TikToK hauls are promoting and ESCALATING fast fashion to levels that haven’t been seen before. We no longer live in the age of timeless fashion, rather one-wear-wonders.
Fast fashion, we’ve all heard of it. I’ll be honest I’m no saint either, just check out my jacket collection and you’ll see that I love to shop around for a new one (or three) every time is gets a bit cold. But after I realised how detrimental these habits are to the environment I soon slowed up.
Collections, colours and micro-seasons give reason for new release and re-releases of clothing. Big brands bring out different styles up to 52 times a year. That’s once a week! (Stanton, 2019) In Australia last year, 240,000 tones of textiles were sent to landfill with only 800 tones being recycled and 62,000 tones being sent overseas to be re-used. (Gorman, 2021) It was only a decade ago that we had four seasons, a new release of clothing would get brought out for summer, autumn, winter and spring and some brands still do this. But most have caught on to the micro-season. Gone are the days of stores not having stock as brands have a constant supply of clothes flowing through and out to your local stores.
So how is this linked back to the social media giant tiktok? Hauls! The rise of mirco-influencers on this platform is instrumental. The influencer market is growing because of how easy it is to make a quick buck. Businesses send out their clothes to these people, whom then create content to promote on Tiktok. This benefits both the influencer and the brand as both gain traction because of it. “TikTok, is the perfect vehicle for trend cycle acceleration because the short-form nature of the content allows for rapid and indiscriminate consumption.” (Rudalevige, 2021)
the short-form nature of the content allows for rapid and indiscriminate consumption.
Rudalevige, Eliza (June, 2021) How TikTok Makes Fast Fashion Faster
Most for you pages are splattered with hauls from brands like, but not limited to: Shein, Boohoo, Cotton On, Zara, Princess Polly, Amazon… These influences are wearing/styling hundreds of dollars worth of clothing once a week! So how exactly can this be good for the environment? Well its not. The plastics and dyes that are put into creating our clothes aren’t creating the most amazing environment ever. Boohoo “use toxic chemicals, dangerous dyes and synthetic fabrics that seep into water supplies.” (Stanton, 2019). In saying that, I’m writing this article whilst lounging around in my very comfortable Boohoo trackies. But I would like to suggest that I do try my best to give back to the environment and shop ethically.
Bascially, I know its hard. Moral and ethical lines are a blurry thing, especially when low prices come into play. That’s the reason I bought my trackies, they were $10! Cheap as chips. But, “fast fashion isn’t free. Someone, somewhere is paying.” (Siegle, 2015). After doing research for my magazine I realised that even the brands I thought were okay weren’t great. So buying becomes hard. Which is why fast fashion is easy. Especially when it is marketed to you whilst scrolling through your daily for you page.
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This article is one of a collection featured on my magazine; L.W.S-the sustainable.
Stanton, Audury (2019). What Is Fast Fashion, Anyway?: https://www.thegoodtrade.com/features/what-is-fast-fashion
Gorman, Mollie (June, 2021). Almost 80 percent of unwanted textiles end up in landfill, a report finds.: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-11/textile-waste-consumption-under-estimated/100184578
Rudalevige, Eliza (June, 2021) How TikTok Makes Fast Fashion Faster.: https://lithiumagazine.com/2021/06/15/how-tiktok-makes-fast-fashion-faster/
Siegle, Lucy (2015) The True Cost.: https://truecostmovie.com/watch/the-true-cost
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