Fast Fashion Celebrity Collaboration: A Nightmare We Must Wake From | art

Over the past few years, celebrity collaborations with fast fashion brands have become a staple in the fashion market. While it seems to be bringing celebrity favorite designs to the general public in an affordable way, this partnership promote unethical consumption of clothing, harassment of garment workers, and harmful environmental practices, while generating millions of dollars for celebrities and their brand partners.

Fast mode, although relatively new as a term, has been in practice for decades. Producing more clothes more often causes it cheaply made, cost effective and unsustainable. Since celebrities, along with their fashion, are so prevalent in mainstream media, the general public often takes inspiration from their favorites and seeks to emulate their style. Brands take advantage of this: Celebrities wear expensive designer clothes, so the demand for cheaper alternatives has grown. The goal of the fashion industry for decades now has been to produce more clothes cheaper and faster, in part to keep up with the latest celebrity fashion trends and the demand for popular alternatives. That practice, arguably, played a huge role in leading today’s popular fast fashion brands like Shein, Fashion Nova, Nasty Gal, and many others. Speed ​​up trend cycle over the decades—and especially over the last five years—means that designs seen on designer catwalks can be reproduced and ready for sale in as little as a week.

Recently, however, celebrities have become more than just an inspiration for fast fashion. They have become promoters of it.

Cardi B’s collaboration with Fashion Nova in 2018 was one of the most successful partnerships between the brand and celebrity, earning a lot of recognition and earning nearly $1 million in the first 24 hours of its launch. History of Cardi B as true consumer the brand before gaining fame adds an air of authenticity. The collection tries to show that Cardi B isn’t going to rush and promote expensive clothes to her fans as she identifies with the struggle to be fashionable on a budget.

However, by supporting Cardi B in this collaboration, consumers are increasing the company’s profits insufficient payment his workers and then pretended not to know their struggle. Garment workers in factories that produce clothing for Fashion Nova are paid per stitch and often earn the equivalent of $2-$5 per hour. Nova Mode claim are not responsible for this, as they work with multiple producers and assume the low prices they get are possible with workers who are paid the minimum wage.

Cara Delevingne’s 2019 collection with Nasty Gal is another example of the celebrity fast-fashion partnerships that are now ubiquitous. Delevingne also pretended to be a Nasty Gal consumer, wearing the brand’s pieces to music festivals prior to her collaboration. But Nasty Gal’s comfortable and trendy outfits wreak havoc environmental damage, from factory production by-products that seep into rivers, to microfibers from washing fast fashion clothes that pollute the oceans.

Although the brand has made promise to disclose their list of factories by 2021 and map their supply chain by 2025, it does not provide detailed information on its commitment to ethical and sustainable supply chains and methods of enforcing the standards it claims. Nasty Gal encourages more sustainable choices from their line of organic cotton denim and vintage clothing, but makes no mention of extending sustainability to their entire store. Perhaps most importantly, the fast-paced change of fashion of new designs encourages overconsumption and has devastating environmental impacts — often regardless of the materials used. Therefore, the Delevingne partnership further strengthens these dangerous means of production.

Despite the harmful effects of these fast fashion brand collaborations, they are still prevalent in today’s fashion world. Megan Fox launched her collaboration with Boohoo on October 19, which gives her the creative freedom to express her sense of style at an affordable price tag.

Fast fashion collaborations can have an important social motivation, like Ashley Graham’s Pretty Little Thing collection, which is meant to prioritize inclusivity at its core. The spring themed collection focuses on body positivity and size inclusiveness. Making trendy clothes accessible to more people is certainly valuable. But doing so by partnering with fast fashion brands will only exacerbate the negative ethical and environmental impact of celebrity-inspired consumption.

Celebrity collaborations promoting clothing lines in larger sizes but with more sustainable fashion brands, such as Reform or Everlane (both currently struggling with size inclusivity), can give consumers a choice between fast fashion and sustainable fashion they didn’t have before — a partnership. may be lower profits for celebrities, but more beneficial for consumers and the environment. But this seemingly sustainable alternative to fast-fashion clothing still has a problem: Any brand that promotes a cycle of constant trends cannot be truly sustainable.

H&M, while advertising their Aware brand that focuses on the use of sustainable ingredients, still insufficient payment their workers, and Everlane provided little evidence of their material commitment to sustainability initiatives. There are also affordable alternatives to fast fashion, such as saving money and buying second-hand clothes, saving them from the landfill, and incorporating vintage styles into your wardrobe.

The celebrity fast fashion collaboration is the next natural step in the history of the fashion industry and the unrelenting drive for higher profits. Celebrities also wield immense power over the general public, which makes them perfect media marketing tools. As the negative ethical and environmental impact of fast fashion permeates mainstream media and buying $1,000 worth of clothing from Shein becomes less trendy, however, celebrities have fewer reasons to partner with brands that exhibit questionable production practices.