Emelia Lowe

Opinions Editor

Fast Fashion

Fashion is an industry that never slows down, trends come and go but are always evolving. People are trying to keep up with the latest trends they see on Instagram, but most cannot afford the expensive pieces their favorite fashion bloggers are buying.

Therefore, the popularity of fast fashion is unmatched. Fast fashion is the quick and cheap production of trendy clothing. Websites like Boohoo and Fashion Nova receive tons of website traffic due to their cheap versions of expensive clothing. Fashion Nova’s founder Richard Saghian reports that Fashion Nova is one of the most searched fashion brands of 2018.

Saghian even refers to his company as “instagram fashion”. Fashion Nova currently holds 14.5 million instagram followers, with a team of 30,000 instagram influencers to rely on for marketing.

More mainstream, in store fast fashion brands are ones of H & M, and Forever 21. These have been around for more than twenty years and reach a more broad span of people. The appeal of these stores is the trendy designs and cheap cost, like Fashion Nova and Boohoo.

With cheap prices comes with cheap production. Most of these fast fashion factories are located in developing countries because they can be played very little, and there are not many restrictions on safety.

Gallery • 3 Photos

Jazmine Borreson

Online Visuals Editor

Have you ever thought about what your clothes are made of? About who makes your clothes, or what happens after you donate them or throw them away? The truth about the fashion industry is actually pretty ugly.

According to  recent study by the Ellen McArthur Foundation found that one garbage truck of textiles is wasted every second. And the Copenhagen Fashion Summit reported that fashion is responsible for 92 million tons of solid waste dumped in landfills each year.

The fashion industry is also the second-biggest consumer of water, producing 20 percent of wastewater while also generating more greenhouse gas emissions than all international flights and maritime shipping combined.

Ahead of World Environment Day on June 5, themed “Beat Plastic Pollution,” it’s worth remembering that synthetic microfiber pollution is washing up in our oceans at alarming rates. Around 100,000 marine animals are killed each year by plastic waste, including microfibers.

We need to rethink our fast-fashion habit—we can’t continue to make clothes that do not consider our environment. Think about more than just how cute top you want to buy think about what will happen to our environment if fast fashion does not slow down.