in memoriam

THE UGLY TRUTH OF FAST FASHION

PREPARED BY:
NUR AZREEN NASUHA BINTI ROSLEE (1180696) (BBC)
ZUHAIRAH BINTE ZUIKIFLI (1190011) (BBC)

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Clothing has always been an important part of society, with evidence from earlier human civilisations. A piece of linen dress, dating back to more than 5,000 years ago, was found in an Egyptian tomb, thus making it the oldest woven garment yet found. (Watson, 2016) Generally, a person’s clothes are influenced by two main things: the physical environment as well as social conditions.
In terms of the physical environment, different forms of clothes are used during different seasons, acting as protective layers against environmental factors such as wind, heat, and dust. On the other hand, in terms of social conditions, people from different walks of life have varying reasons as to why they dress the way they do. For example, some choose to dress themselves in a modest manner, showcasing their own moral values or abiding by the code of decency established by society and the law, or in accordance to their religious principles.
At the same time, many view clothes as a form of adornment or an expression of self. Clothes bring about an avenue for them to portray their personal style and taste. People have different fashion taste which usually reflect their personalities. Putting on different types of clothes has the power to change our self-perception and how others see us. Even if one is not fashion conscious, the choice of clothes he puts on will influence people’s perception of him, and how he sees himself. (Louis, 2017) Clothes are just outer appearances so one should not entirely judge a person’s character from his clothes. However, there is usually a relation between how a person carries himself and the clothes that he wears.
It is undeniable that clothes play an important part in our lives and that many of us seek enjoyment from styling ourselves with different types of clothes.

2.0 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

In the era of fashion bloggers, influencers, and Instagram celebrities, fashion trends are widely discussed and promoted. These trends change rapidly, with consumers often on its tail, trying to keep up. The fast fashion industry is further supported by a growing influencer culture, whereby social media celebrities collaborate with big fast fashion companies as “brand ambassadors”. Their job scope is to intertwine these brands into their everyday lives, hence directly or indirectly promoting them. (Burdsall, 2019) Most of the time, those who wish to purchase these clothes can use a discount code and the celebrities will get a commission for influencing people to buy.
On top of that, these days, people have more disposable income which translates to more expenditure on clothes. Having extra income means that more people can afford to buy more clothes of their preference. The average consumer bought 60 percent more clothes in 2014 than in 2000 but kept each garment for half as long. (Drew, D & R. Elizabeth, 2019) Some estimates suggest that consumers treat the lowest-priced garments as nearly disposable, discarding them after just seven or eight wears. (Remy et al., 2016)
Fast fashion exploits both the underprivileged and the environment. Reports continue to emerge about garment workers being underpaid and exposed to unsafe—even deadly—workplace conditions, particularly when handling materials like cotton and leather that require extensive processing. Fast fashion has also been proven to be extremely harmful to the environment. This is mainly because making clothes typically requires using a lot of water and chemicals and emitting significant amounts of greenhouse gases. These societal and environmental impacts of fast fashion is becoming increasingly prominent over the years.
Based on the problems stated above, this research is mainly done to further understand the gravity of this problem, the people affected by it, and highlight some ways to collectively help improve it.

3.0 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

1. To unravel the concept of fast fashion and ways to determine fast fashion brands.
2. To identify the market levels that exist in the fashion market.
3. To analyse the impact of fast fashion.
4. To investigate ways to mitigate the impact of fast fashion.
4.0 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1. What is the concept of fast fashion and how to determine fast fashion brands?
2. What are the market levels that exist in the fashion market?
3. What is the impact of fast fashion?
4. How can we mitigate the impact of fast fashion?
5.0 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RESEARCH

