Before I delve in a serious and complex topic, let's be honest for a moment: do you get a mini high from sales and cheap prices in general? If you don't, you're lying, simple as that. Nothing gets my adrenaline pumping like seeing the pair of black booties, the ones that I desperately need, on sale for $20. That is, until I realize after a couple months or so that they're out of season, out of style, and now in my garbage can.
Another moment of honesty: I normally don't even think twice about throwing away cheap merch deemed "old," even if purchased only three months prior. My rationale?
What's the worse that can happen?
Well, there is actually a lot that can happen resulting from my bargain hunting and careless disposal of cheap fashion.
The other day, I watched a documentary that figuratively and metaphorically opened my eyes, as well as my mind. This documentary is known as "The True Cost."
Like almost every addictive documentary on Netflix, "The True Cost" is informative and easy to understand. In a 90-minute time span, it slowly unfolds step-by-step the Fast Fashion industry, and its impact on third world countries, infrastructures, factories, workers, and our environment.
'Fast Fashion' is a contemporary term used to describe the fast lapse in which outfits highlighting current trends are designed and disseminated to retailers. Stores, such as H&M, Forever 21, and Topshop, follow this philosophy and extend it to their manufacturing and outsourcing practices. 'Fast Fashion' is made quickly and inexpensively -- allowing us, in turn, to purchase massive amounts of clothing at a super cheap price. The shoppers are always satisfied.
But, our satisfaction comes with a huge price tag: a price tag that those in the Western World do not feel obligated nor entitled to pay. The documentary presents the dangers, the violations, the trauma, and the greed that are all part of creating clothes meant to induce brief euphoria for the bargain hunter. The Western World doesn't have to carry the burden of loss, pain, and mistreatment that factory workers experience: all we have to carry is our shopping bags from store to store.
Then, there's our environment, you know, the entity that keeps us alive; it's already in jeopardy from our slew of questionable practices, but severely worsened by Fast Fashion practices. Most clothing derives from cotton, and in the world of Fast Fashion, cotton must be produced rapidly. Rapid production of cotton is made possible by lovely pesticides, which cause soil erosion, widespread illnesses, and depravation of crops, and have devastating effects on the lives of farmers and their families. How wonderful.
Also, you should really think twice before donating cheap clothing. More often than not, donated clothing resides in landfills-- polluting and serving as nothing but waste in impoverished countries. Our altruism and old clothes, though not warranted, are fashion garbage, as these landfills continue to expand daily.
Being a morally conscious shopper is difficult, there's no denying that notion. With prevailing influences and "must have" trends fueled by advertising and media, we will most likely succumb to Fast Fashion prices to seem efficient, savvy, and rich. However, notions can be changed, and our ideas on shopping must be altered. Shop wisely, but more importantly, shop ethically because at the end of the day, your $10 crop top is made with the blood, tears, and strength of a mother paid $3 a day to slave away in a factory.
