Clothing shops need your custom and they have developed the perfect way to get it and keep it – the method? Fast fashion. Retailers compete to have the most interesting, constantly changing collections that mean you always have something new to look at and spend money on. Over the last 15 years, they have developed new manufacturing techniques that allow them to reduce the time between design and the product sold, and shops most known for this are Zara (zara.com), H&M (hm.com), Topshop (topshop.com) and Primark (primark.com).
Zara is one of the forerunners in this shift in the way fashion is produced – they deliver new clothing to their stores twice a week and produce over 30,000 different designs every year. Clothing produced in this way is marketed as cheap, easily available and disposable. Most fast fashion is in the shops for 4-6 weeks before being replaced with new styles. And it works – the average Briton purchases over 27 kilos of clothing a year, enough to fill a large suitcase.
This large scale manufacturing of clothing feeds shopper’s desire for the latest trends. But these methods come with massive human and environmental costs. Making clothes is polluting – the clothing industry contributes to around 10 per cent of global greenhouse emissions (unfcc.int). Garment manufacturing is also the second most damaging industry for our waters. It releases harmful microplastics into our oceans and pollutes rivers with damaging chemicals. Microplastics are also released when we wash our clothes.
The production of clothing also uses massive amounts of resources. One cotton shirt requires the same amount of water as one person would drink in 2.5 years. Growing the materials also contributes to environmental damage through pesticides, land-use, the redirection of water ways and GMO crops.