Fast fashion (´°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥⩊°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥｀)

(´°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥⩊°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥｀) Fast fashion 

      Everyone has been a victim of places like shein or temu, sadly. With the addition of the new shein shop opening up in Paris (old news ik) I decided i'm just gonna blurb about my knowledge of it, and what you can do to help prevent buying it! 🥂ᵕ̈ ＊𓈒𓍼✩˚

૮ ⩌ _ ⩌ ྀིა what is fast fashion?

        Fast fashion is cheap, lower quality clothing that's mass produced to keep up with fashion trends. Back in the far past people had to hand sew garments 📜♡❕◞ then the sewing machine came out and it made clothing faster, to allow more stylish garments without taking AS much time. . ̯.

       well, now we have machines, and factories still open like how garments used to be made, except with new machines, 🛒⁺ ♡ and the low understanding of garment making (Specifically for the fact most home ec classes were taken out of school in the mid 2000s here in America) lots of places get away with being horrible to their employees while still making a giant profit. > 𐢭 <

        Before fast fashion became mainstream, Many clothing companies you still see today (or in the long past) had 2 main clothing lines each year. One for spring and summer  *.｡💐☆｡★ and one for fall and winter ₊⋆🧸 ༘ 🍂﹆. These took 6-9 months to develop, and were pretty specific and is why years in the past usually had one main type of look each year. It went from pattern making, to testing, to looking at what the people wanted, what famous people wore from custom garments, before finally doing a fashion show and putting selling the line ⭐️≈₊ ⊹

         This made garments cost more, but people usually stook with their looks for longer, and the clothing was of better quality since it had to last until their next line, and they had to build their reputation. Which back around the 80's ꒰💾˘͈ ᵕ ˘͈💿꒱ people spent about 7% of their paycheck on clothing. [For example, a fancy blazer back then would be about 300$ now instead of 120$) And the good quality made them last longer, and if anything broke, usually people knew how to sew to fix it themselves. (BECAUSE OF HOME EC)

           But now, it isn't that way ૮ ∩ˊ ᵔ ˋ∩ ྀིྀིა, and home EC classes are barely being implemented back into schools, but sewing is a big on. I only know 2 people Irl that can sew, and one is from from the 50s, so what happened to fashion?

｡°(°¯᷄◠¯᷅°)°｡ Zara

      When you think fast fashion, Zara may not come to mind...oh you poor soul. (_ _。)

    Zara is considered the founder of fast fashion, but how did they start this trend? and why? Well in the 1970s Zara was founded, and Zara had a much more unique way of making clothing garments. instead of -Regular^ྀི🍒- way of creating clothing lines, or paying full price for expensive garments and fabrics, Zara invented fast fashion. ૮꒰ྀིྀིྀིྀིྀི º Д º ྀིྀིྀིྀིྀི꒱ა⁉️💡

        Super scary IK, but Zara used factories and hired workers from places with less labor laws, which meant less regulated safety, lower wages, and more income from American buyers. 🍓 ˚ₒ˚ 🍰 which is good for the industries, but not for the people..."But wait I thought you said it took months to make clothing lines, even if the actual production is cheaper and faster, they still need to create patterns, and follow trends!". Yeah, they do...that's where social media plays into this/ᐠ-˕-マⳊ 

        from magazines, to celebrities, to the new improvement of social media, trends came and left just as quick✈︎ - - -📍This meant Zara didn't waste their time trying to make a perfect line, they didn't have to. Instead they dropped small collections (sometimes large) more often then other companies.₊˚ʚ🎀₊˚💗ྀི And because they were new, cheap, and offered many different options, people went loco, And new styles, and even more asthetics appeared, and with the internet, and social media, people were expected to just always have new outfits, or to not be an 'outfit repeater', since that was so 1960. 🍒( ｡• 👅 •｡｀)

         People in poverty could afford more clothes (which is a good thing°｡🧸⋆.🧺₊˚⊹) but wealthy people were able to buy much more clothes for less! since materials were cheap, and workers barely got paid a liveable wage,(っ º - º ς) ᴼʰ ᵈᵉᵃʳ••• so they had to spend hours doing this labor to survive, which gave much more clothes, for way less. and the big ppl running Zara made the most cash, even if they weren't ethical. Many companies saw Zara, and saw the cash and hopped on, so all your clothes from the 60's 70's or 80's weren't just nostalgic, they were higher quality then most clothes you get now. ꨄ︎🩰𝜗𝜚ˎˊ˗  

