The Impact of Fast Fashion Ecosystem Destruction:

Can Sustainability Become Fashionable?

Item Type Capstone Paper

Authors Stein-Rachmil, Suzanne

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The Impact of Fast Fashion Ecosystem Destruction

Can Sustainability Become Fashionable?

Suzanne Stein Rachmil

Submission to the School of Liberal Studies and Continuing Education
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies

Purchase College
State University of New York
Summer, 2022

Instructor: Ursula Heinrich

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Abstract

Background: The early 2000s inspired the creation of fast fashion, replicating trends seen on
runways, television, and magazines; mass-produced at low cost and delivered to retailers when
consumer demand was highest. Mass-production of commodities, energy, and raw materials is
over-consumed and wasteful. While the fashion industry contributes enormously to our global
economy through trade, employment, and international investment, the overexploitation of
natural resources and environmental damage caused by toxic waste/pollution warns of the
ecological collapse and social health concerns associated with fast fashion.

Objective: The purpose of this study is to explore the environmental and social impacts of fast
fashion, revealing ways to mitigate its harmful mass production/consumption through
economically sustainable fashion.

Design and Method: Research methods are based on academic and popular literature, as well as
statistical analysis and global initiatives in the fashion industry. Sources focus on fast fashion,
including its appeal to consumers/retailers and how the mass-production/consumption process
drives the global economy while undermining ecosystems and social health. Journal articles,
interviews, experimental studies, popular news, and government data are reported in the Results
section. The questions this study aims to address are: In what way does fast fashion contribute to
the destruction of our planet's ecosystem? Could sustainable clothing be considered fashionable
and mitigate the damage caused by fast fashion?

Results: The research is significant because science has found that the globalization of fast
fashion leads to ecological hazards as well as social health problems from toxic chemicals such
as triclosan and nanoparticles in non-decomposing microplastics from landfills and polluting the
earth's water supply. Likewise, the findings suggest that consumers, retailers, and apparel brands
are collectively responsible for reducing waste through recycling and circular economy
initiatives. Moreover, when consumer attitudes/behaviors embrace sustainability and businesses
aim to address the use of toxic textile/synthetic fabrics that don’t break down, ecosystems can
repair for the benefit of people and the planet.

Conclusions: At this point in history, global intervention by retailers, suppliers, and consumers
will encourage more sustainable fashion production/consumption. Fast-fashion landfills are
causing social health problems such as cancer and lung disease filling deserts with chemical
waste and our oceans with deadly poisons. Therefore, consumers must change their shopping
behavior and advocate for transformative sustainable initiatives that force retailers to use non-
toxic materials that are safer for the environment and human health.

Keywords: Fast-Fashion, Circular Economy, Land Fills, Product Development, Recycle

Textiles, Sustainability, Textile Waste, Vertical Supply Chains.
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Chapter 1: Introduction

Background and Overview

The fashion industry is killing the planet; responsible for 92 million tons of textile waste

that results in huge global landfills as well as an estimated 20% of annual pollutants

contaminating the world's water supply (Dory, 2018; Steffen,2021). Indeed, the business model

of mass production that replicates ‘hot’ clothing trends at low costs is destroying the world's

ecosystems (Matei,2020). In fact, the over-exploitation of natural resources and the consequent

environmental damage has drawn calls from the scientific community, sounding the alarm of

ecological collapse (Matei,2020). What's more, toxic chemicals such as triclosan and

nanoparticles in non-decomposing microplastics from fast-fashion landfills are causing social

health problems such as cancer and lung disease (Bendix,2019; Bick et al.,2018; Ting &

Stagner,2021). It is time to stop this deadly retail trend of consuming at such a level that we are

unsustainably filling our deserts with chemical waste, and our planet's oceans with deadly toxins

(Shirvanimoghaddam et al.,2020; Moss,2016).

In the late 1990s, the globalization of fashion represented a fusion of retro, modern, boho,

and grunge influences, as well as worldwide technological advancements that enabled people to

express themselves in a variety of new ways. Thus, the ensuing 2000s gave rise to fashion

becoming a scheme of entertainment, and the demand for “fashion trends” soared due to mega-

successful TV hits like ‘Sex in the City ‘, 'Victoria's Secret Fashion Shows', ‘America’s Next

Top Model’, and reality television that touted must-haves of the red carpet (Hakkenberg,2015).

Likewise, savvy marketing campaigns from major retailers were the catalyst to becoming a

“Fashionista,” and the advent of style replication known as product development designed to

mimic the latest trends seen on fashion runways, TV, and in publications like Vogue, and In
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Style magazine. These “buy weekly” marketing strategies became mainstream methods of

consumerism with Gen Z, Gen X, and Millennials giving them the ability to be in the know of

the latest clothing trends in an affordable way. As well, the “democratization of fashion" aided

by mass production now allowed more people to communicate through clothing regardless of

their social and economic backgrounds (Bick et al., 2018). Likewise, to keep up with their

buying demands, retailers began implementing rapid clothing creation through a cheap and low-

quality method of production (Bhardwaj & Fairhurst, 2010). This business prototype improves

forecasting accuracy due to shortened time frames and the ability to provide retailers with quick

turnaround of merchandise (Bhardwaj & Fairhurst, 2010). Consequently, the fashion industry

began to export its manufacturing business overseas for low-cost labor and inexpensive textiles

(Bhardwaj & Fairhurst, 2010). By focusing on vertically integrated supply chains and the fast

pace of developing trendy merchandise with high return-on-investment pricing (ROI), this fast

fashion business model quickly became exploited by the most powerful retailers (Bhardwaj &

Fairhurst, 2010).Thus, this practice provides a mutually beneficial exchange between the

"producer/consumer" resulting in a multi-trillion-dollar business that creates immense benefits to

our global economy in terms of economic trade, employment, and international investment

(Drew & Reichart,2019). It is also important to highlight the impact of advertising with the

heightened use of social media on the collateral damage of influencing fads and trends to further

develop fast fashion. In fact, the fashion apparel industry is expected to be worth $3 trillion by

2030, demonstrating that despite the adverse environmental impact of fast fashion, society still

desires robust consumption (Smith, 2022).

This analysis examines those causes of ecological devastation from fast fashion and

uncovers how slowing down the process of trendy goods may be the key to figuring out a
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sustainable solution. More specifically, people and businesses equally need to act towards

reducing waste made by the fast fashion industry. In an effort to globally address sustainability

and fashion, early in 2018, a number of United Nations (UN) organizations came together for an

event called Fashion, and the SDGs: the role of the UN in Geneva, Switzerland, discussing

opportunities for coordinating efforts to fix challenges of the fashion industry. As such, delegates

spoke specifically about the significance of sustainable fashion partnerships promoting the

sustainability of production and driving the achievement of the UN’s Sustainable Development

Goals. Notably, the fashion value chain is of global importance, with millions of jobs, generating

foreign income for developing countries, and providing essential goods for social well-being

(Dory,2018). Likewise, it is diverse and complex, involving players from numerous market

sectors, which makes addressing sustainability and the transparency of human rights issues even

more difficult. For example, one global fast-fashion retailer sourcing included about 750

suppliers that produced goods for its eight global brands in about 1400 factories inside 41

countries, sold in nearly 5,000 stores in 75 markets including 52 markets via its online ventures

(Meier, 2021, p.4).

Hence, the three main topics in this research delves into those concerns related to 1)

Global Impact: Sustaining the Environment, 2) Fashion and Change: New Design, Resale, and

Sustainability, and 3) Social-Media: Power of Fashion. The aim and objective of this study

investigates in what way does fast fashion contributes to the destruction of our planet's

ecosystem and if sustainable clothing could mitigate the damage? Also, this research looks at

people's psychological attitudes, behaviors, and barriers to buying or not buying fast fashion.

