Can fast fashion become sustainable?

Fast fashion is everywhere. You must have already bought fancy stuff in stores such as Zara, H&M, and Uniqlo. The main reason for choosing theses kind of brands is that “to allow the mainstream consumer

to buy current clothing styles at a lower price.” The key driver of the popularity of fast fashion is marketing. If people can pay for a similar style of clothing in Zara several times cheaper than buy it in a clothing boutique, the majority of people would like to pay less.

The affordable price and various clothing styles encourage customers to purchases more frequently.However, some environmental problems can not be ignored. Increased textile waste is a big issue in the fashion industry. According to WRAP Textile Flow & Market Opportunities Report (2013), “In the UK, an estimated 0.8 to 1 million tons of all textiles are sent to landfill each year”. China Association of Resource Comprehensive Utilization shows that the total annual production of textile waste in China is estimated to be over 26 million tons. Therefore, no matter in developing countries or developed countries, fast fashion does add more pollution into the environment.

Can fast fashion become sustainable?

It’s a good start for fashion designers to do rethink design. The aim of H&M's Conscious Exclusive collection is to lead consumers to focus on sustainable materials for clothing that they want to wear for seasons.

So what can the customer do?

Before you purchase clothes, you can ask yourself: “Do I really need that one and how was it made?” Recycle your clothes, reuse your clothes such as cleaning cloths even resale or donate items that you don’t want to wear can help to minimize the risks of textile going to landfills.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_fashion

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/582d0d16440243165eb756db/t/585b485d2994ca583275e5f0/1482377319742/LEARN2014_LEARN2014_FashionEnvironment_ENG_FINAL.pdf

https://about.hm.com/en/media/news/general-2017/h-m_s-conscious-exclusive-2017-collection-shows-the-beauty-of-su.html

http://www.arc-burystedmunds.com/news/h%26m-conscious---garment-collecting/2276/