Why Quit Fast Fashion

You know what’s super? When someone like me, a small content creator with barely 1K+ followers on Instagram is noticed! Being asked to talk about what I love the most to talk about, sustainable fashion and why quit fast fashion, is just a blessing.

I’ve had the honor to be featured in multiple podcasts by now and so much looking forwards to being featured in more! But let’s talk about my most recent podcast appearance! Chelsea from the ANIMA ANIMUS podcast kindly asked me to join her in December.

We had a brilliant chat about myths around sustainable fashion, how to quit fast and switch to sustainable fashion, and why Black Friday is just a massive scam. Oh yes, my darlings, just like with greenwashing, you are being fooled with these ‘consuming parties’.

You can listen to the podcast episode “Why Quit Fast Fashion” here. Or read on for a summary of everything we talked about.

Chelsea always likes to start her podcast episodes with a ‘chicken or the egg’ sort of a question series. So, that’s how we got started as well! Here are 3 AA Assumptions:

C: “Consumers influencing brands or brands influencing consumers?”

T: “I think it goes both ways. We consumers do have power, because we have the money. Especially when we act collectively, we have a lot of power. But then again our purchase decisions are very much influenced by the brands and their marketing.

But I also think that we, as consumers, have the responsibility to be aware of false marketing and the tricks that they use. We need to be educated and not take all of that as gospel. I’m not saying that there’s more responsibility on the consumer, it’s pretty 50/50. But we consumers do have power.”

C: “Yeah, I think that’s true, we’re voting with our wallets. The 2nd statement is ‘Once a fast fashion brand, always a fast fashion brand?’.”

T: Umm… probably true. Fast fashion is a business model. It is possible for businesses to change the business model. But I can’t see many of them changing their ways. But the thing I want everybody to understand is that fast fashion brands can never be sustainable!

When you see a fast fashion brand claiming that they’re sustainable, you can be 100% sure that they’re lying to you. And that’s because fast fashion as a business model has nothing to do with sustainability. Even if they have a sustainable collection, the fact that it’s a fast fashion brand totally trumps the whole thing.”

C: “Yes, I also think it’s all because of the business model, for sure. Okay, so the final statement is ‘Sustainable fashion is a privilege’.”

T: “Sustainable fashion is definitely more expensive than fast fashion. For obvious reasons. Fast fashion clothes should never cost what they do. But I don’t think sustainable fashion is a privilege. It comes down to mindset, we’ve become used to fast fashion clothes being ridiculously cheap. We think that it’s our right to get clothes for no money whatsoever.

But it’s not a right! This has been going on for only 30 years, since fast fashion was invented. For example my parents were never able to buy clothes as cheap as I have been able to. But still they were always clothed, they were always able to get clothes when needed or wanted. Nobody needs as much clothes as we buy these days.”

C: “I guess we’re so used to that. We see so many brands just flood our high streets, and what they offer as their value is a cheap product. … So, I didn’t know you started your blog from a “problem”, from being a shopaholic. It makes it more interesting when you’re guiding your readers to more sustainable choices.

When I read your articles it’s more you than someone just shouting “Sustainable fashion only!“. It’s more authentic because it’s more personal journey. Which is so different from other bloggers.”

T: “I think it’s easier for me to communicate with the people who are shopping too much because I’ve been there myself. I know how great it feels to leave a store with bags full of useless shit that none of us need. But I also know the drawbacks of it. Like that you buy that bag of shit and you feel great for 10 minutes. But at the end of the day it’s just junk. I’ve seen both sides of the coin.”

Black Friday is just a scam

C: “So, last week was Black Friday and that is a big topic. It would be such a good topic today because BF has become this whole sales month. I think on top of that brands are trying to get rid of their stock left from covid issues. The immense problem just keeps piling up. Did you see the Pretty Little Thing 99% discount? What was your first reaction?”

T: “Just anger! At that point I couldn’t hold myself anymore. I have a lot of friends who shop f.ex. Boohoo even though they know what’s going on, cause they follow me. So, I just posted on Instagram that if you still shop with these brands (knowing full well!), you’re a shit person.”

