The Real Cost of Fast Fashion

Fast fashion is a term that is regularly used and connected with the negative environmental and ethical aspects of the fashion industry. Recently, there has been an increased interest on the environmental impacts of our consumer behaviour. What is fast fashion and what are it's environmental impacts?

Fast Fashion is term used to describe the cheap high fashion clothing, usually sold by high street retailers. Traditionally retailers would tend to stock new trends or lines each season, with fast fashion, they stock new trends each or even week. This change is consumer buying behaviour is driven by both the reduction in the price of clothing and increased marketing of new trends and fashions. Fast fashion clothes are generally only worn a few times before being replaced by the latest trend.

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The environmental impacts of fast fashion are well reported with the green house gas emissions, chemical pollution and landfill waste all being key issues. The growth of cotton, the most widely used natural fibre uses huge amounts of chemicals that are damaging to the health of the workers, the surrounding environment. Synthetic fibres like polyester which are regularly used for making 'fast fashion' clothes, require the use of vast amounts of petro chemicals and releasing all sorts of polluting chemicals that also present health risks for workers in the industry and those living in the vicinity. The manufacture of most textiles is an energy intensive process, this combined with the transport of textiles of products around the world produces even more green house gas emissions.

As if that wasn't enough, there is also the problem of disposing of unwanted clothing. Landfill in the UK is a huge problem with textiles accounting for an estimated 30% of UK landfill waste each year. Synthetic textiles simply stay in the system and do not break down naturally. Even natural textiles pollute water systems with chemicals and dyes that are washed out by rain water. They also produce methane, a powerful greenhouse gas as they breakdown.

Recycling of clothing is a great idea but the quality of many fast fashion items makes them less desireable second hand. In March last year Allan Wheeler of the textile recycling association reported in the House of Lords on how "the quality of the clothing that is coming through to our members is on the decline, which makes it harder to reuse".

Whilst there are a variety of eco textiles and brands with excellent environmental credentials now available, it is consumer behaviour that will need to change in order to reduce the impact of fashion and clothing on the environment. Fashion retailers are primarily led by customer demand and will change their products and marketing strategies in response to a change in consumer behaviour. We are starting to see a move in the right direction with key retailers such as Marks and Spencer's and Next all stocking organic and eco lines.

How to change from fast fashion to sustainable style

- Choose clothes in classic styles that will last more than one season
- Store clothes carefully to make them last, where possible, mend and repair instead of replacing them.
- Swap your second hand clothing at a swishing party or on a clothes swapping website
- Develop your own style, instead of following the latest trends.
- Buy vintage or second hand clothes
- Read fashion and style blogs for inspiration on timeless style
- Update last years look by adding a few accessories to your existing wardrobe rather than replacing everything.

The Real Cost of Fast Fashion

This article was written by Ceri Heathcote for posh-swaps.com, a website for swapping, buying and selling second hand and vintage clothing.

Clothes swap and buying and selling second hand clothes is a great way to reduce the impact of fashion on the environment and to save money.

Fashion Industry: Ready To Face The Future

The fashion industry is very complicated. There are no standard fashion companies. They come from a wide spectrum of enterprises working in the apparel, footwear, home textiles and accessories markets.
The industry is made up of various kinds of companies like retailers, design source and selling companies, companies with their own manufacturing facilities and other companies who outsource production but retain control over parts of the production process.

Moreover, companies functioning in the high fashion segment often face a different kind of pressure as compared to those functioning with commodity fashion goods.

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All of these aspects combine to make the fashion industry one of the most complicated industry. Yet, various issues can be noticeably recognized as common across the industry.

. Consumers have the power

. Supply chains are complicated

. Product launching and delivery takes time

. Companies must be able to manage a product mix

. Inventory control maintenance is important

. Impact of the latest technology on the fashion industry

. Copyright issues for fashion designs
Consumers have more power

Today's buyers have more purchasing power then ever before and are less tolerant due to increased time pressure in today's lifestyles.

