persuasive essay on fast fashion

What is fast fashion?

A chambray mens dress shirt floating weightlessly against a light blue background.

Fashion is fun. If you’ve ever seen a makeover montage in an ’80s movie, you’re well familiar. Trying on, buying, and keeping clothes to reflect our various moods fulfills complex human needs for comfort and individual expression—as well as for consumption.

Get to know and directly engage with senior McKinsey experts on fast fashion

Anita Balchandani is a senior partner in McKinsey’s London office, Achim Berg is a senior partner in the Frankfurt office, Gemma D’Auria is a senior partner in the Milan office, Clarisse Magnin-Mallez is a senior partner in the Paris office, and Patrick Simon is a senior partner in the Berlin office.

Fashion is also serious business. In 2023, the global industry was estimated to be worth $1.7 trillion . And more than 300 million people all over the world work on clothes, somewhere along the value chain. From 2000 to 2014, clothing production doubled and the number of garments purchased per capita increased by about 60 percent. This is due, in part, to the rise of fast fashion.

Fast fashion retailers move, well, faster than their traditional counterparts. This means that they compress production cycles and turn out up-to-the-minute designs, enabling shoppers to not only expand their wardrobes but also refresh them quickly—and cheaply. And shoppers, it turns out, love a new look: according to the recent The State of Fashion 2024 report, published by Business of Fashion and McKinsey, 40 percent of US consumers and 26 percent of UK consumers have shopped at fast fashion giants Shein or Temu in the past 12 months. If you include other fast fashion retailers, the number would likely be much larger.

For all the growth it generates, the fast fashion industry is also responsible for considerable waste. Fast fashion consumers are quick to throw clothes away: some estimates suggest that consumers treat the lowest-priced garments as nearly disposable, discarding them after only seven wears . For every five garments produced, the equivalent of three end up in a landfill or are incinerated each year. And total greenhouse gas emissions from textiles production clock in at 1.2 billion tons a year—that’s more emissions than those emitted by all international flights and maritime ships combined. Reports also indicate that some clothing factory workers are underpaid and exposed to unsafe workplace conditions.

The true costs of fast fashion are coming into focus, especially for millennials and Gen Z . Young people are becoming more mindful of sustainability with respect to how they consume. They’re also keenly aware that the fashion industry is a major contributor to global warming. And they’re walking the talk too: half of Gen Z shoppers in China , according to a recent survey about sustainable consumption, said they aimed to buy less fast fashion.

How can the fast fashion industry give itself a sustainability makeover? Read on to find out.

Learn more about McKinsey’s Retail and Sustainability Practices.

What is ultrafast fashion?

If fast fashion retailers speed up traditional product cycles, ultrafast fashion moves even faster. Back in the 1990s, the Spanish retailer Zara was one of the first fast fashion retailers to break the mold, offering hundreds of new items per week. As of 2023, the Chinese ultrafast fashion retailer Shein consistently churns out up to 10,000 new designs a day. And Shein’s products are, on average, significantly less expensive relative to the company’s more established fast fashion counterparts: Shein’s average SKU price is $14, compared with $26 at fast fashion retailer H&M and $34 at Zara.

Circular, white maze filled with white semicircles.

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Shein grew dramatically during the pandemic. Due in part to a surge in online sales and digital adoption rates, the company more than doubled its market share in the United States during that time; it’s now the second-most-popular shopping website among America’s Gen Z (after Amazon). In a 2022 funding round, Shein’s value was set at $100 billion (in 2023, it reportedly dropped to $66 billion, likely in anticipation of increased regulation).

How are fast fashion companies evolving the business model?

Ultralow prices are critical to the success of the fast fashion business model, as are condensed turnaround times. Upstart fast fashion retailers such as Shein and Temu are updating the model in the following ways :

Agile, scalable manufacturer-to-consumer supply chains . Some next-generation fast fashion companies have developed large networks of suppliers who often manufacture exclusively for these companies.
Data-driven product design and testing . Shein, for instance, uses demand-driven trend modeling to design and select its products. This includes a range of data inputs from current trends to viral products to customer perception.
Loyal and growing customer bases . These are fed by affiliate marketing influencer programs and organic social community building, which lower customer acquisition costs.
High app adoption rates and engagement tactics . Companies have gamified their app experiences, allowing customers to earn loyalty points by setting up accounts, leaving reviews, watching live streams, and more.

How are fast fashion organizations addressing sustainability concerns in their C-suites?