C: “When I saw that I just felt sick, they’re giving up stuff for pennies. And when I went on their Instagram and see all the tags from their customers, they’re so proud! They’re so proud of their PLT hauls. I’m like omg girl, you don’t know what’s going on here.”

T: “That’s the thing that fast fashion brands have done a really good job on. Basically they turned the concept of pride in terms of style completely around.”

C: “Maybe it’s the thing of just having a lot in your cart, like that’s the thing. But you did also write a really good article on your blog and you titled it “Why I’m not participating in Black Friday“. Do you want to break us some reasons down, your opinions on why?”

T: “Absolutely! So, when Black Friday came up to Scandinavia, I was working in a retail store, kinda like Selfridges. I was there just for that one week preparing for Black Friday. And my job was to change the labels for the products that were up for the Black Friday sales.

But the thing with these labels is that the prices were exactly the same as the normal prices but the label was a different colour. So, it would be a yellow label with bright red text for attention. It’s a complete scam! I would say that 70% of the products are sold with the normal retail price.

The other thing I know that a lot of brands, especially technology brands do is that they buy poor quality products from the manufacturers. Laptops, ring lights, what ever. So, they get shittier quality products and sell them cheaper, so their margins stay the same. They are scamming people left, right and center.”

C: “It’s also with outlets, they’re an everyday scam. The products there are leftover stock, yes, but most of the products are specifically made in cheaper way for the outlets so they can sell them cheaper. It’s sort of an industry secret.”

How to quit fast fashion?

C: “It’s not all doom, though! What are some of the solutions we can offer, some advice you could share?”

T: “Well, one of the solutions sure is this thing that most of us don’t have anymore, which is patience, lol. But if we just learned to practice a little bit of patience in our consumerism, then the planet is already better off. We need to start shopping slower. We should be able to stop for few seconds before buying to ask ourselves “Do I need this? Like, really?“

If you’re not sure if you’re gonna love it for 5 years just leave it for at least overnight and see the next day if you still want it. It sounds like a lot of effort to train yourself into this mindset. But it only takes about 2 weeks to change our behaviour. So, if you stick to it for 2 weeks, it becomes a habit.”

C: “There are 5-7 steps to prevent us from impulse buying and it was really good! It was so useful because you can just open it up and it helps you think about certain ways you maybe haven’t thought in before. And not to dive in immediately like “Omg, I need this!” Do you though?”

Also, another thing with quality, for someone who might not be from a design background, how would you advice them on how to recognize good quality? We tend to correlate price with quality, so we think quality is more expensive. How would you help someone on what is high quality?”

T: “Quality can be seen and felt. If you put a bad quality T-shirt next to good quality T-shirt, you can literally see the difference. Quality fabrics are much sturdier, thicker. If you can see through the fabric, you know it’s shit. Don’t buy it, cause that thing is gonna break after 3 wears.

And also seams tell you a lot. In a quality T-shirt, if you stretch the seams there shouldn’t be any gaps between the seams. And I’ve noticed that the amount of threads sticking from and hanging off the seams has been increasing in fast fashion clothing. I haven’t seen this problem with quality clothing.”

C: “I think there’s no harm in walking into, like, more high quality store and taking a look at the stuff. See and feel the products. You don’t necessarily have to buy it, but just see what quality is. Do you have any more tips for consumers to defer from impulse buying?”

T: “Well, the first thing I’d say is the thing I mentioned earlier. To ask yourself before you buy anything “Do I need this?” It’s a very quick question and you know the answer automatically. Another thing that worked well for me was writing down everything I bought and how much it cost for one month.

At the end of the month I added it all up. And I was spending more money on clothes and accessories than I was bringing in. At that point it’s time to ask “Can I sustain this habit?” Definitely not! It’s a wake-up call!

A long term tip that I can give is to figure out your personal style. That really helps you to keep your shopping within some kind of boundaries. Personal style doesn’t mean you have to dress the same way every day. But when you figure out what those corner stones for your personal style are, you can shop according to that.”

C: “I think a good way to experiment with your style first is renting! It’s a really sustainable approach to fashion, and to developing a style.”

I really loved chatting with Chelsea and I hope you found this conversation insightful and maybe it even inspired you to quit fast fashion. Give us a comment below, let me know any thoughts and if you have more ideas for people looking to quit fast fashion and shop better. ♥