Okay, so I love, love, love, love, LOVE fashion. The industry intrigues me and I find it so interesting, I love shopping and styling and looking at how people come up with lots of different outfits and ways to be creative with their clothes. Clothes are a way that I express myself, I like listening to people talk about fashion, I love it how people can pick reference icons like Jane Birkin when they see a particular type of white blouse, e.g.: that blouse is very 60s Birkin in etc etc etc. I love it. I love making clothes, I love listening to people talk about sewing, cutting shapes, different jobs in the fashion industry, modelling, reading fashion magazines, editorials ... I love fashion. But fast fashion really sucks.
I've been watching a lot of videos on fast fashion, and I was first introduced to this term, when watching Sammi Quinn's video (I'll link it below) about it. She's also very into fashion and her aesthetic is gorgeous and so is she, but that's besides the point. Basically she kind of outlines what fast fashion is, and why it's so terrible.
Basically, shops like H&M, Topshop, Zara, Forever 21, Primark and lots of other high street shops restock and create trends almost weekly. This means that they're disposing these clothes really fast, and dumping them in large landfill sites, where they take absolutely ages to decompose and really harm the environment. These big brands not only ruin the environment because they're greedy pigs, but they also have disgusting working policies for the people who make these clothes. A lot of these brands outsource their work and places like Bangladesh and Cambodia make all of our cute and cheap clothes. They breath in toxic fumes, have disgusting working conditions, an awful wage and a lot of them die from giving us clothes that cost under five pounds. Oh, that's another thing. Because our clothes are so cheap, it forces these people to work for even less. These brands also force factory managers to CUT CORNERS, and this leads to buildings collapsing, buildings being set on fire, violence, and parents (especially women) having to send their children off and sometimes only being able to see them once or twice a year.
This is all because someone wants money, and I don't want to pay a lot of money for a T shirt.
Okay, that's kind of understandable, because who wants to do that? But at the same time, my cheap T shirt isn't really worth the lives of thousands of others.
This leads me onto another point. It's kind of my fault. I mean, the only real reason why these brands are pushing for cheap labour and stuff, is because I keep consuming their clothes. If I keep consuming, they get more money and see that it works, and therefore they keep on doing what they're doing.
So, I think one way to help is to try really hard not to shop there. I never really shopped a lot anyway, since I hardly ever have enough money left over to make is seem that I'm not spending all of my money on clothes, but whenever I did shop, I went to those brands that are involved in fast fashion.
I now try not to shop in places like that for clothes like T shirts, jackets, jumpers, dresses and shorts and stuff. Instead, I thrift! Thrifting is great. It's basically recycling, it's cheap without feeling guilty and it's so fun. So I suggest that you thrift more.
Something else that is really cool and helpful, is to shop less. I know it's hard, especially if you love buying new clothes and just stuff in general, but not shopping less it better for your account, and you're not buying into consumerism. Yay!
Also, try and make your own clothes if you can!! It's so hard, I know my god I know. But it's fun when it finally works, and once you've cracked it, YOU'VE CRACKED IT.
So yeah. I love fashion and clothes but I hate fast fashion, and hopefully you'll hate it with me. Hurray :)
WATCH: The True Cost (this is on netflix)
Maranda Kameron talks about fast fashion
Sammi Quinn (a favourite of mine)
dietblond!! aka heather talks about consumerism (another fave)
Kayley Hyde is educating us
fight against fast fashion!!!!
I'm still on the hunt to find ethical brands to shop from, since a lot of these articles say one thing and then say another thing about them, so if you guys have any suggestions, please leave them down below!