2022 is the worst time to admit you’re a fast fashion shopper. With social media yielding its undeniable power and exposing us to endless greenwashing, we are constantly made aware of the damaging effects the fast fashion industry has on our environment and their employees across the world.
But that doesn’t seem to be stopping the biggest culprits in the industry from trying to infiltrate and profit off of the sustainable fashion ‘movement’ that has emerged in recent years.
Earlier this month the Boohoo-owned brand Pretty Little Thing announced the launch of 'PLT Marketplace'–an app and website where consumers can buy and sell used clothes- despite the fact they produce around 54 million items per year made from polyester and polyurethane disguised as ruched dresses and wide-leg trousers.
Just last week Kourtney Kardashian-Barker revealed her sustainable line with Boohoo at New York fashion week with a show that was far from smooth sailing. Starting an hour late, music and lights were cut during the show which forced the audience to use their phones’ flashlights to light the runway for the models.
I could name and shame these fast fashion brands for hours, all the while knowing my deepest darkest secret: I am a fast fashion shopper.
Gasp!
Like many of us, my journey with fast fashion started with the likes of e-commerce brands like PLT and Missguided. I started following PLT’s Instagram at around 15 years old, enamoured with the beautiful goddess-like women dressed in colourful and trendy outfits on their feed. Of course, being a young teenage girl, I was pulled in by my insecurities.
Desperately wanting to be that girl, I would spend my limited pocket money on these fast fashion brands, only to find that a green backless dress (which I threw away after two uses) can’t suck in and enlarge certain areas of my body to make it seem I have the body of Kylie Jenner.
Whilst writing this article, I scrolled through my order history at PLT and I haven’t bought anything since February 2022. But hold the applause because there is one fast fashion brand in my life I can’t seem to let go of: Primark.
For me, Primark is a staple high street store, as for many teenage girls. Its affordable fashions, copied from high-end retailers, allow us to look like the girls on PLT’s Instagram without breaking the bank.
It’s easy to ignore that in 2019 Primark’s direct and indirect CO2 emissions were 6.4 million tonnes (according to Associated British Foods) when you’re holding five £1 thongs in your hand and a hot pink blouse that you swear you have to have.
Whenever I go to Primark, I always tend to speed walk around out of shame, debating whether the environmental damage caused by my purchase outweighs the affordability. Sometimes when I do buy something I don’t even get the infamous brown bag so I can hide my crimes against the environment.
A recent study shows that 73% of Gen Z consumers are now taking a more thoughtful approach to their fashion and I am definitely part of that 73%. Although, whenever I need new underwear, socks, pyjamas, plain t-shirts or vests, Primark is always my first port of call because I often choose affordability over the environmental impacts.
Googling affordable and sustainable underwear can bring you thousands of websites with the most limited options. Pantee is a sustainable underwear brand in the UK. Their high leg thong comes in sizes XS-3XL, is made from reworked deadstock fabrics and is ethically produced in Bangladesh. Sounds great right? But that one item costs £18 plus shipping. Another label under the name Pangaia sells organic, cotton t-shirts ‘made from 100% organic cotton’ for £45.
Like anything you buy, you get what you pay for. Yes, the quality is better. Yes, the items will last a lot longer, but I can’t imagine spending £18 on one thong when I could spend that money on a week’s worth of food.
We can’t expect to save the planet when slow fashion is very quickly becoming luxury wear. Seeing popular fashion brands like Tala using the buzzwords ‘sustainable’ and ‘made with natural fibres’ to describe their £45 tennis skirts- it automatically means we have to open our purses that much wider.
Lately, discussing fashion often means considering inclusivity in body size. Whether that’s the size range a brand has or the models used in advertising campaigns, plus-sized representation in the fashion industry has improved (although there is still more work to be done).
The conversation of inclusivity and fashion now needs to move to accessibility. If brands and slow fashion influencers want all of us to join the sustainability ‘movement’ then basic products like underwear and t-shirts need to be made more affordable.
Sustainable clothing does require more complex manufacturing and sourcing methods due to the type of materials used but with the fashion industry responsible for an estimated ten percent of global greenhouse emissions there is a desperate need for innovation.
I can’t wait for the day when I can wear underwear and pyjamas made out of recycled materials! But until that day my toxic relationship with fast fashion has to continue.
Edited by Olivia Booth
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