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Read MoreFast Fashion Vs Slow Fashion: Which is the best
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The notions of fast fashion vs. slow fashion are often interlinked and woven together in a firm knot, even though the thoughts behind both faiths have a gap as vast as the sky and the sea.
What qualifies as fast fashion? Why is slow fashion important?
If you are someone who’s hearing these terms for the first time, you’ve come to the right hub to get enlightened!
WHAT IS THE CONTRAST BETWEEN FAST FASHION AND SLOW FASHION?
In a world that craves fashion with a passion, there is barely any room left for compassion. All the world’s retail giants are exploiting their workforce just to satisfy the mere thirst of expanding the fast-fashion store industry to feed the high demand for fast and cheap clothes. In countries where working laws are swerved to become mere scribbles on paper, cheap labour is exploited to produce mass garments at just a fraction of a price.
Countries such as Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, South Africa, etc., have employees that are paid less than INR 899 a month. A shocking survey has shown that these countries also have a fair section of children working in the factories to get paid just INR 224.90 a month!
Do you recall discarding a dress, or perhaps a shirt that you wore just once? Not that it’s important. It’s just a cheap dollar store piece of cloth, we can buy another one anyway, right?
How about top designer brands whose dress would probably cost us our entire salary? Would you buy it?
Well, yeah, if we had the money for it!
But since we don’t….we just must buy something of a similar trend at a low price.
If you are resonating well, it’s because you too, like many have become a mass victim of Fast Fashion!
WHAT IS FAST FASHION?
Fast fashion is an industry that shows active involvement in imitating top designer brands to produce products of similar designs commercially at a low price! Although a saviour of our pocket money, fast fashion has a scandalous reputation for exploiting human rights and causing harm to the environment.
When fashion houses struggle to release new trends, fast fashion can release up to eleven collections a year! The journey from paper to retail summed in a few weeks at a cheap price!
Isn’t this every shopaholic’s dream?
Maybe.
Or does your ethics weigh more than your dreams?
For those cringing in horror and misery, stop glaring at the clothes you’re wearing! Coming right next is what we know as Slow Fashion- a trend that reduces the speed of consumption, production, and disposition by adding value and appreciation to one’s purchase.
WHAT IS SLOW FASHION?
Unlike fast fashion, a slow fashion trend values the impact that clothing can have on society. The companies who promote this notion ensure that the rights of their workers are secured, and they are paid fairly for their workloads. To maintain an ethical business line, slow fashion uses cruelty-free raw materials to manufacture their brand designs and ensures that no harm comes to the environment or any animal/worker during the production procedure.
Check out a comparison chart between the two dimensions of the fashion industry:
TITLE | FAST FASHION | SLOW FASHION |
INDUSTRY SIZE | Huge- $1.44 trillion dollars yearly revenue | Small |
RAW MATERIALS | Rayon, nylon, petroleum-based, synthetic fibres | Organic raw materials, and naturally sourced fibres |
BRAND QUALITY | Cheap and non-durable | Expensive and durable |
PRODUCTION | High | Low, with rare new season clothes |
WORKFORCE POWER | Big workforce but paid less | Small workforce but paid fairly |
PRODUCTION ETHICS | Unethical, harms environment | Cruelty-free |
TOXICITY | Uses toxic elements | Cruelty-free/ Toxin-free |
SUSTAINABILITY | Harsh chemicals, dyes used which harms environment | Promotes sustainable business and doesn’t harm environment |
FAST FASHION FACT CHECKS THAT’LL BLOW YOUR MIND
Did you know?? The fashion industry holds the position of the second largest industry in the world, with the oil industry being the first.
- Globally, eighty billion pieces of clothes are consumed every year.
- 70 million barrels are utilized each year to make polyester fiber, which takes 200+ years to decompose
- Fast fashion industries follow the trend of “Planned obsolescence” which means they knowingly produce clothes of bad quality so that it becomes unfashionable, wear out, or fall apart after a few uses. This brings in a continuous flow of forced consumers for the company without them even noticing.
- 20,000 litres of water is needed to manufacture one kg of cotton, the same amount needed to produce a single shirt and pair of jeans.
- The fourth largest industrial disaster took place on 24 April 2013 when the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh collapsed and ended up killing 1,138 people and injuring 2,500 people. The area had five garment factories which were all supplying fast fashion clothes for several global brands.
- Microfibers from synthetic clothes are responsible for 85% of the pollution in the ocean.
- Workers in Chinese factories joke around with each other and can tell what colour clothes will become the next trendy by looking at the shade of the river.
ENDING-A CHOICE
It’s your body after all, and you have every right to dress in the way you want. After all, picking between 10 fast fashion outfits in comparison to four slow fashion ones can be a tough call to make for someone big on trends. But then, fashion is what you make of it.
Maybe rebelling against a fashion trend that is slowly crumbling the world around you and openly stealing innocent childhoods might just also make you the newest fashion trendsetter.
Are you willing to find out?
If so, reveal yourself to the newer, better, cruelty-free, and empowering side of the fashion industry, starting with #EntrePOWER!
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