Metz Final Podcast

Fast fashion, popularized in recent years by businesses like Shein and Zara, involves replicating celebrity fashion trends and producing cheap products in foreign sweatshops. The history of fast fashion dates back to the Industrial Revolution in the 1830s with the invention of the sewing machine. Ready-to-wear clothing brands emerged, leading to a 50% growth rate in clothing production in the past 15 years. Fast fashion prioritizes profit maximization and is influenced by social media trends set by celebrities. The environmental impacts of fast fashion include water pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Sweatshops and abusive working conditions are prevalent in the fast fashion industry, with brands like Shein, Naki, and Zara known for running them. Fast fashion has also contributed to unrealistic body standards and social imaging. Ethical alternatives include supporting conscious brands, shopping secondhand, wearing what you already have, and donating unwanted clothes responsibly. Hi y'all, my name is Amelia Metz and I'm an undergrad student at A1 University. I'm recording this podcast episode to discuss fast fashion, the history behind it, and how it has impacted our lives. So basically fast fashion was technically started in the 1830s during the Industrial Revolution with the invention of the sewing machine, but it has really became popular in the last few years with new business creations like Shein and Zara. So let's back up for a second and actually define what fast fashion is. These trends typically replicate how fashion designs are pieces that celebrities have worn. Businesses like Shein, they take these ideas and they make very cheap products in a fast way in foreign sweatshops and then they sell them for very cheap prices. So most of the times you can find a shirt on Shein for like $2 or so. And of course it's not great quality, but the idea is that you throw it out or buy a new shirt that fits the new trends after wearing the original shirt only two or three times. So in this episode I'm going to be talking about the history of fast fashion and how that has translated into other things such as sweatshops and negative environmental impacts. Alright y'all, so for the first segment of this podcast I'm going to do a deep dive into the history of fast fashion. The term fast fashion was first used by the New York Times in the 1990s when they were trying to describe Zara's system of getting clothing from the design step to on the shelves and stores within a two week period. Before the industrial revolution, people only owned like a few pieces of clothing and they were really good quality and they were expensive. So clothing had to be hand sewn because there was no sewing machines at this time. So it made the process very labor intensive and that resulted in the high price. So only the wealthiest families were able to buy new clothes often. So if you were part of the middle or lower class, you either wore second hand clothing or you had to make your own. During this time period, the fashion trends were a lot of fancy gowns and skirts and corsets and blouses, but these items were definitely not easy to produce since they were being hand sewn. In the 1830s, the industrial revolution hit and there were many technological advances and the sewing machine happened to be one of them. Fashion designers were now able to produce a mass amount of clothing in a short period of time. And by the end of the 19th century, ready to wear clothing brands were emerging and the first department store was created. With that, the doors opened for the start of what we now know as fast fashion. In the past 15 years, there has been a 50% growth rate in the amount of clothing that has been produced. This pushed clothing trends to alter to items like sweatshirts, leggings, jeans, and sweaters because they were easier to produce at mass rates with universal sizing. As fashion's role in society has progressively gotten larger over the past few years, designers have opted for a new main goal, and that is profit maximization. Economies of scale tells us that the cheaper you can produce a product of demand, the more of it you will sell. So when fashion designers and clothing companies decide the best route that they should take to get profit maximization, fast fashion is one of their top choices. In addition to that, the role of social media has also really had an impact on the way that we see fast fashion. Many trends have been set by celebrities just because they've posted a picture of their outfit on Instagram. So for example, celebrities like Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian have helped push the trend of shapewear and body suits into the fashion world. In these posts, they've accumulated millions of likes and views, and that has translated into big business opportunities. So both Kim and Kylie have created their own fashion brands. New apps like TikTok has pushed the idea of fast fashion to a whole new level. Recently, TikTok opened their own store, and as you could guess, it is called TikTok Shop. So on the platform, there are a lot of influencers who do advertisements or create content to get viewers to buy products off of TikTok Shop, and most of the items that are sold on there are cheap alternates or dupes to luxury brand items. After the creation of smartphones and online shopping, fast fashion crossed the Rubicon and knew that it would never be the same. For the second segment of the podcast, I'm going to discuss the environmental impacts that fast fashion has caused. To start, I want to share this story from Evelyn Wang who wrote for the New York Times because I think it is so moving. She perfectly sums up fast fashion in the sense of major events like prom. Her story reads, The spring dance is in two weeks, and my friend needs help choosing a dress. She beckons me