Mass-Produced Clothing: Why Consumers Should Choose Sustainable Fashion
Clothing items range from anything from undergarments to evening gowns. Almost every individual on the planet owns various pieces of clothing. That being said, what is the impact of fast fashion on workers, the environment, and consumers? A response to that question is nothing short of complicated and multifaceted. Fast fashion is a term to describe mass-produced clothing based on fashion trends from designer fashion shows, that is quickly replicated and pushed to stores. In contrast, sustainable fashion is clothing manufactured and consumed in a socially and environmentally conscious way. While clothing factories offer jobs to developing countries and increase cash flow
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Sustainable fashion allows consumers to further control fashion brands, by purchasing more or fewer items. Purchasing items creates more jobs, which in return creates more money flowing through the economy. Fast fashion and mass-produced clothing do effect the environment and factory workers. That being said, how does fast fashion directly impact the consumer and their personal choices? The Journal of Consumer Behaviour article entitled The Values and Motivations Behind Sustainable Fashion Consumption provides research data collected through semi-structured interviews that answers that question. The research finds sustainable fashion consumers show an association between the cost of sustainable fashion with quality while being motivated to purchase it due to the products supporting a community. (Davies & Lunblad, 2015) Sustainable clothing is more expensive and is difficult for all consumers to purchase. The high cost of sustainable clothing is due to the use of organic crops, made to order items, and the cost of manufacturing clothes made by individuals working in a safe environment and making a fair wage. (Chong, 2017) While consumers may have a desire to help their community sustainable clothing is more expensive and is not readily available. Consumers are still very much interested in fashion that fulfills their personal wants and needs. “Without sustainable fashion suppliers providing core product and meaningful psychological benefits, it is doubtful that many of the consumers would continue to consume for purely altruistic reasons.” (Davies & Lunblad, 2015) Sustainable fashion limits a consumers ability to wear the most recent fashions or styles of their peers. “Given the importance of identity construction to many consumers, drivers to be ‘fashionable’ often outweigh drivers to be ethical or sustainable. This paradox highlights the clash of the desire to consume with
Generational conflicts, political strife, environmental regulations, stakeholders in big oil, and many more hurdles affect the push to fully sustainable economies around the world and even here in America. In a world where coal, oil, and natural gas are limited, countries are gobbling it all up as fast as they can before other poorer countries come on the grid. Even though America and other countries gobble up these resources the life of the people is still a struggle to meet basic needs. Sustainability is an intermingling of resource use and protection of the “quality of life”, it is met by using resources sparingly and by recycling or reducing the use of other non-renewable resources to provide for our immediate need, but also to conserve and protect the needs of the next generation and to improve the quality of all the lives to come.
To conclude, we need to understand the connection between the consumer behavior and ethical fashion; and accordingly, two-way awareness needs to be generated i.e. the consumers should be made aware of their environmental and social responsibility and the manufacturers should be apprised of the value creation through ethical fashion. Dissuading consumers from fast fashion may be difficult, but it’s not impossible and can be achieved by making them realize of their individualistic identity and aligning their fashion sense with their environmental sense.
Fletcher, K. (2008). Sustainable fashion & textiles. London, England: Kate Fletcher. In the chapter Local and Light, Kate Fletcher outlines, how the large scale of production and having access to global trade has created horrific impact on local resources and resilient community business (Fletcher, K, P. 137). Fletcher argues these products do not have any reflect of local skills and local materials.
Fashion is everything to society and the media. The fashion industry has transformed into a necessity in the life of people. Everyone wants to look good, feel fabulous and feel as if we belong with everyone else. The envy and desire to wear certain things and look a certain way all come, from wearing the latest fashion handbags, accessories, dresses, shoes, and the list goes on. But, when is considering fashion into an individual’s life going too far to the extreme? Many do not consider the whereabouts of fashion materials and how the environment is affected by the mere existence of certain garments. Some may believe these objects grow on trees. But that is clearly not the case. Even though it would be nice. The fashion industry as a whole, has been notorious from green issues caused by their lack of sensitivity to the environment, conspicuous and unnecessary consumption of materials, encouraging an “throw-away” society and image issues that support women and young adults to look a certain way to feel “beautiful.” This is an issue that has increased over the past decades. Not just women, but men also feel the uncontrollable need to do whatever it takes to look like the celebrities they see on television and on the runways. The thought that the materials to make those desired items may have caused the life of animals or the destruction of mother nature does not come into mind. Countless people are concerned about conserving planet Earth and keeping it healthy. The fashion world has been targeted for many corruptions.
The strengths of the book come from its’ accessibility. The book is easy to follow and provides readers with a great deal of information about the production of mass-manufactured clothing. As well as brings awareness to its’ many issues which we inadvertently take part in when we purchase such products. The book is well written and thoroughly researched but does have its’ share of weaknesses.
It is necessary to identify fashion and explain the systems apparel industry uses before I start explore the essentiality of fast fashion. According to Dictionary.com, fashion is defined as the prevailing style or custom that is in a current mode and used to express oneself. It can be clothing, accessories, hair, etc. Why certain people like to frequently shop in malls and keep updating apparels in their closets every season? Form psychological perspective, people usually consider clothing as a symbol to show their values, personality and lifestyles to others. Critically, a rapid imaginative change and symbolic expression supports a sense people have about fashion. People believe that an ideal self-identity can be communicated to others through clothing, so figuring out how people make decision when they perceive clothing among different brands and understanding their needs and desires can help apparel industries expending and maintaining market s...
