Fast Fashion and Sustainable Fashion
These two names are the “yin and yang” (without making any comparison, what I wanted to indicate are two concepts different from each other, but similar in a way and also part of the same concept, in a way one concept balances the other one) inside the fashion industry of the last few years: fast fashion a fast, dynamic concept, sustainable fashion, a more ethical and slow one.
Fast Fashion
It is a term used especially inside the fashion world to indicate a style of production that passes rapidly from the catwalks to the stores, in this way the stores will be full of the latest trendy garments.
To be able to produce in this way, fast fashion companies need to use a system that has to be fast, cheap, and really dynamic. What is important for fast fashion brands is the fact to propose as soon as possible really trendy designed garments, in a small quantity of time for the cheapest possible price to be as much competition as they can inside the fashion market.
To indicate some of the most popular names: H&M, Zara, Topshop, Primark.
Sustainable Fashion
It’s also a term used especially inside the fashion world but it is a little bit more complex than the fast fashion one.
Sustainable fashion merges all the kinds of ethical fashions or ethical fashion ideas or ethical fashion projects inside the market.
Paradoxically fast fashion brands could have inside a section dedicated to sustainable fashion but a sustainable fashion brand should never have inside a fast fashion section.
The Main Question: Are These Two Systems Against Each Other?
If you ask me, these two systems are not against each other because they sell on two different levels. People who buy fast fashion tend to not buy sustainable ones because they have a different perception of fashion as well as different needs and vice versa.
The two systems don’t compete in the market for the clients, they don’t compete for the designs, they don’t compete for the prices so from a technical and fashionable point of view they are not against each other.
When are the two systems, if they could be, against each other?
They are when we enter into a more idealistic reality when we start to use values and ideas, principles, and social structures that objectively are on two different levels.
Fast fashion is a reality that doesn’t care about anything but the trends and making these trends readily available for people. It doesn’t care about the environment or the workers, which makes it one of the highest polluting industries in the world.
While sustainable fashion, in a way, is almost a reality that goes against fast fashion.
Fast fashion could be the peak of the fashion pyramid, the most extreme fashion reality, and sustainable fashion is the base, connected to the ground, to our planet.
What Are The Main Differences Then?
Sustainable Fashion
Well, sustainable fashion is a slow fashion where the environment is the most important aspect. The companies take care of the Earth as well as their workers.
Its practices involve:
Recycling
instead of making something new, sustainable brands recycle i.e use the old materials to recreate new garments. This reduces the environmental damage as well as garment waste
Producing Less
This avoids the cost of product storage as well as product waste.
Keeps Consumerism In Check
The idea of “something new” being readily available at an affordable cost screams only 1 thing: Consumeristic Society, something that creates a huge quantity of waste and this waste is one of the worst elements for our planet.
Sustainable fashion offers environment-friendly products at expensive prices (compared to fast fashion) which encourages people to use the products for a longer period of time, hence reducing the waste.
Fast fashion
Fast Fashion is almost the opposite. However, it does come with a few advantages too.
Possibilities
Fast Fashion creates a reality where anyone and everyone can have access to the latest fashion trends at a reasonable price.
Equality
Fast Fashion creates mass-produced products which when used by people (irrespective of their age, religion, color, social status) create a sense of equality.
The Final Question!
What would you pick? Fast Fashion or Sustainable Fashion?
