If you could guess how many designs a big fast fashion website, Shein, comes out with in a day what would you guess? 5? 10? 100? No! On average Shein comes out with 2000 different designs a day, but how does this affect you and why should you care?

        By definition Fast Fashion is low-priced clothing that moves quickly from design to retail/online stores to meet trends. The idea is that you could buy clothing at lower prices so you can dress in the newest clothing trends. This creates over consumerism which evidently leads to waste. Since trends are constantly changing, people are constantly purchasing. What happens is that someone buys a clothing piece to fit a new style, then when they decide they don't want it any more or a new trend starts, they most likely will throw it away., or donate or sell it. Then they find a new trend and this cycle repeats.

        The over consumerism Fast Fashion creates also has environmental effects. For example, as mentioned previously when people decide they don't want the clothing piece they will most likely throw it away. This leads to clothing ending up in landfills. If you didn't know, 85% of clothes end up in landfills. Which then produces carbon dioxide and other elements, and will create fog if it is not taken care of. One of the biggest problems with Fast Fashion companies is their amount of fabric waste. If you could imagine Shein, the biggest Fast Fashion company, coming out with 2000 designs a day you could only imagine the amount of fabric in landfills. Along with all the other Fast Fashion companies contributing to fabric waste like Fashion Nova and H&M.

Another issue in Fast Fashion is the quality of the clothes. Since Fast Fashion websites are producing clothes so fast, it is hard to maintain good quality, especially since they’re having to buy lots of cheap fabrics so they don’t break the bank. Also, Fast Fashion clothing pieces come apart very easily because of the company having to buy cheap thread, and not spending enough time on sewing due to having to get the designs done quickly. Other issues in the quality of clothes are them being see through, not true to size, etc.

        So, how can you help prevent environmental waste and over consumerism? Well, one of the things you can do is purchasing timeless pieces that can be worn and styled with many things, and not just relying on trends. The second thing you can do is to resell or donate your clothes instead of throwing them out. Lastly, recycling the fabric so it can be reused or upscaling pieces can prevent clothing waste. Some of the ways you can know if a company is Fast Fashion is by googling if it is Fast Fashion, looking at the quality of clothing compared to the prices, and the reviews online. So, with this information think twice before purchasing from Fast Fashion companies.