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The world today is hungry for fashion and to saturate the demand of the populace, most fashion industry venture into fast fashion. Today, fast fashion has become a normal trend for most of the fashion industry. They are fast to store stock, satisfy their consumers and dispose of clothing to create room for new collections.
Fast fashion brand industries turn cheap, trendy clothing made with fabrics that sample ideas from the catwalk or celebrity culture into garments in high street stores at a quick rate. This fast fashion as a stream of finances to the fashion industry has some negative consequences on the populace and environment.
Clothing production depends on chemicals and fabric dyes with a considerable amount of energy and resources. These chemicals after production are channeled into the water bodies which contaminates the fresh water. Fashion is the second most polluting industry for water. The textile dyeing process produces about 20 percent of global wastewater which is also directly expelled into the water bodies leading to the high risk of exposure to heavy metals for both people and animals in the surrounding environment. Fashion contributes heavily to health hazards through the emissions of carbon during clothing production. A pair of jeans emits as much carbon as driving a car for 80 miles.
The garbage of clothing burnt or sent to landfills on a routine and daily basis as a result of fast fashion which produces a huge amount of waste. This wasted clothing contains cheap polyester textiles used in its production which are non-biodegradable. These components wash into the soil and water, contaminating the food chain, and pose as a big threat to human health.
Although, some fashion brand industries have devised a means of reducing this wastage through discounts on their products. The increasing rate of fast fashion has led to the risk of severe factory accidents among the workers. Just like the tragic collapse of the Rana plaza factory which killed 1134 garment factory workers in Bangladesh. It has also caused much strain on the workers physically and mentally. This ugly situation seems to assume a different dimension following the outbreak of the novel corona virus.
The outbreak of the coronavirus has greatly affected businesses in every part of the world. The large and small-scale business sectors have equally had their far shares to which the fashion industry is not exempted.
The fast fashion seems to suffer a serious blow as a result of the ongoing pandemic crises but much effect is directed on the factory workers and suppliers involved in the chain of business. Many major fashion brands and retailers have canceled their orders and stopped payments for already ordered goods even when the order is ready, taking no responsibility for the impact these have on the supply chain.
The fashion factory is thus left to destroy the clothing or hoard these unwanted prepared goods and drastically shut down. However, some fashion companies such as Girotti Shoes only produce when consumers need the shoes and not in large quantities which may be subsequently discarded leading to further environmental degradation.
According to the Artisan alliance, fashion is not just created in the factories. It is a craft, artisanship, and things made by hands in the formal environment. It is the second largest source of employment across the developing world. Hence, the pandemic has rendered many factory workers unemployed and totally distressed while those with their jobs are been paid little after the order has been placed and delivered.
The fashion industry simply needs a revolution to build a system that values human life and the wellbeing of their workers over their profits especially during these unprecedented global health and economic crises. These can only be achieved if we speak up to avoid the fashion industry becoming business as usual after this pandemic. It would be best for the fashion industry to care and show empathy towards their workers rather than leaving them without jobs.
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