The high cost of cheap fashion

CHARLOTTE — The price may be cheap, but the true toll of fast fashion isn’t always stitched into the tag.

Many shoppers are drawn to fast fashion for its affordability and trendy options — $8 for a dress, $14 for pants and $21 for a jacket. But when it comes to quality, longevity and environmental impact, these garments can fall short.

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Byoungho Ellie Jin is a professor at North Carolina State’s College of Textiles where faculty and students make fabric samples in a lab. She’s spent decades researching retail branding and consumer behavior.

Channel 9’s Erika Jackson ordered five items from Shein, an online fast-fashion retailer, to uncover the hidden costs behind the low prices. Jin classifies Shein in the same fast fashion category as H&M and Zara, which both have stores at SouthPark Mall.

“This is looking good, but I can tell that all materials are polyester,” Jin said of the purchases.

In simple terms, polyester is a type of plastic, Jin said. The tags on each item show they’re made of at least 95% polyester.

“Because it’s so cheap, people don’t feel guilty about throwing it out,” she said.

Jackson also brought garments from premium brands, and Jin quickly spotted the difference in quality.

“It’s sturdy and thick fabric and good quality fabric,” she said.

Each of those pieces sell for more than five Shein garments combined.

Courtney Fountain has made a business out of reselling used, higher quality fashion items, called Kit Cat’s Closet.

“I’m looking for high quality items, like natural fibers or animals fibers, like silk and cashmere,” she said.

Fountain says she avoids buying clothes from fast fashion retailers.

“With Shein, you know, they are mass producing clothing that will sometimes ultimately just end up in a landfill, and that’s just not great for the environment,” Fountain said.

The environmental impact of fast fashion is one of the biggest concerns in the indusA Fashion Revolution study found that clothing made from synthetic fibers, like polyester or acrylic, can actually shed microplastics into wastewater during washing. According to the study, if the fashion industry continues as it is, 22 million tons of microplastics will enter our oceans before 2050.

A spokesperson for Shein said the company regularly hires third parties to quality check items, testing for tears, pilling and chemicals.

Shein also said it performed a study where it found 40% of customers wear their items more than 30 times, and 20% wear their Shein clothes an average of 50 times or more.

Jin believes thrifters, like Fountain, help keep clothes out of landfills. She thinks the growing resale market could reshape the future of fast fashion entirely.

“I think it’s gradually going down, because young consumers, especially, they are very concerned about environmental sustainability,” she said.

The alternatives: Slow fashion

If not fast fashion, then what? Enter slow fashion — a growing movement centered around intentional production and ethical business practices.

Slow fashion embraces quality over quantity and prioritizes longevity over endless trends.

One Raleigh-based slow fashion brand is helping reshape the industry one garment at a time. Kat Williford started Pamut in 2016 while she was living in Budapest, Hungary.

A mother, designer and small business owner, Williford says her designs are made to-order in her North Carolina studio — a stark contrast to fast fashion’s production model.

“We are not mass producing garments and then trying to sell them,” she said. “We are selling a style, and then we’re making it to-order for the customer, and that gives us a lot of flexibility in terms of being able to customize pieces as well, but it means that we don’t have any styles that we throw away at the end of the season.”

For Williford, slow fashion is about eliminating as much waste as possible. While Pamut tackles waste with raw materials, another local company is offering 100% recycled garments sourced and made right here in North Carolina.

“We already have so many resources that are already readily available,” Recover Brands’ marketing director Adam Bratton said. “Let’s use what we have instead of adding more waste into the environment.”

Recover’s trademark is its “hyperlocal” supply chain. Everything they produce, from t-shirts to outerwear to accessories, is made within a 250-mile radius of the brand’s Asheville headquarters.

Additionally, Recover offers a closed-loop apparel recycling program where old clothing you no longer wear can be donated and recycled into something new.

Interested in making the switch? Read more about fast-fashion alternatives here.

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