The Problem With Fast Fashion

Fast fashion is something that I’ve really started to clock onto and is really starting that’s getting on my tits. I wrote a post a little while ago about ‘keeping up with the jones’’ in the influencer world. About how products, clothes and so much else is readily given to people of a certain following by brands in order for them to ‘flog it’ if you will. The only issue is the people they are influencing and promoting these things to aren’t likely to have the cash lying around. They don’t have the funds to support keeping up with all the current trends, having the latest phone, and whatever bullshit ‘get clear skin in 12 seconds’ serum is saturating the market that week. And as a result they feel like they’re failing.

In the past few months after challenging myself to do #ootd for 10 days straight, I’ve really taken a shine to more fashion content and thinking about how to express myself through my personal style. And I’ve been sucked into this world. I’ve seen the fashion influencer world from the other side, and it is kinda ridic. When you’re producing fashion content, you’re promoting the very latest stuff. Keeping on top of the very latest trends. And shopping exclusively in the ‘new in’ section of every high street brand in a bid to get yourself out there first. Be the one reposted by the brands and responsible for a new fashion craze.

And it’s just the way the world seems to be, we’re always looking for the next ‘big thing’. And I am absolutely no exception, however as much as I am LIVING for fashion content and creating it, it’s taking over my life. I am constantly shopping, I am constantly looking for trends, and I am constantly skint.

I’ll be honest, for my posts on Instagram especially I buy things I love, taking photos to put online and more often than not I’m having to return them because I can’t afford to keep them. And this in turn is giving a false impression of my financial status and what I think is acceptable to spend. I’m making my followers feel like I felt when looking at fashion content. That I wasn’t able to be ‘on trend’ because I couldn’t afford to refill my wardrobe every 3 months. But when I post to Instagram the same outfit more than once, my engagement completely and utterly nose dives. Social media doesn’t seem to be kind to repeating outfits, however I do want to make a bit of a change.

I’m exhausted spending every lunch time and most of my evenings scanning through 100s and 100s of pieces of clothing in a bid to be deemed as ‘fashionable’. And whilst I probably will still buy things for the sole purpose of the ‘gram, I do want to get better and to encourage others to recycle outfits. To buy a single piece to transform a look, rather than splashing out and buying a complete new outfit. To dig around your drawers and reuse what you have rather than buying new. Or if you’re really not feeling something anymore, to either sell it or recycle it. Never to chuck it in a black bag and clog up our overflowing landfills.

I’ve recently started following @slow.style on Instagram and it has honestly bought me so much comfort in regards to recycling outfits. It’s a place to promote being a little more environmentally and financially friendly, and is trying to tackle our obsession with fast fashion. I recently had a wardrobe clear out, and whatever I couldn’t sell I took to H&M and recycled it for my £5 off coupon and I felt like a new woman. I could see everything I owned, come up with fun new outfits and see where the gaps were for some bits I needed.

(If you haven’t heard, you can take any item of clothing, in any condition and from any brand into any H&M store and recycle it and you’ll get a £5 off coupon when you spend £25. A little helping hand to the planet, whilst helping fund some new pieces.)

There nothing wrong with wanting to buy new pieces and to be interested in fashion. The issue arises when we wear things once, decide it’s not Instagrammable anymore and throw it away. As much as I love places like Primark and New Look, and believe me I really do, because the items are so deliciously reasonably priced it becomes so easy for us to justify throwing things away or becoming bored of them quickly. ‘It was only £15 and I’ve worn it a few times’ is a constant conversation I have when I’m thinking about making room in my wardrobe. It doesn’t seem like a big of a waste of money just to throw things away, as we all know selling on Depop is an absolute ball ache (no I will not go to £3 for this coat hun).

I suppose the summary of this very long winded rant is, use your clothes for as long as you can and when you inevitably become bored of them as trends move on, PLZ FOR THE LOVE OF GOD RECYCLE THEM.