They are more aware about environmental and human rights issues and have superior quality demands. They demand a huge variety and more frequent changes in the choices available to them. Moreover, they also expect immediate availability of perfect matching set of garments and accessories in their preferred color and size combinations in the same store.

In terms of satisfying the consumer's needs, retailers are the first in line, but all companies in the supply chain are driven by the prerequisite to anticipate the expectations and requirements of their customers. From design to production and to the final sale, all members of the supply chain need to check that stores are stocked with the correct requirements when the consumer needs to buy!

The companies that are quick to respond to the consumer requirements are those that will remain profitable in an environment of rapid global competition and increasing material and operational costs.
Supply chains are complicated

The fashion industry is distinguished by global supply chains and complicated logistics. Labor and transportation costs often determine where production takes place and outsourcing of all or part of production is common. Companies throughout the industry have to deal with global sourcing problems and need to regularly evaluate their sourcing strategies.

Production work is often done across multiple places, which may be also located in different countries. Setting up of cutting, sewing, subcontracting and transportation, and the synchronization with raw material supply, is a very tedious process.

Product launching and delivery takes time

While working through the many pre production steps, including yarn or fabric selection, garment development, specification and sampling, the industry takes a long time to introduce a new product in the market.

Both, the complex nature of the supply chain and the global nature of production add to the industry's long lead times. This arrangement of long time-to-market and long lead times does not correlate with the need to react immediately to changes in customers requirements.

The ever changing seasonal and trend driven nature of the industry depicts that the product life cycles are too short. Even for cyclic demands where the life cycle may continue further, there are often small changes to design, and color or size combinations may be changed. The logistics of managing the large number of styles and maintaining stock keeping units is a difficult practice.
Companies must manage a product mix

Besides long lead times, fashion producers are stressed to constantly design and develop new product lines to maintain retailers' interest and increase consumer sales. Producers have noted that in order to maintain this speed, raised flexibility and quickness to satisfy changing customer demand, which is quicker than ever before, it is very challenging for them to judge or come out with such types of products. Gone are the days when a perfect fashion trend direction decided what consumers wore. At present, many styles are available, and with rising globalization, consumers can approach fashion news through latest media tools.

Fashion products change frequently, from hosiery and basic underwear through medium-priced high street brands, to exclusive high fashion brands. Managing brand awareness and brand loyalty is a serious task in retaining the position in the market. Margins in repetitive basic products are low, so neither a retailer nor a manufacturer can ever afford being out of stock.

Shifting to the high-end fashion sector, margins increase and sales volumes are lower, but consumers demand an ever changing range of choices, forcing the companies to produce multiple collections per year.

Many companies have to put in efforts to overcome the added challenge of arranging a mix of repetitive lines and collection-driven products, and a requirement to segment their product range and arrange the different segments in a suitable way. From design to demand planning, sourcing, production, distribution and sale, the demand of various product segments must be separately tackled if companies need to perform well.

Companies require clarity about the sector of the market they are targeting, and they have to direct their business in that way.

Inventory control management is important

Companies try to keep inventory levels at a minimum in all industries. In the fashion industry the requirement to maintain inventory levels under control is worst due to less product life cycle. In this industry, there is only one solution to sell the goods.

For collection-driven brands, the entire floor sets must be in the retail stores when these products are introduced, otherwise the chance to sell the goods is missed and obsolescence exposure is a high risk.

For the products that are frequently in demand, it is crucial that retailers and suppliers do not undergo stockouts. This part of the market does not possess the same level of brand loyalty, and customers may well be attracted to shift brands if the color and size they required is not immediately available in the stores when they need to buy.

For all companies, the balancing action of keeping inventory at the necessary level to fulfill demand, while ensuring that they are not left out with obsolete inventory, is a main problem.
Latest technological impact on fashion industry

Recently, the Burton Amp jacket, what is depicted as "the world's first and only wearable electronic jacket with an integrated Apple iPod" was introduced.

