April was quite a busy month for the fashion industry.
Earth Day. The Sustainable Fashion Forum Conference. Kingpins Amsterdam. Fashion Revolution Week. It’s been quite a packed calendar.
Although it would have been a dream to be able to attend all the events, I was excited and grateful that this year marked my first time buying a digital ticket to the Sustainable Fashion Forum Conference.
Held every year virtually and now in person, the digital content platform & community come together to discuss the industry’s problems and potential solutions; to put it simply. This fashion event seems to be one of the more popular ones, as it is much more accessible due to the price and eligibility- anyone can attend- from industry professionals, advocates, students, entrepreneurs, and anyone who is interested in the topic.
This event holds massive value for me, and I knew I would learn a lot in a short amount of time, but frankly, I underestimated just how nuanced all of this really is. Every year the platform chooses a specific theme for the conference and this year’s theme was “The Nuanced Layers.” They hit the nail on the head.
I work in this field and am still in the beginning stages of understanding how nuanced, minute, systemic, and deep these issues are.
Digging into each of the eight panels would take a considerable amount of time and although each segment, speaker, and topic deserves a high level of attention, I simply am unable to commit to that currently. However, I do want to take some time and speak to one of the topics- segment #2 The Psychology of Fast Fashion with:
Brittany Sierra - Founder & CEO of The Sustainable Fashion Forum
Rayouf Alhumedhi - Fashion Writer, Creator of the Hijab Emoji Project
Dr. Dion Terralonge- Psychologist & Consultant at The Style & Well Being
Willow Hill- Co-Founder & CCO at Scout Lab

I chose this segment because Brittany Sierra posed quite an intriguing and controversial question:
“Do we have anything to learn from fast fashion?”
…….uhhhhh excuse me……? What…..?
With the title of this segment being “The Psychology of Fast Fashion,” there was of course, going to be some undoing mentally, but I definitely did not expect that question. My expression changed from thoughtful to confused.
The big thing we have to learn from fast fashion is…….what not to do…..
Brittany also mentioned that they got quite the feedback and backlash from commenters on Instagram
I was very, very intrigued at that point.
Brittany, Rayouf, Dion, and Willow went on to discuss how there is something about fast fashion that continues to lure people in. I was expecting the next sentence to be something along the lines of: “It’s cheap!”
But no! They spoke to a different point which I’ll address here in a minute but the first and most relevant reason in my mind that fast fashion continues to persist is because it's what most people can afford!!
Hello!!! Of course this is the biggest reason! The next, (IMO) is that most people are completely unaware of the implications and consequences of fast fashion.
But again- first and foremost- is that most people cannot afford to buy more expensive pieces of clothing. And more “sustainable” clothing is more expensive than fast fashion.
In my experience, the three biggest reasons why most people do not buy more “sustainable” or more responsibly-made clothing are:
Affordability
Lack of Knowledge & Education
Accessibility
Again, I am so incredibly grateful for the speakers who took the time to share their experiences and knowledge at this conference, because the more this information is put out into the world, the more attainable making changes can become.
However, I do wish they would have spoken on this very apparent, very real factor. Most buy what they can afford, wherever they can get it.
Now, everything I just said was a pretty general, sweeping statement. “Most” isn’t specific, and there are people out there with money, but growing up in the socioeconomic status category that I did….I’m very aware that a lot of people cannot afford to spend more than $20 or $30 on one item.
Coming back to the main point that the panelists spoke on- Brittany, Willow, Dion, and Rayouf discussed what they thought we could learn from fast fashion.
Their thoughts?
Fast fashion is fun! It’s accessible, it’s fast! But mostly, IT’S FUN!
“The reason fast fashion is so addictive is because it forms a part of a habit…it’s so heavily reinforced- it’s reinforced by the chemicals in our body that release after we shop and it encourages us. “Oh, that felt good! Do it again.” It’s reinforced by social media and all the things we see with influencers showing us “You can look like us too…”
-Dr. Dion Terralonge
Setting aside the affordability factor, I think they are completely accurate. Fast fashion is fun! And you know what’s not fun? Thinking about the environment while you’re shopping.
Clothes shopping is such a fun experience! (Depending on who you talk to of course. Some absolutely hate and avoid it). But big picture-wise, it’s one of the more lighthearted, no-high-steaks activities one can enjoy. And when you’re having fun you don’t really want to be thinking about the people who made the clothes or the environmental impact of it. You're thinking about price, fit and style mostly.
While listening to them speak, I couldn’t help but equate all of this to vegetarians or vegans. A lot of people do not want to listen to either of those arguments because the eventual point that is brought up is innocent animals being killed. Which of course feeds into the guilt, shame and……..well......wanting to hide under a rock while all the vegans try to come and find you and hunt you down.
So……can “sustainable," (or responsible, ethical, fair, conscious, etc), fashion take a cue from fast fashion and learn to be…..fun? Can these brands learn to incorporate excitement and joy into their marketing and branding?
Raz Godelnik thinks so. He’s an Assistant Professor at Parsons School of Design and the author of Rethinking Corporate Sustainability in the Era of Climate Crisis.

I don't know about you, but I've never liked staring at a gruesome photo that promotes veganism or vegetarianism. All I feel is guilt and shame. And I don’t think people like to look at pictures of the Rana Plaza disaster or graphs of how the air we breathe has gotten worse over the decades or images of children working in factories. But just because we don’t like looking at these realities or thinking about them doesn’t make them not real.
I’ve tried to be tasteful and tactful in how I portray the tough, hard-to-see realities of fast fashion, and hope that it comes across that way.
And listening to this panel takes it a step further for me. I do think Raz is right on the money. Better brands need to be more fun! In their own way of course, that speaks to their target customer. Fun speaks to people in a way that facts don’t.
Have you felt the fun from any “better” brands?
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