The Fast-Fashion Deterioration
Have you been struggling with finding high quality clothing pieces for affordable prices? Finding clothes that actually fit your body type well? Clothing that lasts for more than two wears?
It turns out, you’re not the problem. According to this short documentary, most clothing stores that used to have garments that would fit right and last a long time have lost their quality over time, using cheaper and cheaper fabrics and generalizing body types into one fit. Old clothing advertisements would be way more transparent about where their materials were sourced- mostly because they were proud of their quality and production. Additionally, clothes were only released seasonally, not nearly every week, as some fast fashion brands do now.
Stores like Zara mass produce products without much care compared to how it used to be. In the ‘80s and ‘90s, stores and designers would pay much more attention to the details of clothing, because they would have to mass order them, taking a risk and hoping they would sell. Due to this, each garment was carefully designed to be the most appealing to each person, as well as having a lot more attention being paid to sizing. However, Zara only makes a small amount of each clothing item before sending it out to their store and seeing how they perform. If they perform well, then Zara mass produces it, but if not, the design is trashed and they move onto the next. Because of this, there is a lot less at stake for Zara, allowing for them to not want to pay the same attention or care to the garment. Not only that, but Zara quickly became popular for having runway knockoffs, basically quickly duplicating popular products on the runway and selling them for a lower price point.
Once H&M came out, they focused on partnering with luxury brands, creating curated collections from designers that are still at the prices of fast fashion. This would push the culture of overconsumption, causing a lot of people to buy lost-cost clothes that would be out of style within weeks. Once the Free Trade Agreement came out, textile factories in China became the main suppliers of many fast fashion brands due to their low prices, despite their inhumane and unethical practices.
However, today, many brands that were not considered fast fashion are now undeniably brands that follow those practices. But why is that? Brands like Abercrombie & Fitch and Urban Outfitters’ quality have declined overtime, as they started producing cheaper clothes, even while keeping them at the same price.
