Fast fashion for a long time has majorly influenced society's buying habits, and most of us when growing up didn't even question the low clothing prices, how it is being made, and the work conditions garment workers have to go through to produce clothing in such a short period of time.
A huge sale? Let's go! It's that simple to keep buying from fast fashion brands because the prices can be cheaper than the cup of coffee in your local cafe. This is not the case with ethically made clothing, and here is why.
The ultimate meaning of ethically made clothing:
Garment workers are being paid a fair wage and have a good working conditions.
This right here tells the biggest difference between fast fashion and ethical fashion - the price, production, materials, and humanity.
While fast fashion brands don't pay living wages to their garment workers, push them to create new clothing in a short period of time and most of the time to work in bad conditions. Ethical fashion cares about people who make the clothes, about the materials, planet, and humanity.
In sustainyourstyle.org it is even mentioned that the garment workers are often forced to work 14 to 16 hours a day, 7 days a week. I highly recommend you to check this article to find out more about this in great detail here.
How to shop more ethically
There are many ways how you can be a more cautious consumer when it comes to clothes, these are a few of them:
Thrift + donate clothes afterward
This is a great option for those who love fashion so much that they want to regularly buy clothes and experiment with different fashion styles. But it is also important to think about what you are doing with the clothes afterward - donating instead of throwing them out is a lot better option and environment friendly.
If there is no thrift shop in your hometown - you can shop online ethically via Depop or Etsy.
Buy from ethical fashion brands
I know that ethical fashion brands can be pricy, and not realistically affordable for everyone. Been there, and becoming a minimalist is what helped me personally avoid fast fashion brands. However, ethically made clothing truly is worth money as they support garment workers, the planet, and animals. And most of the time ethically made clothing will last much much longer than the fast-fashion brand's clothing.
If it's not affordable for you and you can't find an ethical fashion brand that is - then it definitely can be challenging to shop more ethically, but it's not impossible.
In apps like Depop you can actually find clothing that someone has bought but let's say they had a second thought and don't want it anymore so it is completely unused and the price is not high as well.
To find out if your favorite fashion brand is ethical or not - download the Good on you app.
Support ethical fashion
Whether it is realistic for you to shop ethically made clothing or not, your support matters so much. The more common and popular ethical fashion becomes the more chances are that the new solutions are being created and it becomes more affordable to more people while still standing strong with their values.
Sharing, commenting on their posts, and spreading awareness - can make a huge difference.
I hope this post was useful and brought you some clarity on ethically made clothing and why it's important to support it.
