Is It Not Fast Fashion If It Is Expensive?

Does it really mean the dress is high quality if it is from a higher-end brand? With the trends coming and going faster than the speed of light, the demand for more production is inevitable. While brands like Zara and H&M take most of the blame for fast fashion as they release more collections in a year and sell relatively cheaper products, the demand for higher-end products is also a thing that should be acknowledged considering their place in the market.

It might be the 'Haute Couture' side of the higher-end brands or their prices that protect them from public attention by making us assume that bigger numbers on tags are a guarantee for high quality but when there is this much demand, can those shops be filled with ready-to-wear clothes that are made by hand in ethical working hours, from garments that will last longer than a month in a closet?

Recently this issue of dropping quality became a discussion among the customers as well, especially after the prices were affected by inflation. While it caught the attention the issue was gone from the media in a short time. But does this mean everything is fixed?

Surely the cost of production also gets affected by inflation but the dropping qualities in every price point of the industry can show us nothing but the exploited workers and nature. Are there enough workers in the world to meet the fast fashion industry's demands under healthy conditions; and are there enough resources in the world to produce that much clothing? As the factories lean to earn more, cheaper alternatives for naturally safe garments get produced more. This results in increased production and consumption of materials like polyester which is a synthetic fiber made from plastic, thus contributing to the carbon footprint of the industry.

The industry is said to be employing around 300 million workers in the production step. But with the current high demand, it is a known fact that people are working in unhealthy conditions for wages not enough for a living.

No matter what the price tag says fast fashion is a serious issue threatening nature, threatening the workers from every step of the industry and so on. While fashion is a form of expression, an art to be admired and cherished; the ways of fast fashion are something that needs some fixing.