Week 3: The Cost of Fashion

Week 3
The Literal and Metaphorical Cost of Fashion
Alejandra Verduzco

Humans have a way of ignoring or unacknowledging the issues facing the world today. We have heard of many global challenges such as climate change, pollution, violence, government corruption, and many more. However, a challenge that is often surpassed because of people's ignorance to address the issue is the cost of fast fashion. In the article "Fast Fashion, Sustainability, and the Ethical Appeal of Luxury Brands" by Joy, Sherry, and the other authors go into detail about the negative effects of having unsustainable methods of manufacturing cheap and mass-produced clothes. Consumers love fast fashion as it is affordable and in style, giving them a chance to stay in the trend without having to spend too much money on designer brands. No one, however, stops to think about the negative effects of fast fashion. While the low prices of clothing leads to more purchases, in order to get low prices you need to lower labor costs, lower raw material costs, and increase productivity. The cheap labor fast fashion markets often are sourced from sweatshops. They are forced to work long hours a day under harsh working conditions, often getting wounded and exposed to toxic chemicals.

Now I don't blame people for wanting to save money and buy cheap clothing to stay in style, but at what cost? Is the system corrupted? Is there a way to make cheap clothing fast and easy without harming the workers? Can we end sweatshops and give the workers better working conditions and more money for their hard work?

Personally, I have never been a shopping person. It has never been one of my daily nor monthly hobbies. I grew up very poor having to share a bedroom with all 4 of my family members, meaning we always had to live on a budget. So growing up my clothes always came from hand-me-downs, yard sales, swap meets, and thrift stores. This led to my disinterest in buying clothing often, especially when it came to name brand items. This is why I understand peoples interest to give into fast fashion because the products are affordable, making us be able to fit into society's trends without having to spend your whole paycheck on one outfit. Thus leading me to the other article written by Hennings which describe the demand for counterfeit luxury goods. Fortunately, my family and I are no longer in such a horrible financial problem but personally, I would still buy the counterfeit item over the original expensive one. To me, the name brand doesn't matter as long I am comfortable in what I am wearing, and that's how everyone should feel.