According to some fashion experts the clothes will soon turn into accessories for your gadgets. Today new technologies are much involved with clothing and apparels that you can not judge whether you are wearing technology or whether technology is wearing you?
Besides, electronics will keep decreasing in size to such an extent where we would no longer considerably need the objects to hold them. Hence, today the fashion industry is experiencing new challenges: "intelligent textiles", "smart clothes", "i-wear" and "fashion engineering" and are only a few of the trends which will transform the entire fashion industry within the next decade.

Nowadays, many new materials and technologies are applied in textiles and accessories when they are still too costly or primitive for other applications. A wide variety of electronic devices can already be made into clothes and this will rise. New fabrics are already being developed to offer power generation - by using solar power, electromagnetic, thermal and mechanical means.

The combination of high-technology into textiles, e.g. modern communication or monitoring systems or the development of new materials with new applications, has just begun, but the branch has already moved in a gigantic expansion for this sector. Particular applications for the health and security sector, e.g. clothes with extern monitoring systems, already today exist in a large quantity.

Within the coming few years, we'll see a lot more new applications in garments with latest technology. Hence, there are many designing challenges for fashion designers and engineers for making most demanding fashionable wears.

Copyright issues for fashion designs

Fashion apparel is a multi-billion dollar business that has no national boundaries due to its global existence. Designers, retailers and consumers decide their statements according to international fashion trends. In the last decade, consumer awareness of particular designers has also raised dramatically. Magazines and newspapers also cover the fashion industry as a part of their national news coverage, concentrating on the dynamic world of creative designer expressions.

The common man is very much aware about names and faces of fashion models and the designers for which they model. At present many television channels and feature films involve the fashion industry. Consumers can now identify the various types of designers and designs.

Today, many designers find inspiration from street fashion, celebrities, vintage styles and other designers' work. Even though there are possibilities of duplication in products and designs due to easy accessibility of the latest printing and computer technology, and due to appearance of the regional or traditional designs in apparels worldwide, it can not be ignored easily. It is really a challenging task to cope with this issue globally.

Fashion Industry: Ready To Face The Future

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History of Fashion - Ancient Greece

With the end of the Minoan civilization sometime between 1500 BC and 1400 BC, a new era began whose principal actors were the people of the mainland. In 18th century BC Indo-Europeans out of Western Eurasia had begun to conquer and settle in the Aegean and the eastern Mediterranean. The Mycenaeans arrived from the north in the early 16th century BC, but were in turn invaded by the Dorians from Macedonia and the Balkans in about 1100 BC. The Aeolians arrived in the coastal region of northwestern Asia Minor about 100 years later. These patriarchal Greek-speakers, the early Hellenes, became aristocratic landowners with fortified acropolis.

The independent city-states had different rulers and forms of government. Although their society was sophisticated, there were few skilled professionals. Most people lived off the land. Public buildings, such as the temples and the Parthenon of Athens, were indeed grand, but most Greeks lived a simple life, and this was reflected in their costume.

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Costume

Greek attire was simple and involved a minimum amount of sewing. It was no more than a rectangular piece of cloth, either linen or wool, that after wearing could be folded and stored away. The primary wardrobe item for both men and women was the chiton, or tunic. It was worn with a belt, draped over the body, in a way that it covered the left arm while the right arm remained bare. The chiton's length varied according to the wearer's status quo. It could extend to the knee or the ankle. It could also be fastened with pins or brooches (fibulae) on the left shoulder or on both shoulders, or be dyed, embroidered, or edged with decorative elements.

