The unsustainable practices behind the fashion industry’s rapid turnover
Fast fashion has revolutionized the way we consume clothes, offering trendy and affordable garments at lightning speed, but the industry’s unsustainable practices are wreaking havoc on the environment and human welfare, according to a UTRGV professor.
The Rider interviewed Deniz Atik, associate professor of marketing, who has published articles on the subject, how she would define fast fashion.
“It has two words in it, right?” Atik said. “… Fashion is often related to clothing … but when we say fast, [it means] the cycles of fashion are getting fast.”
The rapid turnover contributes to a culture of overconsumption and waste. With trends changing at an astonishing pace, consumers are constantly encouraged to purchase new clothes and dispose of old ones, according to the associate professor.
Atik said there is a concept called “planned obsolescence” in marketing, which is a deliberate strategy of promoting trends and styles that quickly become outdated. This strategy encourages consumers to continuously purchase new clothing items.
“Planned obsolescence is done so we desire [new] products before the products we have in hand expire,” she said. “ … Because we desire another style or another color … we dispose of it before the life of the clothing ends.”
This mentality promotes materialistic values for consumers, which makes “people seek for happiness through consumption,” according to the associate professor.
The idea of having the latest fashion available at incredible speed and affordable price may be advertised as democratizing fashion, but it is an incorrect notion, according to Atik.
“A very little percentage of the world can enjoy … to change clothing or a T-shirt everyday,” she said. “A lot of people suffer with poverty. … Fast fashion is only for a small percentage of the world.”
Industry giants are also exerting immense pressure on the supply chain by demanding quick turnarounds, which can lead to exploitative labor practices, environmental degradation and poor working conditions, according to Atik.
The collapse of the Rana Plaza factory in Bangladesh in 2013 killed 1,134 workers, mostly women, that manufactured products from H&M, Walmart, Primark and Mango, she said.
“How much responsibility do these companies have?” Atik said. “They outsource fast fashion with these little entrepreneurs that are in Bangladesh, India, China and then they are trying to establish safety standards, but how much they reinforce it is questionable.”
She said it is difficult to reinforce safety standards if companies are squeezing suppliers to provide products for less than a dollar.
In an interview with The Rider, Peter Magnusson, professor and department chair of Marketing, said that he visited a “beautiful example” of a textile plant in Vietnam, which manufactured western products and was a good illustration of progress within the industry.
“I think you have to be very careful of over-generalizing that all of these textile plants are in horrific conditions and [use] poor labor practices because this plant that I experienced was a rather nice example,” Magnusson said.
Asked if safety standards would improve if companies produced products in the United States, Magnusson replied that global integration in fashion merchandising is crucial because it fosters positive relationships between countries and contributes to the alleviation of global poverty by providing employment opportunities.
According to Atik, fast fashion exacerbates the environmental pollution in countries like Ghana, where much of the disposed garments end up, most in unwearable condition, leading to mountains of clothing that strain the environment.
“Sometimes, these floating mountains start burning up because they have methane gas inside, so it’s creating incredible environmental pollution,” she said.
Consumers and corporations both bear the responsibility of being more conscious when purchasing clothing and avoiding fast fashion standards in order to mitigate the negative environmental and social impacts associated with the industry, according to Atik.
“There are many consumers out there who are paying attention if a product is organic cotton, if a product is fair trade, if a product is environmentally friendly,” she said. “So, I think the more conscious we become, [then] corporations will be forced also to change their attitudes.”
Investing in clothing that is sustainable is often more expensive, but its higher quality and durability results in longer-lasting garments that reduce the need for frequent replacements, according to Atik.
“There’s not a magical formula … because the whole system, the fashion industry, is dominated by fast fashion,” she said. “The whole system is built upon speed. … The more sustainable fashion designers and upcycling designers, the more consumers get educated, the more governments reinforce these standards,[then] I think there will be change.”
Michael Montelongo, president of the House of Fashion and civil engineering sophomore, said consumers “want to get the best bargain possible.”
“But, there’s also consequences of buying clothing so cheap, that’s poorly made and ends up in landfills,” Montelongo said.
As a consumer, thrifting is a great option to shop sustainably but at the production level archiving items that don’t sell instead of discarding them, and selling them later when those fashion trends return, is a better practice according to Montelongo.
Another important way at mitigating the unsubstantial practices of fast fashion is to repurpose old clothing or material.
Montelongo said House of Fashion’s spring fashion show was about pollution and the effects of fast fashion on the planet.
He created a piece made up of plastic water bottles, “I made a dress out of completely reused materials … giving it another life.”
The HOS host pop up markets where they sell second-hand clothing to help fund their organization, while also helping students have access to affordable clothing.
“I see somebody light up with joy finding a piece of clothing that makes them feel good, and … great about themselves,” Montelongo said. “So, I feel like we’re making our little mark here as a club.”
