Fashion Consumption – An Insatiable Need
Why does the industry consume at such an exponential rate? For starters, it can.
The industry has developed a norm referred to as ‘Fast Fashion. Which are garments designed to reflect current industry trends, produced in large volumes quickly and cheaply. Brands and retailers that operate within the fast fashion lens use less expensive materials and outsource production to ensure price tags are desirably low.
WHY WE ARE DRIVEN TO FAST FASHION?
Over time, this has been fed and driven by the emergence of social media which allows consumers to discover new trends and shop all in one platform. As a response, brands are beginning to accelerate their design to shelf process to ensure relevancy and desirable competitiveness amongst consumers. Within this environment, there is the opportunity to attract innovation, optimization and utilization of technology to aid issues within supply chains that may be feeding negative impact. But, unfortunately, there is also has the potential for brands to apply pressure to further reduce costs, while increasing production. According to Business of Fashion’s The State of Fashion Report 2018 average time to shelf has shaken up the industry:
Average time to shelf:
o Traditional brands = 12 weeks
o ASOS = 6 weeks
o Zara = 5 weeks
o Boohoo = 2 weeks
o Misguided = 1 week
With clothing being made available at a faster rate, consumer’s perception and value towards clothes has evolved to be seen as disposable.
UNWORN – HOW MUCH WE THINK WE WEAR
As a collective, fast fashion has given to the world what was previously only limited to the elite – the fashion experience. This means discovering, purchasing and enjoying the pleasure of wearing new clothes. This mode has democratized fashion and created a bargaining culture, driven by various trend cycles and reduced costs. Now, the everyday consumer has the option to shop new styles almost 52 weeks a year and within their budget. But with the excitement of available fashion, valuing new over quality, consumers are buying more than they are wearing.
This year, Movinga (the German relocation and removals company) decided to take on industry consumption themselves and better understand just how in touch consumers were with how they value their clothes. Evaluating 18,000 households in 20 countries, Movinga came up with a “delusional” scale measuring just how much consumers own versus how much they actually wear. In the end, the results were unfortunate as majority of consumers were ranked as “highly delusional” (1). Here is a snapshot of the discoveries made:
Delusional Level:
Belgian ranked #1:
“Consumers thought they hadn’t worn 26% of their wardrobe in the last year” when in reality hadn’t worn 88% of their wardrobe = delusional level of 62%
Italy #2 = 53%
Switzerland #3 = 53%
Switzerland percentage of unworn clothing = 79%
Americans = 39%
Second highest percentage of unworn clothes = 82% (in the last year)
Canada unused clothing items = 79%
Norway unused clothing = 77%
UK unused clothing = 73% (1)
Delusion, is a harsh word, which we do not encourage the use of, but do recognize the polarity in the lack of awareness consumers have around the value given to clothes. In communities like the United Kingdom where £10 billion worth of clothes are not worn by 50 million shoppers, we must call into question what factors are influencing such hyper-consumption (2).
Clip from the Documentary Film "The True Cost" Learn More at: http://truecostmovie.com
CONSUMERISM & ADVERTISING
Fast Fashion is about the plight of our consumption habits – essentially trying to fulfill a need through fashion. In The True Cost, Professor Tim Kasser discloses, “The reason that advertising works is because the smart advertisers…are trying to tie the consumption of their product to a message that suggests that your needs will be satisfied by consuming this thing”.
Over the last 20 years, brands have been able to brainwash consumers to perpetuate hyper-consumption within the fast fashion model. Feeding the perception that by wearing certain fashions one can believe to have reached a certain status, look the way they think they should and be identified in a certain persona. So as long as brands can continue to give this message to consumers and consumers accept that through purchasing quicker, faster and without thinking, the need to continue with fast fashion will only exponentially increase.
WHAT EXACTLY IS SLOW FASHION?
Considering the economy is based on materialism, it isn’t realistic to rule out democratized fashion as unacceptable. Consumers deserve the freedom to make their own decisions and without this, the economy would crash. Instead, the solution is implementing the opposite of fast fashion—slow fashion. Which according to the lifestyle blog Who What Wear, “Slow fashion is about consuming and creating fashion consciously and with integrity”. This means honoring the people and planet and maximizing their benefits equal to the economy and shareholders.
Businesses, need to create clothes that are ethically and sustainably designed to last long. This requires awareness of the consumption of the brand, resources, and implications imposed on the workers and communities where production occurs. While at the same time considering their customer’s carbon footprint, waste, and consumption. In designing clothes that are quality, sustain the environment, support human rights and are made to be unique and not simply follow industry trends, a shift in industrial consumption begins to happen.
First, the consumer buys less. Better quality means better durability. More transparency means more value. And more value means fewer clothes ending up in the landfill. Which in the U.S. alone is 15 million tons of textile waste, averaging 80 pounds per person (3).
Next, brands begin to rethink the trust consumer’s give them and start to offer garments that allow consumers to shop with their values. Examined by the Sustainable Fashion Blueprint 2018, “Millennials and Generation Zs, are becoming increasingly aware of the challenges of sustainability, leading to changes in shopping habits and expectations for better, more…and new ways of consuming fashion”. When consumers defy the current system through their purchasing behavior (which says happiness is dependent on material), businesses and advertisers need to redefine their current system. Honoring transparency and brand accountability will be the new standard to appeal to the conscious consumer, who values authenticity over material.
A SHIFT IN FAVOR OF THE PEOPLE & PLANET
As a collective industry, consumers and brands need to reconsider the implications of consumption apart from monetary value. It is time for radical change within the current culture to diversify the fashion experience and include sustainability and consuming less as ‘on trend’—which is set to consume a quarter of global CO 2 by 2050 (4). In the end, consumer demand for transparency is becoming the new norm and no longer will economic sustainability be enough, but the achievement of ecological and social as well.
For more information on the various ways the fashion industry consumes resources like labor, environment, and capital, check out our full series here.
Brought by Dhana Inc.
For those looking to make radical change today for the benefits of tomorrow, here are some tips by the Eco Warrior Princess on how cut back on our consumption as individuals and more info on the impacts of Fast Fashion:
