The short answer? No.
The clue is in the name, fast fashion is fast. The time it takes to create products is minimised, new collections are constantly released only to be turned over with brand new trend cycles. Advertising and marketing persuade us to keep up with these rapid levels of consumerism, everything in the fast fashion industry is accelerated. Getting products to consumers quickly and cheaply is prioritised over ethics, so fast fashion tends to involve both environmentally damaging practices and abuses of workers welfare.
Let’s take the example of a standard fast fashion piece of clothing. A mid-range t shirt might cost around £9.99. This is extremely cheap when you consider everything it takes to make that garment, and the fact that fast fashion companies are highly profitable and run by multi-millionaires. The success of these businesses while being able to keep prices low is a result of unsustainable practices in production, shipping and marketing.
In production, costs of garment production are minimised through using cheap materials and cheap labour. Cheap materials include non-organic, unsustainable cotton and petroleum based materials like polyester. The extraction of petroleum from the ground to make these plastic fabrics damages the environment through production of toxic waste and greenhouse gas emissions. This is one site that contributes to fashion being one of the most polluting industries.
Cheap labour and poor working conditions are a huge problem in fast fashion. Workers experience low wages in the UK and overseas, plus long hours, dangerous conditions and human rights abuses. The campaign ‘Who Made My Clothes’ aimed to highlight the real people who work in these unsustainable industries.
When production costs are cut by sourcing manufacture overseas, clothing must be shipped over hundreds of miles. This adds to the carbon footprint of production. The result of cutting costs in fast fashion is usually a low quality garment which may degrade after a few washes and end up being thrown into landfill to further pollute the land, sea and air.
Sustainability is the protection of the planets resources, ensuring that what we have now is available for future generations to enjoy. In order for fashion to be sustainable, it cannot pollute, it cannot damage the earth and it cannot exploit people at any point in the production line. Sustainability also stands for ethical development, working towards the world we want to see and leaving behind practices that harm people and our planet.
The most sustainable fashion is the clothes we already own. After that it is second hand, then truly sustainable, slow fashion companies that prioritise people and the planet equal to profit.