Our trip to NewYork City last month did not disappoint. It was a whirlwind of shopping, sight seeing, eating and people watching. I was really impressed by how chic most of the New York gals looked in the stifling heat. Sundresses, skirts and tees,  tennis shoes or sandals were the top picks.

My granddaughters introduced me to the world of “fast fashion”. “Fast Fashion can be defined as cheap, trendy clothing that samples ideas from the catwalk or celebrity culture and turns them into garments in high street stores at breakneck speed to meet consumer demand. The idea is to get the newest styles on the market as fast as possible, so shoppers can snap them up while they are still at the height of their popularity and then, sadly, discard them after a few wears. It plays into the idea that outfit repeating is a fashion faux pas” says Solene Rauturier from Good On You. 

I was fascinated and horrified by the concept. I have always been focused on investing in a wardrobe that could be mixed and matched and worn for years. Fast fashion has grown much in part from the influence of Social Media and the demand for instant outfit ready clothes. Fast fashion can be found at Zara, H&M, Mango among others and I was amazed by how much style you could get for such a small price.- so seductive. My granddaughters had lists of the items they wanted to find and sure enough, they found everything. I don’t see a return to “traditional shopping” unless there is a major switch in our thinking about how much we need and how we source our clothing.

The real harm that I see is that this type of fashion production is hard on the planet,  the workers who produce the garments and wrecks havoc with the psyche of women who believe that they can’t wear a garment twice. What are your thoughts? Can you spot some “fast fashion in the pictures below?