commentary, sustainable fashion isn't a trend. Considering sustainability in our shopping habits isn't even a lifestyle - it's just common sense and respect, an ethos centred on the supply chain, endeavouring to minimise its negative impact on both human and planet. Responsibly consuming fashion goes beyond buying from any specific brand or vintage haul. Frustratingly, we're now seeing the term being used to counter the excessive production and consumption levels by the same people who have profited from it thus far; fast fashion brands and influencers.
A sustainable wardrobe starts with us dissecting our own wardrobes and style. The best thing we can do is wear what we already have before adding new pieces to the pile. When shopping new, most people go to fast fashion first. This a predictable behaviour when it has us so spoiled for choice; it's never been easier to access the plentiful high street offerings in reality and online. Unfortunately, whilst the prices are dropping, the amount of clothes being produced and purchased is only going up. We don't value our clothes like we used to; the low prices make them feel as disposable as food packaging, with the average brit throwing away 72 items of clothing every year. So we have a closet full of clothes we see little value in, yet we hold on to pieces we've not touched in a year. (26% of our wardrobe specifically, according to the report from WRAP).
The lack of awareness and appreciation for the skill and time involved in garment-making also contributes to this throwaway culture. I'm not convinced we love our clothes as much as we proclaim. At school, I was lucky to have a textiles class where they taught us how to use a sewing machine, hand sewing and pattern cutting. I didn't learn any of this at home, so it was entirely new to 12-year-old me and surprisingly challenging. I kind of hated it, but I equally found this new level of admiration for the craft. In fact, I re-learned how to sew a button only a couple of months ago; whilst looking at my shoddy attempt, I started thinking about how many buttons sweatshop workers sew in a day and how those pieces will be in a landfill within 3 years. Nonetheless, it's not enough to just admire the craft and skill that goes into creating garments when considering slowing down the rate at which we buy clothes. Fast fashion factory workers are incredibly skilled, making an unfathomable amount of clothing per day, yet their creations wash up on beaches in Ghana hour by hour.
Does dressing up a fast fashion purchase as a sustainable buy make you respect it more, or does this faux justification give you permission to keep repeating this process? I don't care what that self-proclaimed slow fashion influencer says: you cannot "mindfully buy" your way into good ethics. This bullshit notion of responsible shopping equating to buying fast fashion only 'less often' is so far removed from what slow fashion stands for. Though I can understand why those influencers want to feign otherwise, telling your audience it's okay to buy fast fashion (as long as you LOVEEEE the item) does fantastic things for account growth, brand deals and book deals. Unfortunately, it's becoming a common theme to come across fashion influencers masquerading as sustainability/slow fashion advocates. However, it has become a game as I flick through their posts, trying to find the first post mentioning a brand like COS or Pull & Bear tagged on their fit pics. The tags are often paired with the occasional indie brand to throw off the scent. Their caption states the Zara blazer they don was allegedly a "well-considered" purchase (whilst its identical siblings sit on Vinted).
I hope the sweatshop workers are appreciative of this sacrifice.
The only way to make cheap clothing is for something to have gone terribly wrong in the supply chain. I don't expect that to be a widely known fact considering the state of the fashion market. If it's not influencers muddying the waters, the brand's marketing department will do it for you. They are exceedingly clever in making you believe these bargain buys are your right to acquire if you really like the item. Then they add greenwashing into the mix to make you feel good on the inside. In fact, misleading consumers by playing with their moral compass has been many brands' strategy of choice in the last few years. Perhaps, partially in vain, as H&M is being investigated due to their claims over their 'Conscious Choice' collection, and they're not the only ones. The clothing tags (made from recycled paper) hang on plastic, reading the words "organic", "recycled", and "earth-friendly". A tremendous effort to persuade you that you're making an ethical choice. Though the range is hanging up at the back of the store, you'll have to pass crowds of polyester and acrylic to get to it. They "consciously" manufacture an estimated three billion garments annually. Their planet-friendly clothes are easy to find among the 6139 women's, 1191 men's and 6296 kids' clothing items for sale on their UK website. (Not including store stock, actual units or other countries, of course).
So, brands are lying, and influencers are willing pawns who take advantage of your ignorance for their own gain. Then there's you, the consumer, endeavouring to do better (but admittedly with as little habit change as possible). I hate to break it to you, but trying to maintain your fast fashion habits in the name of sustainability is living in denial at best. If we start going down the road of justifying purchases from these companies as sustainable ones, we might as well throw the entire model in the bin. I want to clarify that my frustration doesn't come from gatekeeping or wanting people to feel shit. However, pushing and engaging with sustainability as only a trend reinforces that it's a label to be bought; a Twitter blue tick it is not.
If we remain passive about our role in this system, we permit people to rewrite responsible shopping rules to mould around their own agenda. It disregards the ramifications we inflict on the environment and the marginalised people exploited for your pleasure. It is disingenuous to focus on adjusting and tailoring the definition of sustainability to only work within the limits of our morality. Working this way, we not only feed the beast that is fast fashion, but we help it evolve into becoming a hard-and-fast standard.
