There's a lot of talk these days about the rise of fast fashion and its devastating effects on the planet and its people. But what do we mean when we say, 'fast fashion' and why is it so bad?
In the last few decades, fashion trends have changed more rapidly than ever before. There are immense pressures on workers to produce more to keep up with the trends whilst keeping costs low. Fast fashion was coined to describe how clothing can be created on mass, quickly and cheaply to support the changing trends of todays' throw away culture.
Fast changing trend
At its heart, fast fashion is Capitalism at its finest. Its business model relies on consumers endlessly buying more and more clothes that they don't really need. Brands tempt consumers by offering ultra-cheap garments and ever-changing ranges. Brands have long used new styles and lower prices to attract customers, but previously new ranges would be months or years in the making, so the change was relatively slow. The growing popularity of social media and celebrity culture has meant the industry has to move at a much faster pace to keep up with what's popular.
Fast use
Much of the clothing made today is not made to last. The extremely fast production of clothes means that designs are not stress tested before sale meaning they're bad quality, and to keep costs super low, often cheap, and synthetic fabric is used - most of it will end up in landfill after only being worn a few times.
The environmental consequences
The endless creation of new clothes comes with a heavy environmental price. Every year the sector requires 93 billion cubic meters of water, which is enough to meet the consumption needs of around five million people - it's also responsible for about 20% of industrial water pollution due to textile treatment, not including pesticide pollution. The carbon footprint is also deeply heavy as all these clothes need to be shipped and delivered too.
The plastic problem
As you can imagine, the rise of fast fashion has been heavily dependent on synthetic fibres such as polyester, nylon, acrylic, and elastane - these are made from petrochemicals (fossil fuels). These materials are cheap to produce and allow brands to keep prices low.
The waste problem
The industry is also responsible for enormous amounts of textile waste. The amount of textiles produced globally per person has more than doubled in recent years. As fast fashion is cheap, bad quality, and designed to be thrown away, an estimated 92 million tonnes find their way to landfill each year with less than 1% of them being recycled.
The labour problem
To offer clothes at ultra-low prices, fast fashion brands need their costs to be low. One of the main ways of doing this is to drive down the wages of garment workers in the supply chain. For years, brands have sought out countries with the lowest labour standards so that garment workers can be easily exploited. Worker exploitation is an essential part of the fast fashion model. If an item is very cheap, chances are that the person who produced it was paid little.
So, how is Varlden is different?
We're a small family run business so there's no profit hungry shareholders to keep happy - this means we can focus on providing high quality and planet conscious clothing. We print our own garments in house using manual machinery and environmentally friendly inks. We work with trusted suppliers to ensure our materials are sourced responsibly and that workers are paid a fair wage. We also use recycled PET materials for some garments so that we don't contribute to the plastic crisis - and of course all our packaging is biodegradable and plastic free! All of this means you can buy your clothes with confidence and a clean conscience.