Findings also suggest that consumers need to do better to shop sustainably, and businesses

consider how they can recycle textiles themselves or support other initiatives that do so. To that
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end, resale could become another revenue stream, with retailers encouraging customers to

consign items they don't need (Park & Lin, 2020). According to a 2021, thredUP, a nationwide

resale garment website for consumers to buy-sell secondhand clothing online, returning only one

item of apparel back into the circular economy expands its life by an average of 2.2 years and

decreases its carbon waste footprint by 82%. Correspondingly, the Fashion Detox Challenge

(FDC), an academic study in the field of sustainable consumption education conducted in the

United States by Ruppert-Stroescu et al. (2015), participated in a voluntary consumer initiative to

ban the consumption of clothing for 10 weeks. The experiment supported by daily emails

encouraged people to reflect on their weekly shopping by writing reflections in journal entries

and submitting to private online detox forums via social media to help consumers buy less

frequently (Ruppert-Stroescu et al., 2015).

Finally, from fashion shows to wardrobes, we see how social media has revolutionized

the way the fast fashion industry works by intensifying the process of instant gratification. This

increased visibility should also represent societal concerns about how online retailing can

promote responsible ecological spending. In particular, the greatest benefit of online shopping is

its convenience, which can let people know that buying sustainable clothing is easy, better for

the planet, and more fashionable than realized. Thus, the power of these social media platforms

in changing the future of consumerism is critical to bringing about transformative environmental

change. Further repercussions seen in current-day marine life reveal that humanity is at a ‘tipping

point’ and advocates that it is now time to ‘do or die’ for fashion (Ting & Stagner,2021).

Research Questions
This study will explore the following questions:

RQ#1: In what way does fast fashion contribute to the destruction of our planet's
ecosystem?
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RQ#2: Could sustainable clothing be considered fashionable and mitigate the damage
caused by fast fashion?

Definition of Key Terms

Anti-Consumerism: a sociopolitical ideology that is opposed to consumerism, the

continual buying and consuming of material possessions.
Circular Economy: an economic model designed to minimize resource input, as well as
waste and emission production.

Eco-friendly: the act of living with intent of not creating harm to environment, and to
prevent as much harm from occurring to the environment through interactions with it.

Fast Fashion: referred to as disposable fashion; a term used by fashion retailers to

describe inexpensive designs that move quickly from the runway to retail stores to meet
new fast-changing apparel trends.

FOMO: Acronym for fear of missing out; social media uses psychology to evoke the
emotional anxiety that people spend time browsing and buying from online platforms.

Land Fills: a site for the disposal of waste materials.

Product Development: the processes required to bring a product from being a concept
through to reaching market.

Recycle Textiles: the process of recovering fiber, yarn or fabric and recovering the
textile material into useful products.

SDG: The Sustainable Development Goals are a collection of 17 interconnected goals

supported globally by the United Nations to build a better future for the world.

Sustainability: the balance between the environment, equity, and economy.

Textile Waste: a redundant material which cannot be used anymore or worthless

Vertical Supply Chains: puts control in the hands of the company to make decisions
regarding inputs and outputs—processes that benefit both the company and the end
consumers in a variety of ways.
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Chapter 2: Literature Review

The fashion industry contributes significantly to our global economy in terms of trade,

employment, and international investment (Drew & Reichart,2019). In this industry, products are

determined by corporations based on designers’ concepts, fashion trends, cultural initiatives, and

fiscal opportunities; all subject to unpredictable variables from fickle consumers that force the

industry as categorized by short life cycles and over-production associated with inflexible and

ingrained supply chains (Dory, 2018). This mass production of commodities, energy, and raw

materials is over-consumed and wasteful. The overexploitation of natural resources and the

consequent environmental damage has alerted the scientific community to the ecological

collapse and social health concerns associated with fast fashion (Drew & Reichart,2019;

Moss,2016). Subsequently, this study looks at the way fast fashion contributes to destroying our

planet's ecosystem and suggests that slow fashion can promote sustainability and still be

fashionable (Castro-Lopez et al.,2021).

While this research won't be published; I want to find a voice in advocating for fashion

sustainability and a moratorium on mass production. I intend to analyze how major retailers

manipulate this business model in favor of replicating fast trends and mass consumption. The

following literature will illustrate how the fast fashion cycle leads to the production of cheap and

low-quality mass waste goods, and harms people and our environment.

Global Impact: Sustaining the Environment

With the arrival of fast fashion in the early 2000s, consumers were introduced to cheaply

made, mostly, synthetic clothing produced on a vast scale. Likewise, a rising middle class has led

to clothing production doubling in the last fifteen years (Dory, 2018; Ting & Stagner,2021).
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Based on statistics from an environmental study done by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, it has

been determined that the global clothing industry is now worth an estimated $2 trillion and by

2030, it will surmount $3 trillion in revenue (Matei,2020). Deplorably, the production of textile

is now the world's second most polluting industry, behind that of oil (Dory, 2018). What's more,

as reported by Abokersh et al. (2021), in "A framework for sustainable evaluation of thermal

energy storage in a circular economy," every year consumers hastily toss away about $400

billion in clothes many of which end up in landfills.

As discovered in 2011 by ecologist Mark Browne, all fabrics whether they are made of

organic or synthetic material release microfibers, however the latter is a form of plastic that

distributes pollution into the environment (Matei,2020). As well, a California research study

found that plastic microfibers accumulate a copious number of foreign substances within the

earth's ecosystem accounting for ninety percent of all microplastic pollutants found within the

Atlantic Ocean (Nishat,2019; Steffen,2021). As a result, these toxins are readily ingested by fish

and plankton that support our entire marine life eco-system (Nishat,2019; Steffen,2021).

Although bigger pieces of plastic that are found in the ocean come from the poor waste

management from developing countries, microfiber toxins are mainly linked with wastewater

coming from developed nations (Nishat,2019; Steffen,2021). Furthermore, it has been revealed

that most microfibers are released through machine washing of clothes in addition to many fibers

evading filtration at sewage plants and equally end up back in the ocean (Nishat,2019;

Steffen,2021). Consequently, a study done in 2017 from the Association of Textile Chemists and

Colorist found that eighty three percent of all global tap water contained such microfibers (Lui,

2017). Although moving away from synthetic fabrics would lessen the microplastics within the

oceans, decreasing the demand for its usage would diminish overall production of the materials.
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As summarized in an article written in The Guardian entitled, “Your polyester sweater is

destroying the environment,” this problem was spawn by the fashion industry through its

creation of trendy fast fashion (Matei,2020). Furthermore, as Bendix (2019) points out, the many

toxic chemicals used to develop fast fashion fabrics become another public health concern. Even

though rejecting polyester would greatly diminish the microfiber pollutants, still, the enormous

amount of clothing purchased by consumers remains the ultimate threat.

This literature review evaluates a variety of creditable information from the academic and

business world of fashion and the textile trade. The literature will examine the global

environmental challenges associated with the creation of fast fashion, its impact on the economy,

and how slowing the cycle can promote sustainability and still be fashionable. Hence, the

importance of circular fashion and textiles is emphasized, in addition to various strategies to

increase customer awareness of sustainability (Abokersh et al.,2021). Going forward, key

initiatives are proposed to support fashion's sustainability and reveal how the process of mass

garment production can be intentionally disrupted.

Correspondingly, “Death by Waste” authors Shirvanimoghaddam et al. (2020) think that

our current traditional economy model for the use of textiles needs to change at a structural level.

