Abstract

Due to the business model of the fast fashion industry being to pump out cheap and trendy clothing at a fast pace to match the consumerism of the global north, college students have become the perfect targets to these brands. To explore the levels of fast fashion consumption at UC Davis, student knowledge on the subject, and perspectives on why students buy it, I conducted a survey and interviewed my peers. I also looked into other sources to corroborate and expand on my findings. Through this research I found that UC Davis students are very knowledgeable about the downsides of the fast fashion industry, however they continue to buy it for various reasons to be discussed in this article. This research is important in order to find solutions that target the very reasons why an individual would buy fast fashion. 

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Introduction

Fast fashion is a type of fashion business model where a clothing company from the global north outsources their manufacturing to factories in the global south in order to obtain cheap labor and compete for lower prices back in the global north. By separating the manufacturers from the brand, the company is able to pressure multiple different manufacturers into getting the costs lower and lower for the multimillion dollar plus companies (The True Cost). Since the factories in the global south rely on these companies, they have to keep listening to their demands for lower prices and cut corners elsewhere: in garment workers wages and safety. On top of all this, the fast fashion industry is the second most contributing industry to global warming (The True Cost). I mean think about it, the whole premise is built on companies pressuring manufacturers to cut corners and give them cheap products so that they can appeal to Americans' materialistic habits and fit into the ever so fast trend cycle. 

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I noticed that my peers and I are quite aware that fast fashion is bad, however, almost everyone continues to buy it anyway. My first quarter at UC Davis, my roommates and I spoke about how now, more than ever, we have felt that our wardrobes were inadequate and needed revamping. I was intrigued as to why I was feeling such a strong urge to buy more clothes– and cheap ones at that. This made me curious as to if consumption levels are actually higher in college, and if we are all aware of these horrible side effects of the fast fashion industry, why are we still their number one customers?

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Research Methods

In order to answer my research question, I surveyed UC Davis students as well as interviewed my peers on the topic. I conducted my survey through Google Forms and asked seven questions. I made the survey only available to UC Davis students through the UC Davis email and posted the survey on my instagram to reach a bigger pool of people to poll. I asked how often they purchase clothing from fast fashion brands and then gave them options like never, every few months, once a month, every other week, and once a week. I then asked for their opinions on the following statements: “I buy fast fashion because I do not have enough money to buy other clothes'' and “I buy fast fashion because I want cute and cheap clothes for parties”. Possible responses to those statements included strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, and strongly disagree. I also asked if the students knew of any negative effects of the fast fashion industry as a yes/no question, then added a spot for them to elaborate on what exactly they knew of the injustices of the textile industry.

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Students Knowledge on Fast Fashion

Through my survey of UC Davis students, I found that actually most of the students I surveyed were aware of the negatives of fast fashion in the textile industry. Of the 42 participants in my survey, 83.3% had answered yes to knowing about the downsides of fast fashion, 14.3% answered that they did not, and 2.4% answered that they might know something about it but they are unsure. 

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When I asked the students about what it was that they knew, I got a range of answers, some being quite specific and others with a broad general idea of what was wrong with this industry. One response was “Chemical dyes polluting water sources, excessive amounts in landfills, cheap materials and fabric production (polyester) make huge carbon footprint, fast fashion is only made to last for a few wears before it ends up in a landfill, less likely to be accepted by thrift stores and recycled due to poor quality.” Other responses sounded more like “pollution, unregulated labor” and “CO2 [carbon dioxide] emissions, poor labor regulations, and abuse.” These results confirm that despite the amount of information and knowledge UC Davis students have on the subject of fast fashion, most of them generally understood that fast fashion is not good. The interesting part for me, however, was when I asked the same people how often they buy fast fashion.

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In my survey, I asked UC Davis students “How often would you say you buy clothing from fast fashion producing companies?” Of the 42 participants, only 11.9% responded that they do not buy fast fashion, the rest (88.1%) admitted that they did, just to varying degrees.

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In comparing the results to these three questions the overlap is clear in that many people are aware of the harmful impacts of the fast fashion industry on the environment as well as on garment workers, yet still buy fast fashion despite knowledge on the issue. My next set of questions tackled why this may be.

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Students Reasonings for Buying Fast Fashion

Of the various questions that I asked students about why they might buy fast fashion, the most unanimous question about a possible reason for buying fast fashion was when I asked how the UC Davis students felt about the statement “I buy fast fashion because I do not have enough money to buy other clothes.” From the 42 participants in my survey, 42.9% said they agree, 2.4% strongly agree, 26.2% said neutral, 21.4% strongly disagree, and 7.1% said disagree. 

 

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Another potential reason for me was related to party culture in college. So I asked how students felt about the statement: "I buy fast fashion because I want cheap and cute clothes for parties.” There was some agreement with this statement, 40.5% of the students agreed, 19% said that it did not apply to them, and the rest disagreed. 

 

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When I interviewed some of my peers about why they choose to buy clothes from brands that they know are not sustainable or ethical, they corroborated that it was because of money, trendiness, and accessibility. One person said “It's cheap and it's trendy, usually they have the things that I want to buy.” A different person said “I am [aware of negative effects of fast fashion], and I try my hardest not to buy as much fast fashion but I also want to follow the trends and it makes it a bit easier.” That same person also said that fast fashion for her is “more accessible in price and easy because I can just walk into a mall or online shop as opposed to buying more expensive ethical clothes or thrift.” This data is also corroborated by research done on students at Colorado State University in 2017 where “...only a few participants reported that they were aware of the environmental impacts of fast fashion, but continued to express interests in buying fast fashion because of desires for trendy styles and low prices” (Yan, et al). From that research it seems that students were less aware of the negative impacts of fast fashion (likely due to the time in which that study was conducted), however the pattern remains the same in that 1) there is a lot of fast fashion consumption on college campuses and 2) students that know about the effects of fast fashion are still buying it. 

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Conclusion

From my research I have concluded that many people (UC Davis students in particular) are educated on the reasons why fast fashion is harmful like pollution, water wastage, toxic chemicals, unregulated labor, and unfair pay for garment workers. However despite this knowledge, we still continue to support these awful corporations. This research is important because the various reasons why we continue to buy fast fashion is where we need to start in trying to disband it. We need to address why we are feeling these materialistic urges. How we can manage our wants and understand what our needs really are. Those things are on an individual level, but some other important things to learn would be on the scale of the corporations. For example, how does capitalism play a role in all of these companies cutting corners for a larger profit margin? As well as questions about colonization and the idea of development in the global south. The textile industry has snowballed into an evil and toxic set of corporations that ignore basic human rights and the good of the planet to remain rich, and as a new generation it is imperative that we think more about how our day to day lives in America affect our planet and people in other countries.

 

Work Cited

1. The True Cost. Dir. Andrew Morgan. Distributor: Global Environmental Justice, 2015. Docuseek2. Web. 17 May 2022.

2. Yan, Ruoh-Nan (Terry), et al. International Textile and Apparel Association, Inc., St. Petersburg, Florida, 2017, pp. 1–2, Sustainability Perceptions and Emotions Related to Fast Fashion: College Student Perspectives.