Fast fashion is harmful to the environment but also beautifies the youth

So-called “fast fashion” has won fans as a young trend that picks up relatively cheap clothes online, but the rising genre masks darker environmental problems.

Britain’s Boohoo, China’s SHEIN, and Hong Kong’s Emiol all operate on a similar internet-based business model—producing goods and collections at breakneck speed and at low cost.

They are offering stiff competition to well-known “fast fashion” chains such as Sweden’s H&M and Spain’s Zara.

Young people under the age of 25 – widely known as Generation P – like to order a lot of fast fashion items, which are then delivered in the mail.

“Consequences for the Planet”.

Greenpeace, however, has criticized the “throwaway” phenomenon as extremely wasteful, arguing that it takes 2,700 liters of water to make a single T-shirt.

“Many of these cheap clothes… end up in landfills, burned in fires, washed up in rivers and seas, with dire consequences for people and the planet,” the green pressure group says.

Photographs of mountains of cloths returned to the seller or thrown away shortly after purchase have gone viral, highlighting the sheer scale of the waste.

But demand for cheap clothes has increased due to decades of high inflation, with many Covid-hit high street shops struggling to compete with big spenders.

And it’s wildly popular: SHEIN generated $16 billion in global sales last year, according to Bloomberg.

A riot of cheapness

Customers buy T-shirts for £4.00 ($4.80), while bikinis and skirts sell for as little as £8.00.

For Lola, an 18-year-old French high school student living in the city of Nancy, SHEIN shopping has become an inexpensive hobby.

The brand allows her to keep up with the latest trends “without going star-studded,” she told AFP, at the expense of the environment.

Lola typically places two to three orders a month on SHEIN for an average of 70 euros ($71) for 10 items.

Super fast fashion’s young target demographic—like Lola—simply has less money to spend.

Those consumers, according to Valérie Gillard, professor of economics at the University of Paris-Dauphine, “want more quantity than quality” in clothing.

In the year Founded in late 2008, SHEIN is now sold worldwide, helped by its extensive presence on social media networks.

Videos ‘drag’

Customers post videos called “howls” online – where they unpack SHEIN packages, try on clothes and review them.

That has boosted the popularity of Tiki Talk, which is popular with teenagers and adults, and there are also videos like this on Instagram and YouTube.

There are 34.4 billion mentions of the hashtag #SHEIN and six billion for #SHEINhaul on TikTok alone.

Brands expand their reach through low-cost partnerships on social media to build trust and increase sales.

Irish social media influencer Marlene Gallagher, who works with SHEIN and other organizations, praised them for offering a wider range of sizes than regular stores.

She told Agence France-Presse: “When it comes to choice for plus-size women, they are unrivaled.

Climate emergency

However, the industry is notorious for consuming valuable resources and harming the environment.

Fast fashion companies have also been plagued by scandals over poor working conditions in their factories.

A Swiss-based NGO confirmed in November 2022 that workers in some SHEIN factories were working up to 75 hours a week, in violation of China’s labor laws.

Britain’s Bhum reported media reports that the suppliers were low-wage workers in Pakistan.

Adding to the picture, the French Ecosystem Transition Agency estimates that fast fashion accounts for two percent of global greenhouse emissions per year.

It is like a combination of air transport and sea traffic.

Meanwhile, the genre has drawn the ire of climate activist Greta Thunberg.

“The fashion industry is a major contributor to the climate and ecological emergency, not to mention the impact on the countless workers and communities around the world who are being exploited. Fast fashion is viewed by some as a commodity,” Thunberg writes. Last year, asking for change.

© 2022 AFP