What my students are saying about fast fashion
We’ve all heard of fast fashion––the clothing industry’s equivalent of microwaveable meals. Affordable, fast, easy to get, and piling up in landfills everywhere.
Fast fashion industries such as H&M and Shein have consistently come under scrutiny for different reasons: labor exploitation, sweat shops, and harmful environmental impact are a few of the recurring problems. 1
My students raised a number of interesting points about this topic in our class discussions. First, thrifting. Many of my students are big supporters of thrifting for clothes. Not only is it affordable (which is great for these poor, starving college students), but it addresses the concern they have over being complicit in fast fashion harms. Now for a quick tangent…
True story: after class, I decided to stop by Dig ’N Save in Madison, WI, to see what I could find in the bins (if you know you know). I swear: half of gen z showed up to do some shopping. It was all good, tho: I landed some great finds for under $6, walked out with a feeling or moral superiority, and only got called “cheugy” a few times. Overall, it was a win.
Anyway, our class discussion led to a variety of tricky questions. “Where can you search to see how well clothing brands are complying with ethical practices?” (try here) “What happens if we delete fast fashion? Wouldn’t that spell disaster for millions of garment workers?” “What can I do if I’m in a sorority? Dress codes or themes for sorority events tend to lead to a lot of one-time clothing purchases throughout the year.” “Should thrifting bins be reserved for low-income people?” “What about all the vultures or ‘beanie men’ that take advantage of bins in order to sell clothing on Depop?” (one of my students made the observation that “bin vultures” tend to wear beanies…)
Note to self: don’t wear beanie’s while thrifting.
See this short video for some of the details.