Fast fashion describes trendy clothing that is quickly coming in and out of style. Just go into your closet and check the labels on your clothing, chances are that most of your clothing is from fashion brands. So how did we get caught inside this fast-fashion trap?

The hard truth

80% of garment workers are women between 18-35 who have no access to maternity leave. These workers are forced to work between 14 to 16 hours, 7 days a week under poor working conditions. In Bangladesh, sweatshop workers will earn $30 per month which is way below the living of $60 a month. Since 1990, due to hazardous working conditions, more than 400 workers died and thousands have been wounded in 50 factory fires.

Whilst there is a high demand from consumers for high fashion at a low cost, fashion retailers produce this demand by selling a ton of profitable clothes. Having said that, here are the 3 truths that the fashion industry doesn’t want you to know

1. The fashion industry makes you feel “out of trend” after one week.

Instead of replenishing their stock, they replace the items that sell out with new items of a different style, making our one-week-old clothes feel older than they truly are. With new trends coming out every week, this makes us consumers buy as many garments as possible, just for the sake of being trendy.

2. There are lead and hazardous chemicals on your clothing.

Garment production and unregulated factories have resulted in toxic chemicals often used to create vibrant colours, prints, and fabric finishes. Not only is this harmful to the workers that have to deal with these chemicals, but these chemicals can also enter our bodies through our skin just by wearing the garments. Harmful toxins are dunked into streams and rivers, polluting the water and soil of nearby areas.

3. Clothing is designed to fall apart.

At the end of the day, fashion retailers only care about the profit from the ocean of garments they are producing.  Over half of all the clothing ends up in incinerators or landfills within a year of production. 5% of all landfill space is textile waste. Brands also choose to incinerate their old stock than donate it because they claim it “ruins their image.”

Fashion as the second-largest polluting industry

• 1 garbage truck of clothes is burned or landfilled every second.
• Making a pair of jeans produces as many greenhouses gases as driving a car for nearly 70 miles.
• Each year 1.3 trillion gallons of water are used in the fabric dying process.
• A third of plastic pollution in the ocean is due to the microfibers from synthetic clothing.

 A victim of fast-fashion? Here is what you can do!

Sewing

Whilst this might seem silly to most of you, producing your actual clothes is the main course of action to prevent from falling into the fast-fashion trap. You are also more likely to love it and wear it for longer.

Purchasing from independents sellers/thrift shops/second-hand clothing!

Support small businesses that carefully handcraft their work. Apps like Depop and Etsy are two apps that are working against fast-fashion. Through Depop, one can sell and even purchase second-hand items from individuals all around the globe. Recently, numerous Maltese influencers have been setting up their own Depop account to encourage this movement. Etsy focuses on handmade or vintage items and craft supplies. One can find various items such as clothing, toys, home décor, etc.

Donating

It is that time of year again where the shift from summer to winter clothes leaves us wondering why you even bought certain pieces of clothing. And if this isn’t an annual thing for you, then I suggest you do it anyway as you can now earn some extra cash for decluttering your wardrobe!

This year, during EWWR, S-Cubed will be organising a thrift shop at quad between the 28^th of November till the 2^nd of December. You can either be their customer or lend a helping hand by donating your unwanted clothing for them to sell.

The money owed to the applicant will be given some time after the event, either by Revolut or cash, depending on the applicant’s preference. If an item is not sold, it will be returned to the applicant with the presentation of their ID Card. The price of the garment will have a small margin added to it at sale that will go to a charity related to the cause.

With thrift-shopping, you aren’t just saving your pocket money but you are also saving the environment.

It is time to end the stigma of thrifted clothes!

The post Caught in the knot of fast-fashion | the benefits of thrifting appeared first on The Third Eye.

It’s quite funny that a third-year psychology student is attempting to write on something that she herself has not yet grasped how it works. I guess from my end it has always been that feeling of being torn between following the trends and looking cool, or establish my own signature style and sticking with it.

So far, I haven’t really succeeded in doing either.

Before attempting to draw any links between personality traits and fashion trends, it is paramount that one understands the role of fashion in a post-modern society. Simply put, fashion is the ticket to transmit non-verbal communication signals about one’s social status, values and lifestyle.

Then again, one might question the high success fashion has managed to accomplish in today’s society. Usually, such success depends on the way the society interprets the trend and judges it.

Today’s consumer culture focuses on diminishing the gap between the rich and the working class. When you look at it, today’s fashion trends can be adopted by practically anyone. That is, by anyone who wants to be part of the ‘masses’.

Why do youths care more?

The primary reason why adolescents show more concern about fashion than any other age group is because they are during an identity creation stage.

While Erikson would be proud that his psychosocial development model is also applicable to post-modern society, there is something that attracts youngsters to new trends especially if they are promoted by influencers and YouTubers.

But that is not all there is to it, we do not want to be too predictable, do we?

What youngsters are into, especially generation Z is to have the ability to express their own style in an anonymous manner. As a fellow generation Z member, consumption feels gratifying but it is even more gratifying when the materials bought are reorganised in a style that is engaging for myself.

However, psychology has gone a step further to try and understand the relationship between human behaviour and fashion trends. It all boils down to 2 terms: prestige sensitivity and fashion consciousness. Sounds fancy enough?

Prestige Sensitivity

This refers to a positive attitude towards prices based on the feelings of prominence and status that higher prices signal better quality. The tendency for people to prefer higher-end brands suggests that consumers of certain personality traits use brands as a means of protecting their self-identity and express their self-concept. Usually, people who are high in conscientiousness (a desire to do a task well) tend to base more importance on prestige sensitivity.

Fashion Consciousness

Fashion consciousness refers to the level of involvement between the consumer and the fashion style, in other words: the ones who pay more attention to their portrayed image (especially through prestige brands).

Usually, people who are fashion conscious tend to be more extroverted and high in the conscientious personality trait. Conscientiousness is implied in both ‘fashion consciousness’ and ‘prestige sensitivity’ and seems to suggest an image of ‘success’ and ‘achievement’ to their peers.

However extroverted individuals who do not want to stand out among their peers might not necessarily work in line with prestige brands in order to be consistent with the socio-economic level of the group.

Now if Freud were around, he would say that all these attempts are simply unconscious schemes to attract a mate… and maybe it is, who knows! But personally, I would say to just learn more about yourself and your pursuits towards fashion.

Sometimes it is a very simple way of learning about personalities instead of overthinking about every word a person says. Uni is a fun place, but adolescent expression can be a nightmare for some. The key is to always keep everything in context.  

The post It’s time to start questioning fashion trends | Betapsi appeared first on The Third Eye.