Fast Fashion: Good or Bad?

 written by 20610 Park Somin

Fashion trends are changing quickly. New styles spread immediately, and consumers are constantly required to consume to keep up with the latest trends in a short time. These rapid changes are leading the development of the fashion industry, but at the same time, they are causing various problems.

For

Fast fashion has the advantage that consumers can buy fashionable clothes at a low price and reduce the stock with fast rotation. This allows consumers with low incomes to have a chance to keep up with the latest trends.

After all, fast fashion plays an important role in providing fast and diverse options for consumers. With the growth of fast fashion, new designs and styles are quickly brought to the market, which increases the diversity and creativity of fashion.

SPA brands like Zara and H&M offer trendy clothing at an affordable price, making it easy for consumers to purchase the latest styles.

For example, high-end clothing brands can cost hundreds of dollars, while similar styles can be purchased for $20 to $50 at H&M.

Therefore, fast fashion is playing an important role in the development of the modern fashion industry.

Against

The fast fashion industry is growing as many consumers frequently purchase clothes to match a new trend. Fast fashion brands produce products in large quantities in line with the rapid trend and supply them at low prices, severely impacting the environment.

Fast fashion products are of low quality, but consumers tend to easily buy and throw away their clothes because of their affordable prices and new trends. This generates large amounts of textile waste and environmental pollution during the disposal process.

According to the World Economic Forum, 85% of clothing produced globally is thrown away each year, and a truckload of clothing waste is burned or reclaimed every second.

Each year, about 59,000 tons of clothing waste enters the port of Iquique in northern Chile.

Some of it is sold to used clothing merchants, but more than half of the clothes are dumped in the Atacama Desert. The problem is that these clothes are left unattended for a long time, polluting the air and groundwater.

My Opinion

In the past, new styles appeared every season, but now new trends appear every month, even every week, and consumers tend to immediately follow them. Consumption patterns have also changed significantly in this short fashion cycle.

New fashion consumption patterns are needed to solve these environmental problems. Recently, interest in slow fashion and ethical fashion is also increasing in Korea. Slow fashion is a concept with the aim of reducing the waste of resources by purchasing high-quality clothes that can be worn for a long time without being swept away by trends.

In addition, ethical fashion is a movement that protects the environment in the production process and supports brands that comply with fair working conditions.

These changes can be an important key to solving the environmental problems of the fashion industry. Consumers should aim for fashion consumption that considers the environment and sustainability rather than blindly following the trend.