DRIVEN TO SHOP: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF FAST FASHION

Fast fashion is new trendy clothing sold at low prices and intended to be worn only a few times. With fast fashion, consumers can see a garment being worn on the runway or red carpet, and then buy it online in a snap. One of today's most popular fast fashion brands, Shein adds an average of 6,000 new styles to its site each day, providing consumers with an endless stream of new items to purchase. Consumers can now buy clothes faster, cheaper and more conveniently than ever before. So what's going on?

Behind the shiny, bright dresses from Zara, Forever 21, H&M and Shein lies a much darker, uglier story. Fast fashion poses a serious threat to the environment and the workers who work there.

The manufacture of clothing is responsible for 2-8% of annual greenhouse gas emissions. That's more than all international flights and shipments combined. Additionally, our co-washing of garments containing synthetic materials is responsible for 35% of all microplastics in the oceans, and industry as a whole is responsible for 20% of all industrial wastewater.The cotton industry pollutes the environment through the intensive use of pesticides and affects people, groundwater and biodiversity. 150 million trees are cut down every year for the production of viscose or viscose. And every year, landfills and incinerators are filled with 40 million tons of abandoned clothing.

Child labour, low wages and unsafe working conditions plague fast fashion giants' clothing factories. In April 2013, a building housing five garment factories collapsed in Bangladesh. 1,132 people died and more than 2,500 were injured.Garment workers continue to work in life-threatening working conditions and earn as little as $3.43 a day.

The harmful effects of fast fashion on the environment and people are no secret and cannot be ignored. However, a recent report estimates that the global fast fashion market will decline to $99 billion from $91.23 billion in 2021.23 billion in 2022 with a compound annual growth rate of 8.8%.

Why is the industry growing at such an alarming rate? What drives the mass consumption of clothing? Is price and convenience all that matters?Or is it due to change: a new culture of individual consumption and if so, what is driving it?

Fast Fashion and Social Media

Social media has become a major catalyst for the spread of fast fashion. Many brands use social media to promote their products. Through thousands of social media ads, brands reach consumers anytime of the day or night, wherever they are. Exposure to high-speed fashion marketing is inevitable.

Social media influencers play an important role.Research shows that there is a positive correlation between the number of influencers consumers follow and the frequency with which they buy clothes. When influencers post their new clothes with tagged brands, consumers feel the urge to buy new clothes.

Consumer culture is clearly reflected in social media. Instagram launched its shop listing in 2020, customized it to fit consumer profiles and home feeds, and essentially turned Instagram into an online pseudo-shop. Other social media platforms have followed suit: Snapchat recently added a feature called Screenshop that allows you to scan any garment and find it or similar garments to buy online.

Social media is all about self-expression and users want to share details from their lives with their followers, including the clothes they wear. The problem arises when users fear seeing them twice in the same outfit. According to a 2017 survey, 41% of women between the ages of 18 and 25 felt pressured not to wear the same outfit twice when going out. This fear of repeating #outfitoftheday drives consumers to buy more and more clothes.

In an interview with The New York Times, 16-year-old Mia Grantham said she doesn't like to be seen wearing the same article of clothing more than once because "people might think she has no style if..." [she] wears" over and over again.“It is clear that consumers who only want to wear clothes once or twice want to buy them as cheaply as possible.

Especially popular on social media are fashion haul videos posted by influencers who make a living creating content featuring hundreds or even thousands of dollars worth of clothing. Couriers can work with brands and receive a commission on the sales made. Influencers offer discount codes to their fans; You will be tracked and earn a commission.

couriers are attracted to certain websites like Instagram and TikTok where they can expect a lot of audience engagement.A popular courier is perceived as honest, trustworthy and friendly. Unfortunately, they encourage overconsumption by promoting cheap brands and fast fashion.

Fashion retailer Tricia Palanqui started posting mall dresses on YouTube when she was 15, but switched to fast fashion shows because they got the most views. She realized that while the quality of the products might be low, the clothes are cheap and available in large quantities, which meant she could shoot more videos and get more views.

Fast Fashion and the Brain

Shopping is a rewarding form of entertainment for many people, and the speed and low cost with which new styles are created only adds to the seemingly endless pleasure of fast-paced clothing shopping. According to a report by the Urban Land Institute, half of men and 70% of women view shopping as a form of entertainment.

Shopping can be addictive. In 2007, a team of researchers from Stanford, MIT, and Carnegie Mellon conducted a study of the brains of people who made decisions about buying a particular item of clothing. The researchers found that when a subject came across a piece of clothing they wanted to buy, the brain's pleasure center was activated.Furthermore, the level of activity in the pleasure center was positively correlated with the subject's level of desire for the object.

When consumers can buy clothes for less, their brains are happiest. The study found that "the pleasure begins with just looking, but there is also the pleasure of buying something, more specifically of getting a bargain." Many retailers even artificially increase their prices in order to lower them later.

With endless streams of new items to look at and covet, the fast fashion industry feeds this vicious circle in the brain, creating something of an addiction.Buying clothes, especially at bargain prices, makes many people feel good - and buying fast fashion allows them to do so more and more often.

Fear as a Catalyst in Shopping

“The need to avoid loss—or what we call FOMO (fear of missing out)—coupled with our deep-rooted thirst for new things creates an adrenaline rush that adds to the thrill of shopping. Adrenaline creates a reward cycle that keeps us reaching for our debit card over and over again.

Fashion plays with claims and insecurity at the same time. With fashion lifecycles shrinking and microtrends proliferating, many young consumers fear missing out if they don't choose the best. If consumers don't quickly buy something they like from a fast fashion store, they fear it will disappear immediately. In fact, consumers of fast fashion brands like Zara visit a store every three weeks on average, compared to the average shoppers who visit a store about four times a year.