Fast fashion refers to cheap, mass-produced clothing, rapidly manufactured to keep up with the latest trends. This model dominates much of the fashion industry today and in order for it to be effective, it relies heavily on outsourced labour, low quality standards and even lower prices. 

But it wasn’t always this way, so what happened?

When did Fast Fashion Start?

There’s some debate about when fast fashion truly started, but most source its origins to the 60s and 70s when younger generations began searching for cheaply made clothing that embraced new trends - think bell-bottoms and mini skirts.

Soon, the fashion industry found a way to keep up with this increasing demand for affordable clothing. Textile mills started popping up across the developing world, allowing European and American companies to save millions by outsourcing labour.  

However it wasn’t until the 90s and 00s that fast fashion really kicked into high gear. Brands like Zara drastically sped up production to create “micro seasons” by shifting to bi-weekly deliveries of new merchandise.  

But just how bad is fast fashion for our environment?

Fast Fashion Sustainability (or more like, lack of) 

There are a number of ways fashion pollution negatively impacts our environment, but for now we’ll just focus on some of the main ones. 

1. Water

   Every year the fashion industry uses 93 billion cubic meters of water — enough to meet the consumption needs of 5 million people (roughly the population of the Republic of Ireland). But worse still, around 20 % of global wastewater comes from fabric dyeing and treatment.

2. CO2

   The fashion industry is also responsible for 10% of annual global carbon emissions, more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined. At this pace, the fashion industry’s greenhouse gas emissions will surge more than 50% by 2030.

3. Waste

   Global apparel consumption reached 62 million metric tons in 2019 (set to reach 102 million tons by 2029). Of this, 87% will be incinerated or disposed of in a landfill.

Yikes! And as our consumption continues to grow, so does the environmental impact of fashion. But what brands should you be looking out for?   

Fast Fashion Brands

Pretty much all high street brands are considered fast fashion – Zara, Topshop, H&M, Primark, Uniqlo (the list goes on). As well as a lot of online-only retailers like ASOS, Boohoo, Pretty Little Thing, Missguided and Nasty Gal.

Unfortunately for most of us, this will represent a significant proportion of our wardrobes. But once you scratch beneath the surface, it’s hard to go back to your old fast fashion habits - trust us!

How to Avoid Fast Fashion

Fast fashion brands are notorious for grossly exaggerating or even flat out lying about their sustainability credentials. It’s easy to slap a “conscious” or “responsible” label on clothes (yeah, we’re talking to you H&M and ASOS), but not as easy to actually mean it.

So, here’s a couple of ways you can avoid the fast fashion industry altogether.

1. Repair, restyle and up-cycle existing garments

2. Borrow clothes from the Nuw community

3. Rent clothing from sites like HURR

4. Shop second hand in your local charity shop

5. Buy from independent sustainable brands like Birdsong

How to Shop Fast Fashion in a More Sustainable Way

 For shoppers on a budget we understand that fast fashion is difficult to avoid – hey that’s the whole reason we founded Nuw! But we get that going cold turkey can be a scary thought.

So if you are shopping from fast fashion brands, here are a couple of things we recommend looking for on the clothing label before you buy:

1. What materials were used – some materials take hundreds of years to decompose in landfill. Others require hundreds of litres of water to produce. So, look out for sustainable fabrics like linen, Lyocell or recycled fabrics.

2. Where was it made – this will give you an insight into the lives of the garment workers who produced it and it’ll also help you calculate its carbon footprint. As local as possible, is always best.  

3. What’s the quality like – in line with the 30 wears rule, we recommend wearing garments a minimum of 30 times. So, make sure the garment will stand the test of time.

4. Garment care instructions – watch out for dry clean only garments, as these can end up being quite costly for both the environment and your wallet.