Starting in the 1990s to the early 2000s as companies accelerated output to keep up with trends, fast fashion took the word ‘chic’ to a whole new level.
Historically, new clothing collections could be expected four times a year, but with fast fashion consumers can now expect new lines of clothing much more frequently. According to GlobalEDGE, the industry produces 52 micro-seasons per year, equivalent to one new collection being released every week.
The process of taking high-end clothing and duplicating it at nearly half the price has turned everyone’s attention in the direction of fast fashion.

Growing extraordinarily popular during the years of COVID-19, fast fashion has taken hold of its industry. In 2023, the fast fashion industry created revenue with an estimated worth of $1.7 trillion.
Americans are one of the top consumers of fast fashion, contributing to more than $558 billion towards the market.
These businesses’ ability to produce clothing, although cheap and not always well made, at an alarmingly fast rate has made it more desirable than buying high-priced clothing.
“Most of my clothing is higher quality, and I rewear my outfits very often. The only issue with buying more sustainable clothing as a teenager is the price. Working a job that only pays $10 an hour makes it hard to afford nicer clothes,” said junior Alyssa Rineer.
For this reason, fast fashion has gained the most popularity with millennials and Generation Z. The affordable prices of the clothing draws on the desire of younger generations to wear the newest styles but avoid spending too much money.
In ThredUp’s 2022 Gen Z Fast Fashion Report, 72% of college students reported having shopped fast fashion in the past year.
Because of its popularity worldwide, fast fashion has led to detrimental impacts on the environment. According to the Carbon Literate Organization (CLO), the industry is responsible for over 10% of all carbon emissions which is more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined. Its synthetic materials, textile waste, and intense water usage have caused the industry to leave behind a massive carbon footprint. It is predicted that by 2030 global emissions will increase by 30%.
Most of the textiles in the fashion industry use two types of fabrics: natural and synthetic. Natural fabrics like cotton and wool are of higher quality but they also take longer to make which is like a death sentence to manufacturers in the market.
In the lane of fast fashion with the high demand of consumers, synthetics are cheaper to make and buy which is very beneficial to mass production. A downside of these types of materials is that they are not biodegradable. This means that when thrown away, synthetic fabrics take 20 to 200 years to decompose according to Close The Loop.
Almost 70% of clothes in the fast fashion market are made with synthetic materials like acrylic and nylon with most being made from polyester. The creation of such textiles involves the extraction and processing of oil, leading to excessive greenhouse gas emissions due to the high energy usage required in their production process.
A 2017 report from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) estimated that 35% of all microplastics, tiny pieces of non-biodegradable plastic produced from textiles, found in the ocean come from the production of synthetic textiles like polyester.
Between 200,000 and 500,000 tons of microplastics from textiles enter the global marine environment each year. Something as simple as doing laundry causes microplastics to be shed from synthetic clothing and eventually make their way into waterways and landfills.
The urge to over-buy cheap clothing becomes a huge problem, creating a sort of “throw-away” culture. The emotional rush of receiving double or triple the amount of clothes you’d get at the mall for almost the exact same price contributes to most shoppers selecting items they’ll never really wear or use.
The true cost of fast fashion and its impacts on our world.
The average consumer buys 60% more clothing than they did almost 20 years ago while keeping their clothing for half as long as they did before the 2000s. Many of the items purchased by fast fashion companies are thrown away after only seven to ten uses. That’s a decline of 35% in just the last 15 years.
“When items are cheap you want to capitalize on that and get as much as you can, making it easier for you to wrap your mind around spending more on things you may not need but want because they are offered at a cheaper price,” said senior Hanna Willeford.
Overflow in landfills has been a problem all over the world for decades with fast fashion only adding to the problem every year. In America alone, an estimated 34 billion tons of textile waste end up in landfills on a yearly basis, which is equal to more than 100 pounds of textile waste per person, according to The BU School of Public Health.
Not only that but fast fashion is a major contributor to water pollution. Textile dyeing is the second-largest polluter and consumer of water, responsible for 20% of global wastewater. The dyeing process requires factories to mix dyes with water in order to infuse it with the fabrics more easily. All of the excess dye residue is usually dumped into rivers, ditches, or oceans, contaminating them.
Due to the need for fast and efficient clothing that is ready to distribute at a moment’s notice, and the production of a billion pieces per year, many companies like H&M and Shein have adopted the use of child labor or forced labor to keep up with demands.
The fast fashion industry contracts about 75 million factory workers worldwide, according to GW Law. With most of the clothing created by hand, the fast fashion brand requires its employees to operate in unreasonable working conditions.
The production of fast fashion clothing involves the use of 8,000 synthetic chemicals (according to GW Law). Some of these substances have been shown to cause cancer and factory workers are regularly exposed to and breathing in these carcinogens.
Out of all these workers, there is an estimated 2% who make a living wage (according to GW Law). Many garment workers are working up to 16 hours a day, every day of the week.
According to Project Cece, despite child labor declining by 30% between 2000 and 2012, it rose by 8.4 million (reaching 160 million worldwide) within four years.
While the knowledge of these companies’ practices has been spread through social media like TikTok and Instagram, a lot of consumers choose to look past the ugly truths and continue to purchase clothing from fast fashion businesses.
“Although I care for the people who put in so much work for my clothes, it ultimately isn’t my job to dictate a solution to the child labor and pollution issues coming from these websites,” said Rineer.
The need for fast, trendy, and cheap clothing ultimately trumps most guilt felt by consumers.
Even though the fast fashion market has been beneficial to many people, its lasting effects on the environment and other individuals is undeniable.
