Fashion trends have always been a thing and people want to be included in those trends. Some of the current trends include y2k, grunge, street wear, academia, and many others. A common place people look for those genre of clothes are websites that provide these clothes also known as fast fashion. Fast fashion is inexpensive clothing produced rapidly by mass-market retailers in response to the latest trends such as Uniqlo, Shein, forever 21, Topshop, and many others. These examples all have the same things in common, their effect on the environment and their labor conditions.  

With their clothes being produced fast and inefficient they aren’t made with the best quality in mind and don’t last long and end up getting thrown away if not donated. Clothes when they don’t get donated go into landfills and sit there for years to get decomposed and get incinerated making the clothing produce greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane. This is making the air quality worse which contributes to climate hazards. 

 Besides the environmental harm they’re doing they also treat their workers horribly, working in hazardous conditions and unlivable pay. With their working hours and the lack of freedom they have they’re making clothes on a tight schedule in a building full of workers in tight enclosed place breathing in toxins and fiber dust. And over-consumption isn’t making it any better by spending over $400-800 on these cheap clothes and showing these hauls over the internet, it is glamorizing fast fashion and over-consumption and making it seem okay, when it is instead damaging our environment as well as allowing the people owning these businesses to continue treating people horribly and profit off it.  

There are plenty of alternative ways to get good clothes that don’t involve ordering from unsustainable websites. An example being your local thrift stores or ordering on Depop where they sell secondhand trendy clothes, which are much more sustainable. as well as learning how to make your own clothes, which can also become a fun hobby. Or ordering online from places that you know aren’t doing harm to the environment and its employees some examples are Whimsy + Row, our common place, birdsong, etc. Their clothes are more expensive because they’re made to last and with the best quality in mind. No matter what trends or your style is there are plenty of better ways to obtain these clothes that isn’t as damaging to our planet and its people as long as you keep in mind where you’re shopping from.