Fast Fashion Industry Analysis

Over the past decade, fast fashion has been growing rapidly and steadily dominating the industry. Fast fashion is termed as a phenomenon in the fashion industry whereby production processes are expedited in order to get new trends out to the market as quickly and cheaply as possible (Mart´ınez-de-Alb´eniz, 2014). The apparel suppliers have been relatively successful in capturing the latest trends and launching new items promptly at a lower price to meet consumer's demand for fast fashion. However, despite being able to bring higher profits to the firms and more diverse options for the consumers, fast fashion has actually brought about more costs than benefits to the society and the growth ought to be slowed down due to the environmental and

As fast fashion is designed to be replaced quickly, not so much by needs, the consumer will buy while firms will produce without much thinking. As companies introduce and eliminate pieces rapidly, many of the eliminated pieces will be dumped in landfills instead of being donated. As seen from figure 1, 68 million pieces of clothing are sent to landfills in the US annually, where they remain for 200 years leaving toxic chemicals which stain the soil and water bodies. Also, the fashion industry’s carbon dioxide emissions are projected to increase by more than 60% to nearly 2.8 billion tons per year by 2030 (Barenblat, 2017). Due to the pollution, consumers will then be more exposed to bacteria which will heightened their chances of falling sick and having to visit the doctor. The marginal costs brought about includes medical cost when our health deteriorates and the irreversible damage done to the environment while the marginal benefits brought about is satisfaction from consuming the good. As such, we can see that the marginal costs brought about by the consumption of an additional piece of apparel exceeds the marginal benefits enjoyed. Hence, the growth of fast fashion should be slowed down to maximize one’s welfare and prevent market failure which will happen when marginal benefit is not equal to the marginal

Due to human’s unlimited wants, consumers will never be satisfied after buying one piece of clothing and would seek to continue buying more to feel more satisfied. In addition, with the relatively more affordable prices of apparel, more will have access to them and this indirectly encourages consumers to spend more, without consideration, to satisfy their desires. In the process of doing so, they may incur debts unknowingly as they are unaware of the long-term costs and there will be now be fewer funds in the banks to be loaned out to firms for investment purposes. As such, this will indirectly cause a drop in economic growth due to the decrease in investments being made. Hence, the growth of fast fashion should be slowed down as it promotes bad habits such as over-spending which can then cause more loans being made that is unhealthy to the growth of the