While the global fashion industry accounts for more than two percent of worldwide gross

domestic product (GDP), it reports more than two thirds of the textile end up in landfills at the

end of their use and only around fifteen percent becomes recycled Shirvanimoghaddam et al.,

(2020). Thus, a circular economy is an option to a traditional economy’s use of clothing and its

notorious fast disposal that keep resources in a loop (Abokersh et al.,2021). The goal is to try to

retain its value by repurposing it for a new generation at the end of its use. As with the findings
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of Bhardwaj and Fairhurst (2010), authors Shirvanimoghaddam et al. (2020), numerous scientific

studies confirm that fast fashion's throwaway and disposal culture is causing serious

environmental, health, social, and economic concerns. The article was published by Elsevier and

appeared in Science of the Total Environment, an international peer-reviewed scientific journal

for environmental science.

Likewise, authors McNeill, and Moore (2015), concur with the opinion of other writers

noted in this study, recognizing the fashion industry’s acknowledgment on how fast fashion

negatively impacts the environment in the face of global concern for sustainability and

ethicology in clothing production. The data in this article is important because its researchers

from the International Journal of Consumer Studies, analyzed both quantitative surveys and

qualitative semi-structured interviews to determine the varying attitudes and behaviors of

consumers whilst they decide upon clothing purchases. This model known as the “developmental

theory” suggests fashion shoppers can be grouped into three categories: ‘self’ patrons, concerned

with personal hedonism, ‘social’ patrons, concerned with societal imaging and ‘sacrifice’ patrons

who are concerned about the environment and global impact (McNeill & Moore 2015).

Subsequent data show that although consumers' environmental awareness continues to increase

and buying slow fashion becomes an intention, many people still prefer fast fashion. The

findings also assert that many people have difficulty translating this good intention into behavior,

creating a gap between intent and behavior (Park & Lin, 2020). Conversely, as Park and Lin

maintain, this positive attitude toward sustainable products results in people often not ending up

buying them (2020).

The information in both articles is highly relevant to academic peer-reviewed fashion

research. McNeill & Moore's study, published in 2015 in the International Journal of Consumer
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Research, which provides an international forum for academic and research papers focused on

how consumers can improve their safety and well-being. The Journal of Business Research

published Park & Lin's paper in 2020, applying behavior theory developed from business

research to actual business situations. Both aim to raise global awareness related to fast fashion,

sustainability, and our ecosystem. The data will further assist with my research to uncover an

economic behavior as it relates to the attitudes of consumers during their clothing purchase

process and how it impacts our environment. Such findings demonstrate that, in addition to

providing in-store information at the point of sale, retailer’s use of marketing campaigns is vital

to educate consumers about the importance of eco-awareness (McNeill & Moore, 2015; Park &

Lin,2020).

Fashion and Change: New Design, Resale, and Sustainability

Illustrated by authors, Roozen, and Raedts, (2020), is an examination of the power that

negative publicity also has on the fast fashion industry and how that influence impacts the

consumers attitude and behavior. Similar to McNeill, & Moore (2015), the objective of this

article from the Journal of Global Fashion Marketing points out the effect that media has on the

customers purchasing decisions when made aware of the human rights violations and poor

working conditions associated with fast fashion (Roozen, & Raedts,2020). This article examines

three separate studies which analyze how publicity spotlighting poor factory conditions

influences the consumers purchasing decisions, brand perception, and customer loyalty.

Additionally, the study looks at pre and post purchase perceptions and consumer satisfaction

after learning about the difficult social externalities associated within the fast fashion industry.

As a result, the findings of these studies show that negative publicity about the environment and

exploitative working conditions significantly affect brand loyalty and the consumers' attitude
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(Roozen, & Raedts,2020). The data shows that the power of negative publicity can be

significantly stronger than positive publicity, as consumers' psychological awareness becomes

triggered by social and hazardous environmental issues of cheap fast fashion.

This article was published by Routledge, the global editor of scholarly books, journals,

and online resources in the humanities and social sciences. Its authors, Roozen and Raedts

(2020), confirm the power of marketing campaigns and point out how they can potentially

mitigate the negative effects of fast fashion. As a result, the industry is understanding that

reputation and damage control is expensive, posing additional risks that may have limited

reparative capacity. Thus, environmentally responsible working conditions can supersede the

economic gains from ‘turning a quick buck’ associated with the production of fast fashion.

What's more, new research from the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is

helping to promote well-rounded and sustainable economic growth, safe workplace conditions

and fair labor, which also aligns with international labor standards and supports workplace

compliance (Meier, 2021).

Yoon, et al. (2020) whom are researchers at Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute

(MDPI) closely agree with the opinion of other authors in this literature review, having likewise

rejected the ethics of the fast fashion industry and have embraced new consumption paradigms,

referred to as anti-consumerism and sustainable green consumption. This article explores the

conceptual ideals of avoiding fast fashion that led to the fast-fashion anti-consumerism

movement. Its data comes from female shoppers in Spain and South Korea, aged between 20 and

39, with experience shopping for well-known fast fashion in stores such as ZARA, MANGO,

H&M, Topshop, and Forever21. Here, the structures of avoidance beliefs were compared

through a statistical method called “second-order factor analysis”, which the researchers used to
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measure multiple regressions (Yoon et al.,2020). Basically, it turns out that the avoidance

behavior of Korean fast-fashion buyers is real and falls short of expectations based on factors

such as poor-quality performance, overly trendy styles, discomfort in big stores, and a lack of

personal assistance while shopping. Thus, the link between negative behaviors has had a positive

impact on the anti-consumption movement. However, in Spain, although consumers also found

unmet expectations from poor quality of performance, the discontent of a big store experience,

with lack of personal shopping assistance, in comparison, the higher-order construct of very

trendy styling, low cost, and irresponsibility confirmed the hierarchical component model. As

such, Spain’s belief in social deindividuation and avoidance is unproven, understandably because

of its long history and considered birthplace of the fast fashion movement (Yoon et al.,2020).

This research was conducted by the Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute

(MDPI), an open-access scientific publisher of peer-reviewed journals. The article illuminates an

emerging trend in worldwide consumers' anti-consumption behaviors toward fast fashion and

suggests the future directions for those fast-fashion retailers may eventually move toward green

sustainability, science, and technology (Yoon et al., 2020). These results add to the upcoming

literature on anti-fast fashion consumerism as part of society's move toward ethical clothing

consumption.

Correspondingly, Castro-Lopez et al. (2021), who are also researchers at the

Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI), used data collected from an economic

behavioral study to test their hypothesis that the sustainable fashion consumer may be willing to

pay more for slow fashion. They argue that although the fashion industry generates countless

benefits in terms of economic trade, employment, and global development, it is still one of the

worst polluting industries due to the linearity of its production, exploitation of energy, and raw
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materials that generate waste (Castro-Lopez et al., 2021). Likewise, short life cycles of fast

fashion goods, where the customer pursues fashionability versus the styles' durability, are a

contributor to this hazardous waste generation. However, this paradigm is evolving due to the

increasing public awareness for the environment and living life in a mindful way. Thus, the

initiation of this new belief called slow fashion is seeking to improve the sustainability of fashion

items from an ecological and ethical point of view (Castro-Lopez et al., 2021). Here, many

retailers are applying innovative monetary measures to their production processes and trying to

shift to a more circular model (Castro-Lopez et al., 2021). The purpose of this type of framework

is to move the thread within the fabric of consumerism toward slow fashion consumption,

changing people’s mind-set on perceived value, and altering shopping behavior (Abokersh et

al.,2021). The results reinforce this new consumer movement for slow-fashion, which involves

an industry transformation that cultivates the invention of materials, new products, and

manufacturing systems described by a circular approach (Abokersh et al., 2021; Castro-Lopez et

al., 2021).

Moreover, Castro-Lopez et al. (2021), show that a growing number of consumers are

eager to support new creativity that emphasizes slowing down production/use methods that foster

a belief in sustainability among consumers for the betterment of the environment and society's

health. Hence, these findings give fashion companies a clearer sense of the slow fashion

movement; the key factors that influence brand, value, purchasing intent, and why the shoppers

are willing to pay more to protect the environment. Again, as previously mentioned by authors

Shirvanimoghaddam et al. (2020), a circular approach adds tremendous value to clothing and is a

successful way to build a healthier society. Furthermore, articles such as these from the
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Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI) have published over 380 different peer-

reviewed articles, 83 of which have an Impact Factor of over 93 in the Science Citation Index.

Likewise, forthcoming research from authors De Lenne and Vandenbosch (2017),

propose strategies to improve slow fashion buying examining the power social media has over

young consumers’ opinions when contemplating whether to buy sustainable apparel. Similar to

the attitude and behavior study on clothing choice done by McNeill and Moore (2015), the

objective of this article looks at the importance of the consumers’ social responsibility and their

ethical behavior when they become aware of the corrosive environmental elements associated

with fast fashion. An understanding of the study applies a scientific approach called the “theory

of planned behavior” (Su & Chang,2018), predicting the relationship between different types of

media and its result on the consumer’s decision to buy sustainable, and whether attitudes, social

norms and behaviors explained causality in media decisions. For example, fashion magazines

predict consumer behavior based on personal experience, while professional magazines provide

different results related to purchasing sustainable products. Correspondingly, in the earlier

reviewed cause-effect analysis by Roozen and Raedts (2020), which looked at how negative

publicity plays a role in consumer awareness, conversely, De Lenne and Vandenbosch (2017)

tested the behaviors of 681 young customers ages 18 to 26 to determine the media’s influence on

user consumption. The study’s findings suggest that exposure to social media content, eco-

activism, and sustainable brands’ messaging could predict the respondents’ attitudes and

subsequent behavior in their purchasing decision. As a result of this research, sustainable apparel

brands should consider how to further engage younger social media users on their social

networking platforms.
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The information in this article is instructive and published in 2017 in the International

Journal of Consumer Research, an online library that provides an international forum for

academic research, focusing on how customers can improve their economic knowledge and

ecological welfare. It publishes articles on an international basis, with an increasing focus on

consumer awareness related to fast fashion, sustainability, and our ecosystem. This data along

with educational studies like the previously mentioned Fashion Detox Challenge (Ruppert-

Stroescu et al. 2015), will further assist my research to uncover the correlation between social

media and the economic behavior of young consumers in relation to buying clothes and analyze

how it affects the environment.

Social Media: Power of Sustainable Fashion

Bonilla, del Olmo Arriaga, and Andreu (2019) agree with the other authors identified in

this study on recognizing the engagement of social media content with young fashion consumers

and how it affects their attitudes and decisions about purchasing clothing. Through empirical

observation, this study reveals the relationship between the fast fashion company H&M and its

customers on the social network called Instagram. The aim of this study analyzed the interaction

between a specific fast fashion brand and its Instagram followers, and how different types of

marketing drive responses to certain clothing purchases. To confirm their hypothesis, Bonilla et

al. (2019) observed the categorization and statistical curation of the content of many posts on

thousands of Instagram accounts throughout 2017. Three category systems used; determining

customer engagement via messaging content, H&M’s communication strategy, and the official

product category presented in the posts (Bonilla et al.,2019). Research to date on the association

of fashion brands with young online shoppers has analyzed platforms other than Instagram,
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setting a precedent for this research, using the industry's most specialized social network (Bonilla

et al.,2019).

The information in this article is derived from research in the International Journal of

Global Fashion Marketing published by the Taylor & Francis (T&F) Library of Social Sciences

and Humanities. T&F has a distinguished history of publishing articles in the social sciences

under Routledge, which bridges subject matter that includes politics, sociology, criminology,

business economics, urban studies, tourism, and law. The data from this study will further assist

my research to uncover correlations between various social media platforms and how they

compare to Instagram in relation to the behavior of younger consumers in their sustainable

clothing purchases.

Further to Bonilla et al. (2019), fast-fashion retailer Shein, labeled the "most

manipulative" fashion website due to its methods of luring young consumers to buy. Here,

schemes like countdown timers, exclusive discounts, trending stickers and "you might also like"

tactics are used to create anxiety so that the customer does not feel as if she is missing out.

Equally, Rogue Media nicknamed the cheap fashion brand as being the worst offender for the so-

described trickier of using these methods of "dark patterns" such as “FOMO” which is today's

trendy acronym for the fear of missing out (Hawkins,2021). Such ploys utilized by Shien and

other similar platforms manipulate consumers through mass prompts to make them spend more

and provide private information in exchange for discounts or a personalized experience. While

dark patterns are not new, the abundance of dark patterns currently used in online retail has

raised concerns about how these patterns affect younger consumers who are unaware of such

controversial tactics (Hawkins, 2021).

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What's more, Shein has been criticized by sustainable and garment workers' rights

organizations for their lack of transparency about its supply chain processes. Although the

Chinese-based company did finally publish a statement on its website calling out its abuse of

“modern slavery,” the company has still not uploaded this information to the UK government's

registry of business statements. Likewise, many fast-fashion website companies, such as

Missguided and Fashion Nova, have also abused models that promote labor exploitation. All of

these strategies hinder sustainability and keep consumers focused on trendy fast fashion.

However, improving working conditions in cotton and apparel supply chains has a direct impact

on reducing extreme hunger, as stated in the Sustainable Development Goals Platform (Meier,

2021). This idea is strong evidence that “Better Work Program” interventions have also led to

helping poor work environmental conditions championed by the United Nations (Meier, 2021).

Correspondingly, author Heinze (2020), researcher at the Web of Science, used data from

the sustainable development study to test her hypothesis arguing that the management of

expectation concept limits the reproduction potential of sustainable fashion, which is slowing

down the shift to a stylish sustainable system. For further elaboration, this article explores the

practice of sustainable creation and how the fashion industry can apply knowledge of eco-

friendly materials and supply chains to transition to sustainable production. Although in recent

years, there have been more entrepreneurs creating fashionable sustainable designs, many

contradictorily mainstream practices remain unsustainable and the path to forming a viable

system is still unclear. Using qualitative data assessed from in-depth interviews with sustainable

fashion entrepreneurs, this article evaluates a development study called the “management of

emotional labor” that identifies elements in sustainable fashion as the business's motive for
 20

determining if the design is financially uncertain, entrepreneurially risky, and if the management

of ethical complexities offers a sustainable fashion concept (Heinze,2020).

The information in this article is published through EBSCOhost, an intuitive online

research platform used by thousands of institutions around the world. Author Heinze is one of

Australia's leading authorities on sustainable fashion and completed her Ph.D. research at the

University of Sydney, writing several books related to the social practices applicable to the

clothing industry’s ability to create stylish sustainable fashion apparel. Moreover, authors Su and

Chang (2018), researchers at the International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management,

share the opinion of Heinze and other authors noted in this literature review that acknowledge

the fashion industry’s alliance with consumer brand loyalty. As previously reviewed data from

Bonilla et al. (2019), this study scrutinizes similar factors affecting consumers’ brand allegiance

by assessing US college students’ perceptions, and their loyalty behavior toward fast fashion.

Using a consumer-based brand equity approach, authors Su and Chang (2018), investigate the

factors that affect consumer brand loyalty in the context of fast fashion. The authors claim that

college students’ opinion of fast fashion includes brand awareness, perceived quality, and value

all of which affect their allegiance to buy products from that maker. The inquiry for this study,

based on data from 419 U.S. college students applied structural equation modeling to examine

the factors that influence their brand loyalty. Results show that, for American college students,

brand awareness, perceived value, organizational connections, and brand uniqueness are the

contributing factors to their loyalty to a company (Su & Chang,2018). This study provides

valuable insight into how a sustainable fashion business can apply the marketing of its image to

attract phenomenal growth in the college student sector. Therefore, leveraging social media like
 21

Instagram and fresh marketing ideas, when associated with an eco-friendly image, contributes to

the overall success of the brand (Bonilla et al. 2019).

In summary, this literature review analyzed global environmental challenges arising from

micro-plastic textile waste entering the ocean’s ecosystems and polluting the human food chain.

Likewise, through a systematic review of this literature, numerous studies have concluded that

fast fashion can cause corrosive environmental damage to the planet, suggesting that slow

fashion can promote sustainability, fashionability, and economic viability. However, several

studies also reveal improvements in consumer ethics and behavior in terms of purchasing

sustainable products, as well as targeting a throwaway culture that causes serious ecological,

health, social, and economic problems. Furthermore, while much research highlights the

significance of circular fashion methodologies for the reprocessing, reusing, and repurposing of

textiles, there are also new scientific discoveries, advances, and tactics for a circular textile

economy (Abokersh et al.,2021). Going forward, these results will focus on the key challenges of

recycling textile fabrics at all stages of the manufacturing process in order to maintain continued

growth in the fashion and textile trade. Likewise, the findings of this study show that many

retailers are applying the hottest marketing campaigns and social media to educate consumers

about the importance of eco-consciousness and sustainable growth in trendy slow fashion while

attracting more shoppers to their platforms. Finally, as the world becomes more informed and

technologically advanced, I look forward to continually finding new initiatives to support the

sustainability of future fashion that will help eliminate the environmental pitfalls associated with

mass fast fashion processes and their overexploitation.

 22

Chapter 3: Methods

This study uses qualitative, and descriptive design. I researched current events, scientific

findings, and background information related to the fast fashion industry. Fast fashion prompts

mass merchants to shorten the production and distribution cycle of cheap trendy clothing,

consuming a lot of energy and raw materials (Dory, 2018; Ting & Stagner,2021). In addition,

overexploitation of natural resources and environmental pollution caused by microplastics in the

oceans have alerted the scientific community to the ecological crisis and social health problems

caused by these toxins, such as cancer and lung disease (Bendix, 2019; Nishat, 2019;

Matei,2020). My research on fast fashion focuses on three content areas: global impact and the

environment, new models of sustainable fashion, and the impact of social media on sustainable

clothing. This research is based on a developing subject that began from the early 2000s to the

present in 2022. As more discoveries emerge in the fashion trade, there will likely be scientific

data and new retail statistics that correspond to the timeline of this paper's writing. The study is

based on peer-reviewed academic journals, government sources, popular articles, fashion-related

websites, and numerous international reports on sustainability and fast fashion. Most of the

research was collected initially through Google Scholar and the SUNY Purchase Library

Academic Search Complete database for patterns of specific words, concepts, and topics. The

search continued by applying subject-specific databases such as Web of Science, PubMed,

EBSCOhost, ScienceDirect, ProQuest, JSTOR, and Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)

helped to find many scholarly, peer-reviewed articles on fast-fashion topics.

I selected the following questions to guide my research:

RQ#1: In what way does fast fashion contribute to the destruction of our planet's
ecosystem?
 23

RQ#2: Could sustainable clothing be considered fashionable and mitigate the damage
caused by fast fashion?

I began my research using specific terms to gather information from academic as well as

popular articles, applying search keywords that included: fast-fashion, slow fashion, supply

chains, sustainable clothing, consumer behavior, consumer clothing attitudes, fashion marketing,

eco-fashion, sustainable development, e-commerce, and brand recognition to refine the most

relevant scientific articles to my research. As a result, I quickly realized that the data were

abundant on the topic of fast fashion, with over twenty years’ worth of information from

advocates depicting its harmfulness to workers, communities, and the environment.

Upon review of numerous scholarly materials, I narrowed down the search to highlight

two main focal points driving the impact of the fast fashion industry, which were consumerism

and capitalism, along with people’s desire to spend money on unnecessary apparel, and the

destructive effects of fast fashion on our environment. I found several articles in these areas and

evolved my research into organized categories that would help me analyze studies in

sustainability, highlighting consumer ethics and attitudes, fashion's global impact on the

environment, and the power of social media on sustainable fashion. To analyze the data, I created

a color-coding system to arrange related articles into categories of my choosing. When I was

done, I had a clear picture that put me on the road to creating headings for my literature review.

Having worked in the apparel industry for more than ten years, I also have an extensive

understanding of this topic. So, I was somewhat familiar with the push to create sustainable

commodities but did not know many of the details surrounding the industry's rapidly growing
 24

capabilities. Some would say I am biased towards the industry from earning my living in the

fashion business. Still, I chose to do as much research as possible to develop a greater awareness

of the emerging sustainability trends and to understand the impact fast fashion has on the

environment. Hence, I analyzed articles whose studies included quantitative and qualitative

methodologies to achieve my study's research design and framework. To this end, McNeill and

Moore’s (2015) “the developmental theory” grouped and evaluated shoppers into three

categories:

• ‘self’ patrons concerned with personal hedonism,

• ‘social’ patrons worried about societal imaging and

• ‘sacrifice’ patrons who were concerned about the environment and global impact.

Other notable behavioral assessments used in my research, illustrated by Yoon et al.

(2020), compared a conducted study called “the structure of avoidance belief” and another

numerical method known as “second-order factor analysis” measuring multiple shopping

regressions. Conversely, I reviewed data from Castro-Lopez et al. (2021), applying statistics

collected from an economic and behavioral study to test the author's hypothesis that "the

sustainable fashion consumer may now be willing to pay more for slower fashion". This

paradigm has gained enormous social support from an environmental perspective due to its focus

on ecosystems, including product sustainability (Drew & Reichart,2019; Matei,2020). Therefore,

I’ve realized that the emerging new concept referred to as slow fashion is improving fashion

items from an environmental and ethical point of view. Likewise, another quantitative survey

used in this study applied a scientific approach called the “theory of planned behavior” (Su &

Chang, 2018), which predicts the relationship between different media types and the effect it has

on the consumer’s decision to buy sustainable apparel. This concept exposes the emergence of a
 25

modern fashion movement that creates a system for greater ecological integrity and change

influenced by social media and explosive online shopping (De Lenne & Vandenbosch,2017).

Overall, all my statistical research recommendations will connect the crossover motivations and

behaviors affecting people’s desire to spend money on disposable fast fashion. What's more, I

have chosen to investigate through interviews and questionnaires with data from qualitative

research, such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Here, a global

partnership founded in 2019 calls for fast fashion, sustainable consumption, and economic

production practices to protect Earth's ecosystems and the excellent health and well-being of the

world (Meier,2021). Likewise, the 17 SDGs reviewed further in my study provide

recommendations for a better, more sustainable future for humanity.

It is also important to highlight statistical research from Smith (2022), examining

producers’ positions on speed to market-production cycles, marketing, and vast consumption of

fast fashion. By contrast, Dory’s (2018), article combating fast fashion through sustainability

focuses on the debate on eco-friendly, more expensive materials. Thus, articles uncovering a

circular economy approach are argued as an option to a traditional economy’s use of clothing

and its notorious fast disposal, which keeps resources in a loop (Abokersh,2021). Likewise,

another article by Shirvanimoghaddam et al. (2020), examines a more holistic approach, called

slow fashion, as an alternative to non-reusable clothing. Finally, other articles by Drew and

Reichart (2019), and Park and Lin (2020), further discuss our current traditional economic

models of textile use and how they need to change at a structural level to support sustainability.

As a result of all the information gathered, I can theoretically analyze different viewpoints to

determine the best solution to my research question.

 26

The scope of my research is complex because many of my academic articles are based on

qualitative findings that analyze individual behavior and motivation. What's more, reports from

this fast-fashion study show that platforms like Instagram have begun to actively pursue and

promote sustainability, which will help educate consumers on where to buy sustainable products

(Bonilla et al.,2019). In addition, new experimental research, such as the Fashion Detox

Challenge (FDC) now conducted through the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals,

provides educational updates on the field of sustainable consumption. (Ruppert et al.,2015). As

such, I intend to use all this research to reflect and evaluate the impact of fast fashion on our

consumer-oriented economic model of supply and demand and the industry's impact on the

environment (Drew & Reichart,2019).

 27

Chapter 4: Results

The fashion industry has undoubtedly had a huge impact on a global scale, effecting both

the U.S. economy and the international financial community. Around 300 million people

worldwide work in the fashion industry, estimated to be worth $2 trillion globally (Matei,2020).

Consequently, based on statistics from an environmental study done by the Ellen MacArthur

Foundation, it has been determined that the fashion industry is the world's second highly

polluting industry, following the oil business (Dory,2018). What's more, every year consumers

hastily toss away about $400 billion in clothes many of which end up contaminating the world's

water supply and in landfills that take hundreds of years to decompose (Meier, 2021; Drew &

Reichart,2019; Nishat,2019).

So, for decades, the increased production and consumption of fashion has had serious and

long-lasting environmental effects because of consumers' constant desire to buy new things.

Hence, dating back to the early 2000s when the fast fashion business model skyrocketed, rapidly

redesigned high-end fashion became mass-produced, distributed, and sold at low costs for mass

consumption further impacting the planet's ecosystems (Bhardwaj & Fairhurst,2010;

Hakkenberg,2015). Therefore, the purpose of this chapter is to present the results of more than

20 articles studying fast fashion and draw conclusions from these results to support the citation

data and address the research questions in this study. It is also important to emphasize that from

this study, the findings point to an urgent need to assess fast fashion, and the results summarize

factors that could improve various aspects of the industry.

 28

Fast-Fashion and the Environment

RQ#1: In what way does fast fashion contribute to the destruction of our planet's ecosystem?

A popular interpretation of fast fashion is a manufacturing technique that underscores

making clothes swiftly and cheaply, often in response to the latest fashion trends (Ting &

Stanger, 2021). What is more, many of its users aren’t even aware of the negative results of fast

fashion leading consumers to wonder why it even matters when it comes protecting the

environment. After all, the most popular topics in today’s media that turn up about the

environment are things like carbon footprint and ocean pollution (Drew & Reichart,2019;

Nishat,2019). Consistent with these themes, fast fashion also impacts the environment through

dangerous air pollution and toxic dumping grounds linked to poor public health. (Bick et

al.,2018; Moss,2016). In fact, the problem is much worse than Smith (2022), who points out in

his statistical analysis that the first and most worrying aspect is the sheer size of the fashion

industry. To date, the U.S. Apparel Report (Smith, 2022) and the United Nations Environment

Program (Dory, 2018) show that global apparel manufacturing and consumption has more than

doubled over the past 15 years. Consequently, these reports go beyond previous findings,

showing that fashion growth is primarily due to the greater accessibility of low-cost, trendy

clothing in the fast fashion industry (Bhardwaj & Fairhurst,2010). It's also worth noting that

most clothing bought is worn for only a few times, and then thrown out as soon as the trend

wears off, resulting in excessive wastage (Abokersh et al., 2021). A similar pattern of results

obtained from Meier (2021), describes all fashion products produced and shipped around the

world, the practices used to make them, and the waste created when fashion trends end and

thrown into landfills; these are all bad for the environment. So, the results of this study indicate

that there is a huge environmental burden in each step of clothing manufacturing, and the
 29

collected data determines that there is a multifaceted relationship between fast fashion and

environmental pollution (Drew & Reichart,2019; Shirvanimoghaddam et al., 2020;

Steffen,2021).

By comparing the results of more than six articles, such as Dory (2018), and Ting &

Stanger (2021), we can determine the environmental impact of fast fashion, including the

weakening of non-renewable resources such as oil and gas, greenhouse gas emissions, and the

use of large amounts of water and energy. Thus far, more than a dozen academic articles in this

systematic study led to scientific initiatives in six countries, revealing gases generated by the

production and transportation of billions of apparel garments. This "Death by Waste" is

indicative for lack of safeguards and regulations that the world's second-largest pollution

industry has (Shirvanimoghaddam et al., 2020). What's more, findings from Ting and Stanger’s

article about “wearing out the planet” (2021), also state that the fashion trade contributes about

5% of global emissions, most of which come from polymers in cheap fashion clothing.

Consistent with previous research, these synthetic polymers are lightweight, colorful, durable,

ideal for inexpensive social media marketing, and stronger than natural fibers. Subsequently,

author Dory (2018), proved that the manufacturing process releases more than 300 tons of toxic

gases around the world and a lot of clothes that cannot decompose ended up in landfills. These

results tie well with studies done by the United Nations wherein to advance the decarbonization

of the sector, switching to renewable power sources in the textile and garment production

estimated to have a huge impact on lowering the emissions associated with the fashion industry.

Likewise, as ecologist Mark Browne discovered in 2011, all fabrics, whether made of

organic or synthetic materials, release microfibers, but the latter is a type of plastic that

distributes pollution into the environment (Matei , 2020). As well, a California research study
 30

found that plastic microfibers accumulate a copious number of foreign substances in the earth's

ecosystem accounting for ninety percent of all microplastic pollutants found in the Atlantic

Ocean (Nishat, 2019). As a result, these toxins are ingested by the fish and plankton that support

our entire marine ecosystem. While most of the plastic found in the oceans comes from poor

waste management in developing countries, microfiber toxins are primarily associated with

wastewater in developed countries (Meier, 2021). What's more, author Meier (2021) revealed

that, with the exception of many fibers that escape filtration in wastewater treatment plants and

end up back in the ocean, most microfibers are released through machine-washing clothes. As a

result, a 2017 study by the Society of Textile Chemists and Colorists found that 83 percent of tap

water worldwide contains this microfiber. (Lui,2017). This is consistent with what has been

found in previous reports on fashion textile waste, Co2 emissions, water pollution, and unsafe

labor conditions. However, in line with the ideas of Nishat (2019), marine and freshwater

pollution due to the release of microplastics now has many countries advancing water

management in support of the United Nations SDG 6; the initiative for new ocean-based value

chains that raise awareness and partner with designers to promote material innovation. Hence,

the innovative use of aquatic resources by the fashion industry can improve the sustainability of

the fashion industry and the fishery sector (Meier,2021).

Marketing, Retail, and Sustainability

RQ#2: Could sustainable clothing be considered fashionable and mitigate the damage caused

by fast fashion?

By keeping in line with results from phase #1, “Fast-Fashion and the Environment,” the

following determines more innovations in materials, methods, and technology to mitigate the
 31

damage caused by fast fashion. Importantly, Bendix (2019) reveals many products linked to fast

fashion are toxic "hiding in waterproof, stain-resistant and wrinkle-free" apparel. What's more, as

discussed in the section about “Fashion and Change” and the “Power of Social Media,” here, the

internet will break new ground for selling fashionable sustainability.

While the article, “The Objectification of Women” demonstrated that back in the early

2000s, fast fashion was a form of entertainment, and demand for “fashionable” clothing soared

due to mega-successful television shows like Sex in the City. However, authors Hakkenberg

(2015) and Bonilla-Del Rocio et al. (2019) argues that fast fashion retailers including Zara,

Forever 21 and H&M have leveraged the magic of the internet to make today’s fast fashion

faster, leading to the homogenization of mass consumption where too many clothing designs

look the same. Now, stores like TJ Maxx and online retailer Shein take advantage of the latest

trends happening on the internet in weeks through their product development; a business model

that notably uses inexpensive materials, low overseas wages, and fast turnaround times to

bombard customers with tons of identical designs, but with different brand labels (Bhardwaj &

Fairhurst,2010). In another example, De Lenne & Vandenbosch (2017), found that social media

has a powerful effect on young consumers when contemplating whether to buy sustainable

apparel. The results acknowledged consumers’ social responsibility and their ethical behavior

when made aware of the harmful environmental effects associated with fast fashion. An

explanation of the study used a scientific approach called the “theory of planned behavior” (Su &

Chang,2018), predicting the relationship between different types of media and its result on the

consumer’s decision to buy sustainable, and whether attitudes, social norms and behaviors

explained causality in media decisions. Likewise, researchers, Su and Chang (2018), share the
 32

opinion of other authors noted in this chapter, acknowledging the fashion industry’s alliance with

consumer brand loyalty.

As Bonilla-Del Rocio et al. (2019), also scrutinized similar factors affecting consumers’

allegiance by assessing US college students’ perceptions, and loyalty behavior toward fast

fashion, a similar consumer-based equity approach, from Su and Chang (2018), found a parallel

association, claiming that college students’ opinion of fashion included brand. Correspondingly,

Bonilla-Del Rocio et al. (2019), in line with other authors mentioned in this chapter, recognize

the power of social media to engage young consumers and how it affects their attitudes and

decisions about buying clothes. Here, the results reveal the relationship between the fast-fashion

company H&M and its customers on the social platform called Instagram. Since the purpose of

this study was to analyze the interaction between specific fast fashion brands and their followers

on Instagram, the results show that different types of marketing drive purchase responses to

different clothing items. Further to Bonilla-Del Rocio et al. (2019), results found fast fashion

retailer Shein labeled as the "most manipulative" website due to its methods of luring young

consumers to buy. Their schemes like countdown timers, exclusive discounts, trending stickers

and "you might also like" are all used to create anxiety so that the customer does not feel like

they are missing out. Equally, Rogue Media nicknamed the cheap fashion brand as being the

worst offender for the so-described trickier of using these methods of "dark patterns" such as

“FOMO” which is today's trendy acronym for the fear of missing out (Hawkins,2021).

Contrary to marketing that encourages trendy fast fashion, the sustainable development

goals led by the United Nations “One Planet Initiative,” a multi-network of shareholders that

supports the execution of a 10-year framework of programs for “Sustainable Consumption and

Production” (Meier,2021). Here, the broadcasting tool kit "Fashion Slow Down" is a central
 33

action that asks people to buy better quality and avoid fast fashion based on mass production at

the cost of environmental and human justice (Dory,2018). This growing movement of “Slow

Fashion” aims to inspire consumers to build an attachment with clothes by actively seeking

higher-quality pieces that align with style instead of the trends of the season (Park & Lin, 2020).

This work is consistent with the findings of Castro et al. (2021), that compare an economic

behavioral study to test their hypothesis that the sustainable fashion consumer might also be

willing to pay more for slow fashion. Castro et al. (2021) argues that although the fashion

industry generates countless benefits in terms of economic trade, employment, and global

development, it is still one of the worst polluting industries due to the linearity of its production,

exploitation of energy, and raw materials that generate waste. Likewise, short life cycles of fast

fashion goods, where the customer chases fashionability versus the styles' durability, are a

contributor to hazardous waste generation. Hence, the emergence of this new theory, called slow

fashion, seeks to improve sustainability from an environmental and ethical point of view. The

results of this study from Castro-Lopez et al. (2021), finds that a growing number of consumers

are eager to support new creativity that emphasizes slowing down production methods to

establish the importance of this innovative slow fashion trend in society. These results are

consistent with studies from Dory (2018), that more sustainable fabrics such as wild silk, organic

cotton, linen, hemp and lyocell can be used in clothing. Similar findings by Shirvanimoghaddam

et al. (2020), have also shown that a circular approach adds value to used garments thus fostering

a belief in sustainable recycling among consumers for the betterment of the environment and

public health.

Consistent with previous studies, Heinze (2020), researcher at the Web of Science, used

data from the sustainable development study to test her hypothesis arguing that the management
 34

of expectation concept limits the reproduction potential of sustainable fashion, which is slowing

down the shift to a stylish sustainable system. For further elaboration, this article explored the

practice of sustainable creation and how the fashion industry could apply knowledge of eco-

friendly materials and supply chains to transition to sustainable production. Likewise, McNeill &

Moore (2015), analyzed both quantitative surveys and qualitative semi-structured interviews to

determine the varying attitudes and behaviors of consumers during clothing purchases. This

model known as the developmental theory suggests fashion shoppers can be grouped into three

categories: ‘self’ patrons, concerned with personal hedonism, ‘social’ patrons, concerned with

societal imaging and ‘sacrifice’ patrons who are concerned about the environment and global

impact. Subsequently, the data reveals that despite rising consumer environmental awareness and

how slow fashion is emerging as a trend, many people still prefer buying popular fast fashion.

However, Roozen & Raedts (2020), conclude that negative publicity is also powerful,

and how that influence impacts the consumer's attitude and behavior. Similar to McNeill, &

Moore (2015), the result of this research points out the effect media has on the customers

purchasing decisions when made aware of the human rights violations and poor working

conditions associated with fast fashion (Roozen & Raedts,2020). This article examines three

separate studies that assess how publicity spotlighting poor factory conditions influences

consumers’ purchasing decisions, brand perception, and customer loyalty. Beyond that, the study

looks at pre and post-buying perceptions and consumer satisfaction after learning about difficult

social externalities associated with the fast fashion industry. Consequently, the findings of these

studies show that negative publicity about the environment and exploitative working conditions

significantly affects brand loyalty and consumers' behavior. These results are in line with Yoon,

Lee, & Choo (2020), and their facts on fast fashion avoidance, which have led to a modern anti-
 35

consumerism movement. Here, data collected from female shoppers in Spain and Korea looked

at consumers of well-known fast fashion stores like ZARA, MANGO, Topshop, and H&M. The

result of avoidance beliefs was compared by a statistical method called second-order factor

analysis, which the researchers used to measure multiple regressions. These results are part of the

"Ethical Clothing Consumerism Movement," which aims to compare behavioral and

psychological guilt associated with feelings of negative consequences (Meier,202). Such results

suggest the paradigm of buying and brand association is changing due to society's increased

concern for the environment and a mindful way of living.

Conclusion

Out of concern, in early 2018, several United Nations organizations came together for an

event called Fashion, and the SDGs: a role of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, to

discuss a globally coordinated approach to the problems and challenges of the fashion industry

(Meier,2021). While the fashion trade's share of global GDP is projected to grow by 400% by

2050, changing the structure is unlikely to happen overnight, yet authors Drew and Reichart

(2019) also see an opportunity to do better. As their report shows, the environmental and social

issues linked by the fashion industry are likely to generate $192 billion in new global economic

gains by 2030 from modern initiatives that will help reshape the industry (Drew & Reichart,

2019).

Although the consensus of the results of this chapter finds that if fast fashion continues to

be unfettered, there will be more and more waste on a global scale. This may not matter to some

people today, but all the findings suggest that if the planet dries up, one day there will be no
 36

agriculture, no healthy fish to eat, and no fresh air to breathe. As this study concludes, the

fashion industry is responsible for 10% of all greenhouse gas emissions and is to blame for air

pollution caused by global warming and excessive carbon dioxide (Lin, 2020). Hence, the

resulting air pollution destroys our water supplies, forests, and Earth's soil. Likewise, according

to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, clothing releases 500,000 tons of microfiber into the ocean

each year, the equivalent of consuming more than 50 billion plastic bottles from the fish we eat,

which in turn contributes to human diseases such as cancer (Matei,2020). These results point to

the alarming rate at which synthetic microfiber pollution is washing into our oceans and that

more than 5 million people will continue to die from diseases caused by drinking contaminated

water (Lui, 2017). What’s more, around 100,000 marine animals perish annually from plastic

waste, and the purpose of uncovering these facts underscores that humans rethink fast-fashion to

reconsider how clothing affects public health and our ecosystems (Bick et al.,2018; Nishat,2019).

Thus, these results go beyond answering research questions about fast fashion, showing

that consumers, retailers, and apparel brands are collectively responsible for the waste that can be

reduced through recycling and circular initiatives (Meier, 2021; Ting & Stagner,2021). Likewise,

the objective that businesses aim to address chemicals, the use of toxic textile and synthetic

fabrics that don’t break down, and support better working conditions show that fashion can

become sustainable, destructive consumerism curbed, and ecosystems repaired for the benefit of

people and the planet (Dory,2018).

 37

Chapter 5: Discussion

The goal of this research is to explore the impact fast fashion has made on our planet’s

ecosystem and to uncover whether sustainable clothing can become fashionable? In the process

of answering this research question, I discovered that fast fashion is the leading cause of plastic

pollution globally, and it is destroying the planet we all depend on. Not only do these non-

biodegradable materials have a catastrophic impact on the environment, but the resulting toxins

are extremely harmful to humans, causing societal health problems such as cancer and lung

disease. Moreover, because of plastic's slow degradation process, fast fashion damages organic

creatures like plankton and fish who may ingest them polluting our water supply and

contaminating the food we eat.

Today, the multi-billion-dollar fashion industry is the second most polluting industry on

the planet. The primary source of fashion pollution is the toxic materials used in fast fashion

production. But then, the speed at which the merchandise is brought to the market for

consumption drives the consumer's psychological desire to buy these “must-have” items that get

disposed of by the next season to make room in their closets for the subsequent apparel trend.

Consequently, this paradoxical economic cycle of buy now, wear now, and throw away has a

negative environmental influence that these destructive materials have on maintaining our

planet's ecosystems. This study thus expounds on the excess carbon emissions from the coal used

to produce fast fashion in developing countries. Moreover, those plastic materials soon find their

way into massive landfills that take hundreds of years to break down and decompose.

So, it is essential that, in order to please our desires aesthetically, we don't add a culture

that hurts both our present and our future. Sustainable fashion cannot simply be a 'charity project'
 38

touted by a celebrity; instead, it has to be something we expect from the norm. Thus, the findings

of this study support the need for the public to simultaneously demand conscious fashion and

sustainable manufacturing practices for sustainability to become the norm for retailers as well.

This research illustrates the importance of sustainable fashion for social health and saving the

planet.

Future Research

So, What Can Be Done?

In this study, the most prominent research finding is that fast fashion is destroying the

environment, and a large number of clothes do not break down. In fact, each step of making

clothing carries a significant ecological burden, such as water use and its contamination, carbon

emissions, and toxic substances of gases released as a result of burning landfills that often turn

into a dangerous substance that pollutes the air. Consequently, the articles in this report argue for

slowing the process of overproduction, over-complicated supply chains, and mindless

consumption. Likewise, scientific studies advocate for manufacturing protocols that respect

people, the environment, and animals. The study also sheds light on the fact that more research

must support innovative technologies to create filters to capture pollutants in burning landfills, as

well as new scientific clothing materials that are cheap and biodegradable.

So, consensus facilitates that we need to get into the consumer's head and determine what

we consider fashionable. Since 2014, consumers have embraced sustainable materials, and

through advocacy and action, they are urging retailers to do the same. Sustainability, therefore, is

the common denominator of this study, which makes a fashion statement for our current
 39

historical period while also protecting the earth's outlook. Likewise, the Covid-19 pandemic may

have unintentionally slowed the massive flow of production and consumption due to global

market turmoil, but its consequences have also slowed the energy mechanism. So, postmodern

discoveries may evolve as a result of the unexpected supply chain interruption bringing forth

alternative sources of sustainability such as renewable fabrics, online resale shopping, and

monetizing thrift stores as an alternative to buying new.

Likewise, the Covid-19 pandemic may have unintentionally slowed the massive flow of

production and consumption due to global market turmoil, but its consequences have also slowed

the energy mechanism. So, postmodern discoveries may evolve as a result of the unexpected

supply chain interruption bringing forth alternative sources of sustainability such as renewable

fabrics, online resale shopping, and monetizing thrift stores as an alternative to buying new.

Likewise, several recent UN reports and numerous civil society initiatives have highlighted the

environmental and social issues that regulators pose to the fashion industry. These range from

noncompliance with labor standards and legislation, to pollution, high greenhouse gas emissions,

and most recently the fiasco to protect garment workers from the disastrous consequences of

widespread factory shutdowns, retail closures and canceled orders in the wake of the COVID-19

pandemic. All 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) designed by the United Nations

related to the fashion and textile industry show how far-reaching the fashion industry’s

development impact is on human beings and the planet. For example, the management of

chemicals and wastes is explicitly linked to SDG 3 which represents the health and well-being of

people. Likewise, SDG 6 supports governments in mobilizing the global business community to

take action to adopt advanced water management practices. Therefore, through the collaborative

framework, future research can adopt strategies that incorporate SDG 9, global innovation, and
 40

infrastructure design. These findings are also relevant to the articles in this report that promote

social dialogue on key challenges and opportunities affecting fashion and change, and the impact

of modern advertising such as social media on fashion.

While investigating the universal impact on sustaining the environment, the deficiency of

traceability across such a globally distributed value supply chain, in addition to fluctuating legal,

ethical, and commercial standards poses somber sustainability challenges and hinders the ability

of consumers and retailers to detect non-compliant suppliers. As a result, the sprawling, and

sometimes informal, nature of supply chains makes influencer intervention particularly difficult

and requires additional global support to achieve comprehensive compliance. Hence, the

limitations of this study depend on whether future research can ensure institutional solid and

international partnerships to achieve the UN-sponsored Sustainable Development Goals. Also,

it’s worth noting that much research concurs that despite fast fashion’s detrimental impact on the

environment, society is still hungry for robust consumption, and so it will take more time to

change shopping behaviors.

Conclusion

Why Do We Care?

In summation, the three main topics in this research examine fast fashion and its concerns

related to Global Impact: Sustaining the Environment, Fashion and Change: New Design,

Resale, and Sustainability, and Social-Media: Power of Fashion. In doing so, this study

investigates how fast fashion contributes to the destruction of our planet's ecosystem and if

sustainable clothing could mitigate the damage? The results confirm that the fashion industry

must invest in new biodegradable materials and environmentally friendly technologies. Likewise,
 41

research on slow fashion should continue to educate consumers about how non-biodegradable

materials and excessive waste are harming the planet. Furthermore, more research will shed light

on the benefits of sustainable shopping and ongoing recycling practices leading to a circular

approach that adds value and life to goods. For these reasons, we need to care about the

environment and consider how rising temperatures from excessive production emissions are

causing drought and pollution, which is changing the Earth's land surface.

So, if we care about the human species, we must find a solution to interweaving our

esthetic desires and instant shopping gratification to sustain the earth's ecosystem. The future of

consumerism also depends on bringing about immediate environmental change so that economic

success continues to thrive globally. Perhaps, consumers will pay a little more for slow fashion,

which may offset mass production. In any case, we need to mitigate the damage done by fast

fashion and adopt a collective awareness to rise and protest to slow down and prevent further

damage to the planet in order to balance our demand for new things. Our public health and

ecosystems are at a tipping point, and further impacts on our homeland depend on change.
 42

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