Courtesy : DIPLOMA IN FASHION DESIGNING (DFD)
Slow fashion counter
The slow fashion or conscious fashion movement has risen in opposition to fast fashion, naming responsibility for pollution (both in the production of clothes and in the decay of synthetic fabrics), poor workmanship, and emphasizing very brief trends over classic style. Elizabeth L. Cline’s 2012 book Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion was one of the first investigations into the human and environmental toll of fast fashion. Fast fashion has also come under criticism for contributing to poor working conditions in developing countries. The 2013 Dhaka garment factory collapse in Bangladesh, the deadliest garment-related accident in world history, brought more attention to the safety impact of the fast fashion industry. # ISO certification in India
In the rise of slow fashion, emphasis has been given to quality, considerate clothing. In recent Spring/Summer Fashion Show 2020, high end designers are leading the movement of slow fashion by creating pieces that develop environmental friendly practices in the industry. Stella McCartney is one luxury designer who focuses on sustainable and ethical practices, and has done so since the nineties. British Vogue explains that the process of designing and creating clothing in slow fashion involves consciousness of materials, consumers demand, and the climate impact.# ISO certification in India
In her 2016 article titled “Doing Good and Looking Good: Women in ‘Fast Fashion’ Activism”, Rimi Khan criticizes the slow fashion movement, particularly the work of high-profile designers and slow fashion advocates Stella McCartney and Vivienne Westwood, as well as other well known industry professionals such as Livia Firth, for creating slow fashion products which cater to a mostly western, wealthy, and female demographic. Khan points out that because most slow fashion products are significantly more expensive than fast fashion items, consumers are required to have a certain amount of disposable income in order to participate in the movement.# ISO certification in India
Khan argues that by proposing a solution to fast-fashion that is largely inaccessible to many consumers, they are positioning wealthier women as “agents of change” in the movement against fast fashion, whereas the shopping habits of lower income women and people of other genders are often considered “problematic”. Andrea Chang provides a similar critique of the slow fashion movement in her article “The Impact of Fast Fashion on Women”. Chang argues that the slow fashion and ethical fashion movements place too much responsibility on the consumers of fast fashion clothing, most of whom are women, to influence the industry through their consumption.# ISO certification in India
Chang suggests that because most consumers are limited in their ability to choose where and how they purchase clothing, largely due to financial factors, anti-fast fashion activists should target lawmakers, manufacturers, and investors with a stake in the fast fashion industry rather than create an alternative industry that is only accessible to some.# ISO certification in India
Economics
Fast Fashion has an ongoing trend of being successful economically within the retail industry worldwide. The fast-fashion market in 2020 globally produced $25.1 billion. It was expected to increase at an annual compound growth rate (CAGR) of 21.9%, resulting in the global market increase to $31 billion in 2021. By 2030, the fast fashion industry will bring a revenue of $192 billion to the world’s global economy.# ISO certification in India
This economic growth from fast fashion is demonstrated through how the fast fashion industries like H&M or Shein strategize in manufacturing. Most fast fashion clothes exporters are from developing countries across Asia, such as India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, China, Indonesia, Cambodia, etc. Developing countries’ economy relies on fast fashion consumption as most of their export earnings profit from ready-made clothes. China, for example, has gained a yearly profit of $158.4 billion from exporting ready- made clothes.# ISO certification in India
Manufacturing
The economic decision for the fast fashion industry to thrive is by producing high revenue through low production costs within their manufacturers in Asia. One low production cost in the fast fashion retail is the investment cost of materials to make a garment. Fast fashion invests in polyester and cotton fabric because they are inexpensive and durable materials. In 2020, polyester’s global price per metric ton was $725 (or 32.9 cents per pound), and the global price for cotton in 2021 was 126 cents per pound.# ISO certification in India
According to these statistics, polyester fabric is more affordable than cotton, but both are relativity cheaper than higher quality fabric such as silk or wool. One basic T-shirt would require .5 Ibs of cotton material, resulting in less than $1 of cotton fabric used.[43] Inexpensive materials allow the fast fashion industry to produce a high volume of affordable clothes at a low production cost. Therefore, retailers profit from selling high volumes of affordable designer clothes by its increased markup price from the material cost.# ISO certification in India
