I used to wonder why people would pay so much money for designer clothes when they could get an identical garment for a much lower price.

Of course, I knew nothing about quality then.

Didn’t even know the difference between polyester and cotton. (Imagine my shock when I found out that polyester is plastic!)

From where I was standing, fast fashion was a brilliant invention—making it possible for poor people like us to look like the ‘elite’ in society.

Democratizing access to style.

Win-Win for everyone right?

Well, lets just say there’s a different side to the story.

Today’s newsletter marks the start of a three-part deep dive into fast fashion; beginning with its history, followed by its triple impact, and concluding with the debate on whether banning fast fashion is classist.

Maybe grab a cup of tea for this one.

Today in 5 minutes you’ll learn :

What is fast fashion?
How did fashion become so fast?
5 questions to reflect on.

What Is Fast Fashion?

Fast fashion is clothing production on steroids.

It’s high volumes of trendy clothing produced quickly and cheaply, sold at low prices, and nowadays designed to be disposable so people can come back for more.

But let’s complicate this for a minute.

What do we call fashion also quickly and cheaply mass-produces clothes with hit-and-miss quality but sells them under a ‘high-end’ brand at a more expensive price?

Okay, I digress.

How Did Fashion Become So Fast?

Once upon a time, clothes were made to order or self made at home—meaning each piece was tailored to fit and designed to last.

Materials were sourced locally, and the process was naturally slow because it required skilled people to painstakenly craft clothes with their hands.

Until The Industrial Revolution Happened (late 18th to early 19th century)

The Industrial Revolution was a time when machines started doing the work that people and animals used to do—leading society to shift from making things at home to making them in factories.

For the textile industry, inventions like the spinning jenny, the power loom, and the cotton gin were a game changer.

England

1764: James Hargreaves invents the Spinning Jenny—significantly speeding up the process of spinning cotton into thread.
1784: Edmund Cartwright invents the power loom—significantly speeding up the process of weaving fabric.

USA

1793: Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin—significantly speeding up the process of removing seeds from cotton fiber
1846: Elias Howe invents the sewing machine—you know what the sewing machine does.

Inventions like the spinning jenny and power loom, along with access to raw materials like cotton from its colonies (*cough* slave trade), helped Britain become the number one exporter in the fashion industry.

Slaves were forcibly taken from Africa to the Americas, where they worked on cotton plantations. Cotton was then shipped to Britain and other European countries—feeding the textile mills and factories that were central to the Industrial Revolution.

The profits from these businesses, built on the back of slavery and the exploitation of colonies, greatly contributed to Britain’s wealth and industrial development.

20th Century: The Birth of Fast Fashion.

After World War II, more mass production techniques were invented and clothing became more affordable and available.

Newspapers, magazines, and radio grew in popularity, and with them came advertising— giving birth to a consumer culture that increased the demand for clothes.

1960s-1970s: Ready-to-wear fashion (prêt-à-porter) begins to make designer styles more accessible to the general public, setting the stage for fast fashion.
Late 1970s-1980s: Companies start to move production to developing countries like China, India and Bangladesh to reduce costs.
1984: Inditex, the parent company of Zara, is founded. It will go on to become a key player in the fashion industry known for its ultra fast production cycles, bringing new designs from conception to stores in just a few weeks.

See? They don’t all fit under the ‘fast fashion’ definition.

1990s: Fast fashion grows faster with the expansion of major brands like H&M (founded in 1947 but expanded globally in the 1990s), Zara, and later, Forever 21 (founded in 1984, expansion throughout the 2000s).

The 21st Century: Globalization and Technology

This period marked the peak of overproduction, with brands producing more collections per year than ever before.

2000s: Shopping is transformed by the internet and e-commerce, helping fast fashion brands to quickly sell their ever-changing collections worldwide.More brands move production to countries with lower labour costs, making clothes even cheaper to produce and buy.
2010s: Social media, especially Instagram, makes many people crave the latest looks, speeding up the fast fashion trend even more.
2013: The tragic Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh, kills over 1,100 garment workers. It sheds light on the terrible working conditions in the fast fashion industry, sparking a global debate about ethics in fashion.
After 2013 – present: People become more aware of the environmental and ethical problems with fast fashion. Many brands are now trying to be ‘more sustainable’—introducing ‘eco-friendly’ collections and encouraging recycling and the use of second-hand clothes.

Yet Fast Fashion Continues To Grow

Since 2000 Clothing sales doubled from 100 to 200 billion units a year, while the average number of times an item was worn decreased by 36% overall to the current state of fast fashion.

Why?

1. Consumer Demand: There is unfortunately still a strong demand for new, affordable and trendy clothing.

2. Global Expansion: Many fast fashion brands have continued to expand globally, opening new stores in developing countries where the desire for new and affordable clothes is growing.

3. Online Shopping and Social Media: E-commerce, social media and AI have made it easier for fast fashion brands to reach buyers directly and influence them to buy more than they need.

via GIPHY

And that’s the unfortunate story of how we went from mindfully making clothes to overproducing for profit.

Next week we’ll dive deeper into the impacts of fast fashion, but here’s what you can do meanwhile.

5 Questions For You To Reflect On.

How often do you buy new clothes, and what motivates these purchases?
Do you know where and how the clothes you buy are made?
What happens to the clothes you no longer wear or need?
How does the concept of fast fashion align with your personal values and beliefs?
What practical changes can you make to become a more conscious buyer?

Fashion So Fast, Even Usain Bolt Can’t Keep Up.