From this I want to argue that the world of consumption has a great influence on the way people create their identities. I shall explore important features of the nature and function of fashion, as it’s relevance offers models and materials for constructing identity. I then want to further my argument on whether consumption is seen as a passive process reflecting producer interests or an active process representing consumer interests, as this can determine how ones identity, or lack of, is perceived.
Sustainable manufacturing requires the green fashion knowledge from consumers to make it work. Green fashion knowledge is, “Environmental attitude models or consumers’ perception and beliefs on green products”. (Cervellon & Wernerfelt, 2012, p. 178) This is crucial because it raises awareness for consumer for the environment and hence promote the importance of green and sustainable textile manufacturing. But consumers often get the wrong idea and clarity of the true meaning behind it, “Consumers seem to doubt the existence of sustainable production processes, especially in the fashion industry where manufacturing is often outsourced to emerging countries” (Cervellon & Wernerfelt, 2012, p.178) Consumers often believed that sustainable manufacturing is only practiced by a minimal amount of manufacturers, so the concern for sustainable fashion is often neglected. On the other hand, the image of green fashion is often related to dull and not in style, so the majority of people will prefer fast fashion that is trendy, up to date and cheap. To promote the benefits of green fashion, it will take time to educate consumers and transfer knowledge to them. In a study performed by Marie-Ce ́cile Cervellon and Anne-Sophie
It is certain that people are getting more used to wasting products that are still reliable to use and, especially in fashion, not that many people are aware of the concept of sustainability. Although concept of recycling paper, plastic and glass has now spread a cross the states, people still doesn’t know how to recycle or reuse their clothing. “65 pounds of clothing and textiles a year are improperly discarded and only an eight of that goes to charities for reuse [1].” This indicates how unaware people are when it comes to taking care of their garments. Or rather, the way in which fast fashion industry promotes the value of cloth is very low, and it is because the fashion industry wants people to get rid of their clothing as soon as possible in order to sell their new colle...
This article is about the overall impacts of fast fashion. The particular section referenced discusses possible solutions and alternatives to fast fashion. It talks about how it is possible to produce environmentally friendly clothing through the use of organic cotton, bamboo, hemp, and other fiber crops that require less pesticides, water, and other inputs. It goes on to share how certain brands are beginning to implement the model of sustainable clothing. The point of this article is to introduce readers to the topic of fast fashion, give background, and show readers what they
Fashion in the 21st century is a big business, as its production employs millions of people and generates billions of dollars in revenue. Fashion has for the past century been, and is still today, used as an indicator of social change and progress, as it changes with the social norms of the society and the political changes of the world (Finkelstein 3). Works Cited Finkelstein, Joanne. A.S.A. & Co. Fashion: An Introduction to Fashion. New York: New York University Press, 1998.
The act of consumption has been the primary means through which individuals in society participate and transform culture. Culture is not something already made which we consume; culture is what society creates through practices of everyday life and consumption involves the making of culture. When attempting to understand certain acts of consumption it is necessary to observe the relations involved in production and consumption. Through technological innovation, the fashion industry has been expanded to play a prominent role in consumers’ purchasing decisions and styles are becoming less difficult to obtain. With the expansion of department stores and shopping being viewed as a leisurely activity, this has continued to transform the act of fashion consumerism. The functional interests feature a rational attachment to clothing items. Symbolic benefits involve status and prestige to fulfill the achievement for positive self-esteem. Further benefits include a provided experience for the individual consumer and the created use of imagery and desire used to enrich one’s life.
Many people think fashion is just all about design or the clothing that you wear. In fact, the definition is “a popular way of dressing during a particular time or among a particular group of people” (Fashion). Well personally, I think that have got it wrong, and there are many more things about fashion that people do not realize. Consumerism and consumption play a huge role on what fashion is today and what goes into it, and not just about design or designers, but also socially and environmentally. Consumerism and consumption impact the social and environmental aspect of the fashion industry because of what people buy, why they buy things, what type of things they look for in terms of quality or brand, and also where they go to shop.
In conclusion, although fast fashion has become a rising trend because of consumer awareness the drawbacks of fast fashion is also on the rise because of augmented realization around climate change, resource deficiency, financial circumstances, the slow-fashion crusade, and ill-fated accidents like the Rana Plaza collapse in Bangladesh that happened in October of 2013, as well as hard-hitting, visually awkward movements from organizations such as Greenpeace. The more people start to become more conscious about the disadvantages of Fast Fashion this is one trend that will soon
Sustainable fashion is among the developing design viewpoint and movement of sustainability with the main objective of establishing a structure, which can be sustained for the foreseeable future in terms of conservationism and social accountability. This implies that all the products made are developed with much consideration to the environmental and social influence all through its overall lifetime encompassing its carbon imprint. It is revealed that sustainable fashion is not just a short time trend but one, which could endure for a long time (Fletcher 76). Beforehand, conservationism used to represent itself in the fashion world through the contribution of a portion of transactions of products for a charitable reason.