Written from a Western Consumer perspective. Please, be wary of the influence of narratives, and show up with a critical mind. This field changes rapidly these days.
Fast fashion is an umbrella term for stores known for mass-producing poor-quality garments at a cheap price. They add new inventory to their shops every second week, if not oftener. Instead of keeping to the original four-seasonal collections of the year, the stores have created one for every week to keep you consuming their products to stay "on-trend." Many products from fast fashion brands are influenced by or outright duplicating the latest trends from designers, celebrities, or other influential people. In other words, it is "high-fashion" done cheap and fast. Many brands are found to steal successful designs from small or independent designers, as well as selling religious items or symbolism as trends. Fast fashion chains are available globally and are most of the Western consumers' favorite stores for inexpensive clothing. Some of the currently dominating fast fashion brands are H&M (including their daughter brands, Monki, Weekday, COS, Cheap Monday, &Other Stories, and ARKET.), BikBok, Forever 21, Mango, Zara, Free People, Primark, ASOS, and Urban Outfitters.
Check GoodOnYou.eco for sustainability ratings of your favorite brand(s).
HOW TO IDENTIFY A FAST FASHION BRAND
Speaking from my own experience, there was a time I didn't know what a fast-fashion was. It was not many years ago, but the learning experience has had a profound effect on my understanding of the world, and how I desire to live in it. As I learned more about fast fashion and sustainable fashion, I came to recognize a few points that help me identify if a store is sustainable and ethical.
The first sign of a fast-fashion brand is inexpensive clothing in a large volume.
The clothing that is sold and produced is silly cheap compared to what it would cost to produce these items if workers were paid fair, living wages, and the brand took responsibility for its supply chain and environmental impact (A supply chain is a network between companies and suppliers that follows the creation of a garment from raw material to retail.) That clothing is inexpensive gives room for a high production volume (a large selection), and cheap(er) sales.
That fast fashion is considered inexpensive\cheap does not mean it is cheap for everyone. People still live on low wages all across the globe or have high expenses that leave little left to buy more expensive clothing. What people can afford to put into clothing is a question of their own personal economy and accessibility, and is nothing anyone else but them should police. Regardless, this does not justify the unethical production system necessary to produce the massive amount of cheap clothing fast fashion brands do.
The second sign of fast fashion is low-quality clothing.
Some fast-fashion items can last you a long time, there's no doubt about that. I have experienced that with sturdier pieces like thick sweat sets. However, most fast fashion items lose their shape and color after a few washes and wear due to the low-quality material used. Another issue is seams. Already on the first day, you may pull loose threads out of your top or pants, or simply, watch a jacket or socks slowly disintegrate as you wear them (e.g., faux fur or "cozy socks" shedding microplastics.) This is a result of the fast production system fast fashion uses, and their other practices (e.g., choice of materials). They want to pull around items fast, which leaves little room for quality checks and quality sewing. This issue reverberates throughout the supply chain and leaves consumers with garments of poor quality that need to be replaced often and ensures high-consumption rates. It also puts workers to complete long, repetitive tasks. For an industry that relies upon and desires continued economic growth, it is a useful mechanic to produce clothes that are not made to last or that often cannot be resold as clothing.
The third sign of a fast-fashion brand is high volume and rapid turn-around time.
One of the easiest signs to be aware of when identifying a fast-fashion brand is the large volume of items they are selling. This can be in a physical store or online. A large volume and variety of items speak to issues of overproduction, especially if you see signs of frequent sales in addition. Sales are historically a way to get rid of "old" products that didn't get sold. Frequent sales are thus a marker that they continue to produce more than they know they will sell out. Producing big batches of a product is normally more cost-effective compared to smaller batches. However, it leaves a heavy toll on the workers and the environment as a result. In summary, fast fashion chooses quantity over quality.
An important memo to make is that as consumers we can choose to buy less. We can become more conscious of what we buy, why we buy it, and which materials and brands we choose. Overproduction is one part of the issue; the other side is overconsumption. Preferably, we need to buy less firsthand, and we need to use our available secondhand resources better to keep garments out of landfill (borrow, swap, thrift, and DIY).
Photo: The Buyerarchy of Needs (With apologizes to Maslow), illustrated by Sarah Lazarovic.
