In a world where a £6 bikini can be scouted on your Instagram page, purchased, and posted to your doorstep within 24 hours we have to question how damaging this is to the environment and fashion industry.
Just when you thought fast fashion was a growing concern along came ultra-fast fashion, breaking records with their speed in mass production. But what is it?
Ultra-fast fashion brands produce affordable items and can bring products from design to sale in as little as a week.
Brands such as MissGuided are fast at staying on top of trends by launching 1,000 new products to their website each month which are easily accessible to buyers in one click.
The mass production of these products is having fatal impacts on the environment. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) calculated the fashion industry produces 10% of global carbon dioxide emissions every year, with shoppers favorites items like jeans using over 15,000 liters of water to grow the cotton to make a pair.
Brands such as Boohoo and Asos are responsible for this shift in the market. Boohoos companies brands include Nasty Gal, PrettyLittleThing, MissPap, and BoohooMAN, all brands you may see advertised frequently across social media.
It is estimated that 40.3 million people are entrapped in modern slavery jobs globally and ultra-fast fashion brands such as Boohoo are contributors to this worker exploitation.
The brand made headlines after The Sunday Times published an undercover investigation detailing that workers in a factory in Leicester that supplied Boohoo were being paid as little as £3.50 an hour.
So what does this mean for buyer consumption? By turning to alternative sustainable brands we are reducing the demand for fast-fashion products and investing in more environmental-friendly and high-quality garments