According to a research from Marketplace, people are buying too much clothes which is 400% more clothes since 1990’s but the fact is not all clothes make it to the donation bin which contribute to 85% clothes that ends up in landfill. In North America, the amount of clothes that end up in landfill is estimated to be 25 billion pound a year. (Agro, 2018)
This research is conducted to investigate and unravel the truth behind fast fashion and how we could reduce the impact of fast fashion. While some people are indeed aware of the situation regarding fast fashion, most of the society are yet to be aware on this issue. This research aims to expose and bring awareness on the truth behind fast fashion more widely to the society, clothing company, individuals and among researchers.
Most people only know about fashion and trend, they are yet to be aware of how they are involves in fast fashion and most of them do not even know the terms ‘fast fashion’. It is important for the society and individuals to know the truth on fast fashion since it is involving them as they are the main contributor to fast fashion.
Furthermore, this research aims to clearly justify that fashion industry especially on the high street market level downwards play the biggest role in the changes of society norm regarding individual consumption. In other sense, clothing company or the fashion industry as a whole need to slow down their production of new garments and design. This is especially on the market level who mass-produced their product as the process of production in this market level is accelerated in order to get new trends to market as quickly and as cheaply as possible. They also usually do sales and promotion, giving discounts to consumers in order to increase their profit. According to (Nadiah, 2018), trend-heavy clothing and cheap prices are kings in the fashion industry today. The clothing production has doubled from 2000 to 2014 where 100 billion garments are made every year, which is 13 times the global population. This shows that fashion industry is not only a profitable business, it is also the second largest industrial polluter.
Fashion is not all about extravagance, people or individual should not be too influence with the fast pace of fashion market. Individual should minimize their regular consumption and be aware of how much they are spending and how many clothes are there in their wardrobe. Besides, individual also need to stop throwing away their clothes that still can be use just so they can update their wardrobe with new clothes. According to a research done by (YouGov Staff, 2017), nearly 27% of Malaysians have thrown away an item of clothing after wearing it just once, nearly three in ten millennials have thrown unwanted clothes in the bin and 15% of Malaysians have thrown away clothes because they are bored of wearing them. These percentages would probably get higher by now which shows how much individual are easily influence by trend, sales, and promotion. As a result, the earth is now full of unwanted clothes especially in the poor country where the high up country donates, sells, and abandon the unwanted clothes from their country.
Fast fashion really does come at high social and environmental costs. Thus, shows how creating sensation influence society so much that it hurts the environment. Clothes cannot biodegrade easily because many are made of fabrics that cannot be broken down which then lead to the consequence of releasing chemicals and dyes into the rivers. This is one of the reasons why fashion industry is one of the world’s top polluter. (Agro, 2018)
Individuals, society, and fashion industry need to be together, hand in hand in making effort to save the earth. People should not sacrifice the environment in order to create new fashion trend and sensation. It would be great if we could balance fashion align with creating better environment for us and for the future generation. In hope of saving the earth, this research aims to be an eye opener for the society and fashion industry, knowing that we can help fix this and make a better world for everyone.
6.0 DISCUSSION OF RESEARCH QUESTIONS

