Fashion Needs And Consumption

As now I'm a part of this Fashion Industry let me introduce something very interesting which I never knew before. "Fashion Industry is known as the second most polluting industry after Petroleum" yes! Actually how??? When did this happen?? Where is the relation between fashion and pollution??? Fashion is supposed to make people look good, beautiful... Glamorous!! 

We were supposed to just dress up, have some good clothes and look good.How can we be polluting our environment?? What is it?? Which aspect of it is labelling fashion as an industry of pollutants?? And What are the shortcomings??

So, let me tell you their is another side of the Fashion industry which is affecting not just people in the industry but just everybody.

"Fast fashion" The term is used to describe the production of high volume, quick turnaround, low cost clothing. Fast Fashion first appeared in the 1990s as corporations, in an attempt to increase profits, invested in cheaper production methods to mimic fast paced fashion trends. In this fast fashion they create clothes which are easily affordable but the materials used are inexpensive in nature. Fashion Brands like Zara,H&M, Topshop,etc. uses Synthetic fibres (polyester, acrylic, nylon, etc.), which are used in the majority of fast fashion garments, are made using fossil fuels. Then these clothes are found in the landfills as they cannot decay, the consumption of water and water pollution is also high here. 

It takes 2,700 litres of water to produce a simple T-shirt and almost 10,000 litres for a pair of jeans.Equally, every time a garment made from a synthetic fibre such as polyester is washed, microfibres are released which then make their way into the water system which means directly or indirectly we are in taking plastic which is very harmful.

And all these things arises due to the mass market,and our needs and wants. The phenomenon of desire- want- social acceptability gives rise to mindless consumerism.

Mass Market is the market for goods that are produced in large quantities,ready to wear garments in mass,cheap material of fabrics creatively used to produce affordable fashion. Here fashion is available for both — brands and street. Due to high demand this is rising. But we must look into this as this is harmful for the people involved especially the children's and also for the environment. This is creating the gap between the rich and the poor. And so we must check behind the scenes as we need to built our own future.

And due to this mass market we can see how we buy things. As we all get satisfied with our needs then we start wanting things more and more ,i.e if we check our wardrobe we all will get some clothes which we haven't tried yet or may be tried once in a lifetime. So, basically we don't think before buying these types of things which we don't usually need. Which is referred as the Mindless Consumerism. 

Their is Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs which is a theory in psychology. It argues that there are five stages of human needs that motivate our behavior. --

Somewhere in order to feel a part of the system or to maintain image and identity we spend on goods which we don't compulsorily need just to show our wealth or to satisfy our eyes. Or somewhere to full fill the emptiness of certain emotions that we experience. The want to fit in and to follow what others are doing gives rise to greediness and materialism.

The concept of Fast Fashion and Mindless Consumerism came into existence since the 20th century, after the world war II created industrialization. The high increase of production and  change in trends gave rises to fast fashion brands like Zara, H&M, Topshop, Primark,etc. Which are now grabbing market but equally harming the environment. 

I would like to spread this awareness as maximum of us are not aware of these problems as we never really thought this existed. And we must stop focusing on our desires and just try to fulfill the needs. I would now think before I buy anything as their is so much more behind everything than just being materialistic.