Fashion trends are constantly changing. One day scrunchies are so totally '80s, and the next day every girl on campus is wearing at least five. OK, while that might be dramatic, fashion trends really do run in a loop. I cannot count the number of times my mom has said, "If only I would have kept all of my clothes from when I was a teen" because she swears her wardrobe looked exactly the same as mine does now. Because these fast-paced trends switch on a dime, consumerism in the fashion industry is constant and has no sign of stopping.

Don't get me wrong, I love how a good outfit can make me feel, but the vast human rights violations that the fashion industry causes leaves me changing up how I spend my dollar.

Low wages, high costs

We live in a capitalist society that creates a vast amount of social justice issues, particularly due to the capitalist notion of producing as much as possible for as little as possible. This means companies will search the entire globe to find workers who will create their products for the lowest wages possible. Within the fashion industry, this usually means hiring women in extremely poor countries and communities.

Along with extremely low wages, women are often denied any sort of maternity leave and are sometimes fired for being pregnant. Often times, breaks are minimal and workers are forced to work extremely long hours in harsh conditions. Workers are also forced to risk their lives and personal safety every day at work. Numerous building collapses and firesin textile sweatshops have taken hundreds of innocent lives because the buildings in which these operations take place are not structurally sound nor are they designed to hold as many people as they do.

In addition to the human rights violations, the textile and clothing industry is a major greenhouse gas emitter that is quickly warming our earth. From the toxic dyes and vast amounts of clean drinking water used to create textiles to the greenhouse gases that are emitted in shipping these products, our consumer habits are deteriorating the ground we stand on.

Unfortunately, the textile workers and the earth do not have the power to push back against these extensive violations. The textile workers are stuck in a position of keeping their low paying jobs or not being able to feed their families. Their agency has been stripped away from them, leaving them in a position with nowhere to turn.

What can we do?

As college students, we have the voice and the agency to push back against these companies and tell them we will not support them so long as they continue to commit these vast human rights violations. The one thing that will really scare corporate companies is losing their customers and profit. If we send a message that they will not receive our dollar unless they guarantee fair working conditions, they may actually decide to listen.

While you are not spending your dollar on corporate fashion companies, you can spend it somewhere else. It is the age of thrifting and buying second-hand clothing is the way to go!

We have more than enough perfectly good clothing already made that just goes to waste. Go hunt around to different thrift stores, trust me there is plenty out there that you will love. You can find all of the styles you love, for a much lower cost not only to your wallet but to the world.

If you do not want to put in the work, there are more than enough trendy Instagram accounts out there that will do all of the work for you and find you the perfect wardrobe. It just takes you as a consumer to put in a little more effort to make a big change.

As a college student, I do acknowledge the pressures constantly surrounding us to support fast fashion on the daily. Every second the most perfect new jacket or pair of jeans comes out that your favorite Instagram influencer is sporting. Everybody around you is buying the newest trend and it's hard not to follow along. That's the cool thing to do! Trust me, I am guilty of it too.

We will all follow trends, that's just how the world works. But what if we made it "trendy" to not support human rights violations? What if we made it trendy to use the clothes that are already made and are just waiting to find a new home? That's a trend I want to follow.