At first, seeing a huge quantity of clothes in our wardrobe feels great. But what’s hidden behind such a low cost?
Fast fashion is a phenomenon based on the immense production of trendy clothing, the problem is that there are several new collections every year and most people keep buying. The secrets behind the low prices and the high efficiency of many brands are mainly these: the exploitation of many people, including children and the poor quality of the products used, in some cases even toxic. These works are almost always carried out in countries where workers have very few rights, in some cases none, but for the people involved the very small amount of money they earn is crucial for living so they can’t complain about anything.
We are the one who can act and who can move even the important personalities making us listen; the first thing to do is start buying second-hand and sustainable clothes for not feeding the horrible exploitation and pollution produced by these industries. In fact, there’s also another issue due to the fashion industry, which, nowadays, is one of the most polluting. The resources used so far in this type of production are countless and unfortunately if it goes on this way, with time, there won’t be any resource left. Luckily many brands are starting to adopt sustainable methods but there’s still a long way to go; one important factor is the disinformation, there is little talk of this subject and as a result it is often difficult to raise awareness.
The social media, obviously, have pros and cons. We are used to always seeing models with different outfits everyday and this induces (mainly the young generation) to want to buy more and more, clearly they usually don’t have much money at their disposal and for this some of them use fast fashion sites, while others opt for those of second-hand.
In conclusion it’s important not to increase fast fashion because even if we don’t have a high budget, there are many solutions to buy and this is supported by the progressive growth of sites where there is the possibility of selling clothes to buy others and second-hand markets. Additionally, talking as much as possible about these topics always helps.
Chiara Delle Pulle 3AL
