Sustainable Fashion
Fashion is something I have always had great interest in, and we have seen a spotlight on sustainable fashion more recently as the rise of fast fashion continues.
The writer of “Young Women and the Fast Fashion Industry” shares her own experiences with fast fashion, and expresses the difficulty of removing herself from the constant cycle of it because she was born and raised into a world of fast fashion. I can relate to her struggles, because as a young woman growing up in America, my access to fashion was almost restricted to only fast fashion. Going to malls, we are surrounded by stores like H&M, Zara and Urban Outfitters. Going to school everyday, all we see are Abercrombie, Victoria’s Secret, and Nike logos.
As young women growing an interest in fashion, we didn’t know any better, and so many people still don’t. There is no denying the great appeal of fast fashion. Women are able to rock the trendiest of outfits for the most affordable prices. It is also very easily accessible, as well as size and style inclusive. What most women don’t know, however, are that their clothes are able to be so affordable because of the inhumane working environments of the people producing them, or that them throwing away their cheap old clothes every season is one of the biggest contributors to climate change.
Educating people on the effects of fast fashion has just begun, however it needs to be emphasized much more to make an impact. We have seen a trend in thrift shopping as mentioned in the journal entry. Thrifting has been proven to be “one of the most welcoming ways in building a circular economy and reducing textile waste in the environment” (Damore, 2021). Another way to help combat this problem is to practice a lifestyle of minimalism. This is especially difficult in today’s world where most of us are so obsessed with buying the latest trends and having the newest items. I think a minimal lifestyle would not only be helpful to our environment, but also to our society which is so caught up in material things.
In the end, I hope that I can learn from some of these things to start breaking the cycle of fast fashion, and I also hope that I can help change the minds of others who have grown up with this as their only choice of expressing their style. I think that being able to create your own style from repurposed items is so much more fun and expressive and I hope we can create a world where this is more normalized.
Damore, Julia (2021). “Young Women and the Fast Fashion Industry” Retrieved March 10, 2021 from https://medium.com/the-future-of-the-fashion-industry-sustainabile
