The Truth About Fast Fashion
In a world where everything you need is accessible at the touch of a screen, online stores are a godsend for fashion fanatics. Online retailers such as Pretty Little Thing, Fashion Nova, and Shein are notorious for their ability to keep up with the fashion world. All your fashion-forward styles can be at your doorstep within weeks (or the same day for an extra charge) and within a blink of an eye, your favourite online fashion retailer will be selling the new trends of the season. But this all comes at a cost, and consumers will pay a hefty price. Online shopping tends to go hand in hand with fast fashion, plagiarism, and unethical practices.
What is Fast-Fashion?
Pretty Little Thing, a well known UK fast-fashion retailer is one of the most popular online brands to date. Despite their swift ability to take runway looks and make them into everyday accessible pieces, PLT has some serious dirt. This brand claims that they are “fast fashion accelerated”, and knowing what we know about fast fashion, this is not something to boast about. The consumption of their products is not sustainable in the slightest. PLT prides itself on “dropping hundreds of new products daily”, and this comes at a price. The fast fashion industry plays a huge role in pollution because in order to keep up with consumer’s demands, more clothing is produced and this means more waste. Factories have excessive amounts of unethical fabric waiting to be used, many of which are terrible for the environment. In the UK alone, 1.2 billion tonnes of carbon emissions are produced by the fashion industry, and 80% of items of clothing have been sent to landfills and 20% were incinerated. A key fabric used in PLT clothing is polyester after being washed or thrown away, these microfibers are easily released into our rivers, lakes, and oceans. In a single wash, 700,000 fibers are released.
What is PLT doing about it? Something, yet nothing. After mainstream media caught wind of the detrimental impacts that come with supporting fast fashion industries, PLT released a small collection of “ethical products” and claims that all pieces are sustainable and ethical. This is problematic for several reasons. The first being that this is performative activism. This collection did not exist until people began discussing and trending the idea to boycott fast-fashion retailers. Second, there is little to no transparency about the process of making these sustainable products. We know that the clothes are made of recycled material (still polyester that ends up in our water), but is the manufacturing process sustainable? Where do these recycled materials come from? When mentioned on the Fashion Revolution Transparency Index, PLT scored a whopping 9%, meaning that PLT keeps its customers in the dark. Lastly, this collection does nothing when they still manufacture hundreds of products daily and sell them for next to nothing! This initiative does nothing to combat the grotesque level of consumption by only putting out 108 styles meant to “make our world a better place”.
Plagarism and Theft in Fast-Fashion
Fashion Nova, known as a pop culture phenomenon for its name being featured by celebrities like Kylie Jenner, Cardi B, Saweetie, and more, is also just as known for their unapologetic plagiarism and theft. FN forecasts fashion trends before anyone else, and they mean it even at the cost of stealing from small businesses and the red carpet. When Kendall Jenner graced the MET Gala in her infamous white jumpsuit in 2018, and Kim Kardashian showed out with her black velvet Alexander Wang dress in the same year, Fashion Nova was quick to remake and put out a dupe of each dress the VERY NEXT DAY. The issue with this is that it takes away the integrity of the designer piece, and exploits all the hard work designers do on those pieces. This is a common occurrence for Fashion Nova as the billion-dollar brand Versace filed a lawsuit against this fast-fashion brand for ripping off J-Lo’s notorious jungle dress from the
2000 Grammy Awards. The lawsuit accused FN of “exploiting the popularity and renown of Versace's signature designs for financial and commercial gain”-- basically what Fashion Nova is known for.
