Go out of your house, and you will see everyone dressed similarly — no difference. This phenomenon is because of the growing trend of fashion influenced by Instagram or Pinterest. People nowadays don’t wear what suits them, what is comfortable and what looks good on them, but they wear what is trending, even if it doesn’t feel good. Because if someone doesn’t follow the fashion trends, he is considered outdated. When any celebrity or influencer wearing something comes into the limelight, people blindly start following it. But the trend remains the same for hardly a month, and then a new trend takes its place. This has promoted fast fashion brands.
Fast fashion is a technique that produces low-cost copies of trending clothes in a very short period of time so that low-income people can become part of the ongoing fashion before it is discarded. Khaadi, Sapphire, and Limelight are popular fast fashion brands in Pakistan. These brands, instead of introducing new creative designs, give what people want or what they see their favourite celebrities wearing. These clothes can be worn for a very limited time until replaced by some new style. This is creating a harmful effect on our environment.
35% of the microplastics found in the ocean are from materials used to produce fast fashion. It uses 1.35% of the world’s oil. Due to over reliance on fossil fuels, producing 1 kg fibre generates 23 kg of greenhouse gases (Uniform Market). So it is somehow a waste of money. A few months ago ‘farshi shalwar’ was trending and now it is totally out of fashion. This is how common people are exploited.
Everyone wants to be considered fashionable and thus spend too much money on useless stuff. There is also a drawback that everyone looks the same. You can see a girl in Lahore wearing the same style dress as a girl in New York because both have seen the similar stuff on instagram or Pinterest. This is erasing the cultural look.
Different cultures have their own values and these are reflected in their clothing also. Clothes designed according to the culture look elegant while maintaining diversity. In this era, people in pursuit of being modern have broken away from their culture and their modernity is very expensive. People should go for sustainable clothing, it will save money and the environment. Slow fashion should be promoted, it is the only solution.