Fast Fashion

Introduction

Fast fashion is a western issue and his been built from a new form of capitalism, since people have received more money in more recent times people like to buy more than they need, with a demand for new goods comes a capitalist dream where production outperforms the need for new clothes. Fast fashion is basically fashion but cheap and not worth wearing more than once, these clothes that are made cheaply are very sketchy since they make some of these clothes in developed countries so they can’t be paying low wages can they, well this is alleged but there has be investigations into these factories, the investigations found that people are cramped into small rooms and are not pay by the hour and sometimes just not paid. It is easy in the uk to find new migrants and poorer citizens that will either speak little English or just don’t understand or care how many their being paid. Other dirty tactic that some companies use is to replace people throughout the day not allowing the people to gain enough money to make their profits less, the difference from developed to undeveloped is the lack of unionisation because in undeveloped countries the people are poorer normally which means they are just taking to make a living rather than trying to find out what their worth. (Clickview 2021, Fast Fashion, Australian Government) Unionisation has made exploitation harder in the west with the exception of the United States because they have poorer unionisation and unions are portrayed in a terrible way, this portrayal of unions is to stop people from taking more money of the companies which is why they have a terrible minimum wage and a health system that allows many people to die rather than the sick receiving treatment. But in the United Kingdom there was unionisation which is why they have an alright health system and a good wage so that people can survive. But in countries like china and India exploitation is common this is because most of the world production of goods is in China and India. (Economics Explained, A 2019, India: The Next Economic Superpower)

China and India

India and China allowed to so extent the exploitation of their people so that industry would be bought into the country, this is very true in the case of china since they have gone from a very poor society to a global power in around about 30 years, before the west invested in china, china had been an isolated socialist hierarchy which really wasn’t working, so in 1978 Deng Xiaoping opened china to the west after 27 years of Mao this was a good change. The west invested heavily in china for the sake of cheap labour, which is still common in china today, but now it’s not the Han Chinese being exploited instead it’s the Uyghurs. If cheap clothes have made in china written on them normally it’s been made by exploited Uyghurs. This easily exploited workforce allows the companies to rake in the benefits while the exploited workers make nearly nothing. (HBO, J 2020, China & Uighurs: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO))

Internet

The idea of fast fashion increases demand for products and saturation the market with new clothing styles, which in my mind is the problem with fashion, fashion is pointless clothing styles come and go people need to find their own identity and not just follow the crowd. The is also the internet which has connected people across the world but has also made it easier to reach new customers, which from an industry and business perspective this is great but from the environment and local perspective small businesses are closing so that giant mega companies can take their place. This removes local spirit and charm from many areas. It is more beneficial to buy local rather than buying from amazon or eBay since any companies can monopolise industries on websites like these because they work across the entire world and aren’t held by local government.

The Internet allows people to view more advertise and platforms like Tik Tok, Snapchat and Instagram have a small number of regulations to done with advertise alike YouTube which has heavy regulations. Tik Tok only requires hashtag ad to be applied to the post which most people don’t really pay attention to, these shows that Gen Z (or Zoomers as many people call us) don’t have the attention span to spend time reading captions which is also where internet references like memes change so rapidly on a weekly basis, this can also describe the fashion industry. Human References remain around for centuries, Monty Python is a start the movies came out in the 1970’s and still remains quite popular with the young generations of those times that watched the movies when they came out. This can also describe fashion chooses from that time like Tie Dyed Shirts or the huge array of different Jean’s choices. The generation that grew up wear those clothes have fond memories of that time and the fashion. Fast fashion will ruin this trend of fondness for old clothes since there is just so many styles to choose from and this is coming from someone who doesn’t care for fashion.

Companies use influential people on the internet to sell clothes these endorsements are normally given to female creators since they have most of the female and queer audiences. These endorsements are normally on Tik Tok or Instagram since they are mostly female dominated while platforms such as YouTube and twitch are male dominated so less fast fashion ads are played on YouTube. If these ads were more common about ten years ago, they would have been on Tumblr, that platform is dead now. Social media has propelled fast fashion ideas to the forefront of modern entertainment, which is problematic since entertainment on the internet has small amounts of regulations. Alike tv though ads must be pointed out during the video which on tv/movies adverts don’t need to be. (Blattberg, E 2015, The demographics of YouTube, in 5 charts)

Africa

The greed of the world is destroying Africa which has been common for centuries since the time of slavery, this partly comes down to how most people view Africa. For this sort of ignorance to end the media needs to focus on good things that are happening in Africa like the growing population and birth of the Rwandan giant to the new influences coming out of Africa. With more investment starting to happen in Africa, the continent will start to rise in power. As the developed we should take more responsibility for how we treat other regions. (Wendover Productions, S 2019, How Rwanda is Becoming the Singapore of Africa)

The photos of clogged drains are disheartening since those are for catching water not rubbish and especially for this essay clothing. From Kinshasa to Accra there is just trash everywhere, the west allowed our waste to destroy and wreck other places this needs to be fixed. The western powers and china need to send in clean up time with numbers in the millions to clean up our mess and if clothing isn’t useable anymore the clothing pieces should be recycled in our own countries. With quick and decisive act, we can fix our mess before it gets any worse.

Conclusion

Inconclusion the fast fashion is a problem of new market capitalism in the form of destructive caused by greed and the top 1% not caring about the impact only caring that they benefit from the mass sale of cheap clothing. The exploitation of Chinese and Indian people has created a problem that affects Africa this is a common of the west and with the total perplexing lack of knowledge about this topic in the public this is not surprising. The media has played its part by ignoring the problem, the lack of understanding has allowed this to happen. Urgent action needs to happen and this with pressure on government will help to solve the problem. The day will come soon and hopefully the west is scrutinised and these companies are held accountable.

Clickview 2021, Fast Fashion, Australian Government, viewed 13 September 2021, <https://online.clickview.com.au/exchange/series/8659/four-corners/videos/41130237/fast-fashion>.

HBO, J 2020, China & Uighurs: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO), online video, 27 July, viewed 13 September 2021, <https://youtu.be/17oCQakzIl8>.

Blattberg, E 2015, The demographics of YouTube, in 5 charts, viewed 13 September 2021, <https://digiday.com/media/demographics-youtube-5-charts/>.

Wendover Productions, S 2019, How Rwanda is Becoming the Singapore of Africa, online video, 20 March, viewed 13 September 2021, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xX0ozxrZlEQ>.

Economics Explained, A 2019, India: The Next Economic Superpower, online video, 10 October, viewed 13 September 2021, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0O8jrbB6xg>.

ABC, N 2021, The Environmental Disaster that is Fuelled by Used Clothes and Fast Fashion | Foreign Correspondent, online video, 12 August, viewed 13 September 2021, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bB3kuuBPVys>.