Can Fast Fashion Change?

As the fashion industry progresses, companies continue to brew ideas on how to justify humans' undying, unquenchable thirst for gratuitous consumable goods. Today, that 'justification' is called greenwashing, which was essentially started to allow consumers to shop without feeling guilty about where their money is going and if it needed to go there. Yesterday, the post-lockdown desire for in-person shopping experiences allowed fast fashion to further tighten its grip on our wallets. Now, we're in an era in which the biggest, most corrupt companies can slap a "made out of recycled materials" sticker on any of their tags and everyone forgets that no matter how recycled the material is, an unpaid five-year-old made it. In response to these ever-growing criticisms, SHEIN announced in 2021 that they've hired a sustainability executive, to maintain and control the company's footprint and keep them more 'sustainable'. However, it also should go without saying that any company can say they're being sustainable and continue to do nothing to prove it. Thinking rationally, regardless of any recycled materials or sustainable practices, any company that manufactures new garments every day cannot possibly be as green as they want us to think they are. And that's how it falls back on us as consumers. We continue to give these companies money and continue to consume, as is the American way, unnecessary materials, only allowing these conglomerates to say whatever they want to make us feel better without actually facing or fixing the real issue at hand.

 However, consumer morality comes into question when you consider the real situation many Americans face. As perfectly fine as it is to sit back and judge both SHEIN and the people who purchase from it, in many cases the situation is not so black and white. In the U.S. it is not at all uncommon to see a lot of people making less money than they actually need to survive, maybe enough for a grocery run every two weeks and a coffee on the way to work on Friday as a special treat. But beyond that one little coffee, they allow themselves, every other penny typically goes towards bills, rent, food, and other objectively necessary items. However one must argue that, specifically in the world we live in today, it is 100% reasonable to expect to never buy things they simply want. I myself grew up and continue to be unwell-off financially, and it was very typical that the items I owned and the clothing I wore were bought for as cheap as possible, and if not it would give me a panic attack. The thing I struggle with most is how to balance my principles, and my desire to spend as little amount of money as possible. 

So we have to take a look at the current culture of 'shopping'; what options are most popular, what options are for who, etc. The argument I always find myself in is quite the opposite of the stand I took in the first paragraph; despite my bitter hatred towards fast fashion and those who make excuses for it, I will not be making excuses for it. The reason, I believe, SHEIN is so controversial on such a large scale, is due to the fact that exposing SHEIN and SHEIN shoppers became a kind of trend, in its own right, for a while. At the beginning of quarantine, people wanted things, nobody is allowed outside, and that resulted in the amount of online shopping occurring skyrocketing, and very quickly at that. And because of this, we saw a huge amount of traffic on SHEIN, one of the cheapest online fashion stores, and one that constantly pumped out designs that sold. This lasted a good month or so, with people going on social media to show everyone the load of clothing, jewelry, and household goods they just bought for only $50 before others on social media quickly rebutted with the facts; SHEIN is a terrible place to be spending $50 at. Similar to much of the narrative around thrifting at the time, it was encouraged that, if one was able to spend $50 on things they didn't need, there was no reason to be spending $50 on SHEIN. However, a lot of people took this, quite simple, request and ran with it, expecting a total boycott of SHEIN altogether, and going the extra mile to shame any and everyone who chose to continue supporting them. This is where my questions begin to appear.  

The landscape of fast fashion is pretty simple. Amazon, SHEIN, Target, Walmart, H&M, and Urban Outfitters are probably some of the biggest name fast fashion brands at the moment, Amazon and Target specifically. Now consider you make $12.80/h. Your rent is $1000 a month and you work just shy of 30 hours a week because you're a student and don't have all the time in the world to work. You're on top of everything you're financially responsible for, meaning every other week when you get paid, maybe $200 of that is going into your pocket, most of that's getting spent on groceries/food, and everything left goes into savings. You've had no more than 4 pairs of shoes most of your life; athletic, dress, slip-on, and one that's kind of hip and trendy that you found for 75% off the retail price at Goodwill. That pair of shoes you've now had for 5 years, you walk most places, you're pretty active, and they were only $30 it's not like they can't get dirty. Well now they're 5 years old and your foot falls out through the sole, you can feel the gravel you're walking over touching your sock through a hole in your shoe; you need new shoes. Where do you go? You'd go to Target or Walmart but if you're gonna buy a new pair of shoes you want them to last. You could go to H&M but after their last Mugler collab, their retail prices are a little out of your range. Same with Amazon. SHEIN is the only one you can actually afford brand new, you could go thrifting but you'd have to look for hours knowing you probably won't find a pair you love. But you can't buy the ones you want from SHEIN because you know telling someone you got your shoes on SHEIN is not going to invite nice compliments. But Amazon is owned by a Trillionaire living in a country with people so homeless they invent their own drugs. Walmart and Target are continuously brought into question for the treatment of employees, sustainability, and much more very closely relating to what people yell at SHEIN for. H&M and Urban aren't really any different, and both, especially H&M who actively lies about their Greenwashing practices, are known for working mostly overseas, just like SHEIN. 

So how does SHEIN compare? When almost every major brand, not in the country, but in the world, consistently uses the same practices, has been outed for their treatment of their workers, the environment, and their finances. It isn't a difficult GOOGLE search to find the dirt on Bezos, regardless of how hard he tries to bury it now. The point is, how is SHEIN that much worse, that you can buy from someone who could literally solve world hunger and chooses not to, or a store that SCREAMS about inclusivity but just as quickly moved every single gay-related item to the back corner of the store the second they faced backlash? For me (and this is very much my opinion please don't crucify me for this), it feels much more rooted in a distaste for the poor, rather than an encouragement to be environmentally friendly. SHEIN, while absolutely vile, evil, and a pawn for capitalism, is not all that much worse than a majority of the other brands people support, the only difference for people between Amazon, and SHEIN is that you can afford to not shop at SHEIN. If you want tiny silver earrings with stars on them, you can afford to buy them for $20 rather than $3.25. Not everyone can. And as easy as it is for people, myself included, to sit back and tell someone they shouldn't shop somewhere, we have to also be reminded that we live in a country that knows how to play their pieces. And at the end of the day, they want us to consume and make it nearly impossible not to. So, as much as people have taken this and run with it, there really is no ethical consumption under capitalism.