Further, FN was criticized the most when Kim Kardashian spoke out on twitter after her one-of-a-kind vintage dress was ripped off and sold on FN the next day. Kim took to Twitter to say, “It’s devastating to see these fashion companies rip off designs that have taken the blood, sweat, and tears of true designers who have put their all into their own original ideas,”
Lastly, FN knocks the little guys down too. Several lesser-known designers have called out Fashion Nova for stealing their designs. Fashion Nova has stolen artwork from scottrohlfs.com without contacting the artist, and actively avoided emails and calls when the artist tried to reach out. Scott Rohlf’s intellectual property was used without consent on an oversized t-shirt and he saw 0% of the profits. Fashion Nova only cares about crediting well-known celebrities and pushing unknown artists under the rug. “The devil works hard, but Fashion Nova works harder”
Shein, a fast-fashion retailer based in China, excels solely on their dirt cheap prices on items that are expensive anywhere else. It has a history of being “inspired” by indie designers-- selling cheaper versions of their creations-- for next to nothing without the consumers knowledge, and without credit. Recently, Shein has knocked off two designs from an Instagram retailer named CHNGE. This sustainable brand uses fair trade and has carbon-neutral clothing. If Shein wanted to steal something from this brand, it should’ve been their commitment to change. CHNGE exposed the brand on their Instagram and asked followers to hold them accountable, not just for their theft but for their impact on the environment. Shein even went as far as to use their name and logo on the shirt.
Questionable Ethics in Fast-Fashion
All three brands are questionable when it comes to their ethics. Pretty Little Thing hired a Swedish model known for blackfishing. Blackfishing is used to describe someone who pretends to be black to be praised on social media. This is done by using makeup, hair products, and even plastic surgery in order to mimic Black features. This model was publicly called out on both Twitter and Instagram when users found old natural photos of her with pale skin, and straight hair, and compared it to her present pictures where she overly tans her skin to the point of her complexion matching that of Black women, lip injections, and curly hair. Why is this an issue? PLT is using a model that appropriates Black women and their features for praise while Black women, who have these features naturally, are discriminated against. PLT simply could’ve hired Black models but yet they took this opportunity away despite the fact that Black women already have limited chances in the fashion/modeling industry.
Fashion Nova has been racially insensitive on countless occasions, but their Halloween scandals take the cake. FN sexualizes the cultures of minorities by selling their traditional dresses as “sexy” costumes. Indigenous peoples were appalled by their Pocohantas costume that sexualized traditional attires, and Mexicans were outraged by their dia de Los Muertos collection as it dishonored the holiday and the dead. FN continuously profits from ancient transitions without acknowledging cultural context simply for the money. FN released a geisha costume that consisted of a kimono, an obi (sash), and hair sticks. This is problematic for all POC because of the way that all minorities have been depicted in the West. The West has a long history of official and unofficial discrimination against each minority mentioned and by Fashion Nova selling these products, they are feeding into stereotypes that Indigenous and Asian women are over-sexual, promoting orientalism and the fetishization of women of colour.
Pretty Little Thing and Fashion Nova is also facing modern slavery charges, as reported by FORBES and NY Times. Claims suggest that PLT is paying their workers as little as 3.50 (Euros) an hour, while the minimum wage in the U.K. is 8.72. NY Times says that many of FN’s workers in LA are undocumented and paid off the books, making it easy to take advantage and pay workers as little as $2.77 an hour. These investigations were made before and during COVID-19. So not only is Pretty Little Thing and Fashion Nova allegedly exploiting innocent people, they’re exploiting vulnerable innocent people during a pandemic.
The irony is each of these brands has “committed” to change, environmentally, and socially. And yet? Actions speak louder than words. None of what they have said in their call to action statements during the BLM movement is reflected in their practices.
This information is a lot to take in. Something as simple as fashion isn’t so simple at all. As consumers, we can take action to avoid fast-fashion retailers as much as we can. Shaming and “canceling” people for using fast fashion is not the answer either as there is truly no ethical consumption under capitalism. However, we should consider the fact that not everyone has the means to buy expensive sustainable clothing and instead educate them on alternatives such as thrift shopping, or remind them that if they’re buying fast fashion, make sure to get as many wears as possible and donate or upcycle the product when finished. Making a difference starts with being educated, finding brands with the same priorities as you, and acknowledging that these brands are not as amazing as they seem.