to her phone where an endless mosaic of elegant dresses, not one over $20, dances before my eyes. After much deliberation, she settles on a glamorous sapphire gown with pleated details lining the body. Another two weeks later, the dress carpets the bottom of a landfill, only worn once. That is a story that I think a lot of teenage girls can resonate with. I too am guilty of buying a formal dress and only wearing it once. In fact, I've done it upwards of 10 or 11 times. This has a lot to do with the societal pressure to only wear an outfit one time or to only be photographed in an outfit one time. Especially when it comes to fashion-based events like prom or homecoming, every event is seen as a new opportunity to up your game or step out in your best fit. Many times I've heard the quote, I can't take pictures in this outfit, I've already posted on Instagram in it. Evelyn Wang reminds us that partaking in the fast fashion trend is a privilege and definitely a choice. Ocean Generation says that garment manufacturing accounts for a whopping 20% of global industrial water pollution and that a lot of clothes made in the fast fashion industry are made with the use of plastics. A good example of this is Lululemon. I was shocked when I recently learned that when Lululemon makes their products, they have a recycling goal. And because of that, they reuse plastics in their clothing. However, that may not be doing as much good as we think it sounds like it does. Ocean Generation also notes that just washing those plastic-made products can pollute the ocean. In 2018, the fast fashion industry alone produced 2.1 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions. One New Humanity CDC gives us four ethical alternatives to participating in the fast fashion trend. The article says that we should support environmentally and socially conscious brands, shop secondhand, wear what you've got, and discard responsibly by donating the clothes that you no longer want or need. For the third segment of the podcast, I'm going to discuss the negative humanity impacts that fast fashion has brought about, specifically through sweatshops and social imaging. Although fast fashion has made clothes affordable and easily accessible, it has introduced a new problem to humans. Not only has it damaged our earth, it has put workers in the way of abuse and horrid working conditions. Many of the brands that are known for running sweatshops are fast fashion clothing brands. Examples are Sheen, Naki, and Zara. One of the first well-known incidents of abusive working conditions is the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. A first-hand account from Clara Lomlich, an employee at the factory, shows what life was like. She talked about the low pay, long hours, awful conditions, and punishment styles in the shops. The women would have to work 13 hours with only a 30-minute break for lunch. And even during their lunch, they could barely afford to eat anything because they had been so underpaid. She said that there were punishments that you would get if you messed up on a job. One specifically was that you were forced to pay for a damaged garment, even if you weren't the one that damaged it. The boss of the factory was not very bright, and he yelled at the women and treated them very badly. In the fire, there were 146 deaths. During J-Term this year, I took a class called U.S. Business History, and I did a research project on Naki and its use of sweatshops in child exploitation. My research found that, in the 1990s, word got out to the world that Naki had multiple sweatshops around the world with horrible working conditions and pay. Business Insider provides a list of stories within foreign Naki sweatshops, including one that says that workers are paid as little as 14 cents an hour in Indonesia. The Guardian reported that four Cambodian factories, including Naki, had over 500 employees hospitalized and 300 more collapsed, all within a three-day span. The working conditions in these factories consisted of a 98.6 degree Fahrenheit, poor ventilation and air circulation, chemical emissions, restricted use of the restroom, padlocked exit doors, underpay, and forced overtime. These factories were investigated, and it was determined that the employees in Cambodia were not being paid a living wage. Between 2003 and 2004, there were 569 factories that were examined. And more than a fourth of Naki's South Asian factories, there were cases of both physical and verbal abusive treatment. To bring the story back to more social imaging, recently I watched the new Brandy Melville documentary on Netflix. I thought that it was interesting because there were so many things going on behind the scenes that I had no idea about. This brand created their image around the stereotype of being skinny, white, blonde, and female. They are well-known for their one-size-fits-most sizing. Fast fashion businesses like Brandy Melville have damaged the image of fast fashion as a whole by placing unrealistic standards onto society. The emergence of fast fashion as a whole has introduced many negative things to our world and the people living in it. The purpose of this podcast has been to take a deeper dive into the agenda that fast fashion has set for our world through the topics of history and emergence, environmental impacts, and societal impacts. After listening to this podcast, I hope that you will take the initiative to slow down our fast fashion usage. For more information on how to get involved, please go to www.sustainyourstyle.org or www.greenmatters.com. Here are some ways that you can get involved right now. Shop second-hand through thrift stores or yard sales, buy fewer nicer pieces of clothing, choose organic cotton, recycle textiles and garments, and find sustainable brands. We only have one earth and it is up to us to save it. Be a nutrient and be the change.