Slow down fast fashion | Maria

Fast fashion - what actually is it? 

It is the business model of replicating recent catwalk trends and high-fashion designs, mass-producing them at a low cost, and bringing them to retail stores quickly, while demand is at its highest. The term 'fast fashion'  also applies to the speed at which garments are produced in the manufacturing industries of South, Southeast, and East Asia, where women make up 85-90% of the garment workforce. Labor practices of fast fashion are often exploitative, and due to the gender concentration of the garment industry, women are more vulnerable.

'Fast' also describes the speed at which the garments are sold, worn and then thrown away, where most will end up in landfill. Around 1.75m tonnes of clothing and textile waste is created in the UK each year 1.2m tonnes of it ends up in landfill. 360,000 tonnes of the textiles thrown away in the UK every year are clothes. And one of the main materials used in the making of these cheap, throw-away garments? Polyester - polyethylene terephthalate, better known as PET, a type of plastic derived from crude oil and natural gas – also used to make items such as plastic bottles.

You can start to see the problem...

But how do slow down fast fashion and the impact it is having on the planet? Here are five things you can do: 

👗 Buy pre-owned items
👗 Rent clothes you're only likely to wear once
👗 Swap clothes with friends
👗 Repair and upcycle your clothes
👗 Buy less and better quality 

One brand that feels strongly about this is the incredible Wear My Wardrobe Out - Bristol's first on-demand and subscription-based fashion rental service. The founder and absolute genius behind this fabulous brand is our very own Finance Director Maria Loria - sustainability advocate and incredible designer! Wear My Wardrobe Out's mission is to challenge the long-term buying behaviours of people in the UK, driven by social peer pressure, which contributes to increased consumer debt. Through enabling a platform for people to affordably rent vintage and pre-loved stylish outfits instead of buying them.

Go and check out Maria's incredible designs and help slow down fast fashion today - WearMyWardrobeOut