Every week brings a new trend: retro, y2k, cottagecore, long skirts, tiny shirts. This is fast fashion. Why do people feel the need to be a part of an unethical cycle of shopping and style rebranding? Fast fashion, and with it, micro trends, are overrated. It’s horrible environmentally and promotes child and unpaid labor, and it causes or heightens insecurities. Fast fashion brands like Shein, Romwe, and Forever 21 and their consumers know these facts and they stay in business anyway. Fast fashion is unethical and feeds into the consumerist culture of America.
Most stores that follow micro trends and produce new clothes to fit the criteria of these trends before they are out of style are cheap. They are cheap because children and underpaid employees are working for far too many hours to get clothing out fast. The material and quality is bad and within a month it will end up in a landfill or a thrift store. Micro trends and fast fashion are horrible for the environment and for overworked employees.
Fast fashion only benefits the companies. I know that clothes are out just as fast as they are in. I have fallen victim to micro trends as a teenage consumer. I have ordered hundred dollar hauls from Shein and Romwe and I have donated those same clothes before I wore them once because that was no longer the trend.
It’s so hard to keep up with the speed at which we as a society move with social media telling us what to think constantly. I also know that when people feed into fast fashion brands and the ideals they promote, those clothes are also tossed aside before they’ve had a chance to be loved. I have browsed aisles at thrift stores where I have seen one right after the other of Shein clothes, all styles that have been trendy at some point. Those clothes are going to get tossed into the trash at some point and they won’t ever break down. The environment suffers from our consumerism wired minds.
With social media dictating what is and isn’t trendy, not only are fashion interests changing constantly, but teenagers, specifically girls, are feeling less confident in their clothing.
It isn’t okay to have your own style when it’s so easy to order a three dollar cropped tank top and ten dollar low rise jeans. But, for some people, the quick trends aren’t interesting. Some people prefer buying more expensive, but high quality clothing or thrifting for less expensive high quality clothing. And some people just want their own style. But when the girl who is wearing a purple dress walks down the hall and every other girl is wearing black flare leggings and a cropped zip-up jacket, she feels uncomfortable and far-too visible.
I know I have.
I have worn expensive clothes once or twice before shoving them in the back of my closet because they were too different from “the norm” and I felt watched. Then, I wear clothes that I feel less confident in, but I blend in. Sure, I’m not being watched, but I don’t feel like myself. There’s no winning. Mental health has been on a decline since social media has taken over our lives and a big part of that is self-esteem because your style isn’t the right one.
Sure fast fashion brands may be the most affordable for some people, or maybe you like the micro trend and you want to own the same cheap shirt everyone else has, but there are alternatives that are not unethical.
Rather than pay to keep low quality companies in business, thrift. There are so many second-hand stores that have inexpensive clothing. And you can absolutely find something that fits the micro trend because it’s a cycle and someone may have thrown something out for you to buy the last time it was popular. There are always better options than feeding into unhealthy consumerism.
Fast fashion is unsustainable and micro trends are overrated and are not the right choice. They are constantly cycling and trends resurface, so shop sustainably and wait for the trend to come back around.
