Dark Side Of The Fashion Industry

By;Aqsa Arif

The dark side of fashion endangers people’s well-being, undermines human values by exploiting workers, and worsens the environment. The fashion industry continues its expansion and impact on people’s lives, and it generates substantial profits that strengthen this direction.

The fashion industry remains the cornerstone of popular culture and defines the lifestyles of millions of people worldwide. It sets trends and creates innovative ideas that make everyday routine original and inspiring by dressing and creating unique looks.

The fashion industry continues its expansion and impact on people’s lives, and itgenerates substantial profits that strengthen this direction. It is essential to admit that the increase in the world’s population will lead to an increased amount of consumption, and the industry will take advantage of this situation to enhance its operability and sales. This perspective does not create significant issues, though the problems arise in the long-term development as it shapes the tendency of overconsumption.

It means that the new customer will buy products in enormous quantities since fashion uses marketing and the decisive impact of PR management to stimulate sales. In turn, it will necessitate the production of clothing to match the estimated demand on the market, and companies will implement different approaches to minimize the production costs, including illegal ones.

The plants make the people there suffer because they adversely affect their health. Savar residents in Bangladesh claim that the water in a river where textile companies dump their waste creates sores on the body and that those who wash their hands or face in the water get fevers and skin irritation (Regan, 2020). Unfortunately, most people do not have any choice but to drink this same water. They are hopeless since they lack the funds to buy a filter or drill a well for deep water.

Another related problem is wasted products and materials, and it is reasonable to distinguish the environmental and wasting issues since they emerge from different sources. Waste is a direct contribution of consumers who buy the clothes or support the fashion brands, though they do not use them effectively. The lack of conscious consumption and misunderstanding of the outcomes of generated waste strengthens the discussed environmental issues, though customers only encircle and sustain the negative effects mentioned above. In the United States, an average of 35 kilograms of textile waste is created per person every year (Charpail, 2017).

The same source confirms that most of these individuals do not wear the purchased clothes on a regular basis, and they can try them a few times and throw them in the garbage can. The same people will buy new products, and this process repeats by following the same attitude of making purchases and collecting new waste. This issue denotes the personal contribution to the environmental issues and ecological crisis caused by the waste of textile products.

Socio Economic problems constitute another topic that concerns the issue of labor and exploitation of workers by fashion companies. Many brands benefit from outsourcing and establishing their factories in developing countries to pay fewer taxes and salaries, and they further use the opportunity of finding leeways to avoid the legal consequences of their actions.

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The fashion industry has a reputation for embracing an all-in/anything-goes attitude to diversity. Nowadays, there are all-black runway shows, all-Asian fashion editorials, and prominent transgender models, but this is all just racial progress if the garment workers are ignored along with the structural conditions that make their work necessary and exploitable (Pham, 2019). Because of the continued high demand for low-cost apparel, countries such as Bangladesh, China, and Mexico are sought after due to their poor socioeconomic standing worldwide (Carlile,2022).

Nevertheless, the struggle against these problems intensifies since it becomes impossible to diminish or ignore the consequences of these practices maintained by the industry. Different organizations and activists take a leading role in investigating crimes and harmful activities behind fashion brands.. These measures remain insufficient since the current situation is global and impacts every individual and country, and it is vital to create awareness and effective steps to initiate the changes on a different level.
Conscious consumption can include the literacy and understanding of the harmful effects of the manufacturing process, and it involves the knowledge of the personal contribution to the problem. The same measures support the individual in making ethical decisions and reducing the carbon footprint and waste of clothes.