On any given day, fast-fashion retailer Shein will release 6,000 fresh “stocking-keeping units.” Compared to its competitor Zara, which releases 10,000 new products a year, Shein has literally saturated the clothing market. The company boasts a virtual wardrobe with over 600,000 individual items to choose from. A company like this cannot survive without consumers that fall victim to targeted market strategies, micro-trend cycles, and affordable prices that are only made possible through a low cost of labour and environmentally unsustainable practices. Even though most Shein consumers are likely privy to the negative social and environmental impacts of their shopping choices, the blame does not fall on them, but rather on the changing social ideals around consumerism and materialism that create the demand for these products in the first place.
What is fast-fashion?
Fast-fashion refers to clothing that moves quickly from ideation to production. It is a business model that offers the latest fashion trends along with an agile response to consumer demands. The companies involved in the fast-fashion market are also often defined by low manufacturing costs, unsustainable material usage, poor-working conditions, and low wages.
The primary attraction to fast-fashion retailers is the affordability of the merchandise. This affordability has transcended to create brand awareness—offering Shein, Zara, and other similar retailers a near reverence in the wider fashion landscape. For college students in the United States, brand awareness, organization associations, perceived value, and brand uniqueness are all contributing factors that generate consumer loyalty to fast-fashion brands. But companies operating under this business model have existed long before Shein gained notoriety, therefore suggesting a larger social shift propelling consumers to the industry. A popular argument believes that this trend is motivated by changing consumer lifestyle trends that require the fashion industry to adapt rapidly and offer more products to choose from.
This argument has a certain validity, as consumers keep almost every type of apparel for only half as long as they did 15-years ago. More than half of fast-fashion items are thrown away within a year of production. Worse still, seeing as more than 60 percent of fabric fibers are derived from fossil fuels, once these items end up in landfills, they will not decay. Are consumers responsible for the effects of their shopping choices?
This is a dangerous argument to make. Fast-fashion is the epitome of industry accessibility. For a low cost, consumers around the world can purchase clothing items to keep up with rapidly changing social trends. These clothing items are often offered in extended sizes that appeal to a more accurate sample of the population when compared to their non-fast-fashion competitors.
Therefore, it follows that the power to change this industry exists in the hands of corporations. Shein is defined as a ‘retail juggernaut’ that recently was valued at $100 billion USD. The company is forecasted to raise $20 billion USD in revenue in 2022; this would make it the world’s fourth-largest apparel retailer. Evidently, Shein has the capabilities to create a more successful business venture, it just chooses to value profits instead.
Those who oppose this argument might think specifically of the recently popular clothing haul videos which showcase purchases tallying over $1000 USD on a single Shein order. If one can spend so much at once, they likely have the ability to shop for more sustainable, higher-cost items. While this is an interesting argument, it falls short when one considers the effects of social pressures. These purchases are often made to keep up with the aforementioned rapid-trend cycles and the understanding that social media posts about Shein garner interaction. Trends are no longer defined by monthly magazine issues and quarterly fashion weeks; instead, they are advertised on TikTok, Pinterest, and Instagram, by sponsored posts that work to over advertise clothing items until consumers grow a distaste for the products they only recently purchased.
In an age defined by the microtrend, clothing with short shelf lives and few wears-per-item, fast-fashion companies capitalize on a market that values consumerism. These companies are not unaware of this trend, seeing as they directly contribute to it by handing out products free of charge to thousands of influencers to showcase. Influencers and regular consumers alike also understand the value of advertising these products on social media. The general controversy surrounding the ethics of purchasing from Shein often generates increased interactions on posts surrounding the company, contributing to the growth of their social media pages. Importantly, these posts are only successful because of the high value placed on rapid consumerism by fast-fashion companies. Therefore, the consumer is simply responding to social pressures largely out of their control.
What next?
The fast-fashion industry, while providing benefits such as accessibility and brand recognition at low costs, is still environmentally and socially dangerous. Currently, there are too few government incentives that work to mitigate the potential damages this industry has on the environment. Governments have a responsibility to step in, as allowing fast-fashion companies to operate in harmful ways donates them a portion of the blame.
Currently, there are voluntary schemes developed by the European Commission, such as the EU Ecolabel Criteria for Textile Products that work to improve the sustainability of textiles; however, this system does little to negate the impacts of fast-fashion. In March of 2022, The European Commission called for an end to fast-fashion by 2030 through a vast expansion of eco-design rules that will apply to textiles. The EU executive also plans to ask large companies to disclose how much unsold stock they send to landfills, thereby working to mitigate the impacts of throwaway culture.
The EU is taking a step in the right direction, not only because of their policy decisions but because they claimed responsibility for the impacts of an industry they had a role in creating. If we want to mitigate the impacts of fast-fashion, we have to look to those who have the largest role in its notoriety: corporations, governments, and social media enterprises. If other governments follow the path set by the EU, an industry that is causing social and environmental harm will be forced to change. Only then can we look to the consumers to try and rewrite purchasing habits.
Edited by Yu Xuan Zhao
Claudia Velimirovic is in her fourth and final year at McGill University pursuing a major in honours International Development and a minor in Social Entrepreneurship. This is her third year writing for Catalyst and she is particularly interested in politics, gender inequality, and women’s health.