One way fashion companies, fast and otherwise, are preparing for the sustainability challenges ahead is by restructuring their C-suites. According to McKinsey’s State of Fashion 2024 report, the C-suite teams at almost all of Europe’s 25 biggest fashion companies include at least one executive with environmental, social, and governance experience. These executives oversee a series of sustainability strategies, from shrinking their companies’ carbon footprints to reducing waste to improving labor relations.

The brands that execute sustainability strategies most successfully incorporate sustainability components into existing roles rather than create entirely new ones. For example, the UK-based fast fashion retailer Primark put Michelle McEttrick, the company’s first chief customer officer, in charge of leading sustainability strategy. And success as a sustainability executive can open doors to the top job, as in the case of Helena Helmersson, who was appointed CEO of H&M in 2020 after serving as the company’s head of sustainability.

How can the textile industry make business models more sustainable?

Many fast fashion players are considering how to make their business models more circular, in response to climate pressures and a quickly evolving regulatory landscape. In a circular model of value creation, resources are deployed over and over . Conversely, a traditional linear model begins with extraction and concludes with end-of-life disposal, with the expectation that consumers will discard goods and buy more.

Here are a few ways in which fashion companies can work toward complying with changing regulations.

Improved traceability . Achieving full supply chain visibility across all tiers of manufacturing will be a critical enabler for regulatory compliance. Advances in blockchain and other technologies may help companies to enable more transparent and efficient monitoring. Brands such as Brooks Sports and Renfro Brands have deployed TrusTrace’s digital traceability platform to achieve traceability at scale.
Sourcing and production . Upstream supply chain activities account for the majority of carbon emissions in the apparel industry, so in the future there may be a sharper focus on decarbonizing the production of materials and garments. Brands may increasingly shift to new suppliers or join strategic alliances. The luxury retail brand Hermès, for example, has partnered with start-up MycoWorks to secure access to its engineered mycelium (a network of fungal threads that can be used to produce a product similar to leather ).
Design . A new emphasis on longevity and durability may demand fresh attention to design details such as stitching and seams. Materials that cannot be separated in recycling may be avoided in the future, meaning designers might have to think more creatively about their design choices.
End-of-life waste . New business models are coming to the fore to minimize production and waste. Resale continues to grow through brand partnerships with secondhand marketplaces, such as the RealReal and Vestiaire Collective . There is also an opportunity to accelerate closed-loop recycling, a process whereby a product can be used and then turned into a new product many times over. Stockholm-based Renewcell is ramping up the world’s first at-scale fiber-to-fiber recycling factory and is already working with global brands including H&M and Levi’s.

As global business reckons with increasing climate pressures and a changing regulatory environment, the fashion companies that cut new patterns for sustainability are the ones most likely to excel in the future.

Articles referenced:

“ The State of Fashion 2024: Finding pockets of growth as uncertainty reigns ,” November 29, 2023, Anita Balchandani , David Barrelet, Achim Berg, Gemma D’Auria , Felix Rölkens , and Ewa Starzynska
“ Great merchandising never goes out of fashion ,” March 15, 2023, David Barrelet, Matthew Chapman, Erik Eklöw, Julia Huang, Felix Rölkens , and Hannah Yankelevich
“ The State of Fashion 2023: Holding onto growth as global clouds gather ,” November 29, 2022, Imran Amed, Sarah André, Anita Balchandani , Achim Berg, and Felix Rölkens
“ In search of fashion’s sustainability seekers ,” June 28, 2022, Elisa Albella, Anita Balchandani , Nic Cornbleet, and Libbi Lee
“ State of Fashion 2022: An uneven recovery and new frontiers ,” May 2, 2022, Imran Amed, Achim Berg, Anita Balchandani , Pamela Brown, Hannah Crump, Amanda Dargan, Saskia Hedrich , Jakob Ekeløf Jensen, Leila Le Merle, Felix Rölkens , Michael Straub, and Robb Young
“ Is luxury resale the future of fashion? ,” December 14, 2020, Miriam Lobis
“ Refashioning clothing’s environmental impact ,” July 25, 2019, Clarisse Magnin-Mallez and Saskia Hedrich
“ Developing products for a circular economy ,” November 14, 2016, Eric Hannon , Marianne Kuhlmann, and Benjamin Thaidigsmann
“ Style that’s sustainable: A new fast-fashion formula ,” October 20, 2016, Nathalie Remy, Eveline Speelman, and Steven Swartz

Want to know more about fast fashion ?