6.1 WHAT IS THE CONCEPT OF FAST FASHION AND HOW TO DETERMINE FAST FASHION BRANDS?

Fast fashion has become a hot topic recently, especially in nowadays era where fashion continue to evolve to no end. As people become more creative in coming up with new kind of fashion, we just do not seem to be able to keep up with fashion anymore. According to Good on you, a website and application on brand ratings, articles and expertise on ethical and sustainable fashion, fast fashion in general can be defined as cheap and trendy clothing that samples ideas from the catwalk or celebrity culture and turns them into garments in high street stores at breakneck speed to meet consumer demand. (Rauturier, 2020)
Going through the definition, this could be said that the fashion or trend cycles has been sped up. Clothes has become cheaper and shopping has become necessary hobby especially to the women. Many fashion brands come up with new clothes design and collections for every season especially in the high street market level downward. They sped up their mass-produced clothing to get new trends to market as quickly and as cheaply as possible to gain more profit. They are quick to throw away the last collection by creating sales and promotion to clear the stock and make room for new collections arrival. As the result, this encourage consumers to update their wardrobe regularly which also in turn increase the consumption percentage of individuals in the society.
Fashion industry is one of the largest industries in the world and it keeps evolving and changing depends on the fashion trend. Fashion industry keep changing from one era to another and from one generation to another. It keeps developing from a custom-made clothing which is handmade to a custom-made clothing using sewing machine and now have become more advanced with mass-producing technology. Meanwhile, a fashion trend is a clothing style that are popular at a certain point of time or at a particular period of time. Fashion trend can differs depend on their region. For example, fashion trend in Europe may not become trendy in middle east country because most of the population are Muslim. Some fashion trend is influenced by a popular and public figure in their era. For example, Marie Antoinette was a leader of fashion in her era and country. These fashion trends and influence create sensation in the fashion world resulting on the fast pace of fashion market. It creates more demand on behalf consumers so does the supply on the item. Thus, fast fashion market level is created.
Aside of that, there are some key factors to distinguish fast fashion brands. Firstly, the fashion brands provide and sells thousands of styles which touch on all the latest trends. Secondly, fast fashion brands have an extremely short turnaround time between when the trend or garment is seen on the catwalk and when it hits the store which means that they are quick to throw away their last collection and stock up new collections. Next, fast fashion brands use offshore manufacturing where labour is the cheapest and workers are payed low wages without adequate rights or safety. The fourth key factors are limited quantity of a particular garment which means that if the consumer does not buy the garments within the period, they will probably miss their chance. Lastly, fast fashion brands are of cheap and low qualities materials where they turn shabby after few wears. (Rauterier, 2020)
Some of the biggest and famous fast fashion brands is Zara, H&M, Uniqlo, Topshop, and Fashion Nova. There are concrete reasons why they are label as fast fashion brands. In this paragraph downwards, this research will give short explanation on the brands and why it is in fast fashion market level and need to be avoided. First, Uniqlo is a Japanese brand which offers casual clothing. They operate in Japan and other international markets. The reason they are labelled fast fashion and should be avoided is because they are involved in several labour rights violation. They force the staff to work on excessive overtime for low rates pay, in dangerous conditions which had a culture of bullying and harassment. Next, there is Topshop which is a multinational fashion brands that sells clothes, footwear, cosmetics, and accessories. There are 500 Topshop outlets in the world, including 300 in the United Kingdom. On more than one occasion, Topshop have shown that they are willing to prioritize profit over their people, with workers often being treated. (Crespo, 2020)
Fashion Nova is the number 1 most-searched for fashion brand on Google in 2018. Fashion Nova sells clothes on a cheap price with very poor in quality. Consumers basically just get what they pay for. The next brand is H&M which stands for Hennes & Mauritz. H&M have over 3,500 stores in 57 countries which make them the second biggest global clothing retailer. Reason we shall not buy from them is because their staff receive low wages and the company also been accused of copying models from high-end brands. Lastly, Zara is a Spanish clothing retailer who offers fast fashion products for adults and children. In 2017, they offered 20 clothing collections with around 12,000 designs being sold each year. Rumour has it that Zara only needs a week to design and produce a new product and get it into stores. This is what it means by fast fashion. Zara have over 2000 stores in almost 100 different countries but sadly, they have been accused of subjecting workers in Brazil to slave-like working conditions. (Crespo, 2020)

6.2 WHAT ARE THE MARKET LEVELS THAT EXIST IN THE FASHION MARKET?

The fashion market is a huge industry made up of many types of brands which offer a variety of different products, price, design, brand atmosphere and many more unique elements to the brand. However, the fashion market also can be branch into more deep segmentations to enables a clearer comparison of brands and market level. This way, people would not feel so overwhelm by the size of fashion market/ industry especially to people who want to start-up their business in fashion industry. They could decide on the market level for their brand and thus, will influence the materials to choose, price of the product, design of the product and many more choice to make. (http://www.createafashionbrand.com/the-many-market-levels-of-fashion-brands/)
The fashion market can be perceived into seven different market levels which is Haute Couture, Luxury Fashion, Bridge Brands, Diffusion Lines, High Street, Fast Fashion and Economy. These seven segmentations divide the market into smaller components and individual brands are categorised into each market level based on a variety of attributes including designers, price range, consumers and many more attributes. (Jones, 2017)
6.2.1 HAUTE COUTURE

Figure 1: (Ang,2020)
Sitting at the top of the fashion market level is Haute Couture. Haute Couture began in the nineteenth century where it was created in Paris, and now the label ‘Haute Couture’ is a legal term. (Jones, 2017). To have a couture line, you must be chosen by Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture, as the right to do couture is protected by French Law. There are a number of regulations that you need to meet in order to be considered and therefore only a concise list of people in the industry are included.( http://www.createafashionbrand.com/the-many-market-levels-of-fashion-brands/). Some examples of big names in the market of Haute Couture are Chanel, Christion Dior, Versace, Valentino, and Armani Prive.
According to Britta, Haute Couture refers to the creation of exclusive custom-fitted clothing. It is a fashion that is constructed by hand from start to finish, made from high quality, expensive, often unusual fabric and sewn with extreme attention to detail and finished by the most experienced and capable sewers, often using time-consuming, hand-executed techniques. (Basedow, n.d). Every piece is created exclusively with extreme attention which means it is one of a kind clothing and it is super expensive.
Haute Couture also has their own exclusive fashion shows in Paris which are held twice a year in January and July. This fashion shows aims to present women’s wear to the potential buyers especially to people who attend the fashion show. Fashion shows/weeks also function as advertising for the fashion houses by showing their new creative and unique design. Although many people do desire to have haute couture clothing in their wardrobe, the reality is that the actual market for haute couture is not vast at all. The main reason for it is due to the high price of the clothing which only few could afford to purchase it.

