3 ms·

Why is fast fashion bad but slow or regular fashion not? Fashion is valuing things based on some definition or perception of popularity. It's chasing the drago

• cainxinth 5y ago
  Fashion is art. Just happens to be art you can wear. Art is generally considered to be good culturally and economically for a society. But anything can be corrupted. Fast fashion is an especially deleterious evolution of wearable art, imho.
  • dmos62 5y ago
    If fashion were art you wouldn't have the word fashionable, in the same way that you don't have the word artful.
    • cainxinth 5y ago
      You’re entitled to your opinion and there’s no definitive answer, I suppose, but I just googled: “Is fashion art?” and virtually every result on the first page said yes.
      • dmos62 5y ago
        Well it's not really the type of question to be answer via a referendum. Maybe it's fashionable to consider fashion art? Haha.
• pharmakom 5y ago
  Fast fashion drives more waste, environmental harm and illegal (or just shady) labour practices. If the cost of externalities were captured in the price, then fast fashion probably wouldn't exist. You can't sell a $5 dress without lax environmental and labour standards. Slow fashion on the other hand is about creating items that last for years, even decades. Each item might have greater environmental cost to produce, but the cost per wear is far lower.
• tweetle_beetle 5y ago
  It's all on a continuum, but what fast fashion changed was the structure of fashion seasons. When new models are developed and released on an industry agreed schedule (2 or 4 times a year), then there are clear benefits for planning, forecasting and managing the supply chain. Having a cycle that cannot be planned and offers a short window to profit, creates strong incentives to compromise on these relatively stable systems. This is compounded by the vast majority of fashion brands outsourcing production, and often design, sourcing, etc. So if a new item appears to be about to become extremely popular: - Don't have time (or want to maximise margins) to design an item? Copy someone else's. - Don't have time to find a new factory? Offer the contract to one you know that doesn't have capacity to produce it safely. Or quickly pick a new one without doing any supply chain checks. - Don't have time to source materials? Let the factory pick what they want without oversight. - Factory owner doesn't have time to source additional labour? Secretly outsource to a cheaper factory with worse conditions to keep the margin. They might never get another contract anyway. - Factory owner has an unrealistic price per unit to achieve? Just reduce the quality. The lack of stability means that there are just no incentives for anyone to anything "right".