       But how is Shein and Temu the only ones being called out? /ᐠ ｡꩜ ﹏ ꩜｡マ ¿?❔💫

(ᴗ_ ᴗ。) Shein

       Shein used to only be an online shop, now its opening about 7 locations in France, which is the fashion hub. (Along with New York, Milan, and London) 🕊️🌸💗But why'd they choose France? Shein actually has the most shoppers from France, which is why it was a smart move. but protest, and controversies online all happened, but why is only Shein and Temu getting all the heat, while Zara and all the other companies get nothing? (yes i asked that twice, shush) ˚₊𓆩꒰_🎀_꒱𓆪₊˚

        When those 5 or 6 influencers went to the Shein factories, it was because many allegations were coming out about how Shein was so horrible to their employees (๑˃̥̩̥̥̥̥̆ಐ˂̩̩̥̥̥̥̆๑), and that's why they were able to sell for so cheap. especially since this brand didn't start in the 70s or 80s and never had non-fast fashion, they were picked on because...✦❕🦦◞꒱

(1. their prices were SO low, like 2-3 dollars for a shit while at Walmart they're 8-13 dollars? and (2. Because their Asian. its probably the big reason honestly, lots of Americans don't trust anything Chinese for some reason. and it wasn't hard to figure out they contributed to fast fashion. but their labor laws are also horrible. ૮₍ ˃‌‌᷄ . ˂‌‌᷅ ₎ა 

         Now, I'm not siding with Shein, they should treat their employees fairly. But we have to understand that fast fashion has completely screwed out perspective on clothing prices. 𓏭𓏰🧴 ॢ ꙳🪞 

◕ ̫ ◕ Real Fashion

      To understand the labor, the time, and the money it takes to sew, get INTO SEWING ⋆🧺⸝⸝ ℴ✨ᐝ🌷 It is legitimently so much fun, and refreshing to not have fast fashion crap on your body 24-7. Its hard, you have to get a pattern, by making it or getting/buying one, then buy the fabric, and learn which fabrics work for which garments- Which side note, most cost 13-25 per yard, which most garments require 2-4 yards, so already its 26-50 or 39-100 JUST for the fabrics- Then it takes anywhere from 30 minutes to 4-5 days to create the garment (usually dresses or formal attire) but on average 1-4 hours. then the garments have to be reviewed, and shipped before arriving in the store. 🌼🧺˚˖𓍢🌿˚𓍼

      This is why places get so much hate for being overpriced! because of course a place is overcharging when a T-shirt that's plain is 25, when places like Walmart or Shein have the same thing for 5-10 bucks. 𑁍.ೃ࿔ ·🐇🌿 The fashion industry used to reflect true prices, which is why people shopped less, and still spent more. 

       Many small, or self-made companies are expensive because they reflect true prices, while 80-200$ for a regular shirt is overpriced, 25-30$ isn't! but it doesn't make it any harder to buy for people who are making minimum wage, since now a days its almost impossible to buy true quality with 15$ an hour.  ⍤⃝ ◝✩ So the best thing to do is shop from small shops, thrift older clothes, save extra for clothes, and shop less! having 2 closets full of clothing isn't realistiເ💜🪽 its what social media shows from content creators, who's job is literally showing off new outfits, and being inspo. Its not embarrassing to have 10 outfits, with 3 special occasion outfits. It's normal, and you don't need to fall on the over consumption train! ℛ🥀🕯️

Anything I need to add or got wrong i'd be happy to fix! ♡⸝⸝💌⊹。°˖➴⋆｡‧˚ʚ🍓ɞ˚‧｡⋆

   🍓ﾟ･｡♡｡･ﾟ🍒ﾟ･｡♡｡･ﾟ🍓ﾟ･｡♡｡･ﾟ🍒🍓ﾟ･｡♡｡･ﾟ🍒ﾟ･｡♡｡･ﾟ🍓ﾟ･｡♡｡･ﾟ🍒🍓ﾟ･｡♡｡･ﾟ🍒ﾟ･｡♡｡･ﾟ🍓ﾟ･｡♡｡･ﾟ🍒