6.2.2 LUXURY FASHION

Figure 2: (https://www.lvmh.com/news-documents/news/spotlight-on-mens-fallwinter-2020-2021-collections-from-lvmh-maisons/)
Second in the market level segmentation of the fashion market is luxury fashion. Luxury in general means something adding to pleasure or comfort but not absolutely necessary. (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/luxury). In other words, it means something that provides pleasure and satisfaction which especially comes with great expenses. This market level includes high quality designer brands, most of which belong to the luxury designer conglomerates such as LVMH, KERING and Richemont. LVMH Fashion brands are Berluti, Celine, Christian Dior, Emilio Pucci, Fendi, Givenchy, Kenzo, Loewe, Loro Piana, Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs, Moynat, Nicholas Kirkwood, Pink Shirtmaker and RIMOWA. KERING Fashion Brands are Alexander McQueen, Brioni, Gucci, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga and Saint Lauren. Richemont fashion brands are Peter Millar, Chloé, Purdey, Alaïa, Serapian and Dunhill. They are a group of wide portfolios of brands with different product categories. (Segura, 2019).
These luxury conglomerates manage the portfolios in order to take advantage from economies of scale in management of manufacturing, purchasing, negotiation in retail and advertising. But the reality is the brands are less autonomous in terms of design directions and positioning. (Corbellini, E & S.Stefania, n.d)
Luxury fashion are not produced exclusively and meticulously handmade as Haute Couture, however they are also not mass-produced, so they still could offer the desirability of having limited edition clothing. The price of luxury fashion is not as expensive as Haute Couture but even so, most of the items in this market level are still priced high enough to be considered as part of the elite market.

6.2.3 BRIDGE BRANDS

Figure 3: (https://www.lkbennett.com/advertising-campaign)
The third market level in fashion market is bridge brands. Bridge brand stand below luxury fashion and above high street to bridge the gap between expensive and moderate price in fashion market. It originated in the 1970’s where a gap in the market between both high street and luxury fashion was identified. (Bryan, 2014). Bridge brands is high quality garments without the price being associated with a designer name. The brand within this market level offers high quality garments at a more realistic price than luxury fashion, so they are considered at the high end of affordable price. They are suitable for those who may not be able to afford luxury brands but still wanting to purchase items that are of a high quality. Some example of bridge brands is Ted Baker, Coach, L.K. Bennett, Jaeger and many more.

6.2.4 DIFFUSION LINES

Figure 4: (https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/resort-2020/red-valentino/slideshow/collection#26)
Diffusion lines taking place at the centre of fashion market level which is the fourth market level. Similar to bridge brands, diffusion lines also build a bridge between high street and luxury fashion, but the difference is that diffusion lines is created by luxury brands as a more budget friendly and affordable so to target middle class income. (Jones, 2017). In other words, diffusion lines are where global luxury brands open up a secondary line to bring in a wider market at much more accessible prices. This allows designer to stay in the radar with a much wider market who look up to these designers which also allow them to maintain high profits, keep profitable sponsorship deals and increase brand recognition. Diffusion lines is especially suitable to the big fans of the brand and designer who want more products for their money. (AngeliqueD, 2014). Some example of diffusion lines is SEE by Chloe, RED by Valentino, Miu Miu by Prada and many more.