The State of Fashion 2024: Finding pockets of growth as uncertainty reigns

Clothes hanging on rack in fashion store

Great merchandising never goes out of fashion

Cotton fabric with label saying '100% recycled fabric'

In search of fashion’s sustainability seekers

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If you’ve been on the internet in the last five years, you likely encountered articles, tweets, or videos decrying the fast fashion industry. Their tones are often quite alarming, telling you that you are supporting modern slavery by buying a shirt from H&M. On the other hand, they can be overly dismissive as well. Either way, you’re left feeling desensitized and detached, like your actions don’t matter anyway. The issues posed by the fast fashion industry are two-fold: its violations are both an environmental issue and a human rights issue.

The production of garments is a water intensive process that often uses nonrenewable resources. The waste products are eventually dumped into local water streams, killing rivers worldwide. Garment workers are often paid poverty wages as little as $95 per month , and are forced to work long hours under unsafe conditions.

If you’ve spent as much time on the internet as much as I have, you would have also heard arguments defending fast fashion such as “boycotting fast fashion is classist,” “not everybody has the money to buy sustainable fashion or access to thrift stores,” “sustainable fashion doesn’t accommodate plus-size people,” and lastly, “but I’m giVinG pEoPLe jObs.” There is certainly validity to these arguments, and there’s lots of room for nuanced conversation. However, it is hard to take these arguments seriously when the people espousing them are neither poor nor plus size. Let’s make one thing clear: a poor person buying an item from H&M because they need it is different from a consumer spending hundreds of dollars on one of their regular shopping sprees; only one of them is sustaining the fast fashion industry.

As one commenter shared on a YouTube video:

“As a plus size and relatively poor person in a rural area who exclusively buys thrifted and slow fashion, it’s pretty frustrating to see people tokenize people like me to justify their shitty overconsumption. Trust me, you have options if you actually bothered to prioritize something other than having the same clothes as your favorite influencer.”

Personally, it is harder to address the last argument. Being from a third world country myself, I recognize that I’m a lot more privileged than the average person where I’m from, many of whom, especially women, rely on the factory jobs these fast fashion companies offer. But giving someone a job that barely allows them to sustain themselves or live with dignity is not a good excuse for your own overconsumption.

Remember, if you’re not paying the price, someone else is. So buy from brands that pay their workers fairly, and buy quality things that can be enjoyed for a long time so the environment won’t have to pay for your shopping habits. If consumers vote with our dollar, fast fashion companies will be forced to change as they lose out on profits and sales.

Oftentimes, these conversations can place the bulk of the responsibility on the consumer to do the right thing, but we can also pressure fashion companies to be more transparent, and vote for legislations and regulations that will make that happen. We can make things better for the people who make our clothes if we stop thinking of ourselves as individual actors but rather part of a collective. The slow fashion movement has pressured brands to increase standards for their workers across the board, evidence that it is effective in fighting against fast fashion.

Perhaps, the reason why fast fashion is so contagious and toxic is because we as consumers don’t know what it means to be happy without buying clothes that won’t be trendy after a month. Living in a consumer society means that we identify with the products we buy, and “if we are the product we buy, then we buy in order to be.”

The fast fashion industry exploits our needs for love, connection, and belonging to manipulate us into buying things we don’t need. My goals for this year is to fulfill those basic human needs in connecting with friends, creating art, reading more books, and doing things that bring true joy, which can’t be bought by spending another $5 on a top you’ll definitely throw out after one wear.

Kant says to treat people as ends in themselves, and not a means to an end. Modern advertising has people believing they have to buy, and churn the wheels of capitalism, but we can do so much better. As the saying goes, “shame the fast fashion brand, not the people who buy them.” Mend your clothes, and love the things you own for a long time.

Personally, it is harder to address the last argument i agree

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An illustration of clothing hanging on a rack — blue and pink coats, a yellow vest and blue pants.

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Opinion: The fast fashion debate from a teenage student’s point of view

Shauna Hong

We’ve all heard statistics of the dramatic and often oversimplified implications of fast fashion. A 2021 report by the World Economic Forum found that the fashion supply chain is the third largest polluter in the world.

Companies like Shein are notorious for their accusations of art theft and unfair treatment of their employees . The extremely labor-dependent modern fashion industry originates from globalization and cruel exploitation of labor in underdeveloped countries.

Video essayist Broey Deschanel summarized this when they said, “No economic prosperity or development in the first world without continued under-developing of the third world.”

