Hot girl summer is coming, and with new fashion trends, many people have been wondering where and how to get clothing that is trendy and cheap. As many people know, quarantine has made shopping difficult in some ways, although it has increased the number of online shoppers. There are many online sites carrying cute and chic clothes at strikingly low prices such as Shein, Romwe, as well as bathing suit shops like Cupshe, where the majority of their products can be found for under $10. All of this seems like a great way to save money and look cute, but is there
more to what than meets the eye?
¨Fast fashion¨ is a term used to describe fashion trends that are being sold cheap as they are being mass-produced at a rapid speed . Most of these trends, however, are only “in” for about 1-2 months, leading to the clothing wasting away in the back of closets and eventually being disposed of. Over time, this begins to build up, contributing to the already large amount of waste in the world and damaging the environment by not only throwing articles away, but also creating more pollution through the processes of how the products are made.
Most fast fashion companies make their products in factories that run 24/7. This has allowed fast fashion to become the second-largest industry that contributes to pollution, accountable for a little over 10 percent of all carbon emissions in the world. If being one of the world’s main contributors to pollution isn’t bad enough, fast fashion industries usually use child laborers to keep the factories running 24 hours and do not pay them fair wages. This is so that they can keep their products is priced low and continue getting consumers.
This Earth Day, please think about all the pollution fast fashion contributes towards, and consider to stop shopping at Shein or obvious fast fashion industries and try to shop local, thrift and look for quality in your clothing rather than cheap trends that will last you a month.