6.2.5 HIGH STREET

Figure 5: (Pithers, 2019)
Sitting at the third from below is high street which is the fifth market level in fashion market. Generally, the term ‘high street’ means the main street in a town or city where all the banks and shops situate. In fashion world, the term ‘high street’ refers to the clothing you can buy on the high street in ordinary towns and cities. (Davies, n.d). In other words, high street refers to clothing that is readily available for purchase by the public rather than being custom-made by fashion designers.
High street was established in the early 1900’s in era where women needed somewhere to go that was considered respectable, hence the initiation of department stores. These stores offered accessible, quality fashion with a longer life span than economy items at affordable prices. High street clothing is mass produced to ensure the cost of individual item can be bought down as much as possible so to be able to put a reasonable and affordable price on the clothing. (Jones, 2017). Some example of high street department stores is Marks & Spencer, House of Fraser, John Lewis, Debenhams, and Harvey Nichols. These department stores offer wide range of budget friendly products and customer experience.
6.2.6 FAST FASHION

Figure 6: (https://www2.hm.com/en_us/productpage.0717727014.html)
The second-to-last market level of the fashion industry is Fast Fashion. This is the market level where the majority of the well-known and affordable brand names are discovered. Fast fashion is where the brands have an extremely quick turnover in fashion and trends. In other words, this means the process of production is accelerated in order to get new trends to market as quickly and as cheaply as possible. (Jones, 2017).
The clothing is usually quality clothing inspired by latest fashion trends which have been presented at the most recent Fashion Weeks but at a cheaper price and without designer price tag. This is why, fast fashion is known as designs that move from catwalk to stores extremely quick in order to capture the current fashion trends. This market level especially appeal to consumers who have a desire to look stylish and trendy but, in a budget friendly manner. Some of the fast fashion brands is H&M, Zara, Forever 21, Uniqlo and many more.

6.2.7 ECONOMY

Figure 7: (Cornish, N & I.Sullivan,2019)
Lastly, there is economy which sit at the lowest market level in the fashion market. While all economical fashion is fast fashion, not all of fast fashion is economical. Economical fashion is the home of mass production and it works efficiently at getting items from factories to store.
Creator of economy fashion will take on board key seasonal trends and they will attempt to turn them into affordable pieces in order to let their consumers look stylish at a much lower cost. Economical fashion brands are able to maintain low prices on the fact that the manufacturing of products is done in bulk and while the price is great, this technique actually results in low quality and short lifespans of products making it the least environmentally friendly fashion market. (Jones, 2017)
Economy brands usually fulfil people basic needs but due to the low budget that economy fashion brands have, items tend to look cheap. Therefore, it is beneficial for these brands to focus mostly on selling the essential pieces that the mass audience are most commonly purchasing such as vests, tops, leggings, and jumpers. These are the most advantageous to produce as they are likely to sell best for the brand. This market is especially ideal to people who have limited amount of times to spend shopping on clothes for themselves, as they are able to do it while shop for other things such as food. Some example of economy fashion brands is George at ASDA, F+F at Tesco and many more.
6.3 WHAT IS THE IMPACT OF FAST FASHION?

