A Brief History of Fast Fashion
How styles that don’t last took over the fashion world.
In 1990, The New York Times described a clothing store using a term that had never been heard before: fast fashion.
In this article, New York Times reporter Anne-Marie Schiro reports that Zara, a Spanish clothing store, was able to take an idea and transform it into a product available for purchase in just fifteen days. Over time, fast fashion has come to be defined as affordable clothes that are produced very quickly to stay on-trend. Adam Hayes, an economic sociologist, explains how “[t]he size of the fast fashion market [was $30.58 billion] in 2021. It’s projected to reach $39.84 billion in 2025.” This huge amount of money mostly goes to brands such as H&M, Zara, Shein, and Forever 21, allowing them to continue to produce countless items of clothing for people to consume.
The Beginnings of Fast Fashion
Even though fast fashion is a term that was coined only about thirty years ago, it is nothing new. Fashion historian Sara Idavacage points out that with the industrial revolution of the 1800s came innovation, leading to garment factories that mass-produced clothes. After this revolution, instead of most people making their own clothes, they would purchase them from stores. One invention that boosted the production of clothing and led to the development of fast fashion was the sewing machine. The sewing machine was invented in 1846, and it “contributed to an extremely rapid fall in the price of clothing and an enormous increase in the scale of clothing manufacturing,” according to Idavacage.
Much of the work that it took to produce clothing in the 1800s was done by the teams of workroom employees that did their work in the shops. Idacavage points out that “some aspects of production were outsourced to ‘sweaters,’ or people who worked from home for very low wages.’’ This is one of the models that was used to create the clothing production techniques that we use today.
After the Second World War, the vast majority of clothing was produced in factories rather than by hand due to restrictions on resources. This changed the way most middle-class Americans viewed clothes. Instead of making clothes themselves, Americans now bought cheaper clothing that had been produced in factories, thus creating fast fashion.
The 1960s was one of the first times in history that fashion began catering to a younger market. With the counterculture taking over, fashion trends began moving at a much faster pace, as the younger generation was rejecting the traditional fashions that had been worn by previous generations. This younger generation required cheaper clothes fast to keep up with the trends, which led to the further development of what we know today as fast fashion.
Why Fast Fashion?
The affordability of fast fashion is appealing to people who want to keep up with the constantly changing fashion trends but do not have the disposable income to do so with luxury brands. While some people prefer to purchase expensive designer clothing, Jihyun Sung and Hongjoo Woo explain that “some other consumers view fast fashion products as an inexpensive version of designer brands that they could easily access in a much quicker cycle.”
Sung and Woo go on to say younger people tend to favor fast fashion, as they have a greater desire to keep up with the trends and be fashionable, but they do not have the disposable income of older generations. Even though fast fashion may not have the quality of luxury or designer brands, “[m]any fashion consumers still continue to choose fast fashion, driven by the desire to possess a large amount of cheap clothing in a diversity of fashion styles.”
The Costs of Shopping Fast Fashion
Although fast fashion may seem like the perfect solution to our modern-day problem of how to stay on top of trends without breaking the bank, there are many concerns regarding the ethics of shopping at these affordable prices. Kelly Drenan, the founder of Fashion Takes Action, a Canadian nonprofit dedicated to sustainability in the fashion industry, emphasizes that “[t]he fashion industry has one of the highest water footprints among manufacturers.” This means that the amount of freshwater that is used to produce clothes is exceptionally high. Drenan notes that “[o]n average, it takes 2,700 [liters] of water to make one cotton t-shirt. That is enough water for one person for 900 days.”
The pollution of water is also a significant issue, as dyes and other chemicals that are used to produce clothes infect vital sources of water, rendering them useless and damaged for wildlife and humans alike.
The water footprint of fast fashion is not the sole issue that is associated with the production of these items of clothing. Drenan describes how on April 13th, 2013, “more than 1,100 garment workers were killed and at least 2,000 injured in the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory.” This tragic event was caused by a combination of forces, including meager pay for workers and a hazardous work environment. Drenan illustrates how fast fashion companies cut costs on their factories in order to remain competitive with other fast fashion brands. As a result of this, labor laws are ignored and unsafe working conditions are tremendously common.
Since fast fashion is made to be cheap, it generally ends up in the landfill. Morgan McFall-Johnsen, a reporter for Business Insider, explains how because of this, 85% of all textiles enter the dump every year. McFall-Johnsen emphasizes that “[t]he equivalent of one garbage truck full of clothes is burned or dumped in a landfill every second.” This massive amount of waste that is being produced is causing serious environmental issues in countries such as Ghana, where clothes litter the beaches.
An Increase in Consumption
Due to the accessibility and short lifespan of fast fashion items, clothes are being purchased and thrown away at faster rates than ever before. Owen Mulhern, a biologist with a focus on Earth’s climate, emphasizes that “[c]lothing sales doubled from 100 to 200 billion units a year, while the average number of times an item was worn decreased by 36% overall.”
Alex Crumbie, in an article published by Ethical Consumer, states that the average shopper in the United Kingdom has purchased around 60% more clothes today than they purchased in 2000. Lucy Siegle, a reporter for The Guardian, explains that “[o]ne in three young women, the biggest segment of consumers, consider garments worn once or twice to be old.”
This increase in consumption of fast fashion items has contributed to the growth of environmental concerns. Siegle predicts that by 2050, fast fashion could take up 25% of the world’s carbon budget. Elizabeth Segran, a guest on the podcast Why it Matters, points out that in the fast fashion industry, a large amount of chemicals, labor, and carbon go into a very short-term purchase. Segran goes on to say that to get a picture of how large this industry is, you have to magnify that amount by every human in the world.
Fast fashion was created by a desire to look fashionable and trendy without the price tag or the wait that came with designer or luxury brands. Even though fast fashion may seem like it was developed recently, this process of producing clothes has been developing for over 200 years. While fast fashion allows people to achieve the closets of their dreams for small amounts of money, there are costs to purchasing from brands such as Zara, H&M, and Shein. Although there are downsides, fast fashion has been a large part of modern history and has allowed younger generations to express themselves for many years.
Additional Sources Used in this Article
Kelly Drenan. “Picking up the threads: fast fashion led to the Rana Plaza tragedy in Bangladesh. We can do better.” Alternatives Journal, vol. 41, no. 3. 2015. Found on Gale Academic OneFile.
Jihyun Sung & Hongjoo Woo. “Gen-Y men and ‘Fast Fashion’: Who values it?” Critical Studies in Men’s Fashion, vol. 6, no. 1–2. 2019. Found on Gale Academic OneFile.
