Fast fashion industry is not only killing our style and wardrobe – it is also destroying our planet and many lives around the world. If you still have any doubts, read our list of why you should quit fast fashion, like now.
1. You are not a clone, why would you look like everyone else?
Fast fashion floods the world with the same, cheap, low-quality clothe-copies. These mass-produced garments are totally incapable of saying anything about YOU. Your personality and style remain hidden under these boring, uniform clothes which transform everyone into look-alike clones. Do not let a multi-billion, soulless industry define your look! Go for vintage and create your own style. Vintage is all about uniqueness and finding those one-of-its-kind, rare items that will tell the world who you are. As Keni Valenti, vintage collector put it, “why would you wear a new Dior dress that six other women are wearing at the same party when you can buy a dead-designer dress and nobody will have it?”
2. You want quality clothes, don’t you?
When you buy vintage, you can be sure that you are purchasing quality clothes and accessories. Vintage items were produced before the textile industry shifted to low-quality textiles and moved its factories to China, India and Bangladesh in the 1990s. If a shirt is still good after 20 years of its production, it stood the test of time. You will have no problem wearing it in the next 20 years! This long lifetime makes vintage items durable and eco-friendly – which is hardly true of fast fashion clothes which fall apart after only a few wears.
3. Fast fashion is killing our planet!
Did you know that the fashion industry is the second most polluting industry in the world?! No? Well, now you know. It produces an average 3.1 million tonnes of carbon dioxide and 70 million tonnes of water waste each year. What’s more, the textile industry poisons our waters with toxic waste materials and causes direct environmental pollution. By wearing fast fashion clothes, you ARE killing the planet too. Sustainable fashion might decrease the environmental impact of fashion industry in the future, but it will take many-many years before any of these new methods, if ever, will make a real difference. In the meantime, you can change the world by one clothe at a time, choose vintage and sustainable fashion! It’s your call. #savetheplanetwearvintage
4. Fast fashion leads to overconsumption and overproduction.
The throw-away business model of fast fashion serves and triggers our fashion appetite, it makes us buy more and more clothes every year. Both global sales of clothes and clothing production doubled in the last 20 years. In 2016, more than one million tonnes of clothing were consumed in the UK, and about one-fifth of it ended up as waste in landfills. How many clothes did you throw into the garbage last year? #fuckfastfashion
5. Fast fashion buyers are part of modern-day slavery.
Not so long ago, shoppers in Istanbul found hand-made pleas for help in clothes bought at Zara, one of the largest fast fashion companies. The notes said: “I made this item you are going to buy, but I didn’t get paid for it”, proving that the company is involved in unethical labour practices. Do you know who made your clothes? If you go for fast fashion, you always risk being part of modern-day slavery and child labour. You might wear a cheap fast fashion shirt, but the real price of your clothes was paid by someone else – by exploited women and children in developing countries. Their sweat and blood is on your hands. #whomademyclothes #ethicalbuyer
The next time you buy fast fashion, remember the catastrophic environmental and human impact. Even better if there was no next time! You will, however, still need clothes to wear, so, watch out for our next post on why you should totally fill up your wardrobe with vintage!
