The Price of Fast Fashion

While studying fashion design at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, Chelsey Christina felt a lot of pressure to look stylish. She frequently shopped for new clothes at stores such as Zara and Urban Outfitters, always thinking about how the latest tops and pants would add to her social media feed.

“You don’t want to post twice in the same outfit,” says Christina, now 23, “so you’d feel like you always needed something new.”

This is a common issue for young people. Scroll through Instagram and TikTok’s “outfit of the day” hashtags, and you’ll find millions of posts on the newest fashions, from eye-catching shirts to the hottest sneaker designs. The daily barrage has many teens continually hunting for deals on the trendy looks that pop up on their feeds.

Chelsey Christina studied fashion design at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. Attending the school made her feel a lot of pressure to look stylish. She often shopped for new clothes at stores such as Zara and Urban Outfitters. And she spent a lot of time thinking about how the latest tops and pants would add to her social media feed.

“You don’t want to post twice in the same outfit,” says Christina, now 23, “so you’d feel like you always needed something new.”

This is a common issue for young people. Scroll through Instagram’s and TikTok’s “outfit of the day” hashtags, and you’ll find millions of posts on the newest fashions. These posts feature everything from eye-catching shirts to the hottest sneaker designs. The daily stream has many teens always hunting for deals on the trendy looks that pop up on their feeds.

Some fashion companies have become very successful by catering to this market. They produce clothing incredibly quickly and sell it at cheap prices that can fit in young people’s budgets. But this trend—known as ultra-fast fashion—is not without its costs. Consumers may not consider how the workers who make the clothing are treated. And mass-producing disposable duds has a major impact on the environment.

“This is not just an issue for fashionistas, for shopaholics, for people who buy too much stuff,” says Elizabeth Cline, author of The Conscious Closet. “Everybody wears clothes. . . . This is something we should all care about.”

The idea of manufacturing clothes quickly and cheaply isn’t new. Chains such as H&M and Zara popularized fast fashion—without the “ultra”—in the early 2000s.

Fast fashion is designed to be cheap, because companies want shoppers to purchase a constant stream of new outfits. And many people are doing just that: The average consumer buys 60 percent more clothing today than 15 years ago, according to a 2019 report by consulting firm McKinsey & Company.

Some fashion companies have become very successful by catering to this market. They produce clothing very quickly and sell it at cheap prices that can fit in young people’s budgets. This trend—known as ultra-fast fashion—is not without its costs. Consumers may not consider how the workers who make the clothing are treated. And mass-producing disposable duds has a major impact on the environment.

“This is not just an issue for fashionistas, for shopaholics, for people who buy too much stuff,” says Elizabeth Cline, author of The Conscious Closet. “Everybody wears clothes. . . . This is something we should all care about.”

The idea of manufacturing clothes quickly and cheaply isn’t new. Chains such as H&M and Zara popularized fast fashion in the early 2000s. And they did so without the “ultra” element.

Fast fashion is designed to be cheap. That’s because companies want shoppers to buy a constant stream of new outfits. And many people are doing just that. The average consumer buys 60 percent more clothing today than 15 years ago, according to a 2019 report by consulting firm McKinsey & Company.

Clothing makers turn a profit on inexpensive merchandise by cutting costs elsewhere, according to garment worker advocacy groups. Traditionally, fast fashion companies have contracted factories in developing countries, such as China and Bangladesh, that pay workers a few dollars a day to produce the clothes. These workers often toil in factories known as sweatshops, with few safety regulations. The rooms are often stiflingly hot and full of fumes from the chemicals used to manufacture and dye clothes, investigations have shown.

When you see a piece of new clothing priced very inexpensively, it often wasn’t made ethically, says Dana Thomas, author of Fashionopolis: The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes.

“Along the supply chain, someone wasn’t treated or paid fairly,” she says.

There’s also an environmental toll. Making these clothes requires a massive amount of materials, chemicals, and water, and produces significant carbon emissions, which scientists say contribute to climate change. Sooner or later, the garments get worn out—or become less “fashionable.” Americans throw away about 24 billion pounds of clothes and shoes each year, according to a 2018 Environmental Protection Agency report. That’s about 73 pounds per person.