The issue with ethical consumption is complex, especially as students, who often choose clothes on the basis of affordability or accessibility, not longevity. One claim of “sustainable ethical brands are classist” explore how these companies tend to cater only toward people with affluence, and how many people are excluded when these shops only carry smaller sizes.

Even if teens don’t throw away clothes as soon as trends end, there’s certain guilt associated with the unintentional contribution to the growth of these companies, especially if it’s for something as trivial as fashion or beauty. However, those who buy from fast fashion companies because it’s their only option aren’t the ones perpetuating this issue. The meaning of sustainability in fashion has been morphed by people who use it to make the non wealthy feel bad for not participating in ethical capitalism. Even buying from moral brands becomes unsustainable and feeds consumerism when over-consumed.

According to Forbes , teenagers are one of the main consumers of TikTok. As a sophomore Jeana Hong puts it, “TikTok is exciting because every week you see new trends.” With the influence of microtrends and fast paced fashion cycles, clothing becomes seen as disposable. Before the rise of Instagram influencer culture and apps like TikTok, teens looked toward celebrities and magazines for fashion trends. This specific circle of people was small and access to these slow fashion cycles was neatly curated by them. As high fashion now becomes accessible and replicated for a low cost, we need transformation and accountability from corporal institutions.

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June 13, 2022 / 0 comments / Reading Time: ~ 5 minutes

The Ugly Truth of Fast Fashion: A Visual Rhetoric Analysis

Pamela Juarez

Fast Fashion Brands have offered some of the most chic and trendy styles of the year for everyday low prices, like H&M who carries the tie dye sweat suits seen on Pete Davidson. They tailor their brand to their consumer’s needs, yet these fast fashion enterprises fail to mention that they have become the environments number one concern as water use and textile pollution begins to increase across the globe. Through a precise visual rhetoric analysis—with integrated visual communication theories provided by scholars like Per Ledin and David Machin in their works Doing Visual Analysis From Theory to Practice and Introduction to Multimodal Analysis —we will evaluate how certain semiotic materials used within the fashion marketing world, such as photography and film clips, has effectively persuaded majority of consumers to shop fast fashion. Consequently, while these marketing strategies have become an economic and financial benefit for numerous fashion brands, it’s fair to argue that their actions might not be as eco-friendly and therefore should be held accountable for their lack of waste and water management.

Modes of Persuasion: Fast Fashion Edition

What is fast fashion? It’s typically the faux shearling jacket you see on the mannequin by the storefront of H&M, the frail summer dress displayed in front of Forever 21, or the straight-legged mom jeans hanging by the rack inside American Eagle. These eye-catching pieces are almost always designed to UpToDate societal trends—like the pieces you see on social media worn by your favorite influencer, or directly off the runway from New York Fashion Week–for low prices you cannot resist. The real question is, what persuades you to check out at the cash register? And what motivates you to slide your debit card across? The answer lies within the three modes of persuasion, and its literary mediums that subconsciously influence your fast fashion choices. In a world heavily dominated by visuals and images Ledin and Machin argue within Introduction to Multimodal Analysis, “What we present is a theory of visual communication which is linked to how society and power operate. It is about the way that visual materials come to house our ideas and values and shape and structure how we act and interact” (p. 13).

Figure 1. Model Bella Hadid walking down the Mugler runway.

Pathos is the mode that pulls our heartstrings and triggers our emotional state, and time and time again the fashion industry has proven to provoke our needs with yearly fashion shows, promoting luxury clothing the public can only dream to have. Figure 1 is a photograph captured of model Bella Hadid walking down the 2020 Mugler runway in an all-black cropped-blazer corset, and sheer stockings. It is this depiction that drives the mass audience to desire similar clothing pieces to attend to their personal aesthetic, yet, the pricing of these particular items can complicate things. They don’t call it fast fashion for nothing, in fact, brands like H&M and Forever 21 will mimic these designs and have them placed storefront by the next week to fulfill your desires. Fast fashion brands rely on your emotional need to make your next purchase, and insofar have persuaded you through these photographs circulating the internet that subconsciously shape your values and actions.

Figure 2. Screenshot of model Gigi Hadid in H&M’s ‘Welcome to Hôtel Hennes’ commercial.