Adding new items to their store frequently is also ensuring a high volume and rapid turn-around time. In the documentary, Inside Missguided (2020), there's an example of someone seeing a design they liked on social media, only to call the brand's supplier where they request it done in a short time as possible and as cheap as possible. Another happening from the same documentary exemplified parts of the next point on this list: that they do not know what they are getting before it is delivered at the company door.
Lack of transparency and overview of their supply chain is the last sign of a fast-fashion brand.
A few years ago when I got into the sustainable fashion sphere, recognizing a fast fashion brand was easier. Today, most brands greenwash (make claims or use symbolism that makes the brand look "greener" than it actually is) or have made minimum efforts to "ensure" ethical treatment in their supply chain. An example of this is telling you where a product is assembled by using the "made in-" tag. Where a product is assembled is one part of a brand's supply chain and overall sustainability and ethicality. However, it is also a part of the supply chain that has a lot of ongoing human rights issues. Worker's rights, modern slavery, sexual harassment, and no-pay issues are strong within the industry. There are also severe environmental concerns regarding deforestation, water pollution, and the industry's overall effect on climate change.
What is normal to see when a fast fashion brand claims to be sustainable is (1) vague phrasings ("that's why we think it is important to...", and future goals with no plans on how to achieve them ("we will work towards [goal] by [year]";). (2) Use of green symbolism (design) to appear greener than they are. This may be using colors evoking the beauty of nature, shades of green or earthy tones. (3) They use a minimal amount of recycled fibers in their new clothing or have limited, sustainable collections.
Sustainable collections can address certain environmental tolls during production or disposal, but they are often most considered greenwashing as they represent no more than a fraction of the brand's total production volume. It can also be assumed that while the fabric might be produced with better environmental practices, the assembly happens in the same fabrics that create their regular collections, therefore making no improvements on human development and ethical treatment where they produce and\or outsource.
To find some truths, you want to look for evidence that supports their claims. These can be independent third-party certifications and video\photo evidence on how people are treated in the supply chain, or which production methods they are using to reduce their environmental toll. Mostly you will find factory workers or recycling schemes, as they are some of the most controversial points in fast fashion at the moment. Certifications can be tricky because they are not a "fix-all solution." They normally certificate very specific conditions or practices and can be mixed with less-sustainable production methods or materials. Some certifications found used by fast fashion brands are them certificating themselves. If you want more information on this, I recommend checking out GitteMary Johansen's Youtube series regarding certifications. Certifications are a way to improve the current systems. If a brand wants to be truly sustainable, they need to take responsibility for the disposal of their products as well. Currently, that leads towards efforts to build a circular fashion industry where waste is designed out of production and reused, repurposed, or recycled when a product no longer is wanted.
A Circular Economy is an economy that is "restorative by design." It reuses or recycles all the resources in a product and production chain so no resources go to waste and lose their value. We're currently living in a linear economy. It is wasteful by design ("take-make-dispose"). Products lose value as they enter the waste stream. The main response in western countries and by brands is not to reuse these resources, but to remove them (e.g. burn or ship to poorer countries.)
The importance of transparency is therefore to make people aware of these social and environmental justice issues so the practices can change. However, as many brands do outsourcing (they produce in countries across the globe with fewer labor rights, lower minimum wage, and little overview to save money) this is not often an issue Western consumers see in their everyday life despite being a big part of the consumers. The Rana Plaza Factory Collapse in 2013 was one of few cases that have made international headlines. It started putting a face on the people who made our clothes, and under which conditions. However, it is important to note that the issues within the fashion industry in developing countries are also found in western countries like the U.S. and Britain.
A brand that is sustainable and ethical will often want to inform its customers of this with proof of their claims, plans, and explanations of what they are doing and which difference it is making. Transparency helps create trust between the producer and the consumer. It let the consumer know where their money is going towards. If you do not find any information on a store's website, it is likely that they don't have anything positive to say. As an end note, it should be noted that transparency in itself is not a change of practices, it is an openness about practices. You always want to find hard evidence of what they are doing. Often this includes contacting the brand via e-mail to confirm or ask for more details.
FURTHER RESOURCES
If you want more on this topic I recommend watching The True Cost (2015) or reading "Consumed: The need for collective change: Colonialism, Climate Change & Consumerism (2020)" by Aja Barber. You might also want to check out Fashion Revolution on how to get involved, or work through their free online course, Fashion's Future and the Sustainable Development Goals for a comprehensive introduction to the issues inside the fashion industry and how they affect people and the planet.
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