Fast fashion entails the manufacture of clothes that have quick trends on the market and also reach the customer at lower prices. Fast fashion has both positive and negative effects . The positive effects of fast fashion are not many as compared to its negative effects. One of the positive effects of fast fashion is that designers can create new designs for the people who love fashion, and also the designers feel great when they introduce a new trend of fashion in the market. Secondly, new talents can be discovered through fast fashion, and they are able to create new designs that have not been seen in the industry.
Thirdly, fast fashion also creates employment because more people are employed to make clothes and even provide employment to the people who sell the clothes so as to make a living ( Perry 2018). Fourthly, fast fashion facilitates the growth of fashion designers, who put lots of effort and ensure that they use their talent and creativity to keep growing. On the other hand, the talent and creativity applied by fashion designers can produce rapid profits because their products market themselves since they are able to create unique and fashionable clothes for their customers. Lastly, fast fashion can easily recover from losses in case of failure on a particular fashion trend. This is because the fashion designer can easily launch a new product that may become a success over a short period.
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In contrast, fast fashion has many negative effects. The first one is that most of the fashion designers who do not have new designs might steal the designs of their colleagues to become more successful on the market. Also, the fashion craze can make people to be non-conformists just because they want to be proven as different and unique ( Perry 2018). Most of the clothes created by fast fashion have a particular outward appearance, which might portray negative attributes of the wearer. Fabric finishes and prints, and vibrant colors are the attractive elements of fashion outfits and most of them are achieved using toxic chemicals. Polyester is the popular fabric utilized for fashion, and it removes microfibers that increase the amounts of plastic in the oceans (Perry 2018). As a result, these microfibers pass in the sewage and water purification plants into the waterways, and therefore they become a danger to the aquatic life. On the other hand, the aquatic life consumes the microfibers and is also eaten by fish which end up being consumed by people. Clothes are produced from cotton which is grown and requires a lot of water to avert crop failure.
However, this can cause problems for the environment especially in developing countries which lack appropriate investment into the environment. As such, it can create disasters such as drought. Besides, this type of cotton can also breed super weeds which are resistant to normal pesticides, and they can also damage the soil and harm the people and animals because they can only be treated with toxic pesticides (CITI IO, 2017). The chemical used in preventing pests in the growing of cotton causes serious birth defects in children and also brain cancers which are painful to human beings. Fast fashion also affects the working conditions of people in several ways in the developing countries. Firstly, in developing countries, underage children are forced to work because of poverty and sometimes their parents are forced to go to work with their children due to harsh conditions like working overtime with no pay (Forbes, 2017). Secondly, most of the workers in the fashion industry work in buildings that are not safe for them. As such, most of the clothes industries can catch fire while workers are still on the building leading to their deaths, and their families not compensated. Thirdly, workers in the developing countries are treated harshly, for instance, by getting low pay, long working hours, forced overtime without payment, and lack of medical cover.
Also, in some countries, women usually experience physical, verbal abuse, and even sexual abuse among others in their working places. Another bad working condition is that in many fast fashion factories, workers are not given clean water for drinking and are also not allowed to use the toilet when they need to. Most of the worker’s reproductive systems health may be harmed due to the exposure to chemicals, noise, heat, overwork, and even exhaustion (Forbes, 2017). Lastly, most of the women working in these cloth industries face harsh conditions such as pregnant women who are forced to work long hours while standing, they are placed in hotter conditions and are also denied maternity leave. Fast fashion also lowers the standards of women and especially young women in society due to poverty. In today’s world, 75 million people are making clothes in industries. However, 80% of the work is done by young women who range from 18 to 24 years old, and most of them earn less than $3 a day (Siegle, 2018). As such, most of the cheap clothes are usually made by underage workers who range from 14 years and above. These young ladies work for 14 hours a day in the sweatshops, dealing with sexual harassment, and getting low wages. Fast fashion has caused pollution on the environment because of the increased disposable clothes that is causing excessive stockpiles of environmentally damaging waste, air pollution, and water pollution. Lastly, fast fashion has also led to human trafficking because of the increased demand for casual workers.
References
CITI IO. (2017, March 23). 10 Truly oppressive working conditions of the clothing industry . Retrieved from https://www.citi.io/2017/03/23/10-truly-oppressive-working-conditions- of-the-clothing-industry/
Forbes. (2017, July 26). Fast fashion is a disaster for women and the environment . Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2017/07/26/fast-fashion-is-a-disaster-for- women-and-the-environment/#7d8eca111fa4
Perry, P. (2018, January 8 ). The environmental costs of fast fashion . Retrieved from https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/environment-costs-fast-fashion- pollution-waste-sustainability-a8139386.html
Siegle, L. (2018, July 2 ). Fast fashion is driving third world workers into starvation conditions . Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/aug/08/fashion-sweatshops-lucy-siegle-comment
