Wearing clothes, is it that simple?

The act of dressing ourselves is a norm, a daily task that everyone goes through. However, with the rising culture of visual art and emphasis on beauty aesthetics in the media, wearing clothes has started to be conceptualized differently for many. Now, not only do we dress according to the seasons, but also to fit the standards of mainstream social appeal, trends, and to sprinkle some self-expression.  

Image displaying the creator’s fashion choice

The incorporations of the bold colors, textures, accessories has attributed the idea of fashion to our daily dressing task. Nowadays fashion is about being eye-catching with your choice of clothes, and newer generations have picked up on this quite easily. In fact, by just scrolling through Instagram or other media platforms, one can take so much inspiration on new trends, starting new trends and dressing to one’s own liking.

Multiple Instagram posts that fit in the #fashion #ootd category

From an economic standpoint, as the world has shifted to a highly consumerist society, where a lot of buying and selling transactions happen, we have dramatically fed into the growth of the fashion industry. Indeed, with the growing demand of clothes for fashion purposes, many fashion houses have recognized the changing demographics and began to design ready-to-wear collections in standardized sizes and produce them in mass quantities to be sold at department stores.

Surely, the fashion industry saw the rise of globalization, and its potential. In recent years, producers and consumers were also introduced to cyber technology and electronic mass media (technology), which has since facilitated the way clothes are produced, marketed, sold, bought, worn, and discarded. Soon, the massive, and fast production of clothes internationally has started to open a market that fed on the massive demand for trendy clothes. Traditional fashion was slowly disappearing while fast-fashion was becoming the new norm.

Currently, fast fashion thrives due to the inexpensive manufacturing cost and cheap labor that allows retailers to sell trending pieces quickly and at affordable prices. As fashion constantly changes, so does the consumers’ need to buy new trendy clothes to swap their wardrobe pieces. Slowly, the initial hype of fashion has not become a way to benefit large fast-fashion corporations who only care about personal economic gain. As a result, globalization has negatively affected fashion because not only does it produce massive, unnecessary waste to the environment (in terms of non-sold pieces, and the use of toxic materials), but also creates this industry of mistreated workers, who are overworked in unethical conditions and get rewarded little to no pay. 

Personally, I’ve been and still am a victim to fast-fashion. It’s a hobby and fun activity to gather together with friends on a weekend, and shop at the mall. Our go-to stops are often the trendy clothing stores, who are the large faces behind fast-fashion. With the rise of awareness about clothing sustainability, and ethical working practices, many of us have since started to be more conscious of where we place our money towards, and what it means to buy environmentally friendly items. While social media widely markets these fast-fashion businesses through the use of influencers, it has also been a pump for raising global awareness as well. As a worldwide community, we must continue to take measures in breaking the cycle of fast-fashion.