In this age and time, getting a new piece of apparel is almost as easy as a tap on your phone’s screen, and the excitement gets real when it says “50% OFF”. But what exactly is the true cost behind that seemingly harmless piece of t-shirt? Fashion comes at a cost. In some cases, a life.
The Rana Plaza incident that occurred in Dhaka, Bangladesh killed at least 1,132 people and injured more than 2500, most of whom were girls and women. (http://www.oit.org/global/topics/geip/WCMS_614394/lang--en/index.htm) There were distressing stories of survival, of people who had no choice but to amputate their own limbs in order to be freed from the rubble and survive. (https://cleanclothes.org/campaigns/past/rana-plaza)
In the days and hours that preceded this tragedy, cracks appeared in the building walls and workers expressed their fears. Management told the workers to return to their work, even when the retail shops and banks on the ground floor were closed. It was not just managers, but lurking order deadlines and production quotas from the powerful fashion corporations that lead to these workers being sent back inside. It was also the lack of union representation that left these workers powerless to defy orders. (Nessi, 2020)
The hard truth is that this tragedy happened just five months after another tragic incident which happened at Tazreen Fashions factory on the outskirts of Dhaka. The Rana Plaza collapsed whereas the latter was caught on fire.
Employees usually work with no ventilation, breathing in toxic substances, inhaling fiber dust or blasted sand in unsafe buildings. Accidents, fires, injuries, and disease occur very frequently on textile production sites. On top of that, clothing workers regularly face verbal and physical abuse. In some cases, when they fail to meet their daily target, they are insulted, denied breaks, or not allowed to drink water.
In most of the manufacturing countries like China, Bangladesh or India, the minimum wage represents between half to a fifth of the living wage. A living wage represents the bare minimum that a family requires to fulfil its basic needs such as food, rent, healthcare, and education. So, in summary, these employees are paid 5 times less than what a person actually needs to live with dignity. (https://www.sustainyourstyle.org/old-working-conditions)
Yet, this is only a fraction of the problems that fast fashion brings. The fashion industry’s greenhouse gas emissions from textile productions are more than all international shipping and flights combined, with 1.2 billion tons annually. (Rudenko, 2018) Precious resources are being used in huge amounts.
The fashion industry is also the second-largest consumer of water worldwide. (McFall-Johnsen, 2019) For example, 7,000 litres of water are needed to produce one pair of jeans. An average person drinks that much in about six years. It takes about 700 gallons of water to produce one cotton shirt. That is enough water for one person to drink at least eight cups per day for three-and-a-half years. The industry produces 2 billion pairs of jeans every year. (Rudenko, 2018)
Washing our clothes seem harmless. However, there is a certain kind of plastic found in 60% of our garments called polyester. So, when we wash our clothes, the water that eventually goes into the sea releases 500,000 tons of microfibers into the ocean each year, which is the equivalent of 50 billion plastic bottles. Many of those microfibers are polyester. These tiny bits of plastic less than five millimetres in length are commonly found in fast fashion, and in fabrics such as polyester and acrylic. Producing polyester releases two to three times more carbon emissions than cotton, and polyester does not break down in the ocean. A 2017 report from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) estimated that 35% of all microplastics in the ocean (very small pieces of plastic that never biodegrade) came from the laundering of synthetic textiles like polyester. (McFall-Johnsen, 2020) Microplastics and microfibres are mistaken for food by marine life and can work their way up the food chain– potentially causing health issues for human consumers. (McShane, 2019)
Roughly £140 million worth (350,000 tonnes) of clothing goes to landfill in the UK every year. Meanwhile North Americans send 10.5 million tons of clothing to the landfill each year. To give some perspective, that is 30 times heavier than the Empire State Building. (https://www.instagram.com/p/BdzsLnPgzJ1/?utm_source=ig_embed)
Although these effects are generally a result of the fashion industry as a whole, it is apparent that fast fashion plays a huge role. In time, these effects will catch up on us as they start infiltrating our food chain, water supply and air quality.

6.4 HOW CAN WE MITIGATE THE IMPACT OF FAST FASHION?

Granted, solving a huge problem that has been deeply ingrained in our culture is not easy. However, we still have the power as consumers. One way to start seeking for change is by educating ourselves first. There are many resources that talks about this issue and they come in a variety of forms such as documentaries, articles, YouTube videos and Instagram posts. One such documentary is called “The True Cost” and it exposes the dark side of fast fashion, and urges consumers to re-evaluate their shopping habits, and ask themselves whether their love of fashion justifies human rights violations and environmental destruction. (Perez, 2019) This newfound knowledge will spur us to realise that our dollars are actually a vote for a more just and ethical system. By gaining more insight, it will teach us to be more empathetic and recognise our privilege as consumers. We can be more mindful of where we are casting our votes: Are we always buying from a fast fashion company when we can opt for other alternatives?
Such alternatives are buying from environmentally conscious and ethical businesses that can be found locally in Malaysia. Kapten Batik, which is based in Kuala Lumpur, was launched in March 2017 as a more tailored approach to men’s batik and men’s fashion industry. (https://www.kaptenbatik.com.my/pages/about-us) STUF is an online shop selling high-quality everyday wear that gives you long-lasting comfort, without any unnecessary costs in order to provide customers with affordable prices. (https://stufstore.com/pages/about-us)
The downside is that these brands tend to lean more on the expensive side. Therefore, another alternative is to go thrift shopping. Or in other words, buy second hand. According to a study conducted by ThredUp, 77 percent of millennials want to buy from environmentally conscious brands. They are also more likely to switch to thrifting for environmental reasons, compared to other generations. (Borovic, 2018) The stigma about buying hand-me-downs has significantly decreased as more Millennials and Generation Z are interested in thrift shopping. Social media has greatly helped popularise this with YouTube influencers such as Ashley (2019) and Bao & Sheng (2019) filming their trips to local thrift stores and showcasing their shopping haul. This is also a way for them to use their creativity by mix and matching their apparels. They have quite the fanbase who are increasingly interested in thrift shopping. Here in Malaysia, you can find thrift stores like OkGo, BundlePreloved, Bandoru and Refash. (Lee, 2019)
On the other hand, what happens to the clothes that you rarely wear which have been sitting in your closet for months? You can choose to sell them at places like Carousell or CLOSETStyles. Alternatively, you can donate them to organisations like the Community Recycle for Charity (CRC) that accept clothes which are in good condition. These are great ways to give clothes a new lease of life. Even clothes that have tears or stains can still be saved. Famous outlets such as H&M, Monki and Uniqlo accepts garments that you no longer want and recycle them. (Suganya, 2019)
Another way is to remake your clothes, if you are good at sewing or know someone who does. This gives your old clothes a fresh look. From simple modifications like adding lace or turning a dress to a shirt, to changing the look completely, the possibilities are endless. (Suganya, 2019) This is a terrific way to personalise your own style while boosting your creativity level.
Another fun option is to try swapping your clothes for a certain period of time, or for keeps! You can do so by going to clothes swapping events organised by The Swap Project, or just make your own by gathering your close ones and have a clothes-swapping party. You get to spend time together, try on clothes, accessories, shoes and whatever else you wish to exchange and leave with a brand-new wardrobe. (Suganya, 2019)
Figure 8: (https://www.facebook.com/fashionrevolutionindia/photos/a.458691637591071/2042454362548116/?type=3&theater)