Clothing makers turn a profit on inexpensive merchandise by cutting costs elsewhere, according to garment worker advocacy groups. Traditionally, fast fashion companies have used factories in developing countries, such as China and Bangladesh. The factory workers make a few dollars a day to produce the clothes. They often spend long hours in factories known as sweatshops, with few safety codes. The rooms are often hot and full of fumes from the chemicals used to manufacture and dye clothes, investigations have shown.

When you see a piece of new clothing priced very inexpensively, it often wasn’t made ethically, says Dana Thomas, author of Fashionopolis: The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes.

“Along the supply chain, someone wasn’t treated or paid fairly,” she says.

There’s also an environmental toll. Making these clothes requires a massive amount of materials, chemicals, and water. The production also generates large amounts of carbon emissions, which scientists say contribute to climate change. Sooner or later, the garments get worn out, or they become less “fashionable.” Americans throw away about 24 billion pounds of clothes and shoes each year, according to a 2018 Environmental Protection Agency report. That’s about 73 pounds per person.

But now things have gotten even messier as social media takes up an increasingly large part of young people’s daily lives. Ultra-fast fashion companies such as Fashion Nova, Boohoo, and PrettyLittleThing rapidly churn out the latest influencer-approved looks for even lower prices than traditional fast fashion.

These brands exist mostly online and have few, if any, brick-and-mortar stores. They can sell more product rapidly since they don’t ship items to shops or wait for clothes to get displayed on racks. Fashion Nova, for example, produces more than a thousand new styles every week. And many celebrities, including Kylie Jenner and Kourtney Kardashian, have contributed to the craze by posting photos of themselves wearing ultra-fast fashion online.

“Social media has accelerated the speed at which trends change,” Cline says. “Things go in and out of fashion in a blink of an eye.”

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, many traditional clothing stores were forced to shut down. But ultra-fast fashion brands were already making most sales online, and they quickly pivoted to pushing comfortable loungewear for those who wanted to stay fashionable while stuck at home. And it worked: Boohoo sales, for example, grew 45 percent in the period of March 2020 through May 2020, according to the company.

To make and ship clothing so quickly, ultra-fast fashion retailers often have their products made locally (in the U.S., that often means Los Angeles), rather than overseas. But that doesn’t necessarily mean the workers are treated better. A recent investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor found that many Fashion Nova garments are stitched together in the U.S. by a workforce that’s paid as little as $2.77 an hour, far below the federal minimum wage of $7.25. Los Angeles is filled with factories that pay workers off the books, and many of the people behind the sewing machines are undocumented immigrants, so they’re unlikely to challenge their bosses, experts say.

But now things have gotten even messier. It’s being driven by social media, which takes up an increasingly large part of young people’s daily lives. Ultra-fast fashion companies such as Fashion Nova, Boohoo, and PrettyLittleThing rapidly churn out the latest influencer-approved looks for even lower prices than traditional fast fashion.

These brands exist mostly online and have few, if any, physical stores. They can sell more product rapidly since they don’t ship items to shops or wait for clothes to get displayed on racks. Fashion Nova, for example, produces more than a thousand new styles every week. And many celebrities, including Kylie Jenner and Kourtney Kardashian, have fueled the craze. They’ve posted photos of themselves wearing ultra-fast fashion online.

“Social media has accelerated the speed at which trends change,” Cline says. “Things go in and out of fashion in a blink of an eye.”

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, many traditional clothing stores were forced to shut down. But ultra-fast fashion brands were already making most sales online. They quickly shifted to pushing comfortable loungewear for those who wanted to stay fashionable while stuck at home. And it worked. Boohoo sales, for example, grew 45 percent in the period of March 2020 through May 2020, according to the company.

To make and ship clothing so quickly, ultra-fast fashion retailers often have their products made locally (in the U.S., that often means Los Angeles), rather than overseas. But that doesn’t necessarily mean the workers are treated better. A recent investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor found that many Fashion Nova garments are stitched together in the U.S. by a workforce that’s paid as little as $2.77 an hour. That’s far below the federal minimum wage of $7.25. Los Angeles is filled with factories that pay workers off the books. And many of the people behind the sewing machines are undocumented immigrants. That makes them more unlikely to challenge their bosses, experts say.

Fashion Nova denies the allegations, saying they’re committed to fairly compensating workers. The company didn’t respond to requests for comment for this article, but in 2019, Erica Meierhans, Fashion Nova’s general counsel, told The New York Times that “any suggestion that Fashion Nova is responsible for underpaying anyone working on our brand is categorically false.”

