Fast fashion is a model of fashion production and consumption that relies on fast turnaround of styles and products with sales prices, often leading to fast discarding of pieces, cumulatively resulting in extremely high social and environmental costs throughout the entire value chain. The fast fashion model has expanded globally since the 1990s and the rise of offshore manufacture with access to cheap labor in developing countries has been a key enabler of its global expansion. The sudden availability of large volumes of inexpensive fast fashion items over the last 20-30 years created a mindset that makes it acceptable to “regularly consume and discard clothing”.(1) High turnover of fashion products is currently a widespread practice and research shows that garments are often used for less than a season.(2) It is estimated that the number of times a garment is worn before disposal has decreased by a worldwide average of 36% percent within the last two decades(3), and the average number of times a garment gets worn is now lower in China than in Europe.(4) It should be noted that no item of clothing can be accurately defined as ‘fast fashion’ as the cycle starts with the sowing of a seed or the extraction of oil, which takes place many months, years or decades before a finished garment is sold and worn.
FAST FASHION
