Fashion hasn’t always been the way it is now. Fast fashion has risen to prominence only in the last couple decades, making its first appearance in the U.S. in the 1990s. Even mass production, trend-led fashion, and overseas production didn’t become normal until the second half of the 20th century. Fashion used to be very local— with sourcing and production occurring within the same general area the garment is sold. Clothing was often made to order or produced in limited quantities. Because to make good clothing requires time and attention to detail. Our culture of excess and disposability (that allows for fast fashion to exist and thrive) is a trend that was manufactured. It’s a result of deliberate choices by producers to push more product, fabricate need, and falsely promise disposability in order to make more money. Not only is fast fashion not the “norm” in terms of the history of fashion production— it’s unnatural and unrealistic. Fast fashion pushes barriers to create its product— exploitative fast & cheap labor, stealing designs in order to have constant “newness”, planetary resource use in excess, overproduction and overconsumption, and more. To create clothing in this way doesn’t make sense because there isn’t a future in it. At some point, the planetary resources run out, too many people get pushed to a breaking point (it’s already too many), and the model loses its economic viability because the resources and workforce can’t be sustained. That’s not to say that fashion was perfect before fast fashion. With the rise of industrialization and the advent of the sewing machine, we’ve seen fashion be harmful with sweat shops and factory work, exemplified by the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire in 1911. Seamstresses in the 1800s were often overworked to keep up with demand. And of course greed has always been a part of human history. Whenever profit is prioritized over people, there will be harm. Fast fashion exists because of greed, lack of care for people and planet, and a culture that buys into the need for more. But it doesn’t have to be that way... we can (and must) prioritize degrowth and return to a slower, more natural pace.