In the case that you presume yourself not so easily influenced, these fashion brands have begun to work and collaborate alongside familiar faces you know and love. In other words, fast fashion brands have implemented the mode of Ethos by using credible individuals advocating for its credibility. While photographs and film clips are similar to one another, film clips allow for further portrayal as each frame provides different perspective. In figure 2, model Gigi Hadid is an advertisement for fast fashion brand H&M, wearing pieces of clothing the audience is expecting to see when they step inside the store. Since the Hadid sisters are constantly seen walking across the runway or staring in the front cover in a number magazine covers, consumers are then drawn to shop at these stores if credible models like Gigi and Bella Hadid are as well. These models therefore work as persuasive poster child’s, or as Ledin and Machin mention in regard to characters in film clips, “This points to the individual who is foregrounded and who we as viewers are supposed to relate to, and often identify with. In some commercials this may be some kind of celebrity” (p. 156).

The Ugly Truth: Pollution

Though its success through many layers of visual persuasion and literary mediums, fast fashion has become one of the leading sources of pollution. Several environmental specialists and mitigators have begun to communicate the dangers of fast fashion through the same semiotic materials. Similarly, campaigns will use similar literary mediums for their call to action. For example, their use of Logos is most prominently effective. Through graphs and data showing statistical information, they will display these across multiple platforms to showcase a particular situation. In the case of figure 3, we recognize that fast fashion has been responsible for majority of water waste with over 2,700 liters of water being used to produce a single t-shirt, furthermore the iconography helps us understand that this amount of water could pertain about 2.5 years of drinking water instead. The upper side of this image, demonstrated by the dotted line, informs the amount of water used per cubic meters of textile. To put into perspective these textiles materials are made of microfibers that will pollute the ocean, and the number will continue to increase as production fastens.

Figure 3. Infographic with facts and figures about the environment.

Conclusion: Mitigating the Problem

Our conclusion urges us to take mitigation against the rise of fast fashion pollution. Although we want to be dressed in the latest trends and most luxurious items it’s important we consider effective strategies that will serve our oceans best. Several fast fashion brands, such as H&M, have begun implementing sustainable shopping as they recycle items and resell and in its own promotes further traction to their stores, adding to their list of persuasion methods. Therefore, while visuals may be shoved in our faces everywhere we go we must learn to decipher their semiotic messages and make our own choices and decisions moving forward.

Dragone, Salvatore. “Mugler Spring 2020 Ready-to-Wear Fashion Show | Vogue.” Vogue Runway, Vogue, 2020, https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/spring-2020-ready-to-wear/mugler/slideshow/collection#1 . Accessed 2022. Ledin, Per, and David Machin. Doing Visual Analysis: From Theory to Practice. SAGE Publications, 2018. Machin, David. Introduction to Multimodal Analysis. Bloomsbury Academic, 2020. “The Impact of Textile Production and Waste on the Environment (Infographic) .” European Parliament, 29 Dec. 2020, https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/headlines/society/20201208STO93327/the-impact-of-textile-production-and-waste-on-the-environment-infographic . Accessed 2022. Zeinali, Bardia, director. Welcome to Hôtel Hennes. YouTube, 31 Mar. 2022, https://youtu.be/sQMKpMYMQhk . Accessed 18 May 2022.

And So It Was Written

Author: Pamela Juarez

Published: June 13, 2022

Word Count: 1060

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About Fast Fashion

Fast fashion is a term used to describe an approach to the design, creation, and marketing of clothing fashions that emphasizes making fashion trends quickly and cheaply available to consumers. The collections are often based on styles presented at Fashion Week runway shows or worn by celebrities. Fast fashion allows mainstream consumers to purchase the hot new look or the next big thing at an affordable price.

Before the Industrial Revolution and the invention of the sewing machine, fashion was slow. People made their own clothes and cared to repair them when necessary. Clothes were often tailored to the individual and designed to last a lifetime. Then, people slowly moved towards wearing clothes for style and not because of practical features like durability. The concept of ‘fast fashion’ began with the mass production of cheap quality clothing, with the term officially being coined in the 1990s by the New York Times, with Zara’s new accelerated production model being their inspiration – where clothes were taken rapidly from the design stage, inspired by Fashion Week, to the stores for anyone to buy.

Major players in the fast-fashion market include Zara, H&M Group, UNIQLO, GAP, Forever 21, Topshop, Esprit, Primark, Fashion Nova, and New Look. Many companies are both retailers and manufacturers, though they often outsource the actual production of clothing.

Fast fashion follows the concept of category management, linking the manufacturer with the consumer in a mutually beneficial relationship.

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