These claims aren’t popping up just in the U.S.: Last year, Boohoo, which is based in the United Kingdom, also faced scrutiny after reports that its suppliers were paying as little as $4.40 an hour to local workers. Afterward, the company launched an initiative to improve its manufacturing process and brought in a retired judge for independent oversight. In his reports, which have been published online, the judge has noted that Boohoo is making “excellent progress” toward improving the supply chain.

Fashion Nova denies the claims, saying they’re committed to fairly compensating workers. The company didn’t respond to requests for comment for this article, but in 2019, Erica Meierhans, Fashion Nova’s general counsel, told The New York Times that “any suggestion that Fashion Nova is responsible for underpaying anyone working on our brand is categorically false.”

These claims aren’t popping up just in the U.S. Last year, Boohoo, which is based in the United Kingdom, also faced scrutiny. Released reports showed that its suppliers were paying as little as $4.40 an hour to local workers. Afterward, the company launched an initiative to improve its manufacturing process. It brought in a retired judge for independent oversight. In his reports, which have been published online, the judge has noted that Boohoo is making “excellent progress” toward improving the supply chain.

When it comes to the environment, some brands have made steps toward being more environmentally friendly. Boohoo, for example, has promised that by 2025, all its polyester and cotton will be recycled or more sustainable.

“Making our clothes in a smarter way,” the brand’s website reads, “with better materials, more sustainable design, and less waste and packaging.”

These efforts are a good start, Cline says, but no matter what promises a brand makes, it’s hard to be truly sustainable when the ultimate goal is to manufacture a lot of apparel that’s meant to be quickly replaced, resulting in tremendous waste.

“All huge clothing brands produce staggering and unsustainable volumes of clothing,” she says.

Although members of Gen Z may be most likely to buy fast fashion, that doesn’t mean they don’t care about how their purchases affect the planet. Some teens have turned to secondhand clothing as a way to help reduce waste. Depop, the social secondhand shopping site, now has 27 million users in 147 countries—and 90 percent of them are part of Gen Z, the company says.

When it comes to the environment, some brands have made steps toward being more environmentally friendly. Boohoo, for example, has promised that by 2025, all its polyester and cotton will be recycled or more sustainable.

“Making our clothes in a smarter way,” the brand’s website reads, “with better materials, more sustainable design, and less waste and packaging.”

These efforts are a good start, Cline says, but no matter what promises a brand makes, it’s hard to be truly sustainable when the ultimate goal is to produce a lot of apparel that’s meant to be quickly replaced. That cycle results in large amounts waste.

“All huge clothing brands produce staggering and unsustainable volumes of clothing,” she says.

Members of Gen Z are most likely to buy fast fashion. Still, that doesn’t mean they don’t care about how their purchases affect the planet. Some teens have turned to secondhand clothing as a way to help reduce waste. Depop, the social secondhand shopping site, now has 27 million users in 147 countries. And 90 percent of them are part of Gen Z, the company says.

And while social media may be to blame for the rise of ultra-fast fashion, TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter have also helped young people spread awareness about the consequences of cheap clothes.

Take Christina, the college student: She felt guilty about her clothing consumption after learning about fast fashion, so she began posting videos encouraging others to live more sustainably (see “What You Can Do,” below). Now she has more than 131,000 TikTok followers and has started an online shop selling eco-friendly goods. It might be only a little in the grand scheme of things, but she hopes that enough people will heed her example and begin to take a closer look at what they buy and how often they buy it.

“It’s always about progress not perfection,” she says. “Any small change is a win to be celebrated.”

Social media is at the root of the rise of ultra-fast fashion. Despite that, TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter have also helped young people spread awareness about the consequences of cheap clothes.

Take Christina, the college student: She felt guilty about her clothing consumption after learning about fast fashion. That led her to began posting videos encouraging others to live more sustainably (see “What You Can Do,” below). Now she has more than 131,000 TikTok followers and has started an online shop selling eco-friendly goods. It might be only a little in the grand scheme of things, but she hopes that enough people will heed her example and begin to take a closer look at what they buy and how often they buy it.

“It’s always about progress not perfection,” she says. “Any small change is a win to be celebrated.”

With reporting by Natalie Kitroeff and Elizabeth Paton of The New York Times.

With reporting by Natalie Kitroeff and Elizabeth Paton of The New York Times.