McDonald’s did revolutionise the industry when it first appeared, it changed our way to consume food and it gave us more than just a burger, it became a fun way to eat. But now despite the fact that we did have fun eating at McDonald’s we understand how unhealthy it is, we learned it and then the trend about a healthy life and sports took place to make fast food look ugly. Suddenly all people started to do street sports, such as running and eating well, it wasn’t the end of McDonald’s but people are more aware of the fact of not eating right and that fast food isn’t as good as it was before. We all have known the bad practices about how they make the food and even how bad is it for us, some still eat there, others have decided to move on to Whole Foods or any other kind of organic and natural food, giving a loop to the industry and opening minds about good practices and the agricultural industry, which it is the mother of the good eating, the natural food or the organic ones. The example fits exactly the war against fast fashion, an industry that has not only made bad practices by exploding kids, affecting our environment but also had lie about quality and even make a copy into something right (Which is not).
The couturists take hours of work to develop a unique piece while fast fashion industry take seconds to make millions copy of the same piece, bypassing the creatives and actually the end consumer, by promoting a way of shopping that only satisfies the immediacy of buying a big volume of fabrics, which at the end of the day does not mean to last forever, neither originality.
The good practices in the fashion industry involve not only workers who legally perform but the quality of the fabrics, the hand made pieces and the unique series that it truly meets the meaning of fashion. People are blinded with discounted sales and offers that make them feel the rush to buy but the fashion industry is the contrast, it’s the fact to understand the collection and wanting a piece of it because of it’s expertise, tailoring and design, none of these are part of the fast fashion industry where the expertise, the tailoring and the design are not valued. As McDonald’s the fast fashion only looks for a fast experience that acts as a placebo, you’re getting something that it looks as good but it is not, it does not involves creatives, couturists, quality, uniqueness and quality, because all of that takes time and money and the last thing they would do is to invest, in fact, they only win.
Not only the couturists are the important part of the deal, the creativity in a collection does not come from heaven, there’s analysis, marketing and high quality services that become as overriding as the collection, it’s all one product that it is designed to be worth, not as the case as fast fashion where stores layouts are basic and most of the time you’re getting your hands into mountains of fabrics. In the case of fashion houses, they spend time thinking on layouts and services that will increase the experience for the shopper, including personalised services during the whole process. And as if that was not enough, copies in the fast fashion industry are an every day thing, they copy iconic fashion houses design to turn them into hot sales that never give credits to the creatives and their houses, making the copy look acceptable and wearable, lying to their own clients and denigrating the industry, the designers and the professionals on it.
Fashion isn’t a product that you can sell by promoting an offer, it’s a process that starts with an idea and ends with a consumer that knows what’s buying. The concept about fashion and the industry have been distorted by most of the fast fashion brands, transforming this concept into something reachable and easy-to-use and buy. Let’s face the facts that couturists, creatives and designers deserve to be paid for what they’ve worked for, so we can assume that a $10 shirt does not involves a luxury process as in the fashion houses where making a collection takes professionals (that’s why the high prices), while fast fashion only takes to copy what has been done and reproduce it by machines in massive series.
Now that you’ve get a little more of knowledge about the war against fast fashion you can decide how to spend your money better, you can still shop at fast fashion brands but at least you will know that you won’t become into a fashionista, actually all that is against of the fashion industry and you would be spending a few dollars that would end at the trash soon. You may also know that a lot of the fast fashion brands have been legally accused of copy, most of them having to pay for their bad practices, that should be enough for us to stop buying at their stores and start promoting the real fashion industry. Next time you get a piece from a fast fashion store we hope you don’t get caught wearing a copy, so you won’t become the joke. Be aware of what you’re getting.