Figure 9: (Hendriksv, 2015)

On the other hand, there has been a global movement calling for change within the fashion industry that was led by The Fashion Revolution. One prime example is the campaign #whomademyclothes which trended on various social media networks. Its aim was to mainly raise public awareness about the impacts of their clothes and how they can influence the global fashion industry, inspire people to consume less, value quality and take better care of their clothes, and was especially directed to hold large business accountable for the clothes they made. (https://www.fashionrevolution.org/about/) People all over the world used the letter template as shown in Figure 8 and sent them to fast fashion retailers as well as fashion businesses which are not yet transparent about whether they treat their workers fairly.
Another relatively easy thing one can do is to pause and reflect. You are window shopping in the mall and suddenly, something catches your eye. You try it on and instantly fall in love with it… How do you differentiate if it is just a want or a need? Here are two useful tips when making a decision to buy something. First is to go back home after seeing something you like, and if after a few days you still want it, go ahead and buy. The second is to get rid of one item for every item you purchase. This way, you will not collect too many things which usually ends up not being used anyway. If you are reluctant to do so, maybe you do not actually need the thing. (Suganya, 2019)
You do not have to be all radical and change your ways overnight. It will just get frustrating, especially if you really love fashion. After all, every small effort counts. Take little steps like sorting out your clothes to give yourself a picture of the number of clothings that you have and how many of them you actually use, continuing educating yourself on the issue of fast fashion, and giving away a few of your belongings, even if it is just to your siblings. (Suganya, 2019)
7.0 CONCLUSION

Fast fashion is indeed cheap, trendy, and somehow give benefits to consumers and fast fashion brand, but does it give much benefit to the earth? The real issue with fast fashion is the speed at which it is produced, putting a huge pressure on people and the environment. It was all too good to be true. All these stores selling cool, trendy clothing you could buy with your loose change, wear a handful of times, and then throw away. People end up with too much clothes and then somehow throw it away just to update their wardrobe with new clothes. Fashion and trends influence human lifestyle and society too much that it gives bad impact to the world.
The fast fashion has extracted a toll on the environment for far too long. Its production and disposal give enormous impact on the environment. Fast fashion’s negative impact includes its use of cheap, toxic textile dyes which in turns make the fashion industry the second largest polluter of clean water globally after agriculture.
Together, we could reduce the impact of fast fashion. But first, society need to educate themselves on fast fashion issue to properly understand the impact and help in fighting fast fashion. Besides, they also need to be aware of their own consumption, are they purchasing more than what they really need? The most important elements in fighting fast fashion pollution is the awareness of the contributor itself.
All in all, although the fight against fast fashion pollution is a long road, persistence and diligence is the key to create a better environment for generations to come. There is no perfect way to overcome fast fashion but what matters is the effort. Individual, organizations, governments and fashion companies must come together to put a stop to the menace that fast fashion has brought onto the environment once and for all.

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