maintenance of profits, but most importantly a lack of advancement in how clothes can be recycled. Fast Fashion has become the definite term of “out with the old and in with the new” because with this industry’s rapid changes clothes are being donated at a staggering manner. Clothing from fast fashion brands are often low quality. They are manufactured with the use of heavy dies and chemicals to make synthetic fibers such as rayon, nylon, and most commonly polyester which are not naturally produced in comparison to cotton or bamboo that are plant grown (Claudio). This makes the clothing un-fit to be sold due to its poor condition after being worn and washed. Eleanor Goldberg, author of “These African Countries Don’t Want Your Used Clothing …show more content…
American- Apparel is an American based clothing store, whose main brand runs on the “Made in the USA” clothing tag which indicates sweat-shop free. Unfortunately, the brand has been financially unsuccessful with a 13.5 million interest to pay off in 2013, with Standpoint Research founder, Ronnie Moas, who asses ethical means of brands, recommending the company to manufacture 25 percent of their clothing outside of the country (Li et al.). This example of American Apparel shows how this method of making clothing in the United States is impractical and attainable due to lack of skilled and interested workers. More so, countries such as China, Bangladesh, or Cambodia, have an economic reliance on fast fashion businesses, and without such many would be unemployed. An Economist article titled, “Made in China,” explains the reasons of why China’s economy has grown, claiming “… it (China) is clinging on to low-cost manufacturing, even as it goes upmarket to exploit higher-value activities. Its share of global clothing exports has actually risen, from 42.6% in 2011 to 43.1% in 2013” (Made). These embedded references displays a cause and effect situation, if fast brands choose to move their factories to places such as the United States, London, or Sweden and follow the image of companies such as American Apparel this leads to mass unemployment that not only affects …show more content…
It truly put’s a retrospect the cost of cheap clothing not only through a financial sense but through its production process and aftermath as well as those who are making it. The examples of the leading fast fashion brands efforts in recycling clothing, the textile waste initiative companies such as H&M are apart of, and where donated clothes reside in, all have outcomes that are contradicting within itself. This explains why fast fashion described by the Natural Resource Defense Council is, ‘the second largest polluter in the world, second only to oil’ (qtd. by Gunther). Secondly, there is also a large issue surrounding how workers are treated. Though changes have been made to improve the conditions of the actual factory, little are being done to help the laborers. They are treated in such a way that steals them of their fundamental human rights. Clothing retail stores may argue that fast fashion allows an easy access to clothes at prices that many can afford, but it brings the question to mind if it is all worth it. Does materialism and being able to keep up with the flow of today’s latest trends as important than an ecosystem rapidly growing with unused clothes stacking up in landfills or individuals of all ages being exploited? Yet, seeing these “progressions”