How to avoid fast fashion

This story is a part of one5c’s guide to sustainable fashion. Read more about fast fashion’s climate impacts, the complexities of textile recycling, if (and how) clothing rentals help, and how to spot high-quality clothes.

Americans spend about half-as-much on clothing as they did in the 1990s, yet we own more than we ever have, buying an average of 53 new items each year.¹^,² This is only possible due to the growth of fast fashion—trendy duds that are produced quickly for as low a price as possible. There are a range of negative impacts on the planet from this type of consumption—but the best a consumer can to do slow the roll of fast fashion is to not buy it at all. Thankfully, there are simple ways to avoid the lure of cheap yet harmful trends and styles.

The history and impact of fast fashion

Throughout the 1980s and ‘90s, brands began to turn the traditional fashion model on its head. They found cheap labor overseas, driving down the rate of U.S. clothing manufacturing from 95% in the 1960s to 50% in 1990 to around 3% today).³^,⁴ To keep goods moving, retailers began keeping styles on the racks for as little as a few weeks to promote a “buy now or regret it later” mindset. Whereas labels used to put out two seasons a year, they now create a constant churn of releases, dubbed “micro seasons.” The time it takes for a shirt or pair of pants to go from design to store has shrunk to as little as two weeks. Online shopping in the 2000s only quickened this pace, with brands listing new products daily.

The result? Fashion’s environmental impact exploded. The industry is responsible for between 4 and 10% of global carbon emissions,⁵ and, according to the World Economic Forum, we’re producing 150 billion items of clothing per year.⁶ Cheaper goods also often means using synthetic fibers like polyester and nylon, which now account for 67% of global textile production and use up more oil than Spain consumes in a year.⁷^,⁸ The fibers they shed produce 35% of the microplastics in the world’s oceans.⁹

Then there’s the issue of waste. To achieve cheap prices, brands order in high volumes to trim down their costs per piece, but that means as much as 40% of the clothes they make go unsold, sometimes burned or destroyed and landfilled, a practice that brands from Nike to H&M have been accused of.¹⁰ Some 17 million tons of textiles get thrown away in the U.S. annually, according to the latest EPA data. Used clothing is also often exported to the Global South, where up to half of it becomes waste.¹¹

And that’s all before you consider the impacts of fashion and its waste on local environments and populations. Toxic wastewater from dye houses pollutes rivers, and castoff clothing winds up embedded in the soil and tangled on beaches. Reports also regularly reveal garment workers earning illegally low wages and enduring abuse and mistreatment—forced to work long hours to fulfill orders with lightning-fast turnaround times.

How to spot fast fashion

The antithesis to fast fashion is—yes—slow fashion. Slow fashion prioritizes quality, longevity, and ethics over trends. Slow fashion can not only benefit the planet and fashion workers, but also shoppers. Some research has even shown that it makes us happier by sparking measures of wellbeing such as engagement, meaning, and achievement.¹²

But how do you tell the difference between slow and fast fashion? Fast fashion brands will often use slogans like “planet-friendly”’ or “conscious,” or even launch dedicated “sustainable” collections, but the clues are always in how they operate—not what they say.

The first step is to make yourself aware of the most-common culprits, like Boohoo, H&M, Fashion Nova, Brandy Melville, Shein, and Temu. There are a lot of ’em out there, so lists like these from Good On You and Commons Earth are good places to start. A lot of these labels often try to tick the box for sustainability by publicizing programs like tree planting or the use of “better” materials, but they don’t tackle where the real harms lie: the volume of clothes they manufacture, the message of overconsumption they promote, and the waste they create.

Here are some telltale signs to look out for:

Shockingly low prices. When a quickie clothing brand puts duds on sale, they really go on sale. Heavily discounted promotions are a major marker of fast fashion; some brands have even been known to offer 100% discounts just to clear out their warehouses. Even regular-priced goods are too-cheap-to-be-true. Consider, for example, that industry analysis has put the fair price of a T-shirt at around $30.
False urgency. Fast fashion sellers put constant pressure on customers to try new trends. Their ads and promotions aim to create a false sense of urgency by using phrases such as “must-have” and “get it or regret it.”
A constant churn of new trends and wares. Many fast fashion brands release new styles every day. The rate at which they hop on trends or viral products is a major red flag. The clothing machine can get copies of trending styles or high-end designs ready to buy in a matter of days or weeks after they first become popular.
Shoddy materials. To put it bluntly, fast fashion most-often looks as cheap as it is. Speedily made garments are often sewn entirely from synthetic materials like polyester and generally lack any “excess” details such as linings, fastenings, and pockets—all of which can drive up the price of manufacturing. These garments are also often poorly fitted and lack consistency; if you see differences between two sweaters or jackets in the store, that’s a common sign of too-swift work.

How to get started ditching fast fashion

Moving away from fast fashion is a process. The first rule of transitioning to a more sustainable style of dress is: don’t throw out all your fast fashion, that will just add to the waste. Here’s where to start instead:

1. Take a shopping break

Set yourself a window of time—from a few weeks to a few months—to go fully no-buy. Tell people about it so you have some accountability and support. Use this time to make the most of what you have. Try out new combinations and have fun with your clothes. Start tracking what you wear over the course of a month; you could use an app like Indyx or Whering to take photos and organize what you have, or simply write a list.

This exercise will help you zero in on your style, which is important when considering what you will and won’t buy in the future. When you’ve finished tracking, make a note of what fabrics, colors, silhouettes, and styles you wear most. When you do shop, having this all sorted will allow you to focus on quality over quantity and choose fewer pieces that are made to last.

