Two-hundred billion.
Over 200 billion pounds of clothing end up in landfills worldwide each year, according to a UN press release, a figure which has more than doubled since the turn of the millennium.
In the United States alone, approximately 4 billion pounds of clothing are consumed by Americans annually, of which around 85% is sent to landfills as solid waste, as stated in a journal published by BioMed Central. On average, this waste amounts to just shy of 80 pounds per American in a year.
At the root of this growing issue is fast fashion. Fast fashion is a business model many popular clothing brands use today, where products are quickly designed to cater to the newest trends and swiftly move from manufacturing to shelves with little regard for quality.
This contributes greatly to the issue of textile waste, given that the fast fashion business model “encourages” consumers to perceive clothing as disposable. The majority of clothes use textile dyes, cottons, and polyesters, all of which have their own negative effects on the environment according to BioMed Central.
Not only does this waste negatively impact the environment, but also it impacts those producing the garments themselves. A journal published by the National Library of Medicine found that workers in textile manufacturing lines, particularly those working with synthetic textiles such as polyester, were at significantly greater risk for respiratory illnesses.
It’s these various aspects in the production process that smaller clothing brand owners such as Stanley Phan, are keenly aware of when looking for a good manufacturer.
Ethics over efficiency: Stan’s brand story
After pursuing a career in pharmacy in college, bogged down by work he didn’t enjoy, Phan took a leap of faith, quitting his job as a pharmacy technician and deciding to pursue fashion design.
“I literally sat down one day and was like, ‘Yo, can I really see myself doing this for the rest of my life?’ I didn’t enjoy studying, the pharmacy work, and the academics at that point,” Phan said. “I just wanted to create out of pure love for the game and make cool clothes for people.”
Since then, Phan established his own independent clothing brand, O.KSTAN, where he uses his medium to create garments that reflect his own heritage and experience.
“I think what I’m surrounded by really influences what I make. I like to tap into my culture in my designs,” Phan said.
Despite finding an audience for his garments, the fast fashion industry still has impacts on smaller scale brand owners like Phan.
“There are a lot of small fast fashion brands that pop up and impersonate or steal designs from smaller creators, it’s pretty messed up,” Phan said.
These particular fast fashion brands are also able to price their products more competitively when compared to those locally owned due to being able to work with smaller profit margins. For instance, in a recent lawsuit against SHEIN, one of the largest fast fashion brands, they were accused of plagiarizing the designs of smaller brands.
The trends caused by the larger industry also have a homogenizing effect on the diversity of the pieces released by independent designers like Phan.
“I feel the modern fashion scene really does have a huge influence on what I make, like my selvedge denim line; I felt like I had to make it, but I wish that I didn’t,” Phan said. “It really does influence a lot of brands to like to chase a bag and lose some of their own personal style and creativity.”
Despite being surrounded by an industry incentivizing a purely for-profit business model, Phan still makes sacrifices to emphasize quality in his works, being as sustainable as possible.
“I like to work with organic fabric, nothing that’s man-made like polyester and whatnot,” Phan said. “I try to use the most natural fibers I can, and I like to visit my manufacturers and check the whole process, to make sure it’s ethical.”
Fast fashion brings debated labor policies. Many of the largest brands such as H&M and Zara outsource the brunt of their labor to countries such as Pakistan and Bangladesh. These practices tend to utilize both forced and child labor according to research from Arizona State University.
Finding a good manufacturer is an essential part of creating a sustainable brand. There are a plethora of instances where poor manufacturing practices lead to laborers being taken advantage of or the production of excessive waste in the garment-making process.
According to Phan, much of the importance regarding manufacturers isn’t realized by many brand owners who source their clothes overseas.
“I don’t see people who work overseas visit their manufacturer, but I like to take that extra step,” Phan said. “I give them a yearly visit, see what’s up, oversee the process, and choose fabrics I think are best fit for the environment.”
Recently, negative stigma has arisen regarding the practices and quality of overseas manufacturers, particularly those located in China. However, such stereotypes aren’t necessarily true.
“The misconception is pretty bad,” Phan said. “In China, they literally have an eleven-story building each being dedicated to a different part of the process, they even have a cafeteria and dedicated break time for workers, but in Los Angeles, it’s a hot shoulder-to-shoulder warehouse and people get paid minimum wage or lower.”
Going forward, he aims to use his creations to combat the consumerism he sees taking over the market.
“People should enjoy the things they have instead of constantly consuming. I want to make opportunities where people can hang out and be passionate about art, not just selling clothes,” Phan said.
Phan’s frustration with the “bag-chasing” culture that fast fashion trends create isn’t just a problem for designers. It also plagues consumers like Carlmont senior Ria Smilovitz, pressuring them to keep up and conform with the latest fashion fads.
