When you think of fashion, you might think of wearing clothes that just make you feel comfortable, confident and happy. In that case, I’m here to break down some ugly truth behind fast-fashion practices in relation to globalization.
The idea of globalization can be explained as the process by which “businesses or organizations develop international influence or start operating on an international scale”. (Oxford Languages).
When introducing fashion in relation to globalization, you think of the ever growing global market of clothing production. It is an industry that keeps thriving due to the constant need to satisfy new emerging fashion trends and “customers’ obsession with “I gotta have it now” instant gratification mentality.” Thus, massive amounts of new clothes get produced with new designs and textiles, while the “outdated” pieces accumulate into trash.
This practice comes at the cost of global sustainability. This also means **”1.4 quadrillion microfibers estimated to be in the ocean, threatening wildlife, as a result of laundering clothes.” **”Of the total fibre input used for clothing, 87% is landfilled or incinerated costing $100 billion annually.” **”Of the 2,400 substances used in clothing manufacturing, researchers found that approximately 30% of the identified substances posed a risk to human health.”These are just some statistics on how excess of clothes produced from fast-fashion have been and will continue to ruin the world in the future, producing tons of chemicals and waste dangerous to humans, animals and nature. However, not only does it pose a threat to the world’s sustainability in the future, but it also stems a large issue of unethical labor practices. In fact, millions of people from third world countries are often forced into working for these fast-fashion factories, exploited under poor conditions with little to no pay.
This harsh reality can be considered largely still functioning in our world due to the concept of imperialism, which creates this drastic division between the richer, well-developed nations against the economically, politically, and socially unstable countries. Under imperialism, which was very present in much of our histories, we saw the more powerful and wealthy groups of people dominating over the disadvantaged groups, and stripping their land of their resources. As a result, these poor groups of people were left with nothing, but the choice of subjugating to these wealthier countries’ power in order to survive. This has created a capitalist dynamic in our world, where the rich get richer, and viceversa.
Although nowadays the practice of imperialism no longer exists officially, it has however left its influence and established the current societal conditions of capitalism, which is all about the exploitation of workers, and getting the most out of them. As a result, imperialism technically constitutes a main issue with fast-fashion, that is the idea of farming out cheap labor.
- We see how the lives of these third-world country laborers are not considered important, but only their labor is valued due to its resourcefulness, and profit.
- Capitalism is eating these workers alive because it is jobs likes working at a clothing factory, considered to be “unskilled”, that are the hardest, and most labor-intensive.
- As a result, we see these workers’ bodies crumble down while producing clothes, and yet they are never glorified for their work in the mainstream media.
- We see how the lives of these third-world country laborers are not considered important, but only their labor is valued due to its resourcefulness, and profit.
- Western expansion (imperialism) works hand in hand with our current capitalist world because it targets new places/markets (access to different lands and resources) to be taken into advantage for an economic purpose.
- Capitalism also breeds alienation through our relationship with commodities (things) instead of people–> we tend to just shop for clothes, without considering the context of clothes’ origin.
Sources:
Elisa's blog 
Wow! This was a really compelling post, and really relevant right now. I think it could also be interesting to explore another side of fast fashion, specifically how it distorts our perception of clothing prices (like a $3 top from shein), and we then become hesitant to purchase from more sustainable clothing companies because the pieces are just so expensive compared to what we’re used to buying from sweatshops in Southeast Asia.
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It is important for people to realize how much damages are from the clothing and fashion industry since all those dies and pollutions are all going into the water eventually and it is quite hard for factories to purify. Last semester I spent my time in London and was so lucky to have the opportunity to attend London Fashion Week. One of its main themes is biological dying which won’t produce any pollution to the water but also effective.
It is always essential to learn about the fashion industry’s environmental impact and I wish more multinational fashion companies will pay attention to their own pollutions.
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I love how you touch upon the environemtal impacts of fast fashion and the imperialized techniques of fashion production because I feel like this is an overlooked effect of fast fashion. The social and economic effects of fast fashion are the main atrocities shown in the media (rightfully so as it applies to human rights issues), but so often do the environmental impacts get lost. The media tends to focus on CO2 pollution causing global warming when it comes to environmental issues. Although this is a dire problem we need to address and solve, it is also worth noting, as you did, that physical pollution of trash and other substances in our ocean and wildlife is still a major problem in this day and age.
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This blog post was really interesting to read! I really learned a lot from all the stats mentioned and gave me a different perspective on fast fashion and imperialism. Hearing about all the horrible things in the fast fashion industry has really caused many people to switch over to shopping sustainably despite being significantly more expensive. It would also be interesting to see the effects of this phenomenon on the third world countries and their economy.
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