Fast fashion has been gaining a lot of traction lately with people raising awareness for wearing unsustainable brands, not donating, thrifting, etc. With all this talk, many wonder what fast fashion is and in simple terms, it’s when clothes are mass produced and sold in stores to follow the flow of trends. However, fast fashion creates a need to shop and get more clothes that most people will only wear once or twice. Companies focus on making clothes in bulk to follow the flow of current trends which tend to change frequently which can lead to this issue. Millions of clothes are being  produced to follow one trend, only to switch gears at the sight of a new trend and start mass-producing a new style of clothes. When clothes are still on shelves but no longer being sold due to trend changes, most companies take them away and throw them into dumpsters. This is not only done with clothing brands, but also makeup, skin care and jewelry. With many items being thrown away, dumpster diving has become popular recently. Many people go to these big-name companies’ dumpsters and go through them to find things that are in good, if not perfect, condition. There are many alternatives’ companies could turn to aside from just throwing products out, such as donating them to thrift stores or recycling them. “I go thrifting all the time,” Sophomore Lillian Fultz said. “I find a bunch of cute stuff, but it’s usually a hit or miss,” Fultz went on to explain that she didn’t know how much companies throw out. Thrifting has been very popular lately, and almost everyone goes. And if companies were to donate or give them to thrift stores, people could find stuff they
like and are recent. Donating them to shelters who would need the items would also be a good option to help those in need. Companies who participate in fast fashion activities may not be the safest and most
ethical stores either. If you want something made without animal cruelty, keep an eye out for the PETA logo on packaging or if you crochet items, don’t get the materials from big name brand companies. The items are usually not ethically made because they can’t be
made by a machine, and only by hand. Buying from small-brand companies, or people who hand-make their crochet items ethically is a more beneficial way to shop.
What do people think when they hear the words “ethical brands”? “When I think of an ethics, or ethical brand, I think of a brand that won’t exploit workers by making them work a lot,” Sophomore Alena Golay said. The most common idea people think of is a company that pays their workers a good wage and that’s it. A brand that takes care of their workers and pays them well could be a good brand, but that doesn’t always mean it’s an ethical company. A business can pay their workers well, yet be a cause of pollution, for example, H&M. H&M does something called “green washing”, which is when a company claims that they do not mass produce their items and is not fast fashion when they really
are. SHEIN is another very popular fast fashion company that also has sweatshops. A sweatshop is when employees work for low wages, at a fast pace, and in dangerous environments. SHEIN is an online store that sells millions of items for cheap prices and
mass produces all their inventory. With the rise of fast fashion, many of people’s favorite brands aren’t safe. Some popular brands that are heavy in mass producing items include Zara, Hot Topic, Gap, Old Navy,
H&M, American Eagle and Hollister. “I always shop at H&M when I go to the mall, it’s one of my favorite stores,” Freshman Piper Osgand claimed. “Now I kind of feel, like, guilty. I didn’t realize how many stores do that”. Many of the stores found in malls now are taken
over by fast fashion. Bad quality in clothing is bad because after a few wears, the clothing starts to unravel and fall apart, which would require you to spend more and get more clothes, only fueling more fast fashion, and getting more bad quality clothes, making it one
big cycle within the industry. Mass producing items are bad for the environment and can lead to air pollution from the smoke factories emissions. Buying fast fashion harms, the earth and can dry up rivers, oceans, and water sources. It harms the environment and has
life-long effects on the planet. As more research is done about fast fashion, there are many ways to help fight it. Buying from small businesses is one of the most popular ways to start. A few businesses that are
not fast fashion are Organic Basics, Tentree, Toad&Co, Patagonia, Inc, and more than likely most small businesses. Another way to fight fast fashion is shopping sustainably. Shopping sustainably allows you to find your personal style and reimagine your closet so
you can wear clothes multiple times without needing to rebuy clothes or buy more. If your clothes are in good condition and you don’t like them or they don’t fit, instead of throwing them away, upcycling or donating serves a better purpose so they won’t build up in
dumpsters and oceans.Fast fashion has become an ugly reality in our world. It hurts the planet in a multitude of ways and is harmful to our environment by creating dumpsters in the ocean and being wasteful. It gives people a pull, a need to shop and feeds into over consumerism and causes endless buying which provides more money to let these companies continue
to fund fast fashion. You can help not support fast fashion and funding by shopping small businesses who aren’t green washing and don’t indulge in fast fashion and mass producing their clothing.