We distinguish four main costume silhouettes, which existed in ancient Greece. These are Cretan Minoan, Mycenaean, Archaic, and Classical, each named after the era during which it appeared. The Cretan Minoan attire included a variety of complex garments that were made in very much the same way that modern garments are made. Skirts and blouses were shaped to the body of the wearer. Women laced themselves in corsets that exposed the breasts and wore flounced skirts stretched over hoops, probably the first type of crinoline. The Minoan silhouette, with its slender waist, accentuated breast, and sweeping skirt, bears so strong resemblance to that of late 19th century Europe, that one image of a fresco from Knossos is dubbed La Parisienne.

Mycenaean costume was influenced by Minoan fashion, yet it was also quite primitive. The primary garments of Archaic Greek were the tunic and shawl. In the Classical era, fabric was softer and draping became more sophisticated so that clothes fell naturally over the body. Clothing was meant to be so subtle that it was difficult to differentiate between the body and the cloth.

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The two most common fabrics in ancient Greece were the wool and linen, which were woven into different textures, some thin and loose, other thick and heavy. The import of silk from China began in Hellenistic times, but silk was more rarely used for it was expensive.

Woolen clothing was the prevalent fabric in the Greek wardrobe; wool felt was used for caps and hats, while the men's himation and the chlamys were made of woolen cloth. This is why most garments were off-white until the Archaic period (ca. 800 BC- 500 BC) when new textiles were introduced.

By the 5th century Greeks began to dye all types of garments. Cloaks were dyed in dark and earthy colors, women's clothes were made in floral shades. Numerous types of decoration were used. Gold and silver, as well as yellow, indigo, violet, red, and purple threads were sewn into garments. Garment borders were dye-painted. Motifs from architecture and vase painting were also used in clothes.

Women's clothing

Women's chitons were made to suit their body shape; they were made of narrow material and were draped differently as to cling to the body. Women's garments were distinctly female and required a ritual to put on, which involved wrapping a band beneath one's breasts, a transparent tunic, and a short, sleeveless tunic.

The main women's outer attire - worn over the soft linen chiton - was the Doric peplos, made of a rather heavy woolen rectangle. Half the length of the wearer's height and 180 cm wide, the peplos was folded vertically and then wrapped around the body and fastened by pins or fibulae at the shoulders. Excess material was folded at the top, forming a flap at the back that resembled an abbreviated cape.

Another elegant feminine garment was the Doric podere tunic, which could be embroidered and accessorized with jewelry and a light linen shawl, or pharos.

The palla was an overgarment similar to the chiton. It was sleeveless and fixed at the shoulders and gathered in at the waist by a belt fastened at the hips. Women also wore the men's himation over their tunics.

Men's clothing

The most important garments in the men's wardrobe were the chiton, himation, and chlamys.

Men's chitons were wide. They sometimes featured sleeves fashioned out of the extra material. The Ionic chiton, used during the 7th century BC, extended to the ankle. By the 5th century, it had been replaced by a short, knee-length version. This was fuller and softer, often made of linen rather than wool. Small fibulae fastened the material across the shoulders to form sleeves.

The himation was a large men's cloak, made of wool, approximately 2 x 2.75 m, which was wrapped around the torso and draped over the shoulder in such a way that no fastener was needed. As clothmaking and fabric evolved, so did the himation. The new styles were made of lighter wool and became more versatile, bigger, and were draped for a more elegant look.

The chlamys was a short, oblong garment, worn over the shoulders and fastened with a brooch or pin at the right shoulder.

The Hellenistic age heralded the most decorative era in Greek costume, partly because of the introduction of cotton, silk, and gold and silver threads from India. Dress varied in cut, and oriental embroidery and metallic additions were used for decoration. Costume in the Hellenistic age emphasized a person's individuality. It was a time of prosperity for the Greeks, due to a thriving mercantile economy, and the luxurious materials used for clothing reflected the richness of the time.

History of Fashion - Ancient Greece

Next: Ancient Greek Fashion Accessories

The author is the founder and owner of Adriana Allen LLC - a European fashion brand offering handmade and one-of-a-kind handbags and fashion accessories. You can learn more about world fashion, fashion's history, and how to buy fashion accessories at our official blog.