Fast fashion is bad—but is letting clothing go to waste worse? Here, we consider the ethics of buying secondhand fast fashion.
Fast fashion is everywhere, including thrift and vintage stores
POV: You’re at a vintage store. You come across a cute item. You look at the tag… and it’s from a fast fashion brand.
This is an increasingly common occurrence as fast fashion garments flood thrift and vintage markets—from Zara to SHEIN, H&M to Boohoo, the racks are full of clothes from these brands, and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find non-fast fashion garments. This is an expression of fast fashion’s linear take-make-waste lifecycle, where clothes are made with the intention of being worn only a few times before trends change and they’re trashed. But what do you do when you encounter these items?
It’s an issue that raises many questions. Is it unethical to buy such items? Are you advocating for waste and exploitation with such a purchase? Or are you saving a garment? Is this an act of waste prevention and reclamation?
This dilemma challenges our values and puts sustainability mindsets to the test. There is no easy answer, but you have choices when approaching these items in stores. To help you navigate this problem, let’s weigh the pros and cons of buying fast fashion from secondhand stores
The case for and against buying secondhand fast fashion
Fast fashion relies heavily on synthetic materials because they’re cheap and quick to produce, which means they’re easier to incorporate into the industry’s fast-paced production cycle. But synthetics are notorious for releasing microplastics, which is a problem at any stage of a garment’s lifecycle, but especially when they’re washed. The European Environment Agency estimates that 16-35% of global microplastics released to oceans are from synthetic textiles. And that’s not the only problem with fast fashion materials: some SHEIN and Temu products have been found to contain toxic chemicals, including lead.
Wearing fast fashion could also be considered an endorsement of the sector’s rapid trend cycle and overproduction, not to mention the declining quality and price of clothing.
Fast fashion clothing represents exploited workers, a ruined planet, harming animals, and generally taking advantage of the public.
But what’s worse: a synthetic garment that will never break down going to landfill? Or keeping a synthetic garment in use, and wearing it for life?
According to Global Fashion Agenda’s 2017 Pulse of Fashion report, an estimated 92m tons of textile waste was created in 2015, and a decade later, this number is likely to have increased drastically. It’s clear that avoiding waste is an urgent issue. The opposite of fast fashion is rewearing clothing and opting for secondhand. And if those secondhand options happen to be made by fast fashion brands, then isn’t that better than sending them to landfill or, worse, waste dumps that pollute deserts and beaches?
Doesn’t “secondhand” as an idea undo fast fashion ideologies, potentially starting conversations about the need for circular practices? In buying secondhand, mending clothes, holding onto them for life, and sharing garments with loved ones, you participate in undoing the fast fashion system. This doesn’t undo the harms to people, the planet, or animals in production, but it does further the end of the take-make-waste cycle.
Bottom line: secondhand fast fashion isn’t necessarily bad, but new fast fashion is
Ultimately, whether you buy secondhand fast fashion comes down to your values, but it’s also worth considering the nuances of buying these items. For instance, you might choose to avoid garments made from synthetics, but those made from lower impact materials or, at the very least, plant-based ones, might be acceptable.
Secondhand fast fashion items are at risk of being lost to systems of waste and destruction, further polluting environments and harming living beings. That’s bad for everyone. Stigmatising certain clothing items can enable this waste flow, and it removes culpability from the brands and systems that take advantage of workers and resources. Secondhand fast fashion garments are an opportunity to speak out and highlight a problem, in the hopes of fostering greater care and responsibility in fashion.
Owning secondhand fast fashion doesn’t mean you endorse the garment’s history. If and when you buy secondhand fast fashion, use this as an entry point to discuss waste and the need to dismantle fast fashion. The world is full of these garments—and the solution isn’t letting them go to waste, perpetuating the chain of problems caused by overproduction.
