Fast Fashion and Personal Style

We put on the clothes in our closet every morning and wear them all day long. We stain them, we tear them, we get bored of them, we throw them out. We don't even consider what happens to them when they're gone, or how they even came to us in the first place. Nowadays, we are so consumed by trends, which are changing at an alarmingly rapid pace, that we don't even think twice about what we like. We take what the media gives us.

Fast fashion is a well-oiled machine. They spot a trend and within days, they can put out what is popular. Not only that, they convince us that we need this item, that this item is so unique and so versatile. Meanwhile, they're already planning on how they're going to convince us that we need to drop that trend for the next one they're already working on.

Over the past few years, we've slowly started to see the fashion industry implode because of the rate at which trends are changing. It's becoming impossible to keep up. We are slowly starting to see the rise of personal style. Fashion-based accounts on TikTok and Instagram with unique or even "quirky" styles are starting to gain larger followings. Many are ridiculed for their outlandish fashion sense, but nonetheless, they continue to promote the idea of developing a personal style rather than following trends. With a mindset like this, we lower the risk of fast fashion and the trend cycle taking over our lives.

At the end of the day, we cannot continue to see clothes as disposable goods. Clothes used to last people years or even decades. Now, we toss our clothes after months. This mindset is quickly causing more and more clothes to end up in land fills. If we want to stop this issue, we need to become more conscious of how we pick our clothes. Not only that but we also need to be aware of how we consume media and trends within media. In the long run, this will allow us to have a much more ethical and sustainable fashion industry.