It is more convenient than ever to get clothes at the touch of your fingertips and for the price of your morning coffee. Fast fashion brands will not hurt your wallet but still keep you looking stylish. Who does not want to be stylish?

The fast fashion industry is a $150.82 billion dollar industry and is expected to grow to $184.96 billion by 2027.

Why Should We Care?

At the cost of what seems to be just a simple way of self-expression is the result of gruesome exploitation.

Here is what is behind the seams, a beating heart under a corporation that:

• Forces hours of labour to be made worth mere pennies 

• Forces those who have no other means of sustenance to work 14+ hour shifts

• Forces employees to be making hundreds of garments a day with few breaks

• Forces inhumane standards: no weekends and wage reductions for the slightest mistakes

Buying from corporations that create sweatshop-like conditions for their workers is enabling this type of labour. We are enabling unlivable standards that we would never set for ourselves or our kids just by giving in to the desire to buy that Skims dress dupe.

• Shein is the largest fast fashion market share worldwide (18%) 

• The app reached a peak of 261.94 million downloads worldwide 

• 46.9 million visitors in the US alone

We should care because we are actively enabling a corporation that is comparable to slavery. 

Do we have to Support Slave-Labour to Buy Affordable Clothing?

No, we don’t, and we won’t. An alternative to getting the same affordable clothing without supporting corporations with unethical conditions is to thrift locally 

• Reduces textile waste: no landfill waste and environmental impacts of overproduction 

• No sweatshops involved: you are not supporting exploitative labour when you buy secondhand 

• Reduced prices: cheap vintage items and brand names

• Local economy boost: keeps money circulating in your community instead of going to global corporations. 

Can I Buy New Clothing Without Downloading Shein?

Here are a few alternative clothing brands that are reliable, affordable, and ethical. 

• Certified B corporation 

• Pays fair wages 

• Works directly with the Egyptian farmers producing cotton 

• Every purchase plants a tree 

• Organic and sustainable fibres and cotton 

• regenerative and biodynamic farming and traceable origins 

• Fair wages and women’s empowerment 

• 100% organic cotton 

• 100% recycled wool 

• Transparent factories in Portugal with fair working conditions

Leaving fast fashion and turning towards ethical consumption does not mean you have to get rid of your style. You can still enjoy the luxury of wearing stylish clothing knowing that you are not contributing to the unethical conditions of fast-fashion industries.