2. Research more-sustainable brands

While you’re busy not-shopping, take some time to research what brands you’ll browse once you head back to the racks. Different brands take different approaches to sustainability, and it can be difficult to find one that ticks every box. For instance Patagonia uses high volumes of recycled fibers and offers repair services; Stella McCartney uses innovative textiles made from natural sources, such as mushroom leathers, to reduce reliance on leather, which has been linked to deforestation, and synthetics; and Reformation, meanwhile, tracks and publishes the water and waste footprint of every garment it produces, and is transparent in its progress towards its goal to be climate positive by 2025.

Of course there are hundreds of brands in the marketplace, and each one can send you down its own tiny rabbit hole. Here are a few resources that have done the digging for you:

For the big picture: The ratings platform Good On You is an excellent one-stop resource. It scores brands on how they impact people, the planet, and animals, from “great” to “we avoid.” It also offers alternatives to popular labels that have low ratings.
For transparency: The Fashion Revolution Transparency Index looks at how transparent brands are about issues such as how and where their goods are made, how many garments they produce, their greenhouse gas emissions, their climate commitments, and their supply chains.
For worker treatment: Fashion Checker lets you know which brands pay their workers a fair living wage.

3. Think secondhand first

Before buying new, look for a secondhand option first. In doing so, you’re extending the life of a garment. Vintage and secondhand boutiques offer a curated experience that feels more like shopping in a traditional store, whereas thrift stores are all about rummaging through and finding a gem the way you would at a discount shop like Marshall’s or TJMaxx. There’s a growing crop of online marketplaces for pre-loved clothes too such as Vestiaire Collective and The RealReal for luxury, and Poshmark, Depop, Vinted, and ThredUp for more affordable brands. All allow you to shop by size, style, and price range. Whenever you’re buying secondhand, remember to check for quality in hems, buttons, and zippers just like you would in a standard shop.

4. Consider rentals instead of one-offs

Fashion rentals present themselves as a potential antidote to the fast fashion machine–giving shoppers the ability to try our trends and send garments back to get cleaned and recirculated. Rental is perfect for one-off needs (a fancy event, a wedding, job interview, or even vacation), but the rest of the time the best decision you can make is to wear what you already own.

Fashion regulations and industry standards

The unfortunate reality is that there’s no perfect marker of a sustainable fashion brand, and there’s also little consistency in how companies are held to account. Over the past few years, governments have sought to regulate fashion, given that many brands are either failing to set climate targets or falling behind on sustainability commitments.¹³ In the E.U., for example, the Eco-design for Sustainable Product Regulation sets expectations for product longevity, and the Waste Framework Directive requires brands to pay for end-of-life waste treatment which can include collecting, sorting, and recycling.

In the U.S., California passed the Responsible Textile Recovery Act in September 2024. This measure requires producers to take responsibility for the entire lifecycle of their products and textiles, including repair, recycling, and reuse of garments and fibers. As of November 2022, Massachusetts no longer allows the disposal of textiles in the trash.

A slate of voluntary industry standards and certifications also exist in the regulatory void. These marks can be useful in providing a framework for brands to work against, but there are more than 456 to choose from, and labels are free to pick and choose which ones they adhere to depending on where they want to focus their efforts. The wide range includes B Corp (brands must meet high standards of social and environmental performance), Cradle to Cradle (products developed for a circular economy), Fair Wear (safe, dignified, properly paid employment), GOTS (organic fibers and textiles), and SA8000 Standard (fair workplaces and human rights).

It’s important to proceed with caution here, though. Many fast fashion brands have stamps that make them appear to be making efforts to be sustainable on the surface. One “green” badge doesn’t represent wholesale change, but should be thought of as a tiny band aid covering a bigger wound. H&M, for instance, which tops most lists of fast fashion brands, has a collection that’s Cradle to Cradle certified, but that line is only one part of the shop’s overproduction pipeline.

Consumer Expenditures – 2023, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Sep. 2024 ↩︎
Volume and Consumption: How Much Does The World Buy?, Common Objective, May 2018 ↩︎
Here’s Why Made in USA Still Matters, Sourcing Journal, Aug. 2019 ↩︎
Our Love of Cheap Clothing Has a Hidden Cost – It’s Time for a Fashion Revolution, World Economic Forum, Apr. 2016 ↩︎
Fast Fashion Consumption and Its Environmental Impact: A Literature Review, Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy, 2024 ↩︎
‘It’s the Industry’s Dirty Secret’: Why Fashion’s Oversupply Problem is an Environmental Disaster, The Guardian, Jan. 2024 ↩︎
Materials Market Report, Textile Exchange, Sep. 2024 ↩︎
Fossil Fashion: The Hidden Reliance of Fast Fashion on Fossil Fuels, Changing Markets Foundation, Feb. 2021 ↩︎
The Contribution of Washing Processes of Synthetic Clothes to Microplastic Pollution, Scientific Reports, Apr. 2019 ↩︎
Doing More With Less, WGSN and OC&C, 2023 ↩︎
Trashion: The Stealth Export of Waste Plastic Clothes to Kenya, Changing Markets Foundation, Feb. 2023 ↩︎
Could Slow Fashion Make Us Happier? New Study Aims to Find Out, De Montfort University, May 2023 ↩︎
The State of Fashion 2025: Challenges at Every Turn, McKinsey & Company, Nov. 2024 ↩︎

A sustainable shopper’s guide to ditching fast fashion