What Is Fast Fashion? What the price tag doesn’t show
You see a cute dress online for $12. It’s trendy, it’s fast, and it’s delivered in two days. But have you ever wondered who paid...
You see a cute dress online for $12. It’s trendy, it’s fast, and it’s delivered in two days. But have you ever wondered who paid the real price?
Fast fashion is the mass production of cheap clothing, designed to mimic the latest runway trends and push them into your feed, cart, and closet at lightning speed. In recent years, “ultra-fast fashion” has taken this model to extremes, with companies, such as Shein, “releasing over 2,000 new styles daily” according to Market Research Biz, fashion is no longer seasonal, it’s constant.
But behind the ever-refreshing catalog is a trail of environmental damage, worker exploitation, and deep disconnection.
How to tell something is Fast Fashion
Here are 6 red flags to look for:
The Earth Can’t Keep Up
The fashion industry is responsible for around 10% of global carbon emissions, more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined. Producing one cotton t-shirt takes about 2,700 liters of water, the equivalent of what one person drinks in 2.5 years.
Each year, over 92 million tons of textile waste is generated, most of which ends up in landfills or burned, releasing harmful chemicals into the air and soil. Synthetic fabrics like polyester (used in over half of all clothing) shed microplastics into our waterways with every wash, polluting oceans and entering our food chain.
Fast fashion feeds this crisis. Clothes are made to be worn a handful of times, if at all, and then discarded. The faster the cycle, the greater the waste.
The Human Cost
Did you know that those $5 tops and $20 jeans you see at the stores and online are sewn by underpaid garment workers in unsafe conditions? Many laborers are mostly women and even children. The following statements confirm the human cost, World Vision says, “Today, nearly 1 in 10 children worldwide are engaged in labor that denies them their basic human rights and jeopardizes their well-being.” Also, EARTHDAY.ORG states that “women make up approximately 80% of garment workers” and EARTH.ORG shares that “In Bangladesh, workers are paid about 33 cents per hour”.
In the rush to keep prices low and output high, corners are cut, both environmentally and ethically.
What the Price Tag Doesn’t Show
When we shop fast fashion, the cost we see is just the tip of the iceberg. The true price is paid by the planet, the people who make our clothes, and our own sense of connection to what we wear.
Fast fashion encourages overconsumption and a disposable mindset. But clothing is not disposable, it’s woven from resources, labor, and stories. It deserves care, not convenience.
A Slower, More Conscious Way
Choosing slow fashion is a way of choosing integrity over impulse. It’s a quiet rebellion against waste, exploitation, and harm. It’s asking: Who made my clothes? What is it made of? How long will it last?
At Good Karma, we believe in honoring the hands that create, the earth that sustains, and the beauty of wearing something that feels like it means something.
Slowing down and choosing better-made clothes isn’t just about aesthetics, it’s about accountability. It’s about recognizing that what we wear has a footprint, and that footprint can be lighter.
The next time a $5 shirt shows up in your feed, it’s worth asking: who made this, what is it made of, and how long will it last?
Fast fashion thrives on speed and silence. But when we ask questions, we disrupt the cycle.