This piece explores what fast fashion really looks like and how to recognise it in everyday shopping. No guilt, just clarity.

What Fast Fashion Means

Fast fashion is about speed and volume. Clothes are designed, produced, and sold at a pace that encourages constant consumption. New styles appear every week, made as cheaply as possible to keep prices low and trends turning over.

But underneath that speed sits something else: exploitation. Fast fashion relies on low wages, underregulated working conditions, and large-scale environmental cost. Items are often made from synthetic fibres, dyed with chemicals, and sewn under time pressure that leaves little room for safe or fair treatment.

But it isn’t about the £4 t-shirt. it’s the system that makes that t-shirt possible.

Spotting Fast Fashion in the Wild

Brands won’t say outright that they operate within a fast fashion model. Still, there are patterns that show up consistently:

• Hundreds of new arrivals every week or month

• Very low prices that don’t match the labour and resources involved

• Generic marketing terms like “green,” “eco,” or “conscious” with no deeper information

• Minimal transparency about where and how clothes are made

• Short product lifespans — pieces that lose shape or quality after just a few wears

Noticing these signals can help slow the buying process. It gives you a moment to consider what sits behind a product before it makes its way into your wardrobe.

A Few Things That Help

There’s no one right way to avoid fast fashion; and it’s not possible to most of us opt out entirely. But there are small, steady habits that make space for something different:

• Returning to what you already own

• Borrowing, swapping, or mending

• Choosing second-hand before buying new

• Supporting smaller, transparent brands when you can

• Asking questions before you check out

It doesn’t need to be perfect. Noticing what fast fashion looks like is already a meaningful shift.