Summary: The Fast Fashion Industry

. Fast fashion is a concept used in the fashion industry to describe the quick turnaround that occurs from when designs are first presented on a runway to when they appear in stores. As they described in the documentary, The True Cost, the fashion industry used to have only two “seasons,” two times per year when new designs would be released to customers. Now however, it is as though the fashion industry has 52 seasons a year as they continually release new designs to their stores (Morgan 2015). This shift in fashion consumption has occurred because of cheap production in third world countries and the expanse of manufacturing available to high profile designers. Those working in these horrible conditions have no choice but to accept a low price

A. The True Cost exposed many of the socio-ecological problems associated with the increase in the fast fashion industry. One of the biggest social problems is the manufacturing done in sweatshops. Poor working conditions, low wages, and child labor are all apparent within the fashion industry. Many women and men in Bangladesh, India, Cambodia, and other developing countries are forced into working in poorly constructed buildings all for only a few dollars a day. In terms of environmental problems, the production of cotton represents a rising ecological issue. Many cotton farmers both in the United States and India are forced into using pesticides and fertilizers in order to obtain higher yields. There is also the more recent growing concern of using genetically modified organisms (GMO). These issues are causing degradation of the land and actually preventing it from being more productive in the future. The use of pesticides in India specifically has also been directly linked to social issues of causing birth defects in children and an extreme number of suicides in farmers. Finally, the disposal mentality of our current fast fashion industry has led to an increased amount of non-biodegradable clothing in landfills. As people buy more clothing with the mindset that they will simply throw it out after only a few uses, this trend will only continue. Many of the textiles used to create these clothing items cannot be recycled and end up simply taking up space in our

On the tags of clothing items, designers could incorporate information about how much organic cotton is used in the product or what country the item was made in. When consumers see this information right on the product tag, it will remind them that considering this information is important when buying a certain product. In order for this to really work as a prompt, however, it should be included on all clothing products. Unless consumers see this information on product tags, they may not even think about considering the sustainability of what they are buying. If all clothing manufacturers were required to include this information, that would provide a better reminder to consumers to think about environmental and ethical factors of how the clothing is produced while they are actually