WHAT is Fast Fashion?

Fast Fashion is CHEAP, TRENDY clothing sampled from ideas from
the catwalk or celebrity culture and turns them into garments in high street stores at breakneck speed.

The Effects of Fast Fashion

Celebrities and other trends guide the fashion interests of the public

The public desires to find clothing in these fashionable styles

Companies mass produce clothing to meet these demands

The mass production goal is to produce cheap clothing, meaning workers are underpaid and have poor work environments

Buyers purchase mass amounts of cheap clothing for short-time usage

New trends arrive, and old clothing ends up in landfills

The Numbers

1 in 3 young women ,the biggest segment of consumers, consider garments worn once or twice to be old (The Guardian, 2019)

The fashion industry is responsible for 8% of carbon emissions (UN Environment, 2019)

The average American throws away around 81 pounds of clothing yearly

Less than 11% of brands are implementing recycling strategies for their items

Fashion accounts for 20 to 35% of microplastic flows into the ocean. (The State of Fashion, McKinsey 2020)

To Sum it Up:

Fast Fashion is a cyclical process encouraged not only by the companies that unethically manufacture and produce clothing,
but also by consumers and shoppers like ourselves who are only looking for the next trend to follow.

So ask your self:

Are you mindful and intentional about what you buy and wear?

Do you look into the brands that you shop at to see if they're ethical?

Why would you rather buy cheap, trendy clothing knowing it is unethically made over more expensive, better quality, and ethically made clothing?

Map of Unethical Clothing Companies

There is an abundance of non-sustainable/unethical clothing companies that are commonly shopped at without the awareness of it's enviornmental impact.

Explore the map to discover unethical companies in the Los Angeles area:

WHAT is Sustainable Fashion?

Sustainable Fashion is clothing that is designed, manufactured, distributed, and used in ways that are environmentally friendly. (Faye Lessler)

How can companies maintain ethical fashion

While most companies feed into the fast paced movement of cheap consumption, ethically sustainable apparel companies are mindful about what and how they create, making sure that they do not exploit the world’s resources and workers and produce less waste.

The high cost of slow fashion

Because companies are mindful to their work, the cost of sustainable clothing has become extremely unaffordable, especially to the average college student. And while a sustainable closet may not be affordable for everyone, the ideas behind being more mindful where our clothing comes from and how much we value and use what we purchase should and can be implemented into everyday life.

Resources

Here is a list of ethical & sustainable brands companies to explore!

Lifestyle

Pact

Sense of Shelf

Lisa Says Gah

Whimsy and Row

Everlane

Eileen Fisher

Levi's

Alternative Apparel

Tentree

Arielle's

The R Collective

Tonle

Tamga

Activewear

Patagonia

Girlfriend Collective

Nube

Essentials

Mate the Label

Miakoda

Harvest and Mill

Unspun Jeans

Conscious Step

Unspun Jeans