The 1990s gave us many, many things. From the Spice Girls to Sex in the City, to the World Cup, to classic brick Nokias with Snake built in and in the fashion world: Wearing a Union Jack towel if you were Geri Haliwell, or combining skirts and trousers with no shame if you weren’t.
But the fashion industry of the 1990s also gave us something else: Fast fashion. We may not have realised it at the time, but these fast fashion facts prove that whilst we were embracing everything else, the one thing we should have been rejecting was cheap, poor quality clothing.
What is Fast Fashion?
Before we make you wince with our list of fast fashion statistics, it’s best we define this lesser wanted aspect of the nineties first.
Fast fashion was a term first coined in late 1989 by the New York Times. It was named in response to fashion behemoth Zara boasting that one of their new designs had taken 15 days to put into its stores from the initial fashion concept through to production.
Why was that groundbreaking? Because from 1989 onwards, the rise of global communication and offshore manufacturing made fashion more accessible, and therefore much cheaper, than ever before. Production rates accelerated and subsequently, so did consumer demand. All of a sudden fashion houses were able to source poor quality materials at half the price, have them manufactured and on shelves in half the time, and then have double the money lining their pockets also in half the time.
It was considered a win win for everybody. We now know that it wasn’t.
Today fast fashion is defined as poorly made, cheap clothing that is rapidly produced, often through the use of unethical textile factories, in response to fast moving fashion trends. Because it is only produced in response to these trends, and produced poorly, it is designed to all but fall apart and possesses no longevity, meaning that it ends up in landfill where it then fails to degrade and severely harms our environment.
Fast fashion is the enemy of Sustainable fashion. Read our Brand’s Guide to Sustainable Fashion here to transform your brand into one that promotes eco-friendly ethics.
7 Shocking Fast Fashion Facts
Unfortunately fast fashion is still very much a modern pinnacle of the fashion industry. Whilst efforts are consciously and constantly being made to combat it through brands embracing better sustainable fashion practices, fast fashion pieces are still mass produced daily.
We’ve tallied up a list of the most eye opening fast fashion facts to really shine a light on just how damaging the fast fashion market is to both the fashion industry itself, and our environment.
Three out of five fast fashion garments end up in a landfill within a year of purchase.
In 2019, an annual Business of Fashion State of Fashion Report found that one in three women under the age of thirty considered a garment worn once or twice to be old, and one in seven would consider it a faux pas to be photographed in the same outfit twice.
These beliefs are the driving force behind fast fashion and are one of the biggest problems with the market. By clothing only being worn once or twice, it then proceeds to fill up landfill sites and this is terrible news for our environment.
Studies show that when clothing decomposes it releases methane, one of the most harmful greenhouse gases and a significant contributor to climate change. Dyes and other components involved in the manufacturing of the product can also then sink into the soil which both contaminates the surface and groundwater, and ultimately leads to the destruction of ecosystems.
2. On average, people wear clothes seven times only before throwing them away.
By producing poorly made clothing that is cheap in quality and cost, fast fashion directly contributes to this problem and that of around 85% of textiles ending up in landfills year on year (enough to fill Sydney Harbour annually, if you were wondering).
Fast fashion is made to break, or be thrown out. It’s cheap, it’s poorly made and worse still, if it’s made in response to a trend, it’s very likely that the moment the trend ends it’s heading for the bin.
The fashion industry can combat this unnecessary overconsumption and wastage by encouraging brands to use materials which are durable and built for longevity. The rise of upcycling and second-hand ownership is particularly beneficial as clothes are now reused, repaired or recycled, saving them from decomposing in landfill.
Want to make sure your brand is made to last? Then you need a solid fashion brand identity. We wrote about how to make one here.
3. One third of all microplastics in the world's oceans come from synthetic fabrics.
Synthetic fabrics are man-made textiles that are used as an alternative to natural fibers. Because they’re man made, it makes them much cheaper which means that the cost of producing a garment with synthetic fibers is half of the price it would cost to produce a garment using natural fibers.
However, the difference isn’t just in cost. It’s in environmentally friendly consciousness, too. Natural fibers are more likely to biodegrade - because they’re natural. Man-made synthetic fibers however contain tiny microbeads of plastic and are not biodegradable.
