Today, shopping has become easier with production and consumption chains worldwide. It can be done easily with its faster and more affordable version. With the transformation of the world into a common market, consumers can obtain the products they want most appropriately. With widespread access to the Internet, shopping has been moved to the virtual environment, thus making it faster and more affordable than ever before. For example, in the 1950s, a consumer in the USA had to spend about $9 (equivalent to $72 today) for an average quality ready-made garment. In contrast, today, another consumer can get a similar quality garment for $12.
So, how can this textile industry keep its prices low despite the material, labor, and supply costs included in the price? To answer this question, it is necessary to understand the concept of "Fast Fashion." Fast fashion, with its literal translation, corresponds to fast fashion. Brands that establish worldwide production and consumption chains and make agreements with regional manufacturers cooperate based on profit maximization. Brands that make large-scale and low-cost production have created a new business model. The concept of fast fashion is preferred by brands that are not included in the responsible production and consumption network. Relevant brands exploit the lax labor laws in the countries where they produce through regional manufacturers and take advantage of child labor and a low-paid workforce.
Fast fashion needs to pay more attention to being environmentally friendly in the production process to reduce costs. It does not care whether the materials used will cause ecological damage. The responsibility of companies to make ecologically friendly production is ignored.
At the same time, the environmental impact of the fast fashion industry cannot be fully measured and controlled due to the non-transparent production approach. Research shows that the textile industry causes excessive water consumption with its business model based on intensive resource consumption. Even with polyester textile products alone, 706 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions occur annually. In addition, fast fashion giants are destroying tons of outdated products by burning them to make room for new products that they cannot fit into their inventory due to overproduction. Greenhouse gas emissions, which are already high, are increasing, and the environmental effects of the sector have reached even more dangerous dimensions. All this is done for continuous, more, and faster production. As a result of all these high social and ecological costs, fast fashion offers short-lived, cheap, new, and fast products to consumers.
With fast fashion, unlimited consumption is encouraged by advertising campaigns worldwide, corresponding to more production models at any cost. In particular, social media has become the focus of advertising campaigns promoting this consumption. The structure of social media, which puts visuality in the foreground and is constantly flowing, pushes its users to consume more quickly to remain the center of attention. For example, in a study conducted with young people between the ages of 18-25 in 2017, it was determined that 41% of the participants felt that they had to appear in a new outfit every time they were involved in social life. Another 2019 study found that British people spend up to £2.9 billion on items they will wear in just one summer. New products, called fashion and constantly changing, are offered for sale. With the rapidly evolving fashion sense, many products are on sale. While this is the case, companies in the position of textile giants, which have many fast fashion understandings, work with social media phenomena to bring more products into fashion.
With all these aspects, the concept of "Fast Fashion" conflicts with the sustainability mission of responsible production and consumption networks that take care of social and environmental benefits, aiming to improve life. With its fast fashion understanding, it is harming its sustainability goals. With the emergence of social and ecological problems day by day and their effect on people's lives more closely, brands with a fast fashion understanding have begun to lose their consumers. Consumers face the dangerous consequences of social and environmental problems more and more every day; they want a sustainable business model that is sensitive to nature, respectful to the workforce, and gains power in the fashion world. For this reason, consumers have started to prefer fashion brands that act with the mission of sustainability. For example, a study conducted in 2015 revealed that 66% of consumers are ready to pay extra for the products and services of companies that emphasize social and ecological sensitivity. This change process will accelerate with each passing day, and the profit maximization-oriented, large-scale, and low-cost business model of textile giants working with a fast fashion understanding and the responsible consumer profile will have to change. Otherwise, these brands will lose their competitive market power and cannot sell.
Author:
Furkan Ünal
Source: