Fast fashion is a buzz phrase rooted in the fashion industry and has been getting increasing attention, especially since the onset of the novel coronavirus pandemic in 2020, when everybody was at home in lockdown. Fashion influencers found a captive audience by way of YouTube university and “unboxing” became a popular way for them to showcase clothes from the high streets.

The history

Fast fashion has been a thing since the end of the 1990s and early 2000s, becoming an actual booming industry when consumerism took off and the middle classes decided to embrace mass-produced clothing in response to the expensive high-end fashion produced by designers being paraded on the runways. Why should luxury clothing items be the purview of only the wealthy? Cue: the rise of fast-fashion retailers like Zara, Primark, H&M, Topshop, Boohoo, Shein, Forever 21, and others.

The term was first coined in The New York Times, in response to what the paper saw as the vision that the founder of Zara, Amancia Ortega, had when he moved his operations to New York from Spain in the 1990s. Fast-fashion brands from Ortega and his ilk originated on a small scale mainly in Europe then infiltrated North American markets, where they quickly gained traction on what is called the high streets, because their designs were able to almost blur the lines between luxe high end and the more affordable high street.

What fast fashion espouses is that, rather than brands producing clothes for only four seasons — spring, summer, fall and winter collections — for a small and exclusive club of rich people each year, it instead manufactures high volumes of cheaply made clothes that replicate the look and design elements of high-end fashion houses like Chanel, Balenciaga, Louis Vuitton, Dior, Prada, et cetera, providing similar clothes at a fraction of the cost, all year round, with “drops” occurring each week, or in other words, 52 micro collections a year.

The ethical problem with fast fashion

For a long time it was great. Women were spending less to look like runway models in their everyday lives. Closets were overflowing; they could wear outfits without repeating them. But no one was asking why the clothes were so cheap. It’s only now, with the emergence of the so-called “slow fashion” movement — which advocates for, among other things, less spending on throwaway fashion by buying lasting, quality garments — that a light is being shined on the often unethical and unsustainable practices behind fast fashion, including the financial exploitation of, and human rights breaches against, poor factory workers producing the garments, as well as the toll being taken on the environment because of fast fashion’s notoriously dangerous carbon footprint, and other things.

Fast fashion and your personal finances

But, while extremely important, the above are macro-level issues contributing to the big picture of fast fashion’s unsustainability. The question we’re concerned with here is: How does fast fashion affect you at the individual level?

Firstly, nobody is saying you should not buy fast fashion. But consider what the financial toll is on you if you allow yourself to be seduced by it. If you’re constantly scouring fast-fashion websites in order to purchase more and more clothes, and, say, not saving and investing, it can and will affect your bottom line.

One of the first lessons of personal finances is budgeting, which is about creating a monthly plan for how you spend your money and not spending more than you earn. Budgeting includes allocating funds for your wants but also your needs. The problem comes, however, when you sideline your needs, like paying rent, and simply focus on wants like being the most fashionable woman in the room. Nothing wrong with being fashionable. But it comes at a price when all you’re doing is spending on clothes. Do you know that there are women who risk homelessness because they are powerless to avoid of the lure of a closetful of fabulous clothes?

Bottom line

If you love shopping, be sure that you stay within your budget. Life isn’t just about wearing something new every day of the week. When you are tempted to buy another outfit from your favourite fast-fashion retailer, consult your budget. A budget is necessary not only for short-term gratification like shopping, but also to forecast your spending on longer-term goals like further education, starting a business, home ownership, buying investment property or even preparing for retirement. Always keep in mind this saying: “Fast fashion isn’t free. Someone, somewhere, is paying.” It could very well be you. Don’t allow the love and convenience of fast fashion to detract from achieving your financial goals.