Comfort in complacency: When knowing isn’t enough
The impacts of fast fashion culture go far beyond the world of designers in the industry.
Since starting high school, Smilovitz became increasingly conscious of the clothes she wore, and so did the society around her.
“When I got my first phone freshman year, I pretty quickly got sucked into the fashion side of social media,” Smilovitz said. “Everyone around me was finding their style, and my friends would joke that my outfits were lowkey bad, so I felt like I had to catch up.”
Smilovitz’s experience mirrors that of many in Gen Z, according to a 2022 study conducted by the Pew Research Center. The study found that one in three teens say they’re constantly online on some form of social media platform, such as TikTok or Instagram, a number that’s projected to have grown since.
Due to a combination of societal pressures and her own curiosity, Smilovitz delved deeper into the trends she observed on the internet, eventually leading her to fast-fashion brands. And despite knowing of the many drawbacks of supporting such unsustainable business practices, its affordability and convenience won out.
“I know that what I’m doing is bad, and that I’m supporting poor labor practices, but I’m still doing it,” Smilovitz said. “It’s human nature for people to choose a solution that benefits them, and the financial side of it is a bigger priority for me.”
Over time, the business models clothing brands have utilized have only contributed to the issues Smilovitz points out, using predatory marketing and incentives to create a need to purchase.
“There’s definitely a lot of impulse buying when it comes to online shopping in general, and fast fashion takes advantage of that,” Smilovitz said. “Their labor practices let them use absurd discounts and deals to make you feel like you’re spending less money, but you end up having to buy more, leading to more waste.”
However, it’s not just the brands themselves that are incentivizing such consumerism, but social media as a whole.
“When you’re on Instagram or TikTok, it feels like everyone’s wearing something new every week,” Smilovitz said. “It’s hard not to compare yourself to them. You start thinking that to look good, you have to keep buying.”
However, despite these issues, the presence of such societal pressures has some benefits for those in similar positions to Smilovitz, thanks to the increasing awareness of using clothes as an outlet for creative expression.
“Even though I felt a sense of social pressure in the moment, ultimately, I appreciate being judged because I really like my style right now and I prefer being aware of it, and I know it isn’t that deep,” Smilovitz said.
It’s undeniable that the fast fashion business model and its culture have brought benefits to consumers, expanding the ease of access to in-style and affordable clothing compared to alternatives like thrifting and buying secondhand.
“I know thrifting is one hundred percent more sustainable,” Smilovitz said. “But it’s really tedious, having to search through racks and bins of clothing to maybe find something you’d want as opposed to typing in a search on a website.”
“Online shopping and fast fashion make it much easier to find clothes you want, because they’re constantly producing in style stuff, and the price isn’t much different,” Smilovitz said.
From discomfort to direction: Sachin’s solution
It’s this central issue of convenience that upcycling advocates, such as Sachin Muralidhar, a software engineer and former economics major, seek to tackle by using an app to make shopping secondhand both affordable and convenient.
“I love thrifting, but it’s such a broken, fragmented process, it’s too tedious for the consumer,” Muralidhar said. “When I was first thinking about a solution, I knew there had to be a better way to make thrifting online more accessible to the average consumer.”
His passion for secondhand shopping and frustrations with the current tools available to users became the foundational values of Muralidhar’s app, Thrifter.
Thrifter utilizes a simple, dating-app-style interface that enables users to swipe and easily bookmark or ignore specific articles. Using both user-selected preferences, such as their price range and sizing, and user data collected as they swipe or search for different items, the app curates listings from various resale platforms, including Depop, Grailed, and Poshmark.
“The idea behind the app is that if there’s technology brands out there are using for regular retail, how can we spin it and use it sustainably?” Muralidhar said. “Everything on Thrifter is under $20. It fits both buckets: affordability and ethics.”
But beyond making sustainability easier, Muralidhar wants Thrifter to change the way users think about clothes shopping entirely.
“It’s about breaking the mindset of, ‘Let me buy new first,’” Muralidhar said. “The difference in price is marginal, but your impact is so much more widespread.”
In the grand scheme of things, Muralidhar hopes his project will become one of many, marking a widespread push for sustainability in this generation.
“We’re going to be the generation responsible for cleaning up the mess that’s been created,” Muralidhar said. “If it doesn’t start with us, we’re just punting the ball further down the line.”
In the long run, Muralidhar aims for Thrifter to grow not only as a tool but also as a message.
“If I can continue to use my platform to scale impact, I’d be super happy,” Muralidhar said. “I like the idea that sustainability doesn’t have to be niche, it can just be normal.”
