The Fast Fashion Industry: Formulating the Future of Environmental Change

This Note focuses on the harmful environmental impacts the fast fashion industry has created, and continues to create, on our planet. In the 1960s, consumer attitude towards clothing shifted drastically when demand for new, disposable clothing skyrocketed. These choices led fashion retailers to give life to the environmentally detrimental breed of “fast fashion.” Moving production from a domestic to an international level, increasing the amount of clothing collections on a yearly basis, and lack of transparency in supply chain are just a few examples of the dangers this industry has created for our planet. The fast fashion industry in particular is one that has been overlooked for decades, now only in focus due to the almost irreparable harm it has caused on a transnational level. No clear, collective legal definition exists for “sustainability” in the fashion industry. This Note explores, analyzes and compares current and potential fashion-specific legislation, domestically and internationally, that has not only created definitions but policies going forward for collective action. This Note focuses on the “four c’s”: compliance, caliber, consumers and circularity. These “c’s” create a broad answer as to how some of this environmental damage can be stopped going forward. The solution lies in collective transparency as well as a circular economy. The growth of investment in companies who value environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards has allowed consumers to change past behaviors toward a circular economy. It is vital that consumers invest in spaces they know are working towards a better future, in all aspects.