The Issues With The Fast Fashion Industry

January 01, 2022By Kylese Nickleson-Smith

Twin Flame is a sustainable fashion brand who has made commitments to keeping our pieces sustainable and ethically made. But with the new awareness around sustainability and combating the fast fashion industry it begs the question "What is the problem with fast fashion?" In this article I will be giving easy ways to spot a fast fashion brand, impact on our planet, and how we can reduce that impact.

Three points to help you understand fast fashion

Fast trends: “Of the moment” clothing. This means brands are constantly changing what they produce based on the trends that their customers want to see. For example, it's fashion week and we see a popular photo of a model's streetwear outfit. Within a few days that same outfit design can be seen on a brand's website ready to be shipped out the next day.

Fast production: With fast trends comes fast production. The production process is a burden on the workers producing the clothing. Making it a dangerous work environment with dangerous working hours. “On April 24, 2013 the world got a reality check when the Rana Plaza clothing manufacturing complex in Bangladesh collapsed, killing over 1,000 workers and injuring over 2,500. There are approximately 40 million garment workers in the world today; many of whom do not have rights or protections. They are some of the lowest paid workers in the world and roughly 85% of all garment workers are women. The exploitation of women’s work is too big to ignore.”(BWSS).

Fast use: Keeping up with the trends means we leave behind what was trendy yesterday. We constantly want the new thing and it is readily available to us. And because of the cheap material the clothes just simply don't last. “It’s estimated that the average item of clothing is worn just 14 times, and in 2019 The Guardian reported that one in three young women considered an item worn just once or twice to be old. Much modern clothing is not made to last. Due to super-fast production, designs are generally not well stress-tested before sale, and cheap synthetic fabrics are used in order to keep costs low. Much of it will end up in landfill after only being worn a handful of times.” (Ethical Consumer).

How fast fashion affects the world we live in “Fashion—a $2.5 trillion sector—is the second most polluting industry on Earth, right behind oil…Fast Fashion’s negative impact includes the use of cheap, toxic textile dyes – with the fashion industry the second largest polluter of clean water globally after agriculture…The speed at which garments are produced also means that more and more clothes are disposed of by consumers, creating a huge amount of textile waste. In Canada, the average person throws out 81 pounds of textiles annually, while North Americans send 9.5 million tons of clothing to the landfill every year.”(BWSS)

How we are reducing our impact at TwinFlame

1. Sustainable design, browse our beautiful collection

2. Produce while being socially responsible

3. We only chose suppliers that share our sustainable commitment

4. Limiting our environmental footprint

5. Zero stock, Zero waste

6. 100% green packaging

7. A delivery with less impact on the planet

8. 1% for Healthy Seas

9. Give a second life or recycle

How to reduce your impact

1. Buy from sustainable brands