Fast fashion houses predominantly use synthetic fibers to make their products because they’re quick and cheap, and that means that every time a synthetic fiber product is either washed or thrown into landfill, these tiny plastic beads enter our oceans where they pollute ecosystems and harm animals and fauna.
4. Fashion industry pollution statistics reveal that 20% of the industrial water pollution comes from textile treatments and dyes.
In the fast fashion industry, dyes and non-environmentally friendly textile treatments are the answer to the old adage “Anything can be covered with a lick of paint”.
To disguise poor quality, often fast fashion houses will severely dye their products using harmful chemicals that are toxic to waterways, animals and water fauna.
If all fashion houses were to switch to non-toxic dyes it could play a major part in reducing water pollution caused by the textile industry, as could choosing garments which are not fast fashion pieces.
5. A single piece of clothing made from polyester can shed millions of microplastics.
As we mentioned above, microplastics are incredibly detrimental to the ecosystems and animals that live in our oceans.
The worst culprit of microplastics is polyester, however, and it’s what a good 98% of fast fashion clothing is made from because it’s so accessible and so cheap.
What’s worse, polyester takes over 200 years to decompose in a landfill, meaning that it’s causing harm whether it’s in our oceans or sat in landfills.
Sustainable fashion brands are beginning to use natural alternatives such as hemp, organic cotton and cellulosic fibers such as lyocell and modal to replace polyester, and the change can’t come fast enough. These alternatives are biodegradable, and therefore environmentally friendly.
So next time you spot a garment that is made predominantly of polyester, consider leaving it on the shelf.
6. The fashion industry accounts for about 10% of global carbon emissions, and nearly 20% of wastewater.
These statistics alone are shocking, but it’s worse when considering that by the fashion industry producing 10% of all global carbon emissions worldwide, it’s producing more than international flights and maritime shipping combined.
Statistics around wastewater are particularly eye opening too, with a pair of jeans using around 2,000 gallons of water to produce and a t-shirt using 700 gallons of water.
There are ways to halve these numbers and they involve leaving fast fashion practices behind. Choosing to use organic cotton instead of manufactured cotton saves water by the cotton already growing in conditions which naturally see the correct amount of rainfall, and can then hold that rainfall in the soil, saving the need for additional water to be used in production.
Carbon emissions can be halved by saving one-time wear clothing going into landfill and instead upcycling it or even renting it out if the item is of a luxury standard. Brands can also look into alternative locations to manufacture their products, such as locations which are native to the country the brand was founded in which then saves a carbon footprint caused by transportation.
7. 93% of brands aren't paying their garment employees a fair wage.
Perhaps one of the most shocking statistics of all is the news that 93% of brands don’t pay their employees a fair, or living, wage.
Garment employees are involved in the production and manufacturing of products, and are commonly located in third world countries which are prone to ethical discrepancies such as “sweatshops” and slave labour.
Shockingly in the 2020 Fashion Transparency Index the report found that out of 250 brands surveyed, only 5 displayed a “time-bound, measurable roadmap or strategy of how to achieve a living wage across their supply chains”.h it’s not inherently fair to entirely blame fast fashion houses for these, fast fashion promotes the use of quick turnaround times by offshoring its manufacturing work. As the brands are more concerned with time, they very rarely worry about ethical standards and procedures either.
However this is also something that is changing. More brands are now being incredibly transparent about their commitment to providing their workers with a fair wage after Boohoo were rumbled in 2020 for underpaying workers in one of their (deemed unsafe) Leicester factories.
Only by more brands being upfront and transparent about where their workers are based and what wages they receive will the fashion industry begin to complete the Fashion Transparency Index’s roadmap.
Shocked by these fast fashion statistics?
So were we, and it’s a reason that at James Hillman we can research and locate sustainable, organic materials for your brand, help you identify the best and most ethically efficient manufacturing processes for your products, and most of all, ensure that your brand and your garments are made to the highest quality, ensuring that you’re built to last.
For more information on how we help brands to become the best version of themselves, click here. Or if you’re ready to begin, get in touch with us here. We’re happy to help with every step of your process.
