Sustainable fashion will never be as popular as fast-fashion. Here’s why.

With environmental and ethical awareness increasing, consumer demand has shifted to more sustainable options. But our desires to don the latest trend, and our familiarity with fast-fashion, means it continues to come out on top.

Zara was crowned Europe’s leading fast-fashion brand in 2018 with an annual revenue of £22 billion, surpassing M&S and Primark combined. Even though preferences for purchasing from sustainable brands has grown — 47% of women this year — customers are still purchasing from fast fashion brands, even if it’s alongside sustainable purchases.

In a survey conducted for this article, analysing the purchasing decisions of 25 fashion consumers, 72% considered both the environmental and ethical implications behind a fast-fashion purchase and 67% said that these considerations affected their purchasing decisions. However, 92% still made a fast-fashion purchase this year. So why are sustainable brands not gaining the same momentum?

The terms ‘ethical’ and ‘sustainable’ within the fashion industry lack official definitions, but most use them interchangeably to describe the approaches taken during the sourcing, manufacturing and designing processes which help minimise their impact on the environment whilst socially benefitting others.

According to The Business Research Company, the global ethical fashion market is expected to grow from $6.35 billion in 2019 to $8.25 billion in 2023, a fair increase but a far reach from the fast-fashion market, dominating the scene at $36 billion.

One respondent even answered “Boohoo. I’m sorry”.

The fast-fashion movement gained momentum with the emergence of high street stores. In the 20th century, retail companies like H&M, Zara, Topshop and Primark began answering consumer demand for affordable, fashionable clothing that was available to the masses. The switch to manufacturing products within off-shore factories, enabled these brands to lower prices even further. Places like Bangladesh and China have an abundance of low-skilled, low-cost labourers enabling this practice to outperform competitors. But it’s these low prices that keep customers returning, despite the ethical malpractices occurring behind the label.

A Business Insider survey of 1,884 Americans aged 13–21 quoted “price” as the biggest factor when deciding whether to purchase a brand’s item. This age group, mainly made up of Gen Z — aged 8–23 — have powerful spending habits. If you’re like me and you’ve made a conscious effort to seek out sustainable alternatives to feed your fashion addiction — but with less of the guilt attached — then you’ll know it doesn’t come cheap.

The reason why the fast-fashion industry has been growing year on year — from 2.5% in 2017 to 3.5% in 2019 according to a McKinsey & Company data report — is because their prices are kept low to suit consumer demand.

Boohoo, a fast-fashion brand, who also operate Karen Millen, PrettyLittleThing, Nasty Gal, MissPap and more recently, Oasis and Warehouse, is valued at $4.3 billion. Renowned for offering designer dupes at cheap prices, as well as heavily discounting their prices during sales, they have a customer reach of 8.9 million, mainly made up of people in their mid-teens to early twenties. But their pricing structure has amassed criticism. Boohoo’s 2020 Black Friday deals saw 90% reductions site-wide with £1 next-day delivery. PrettyLittleThing also announced discounts of 99% off, plummeting prices down as low as 4p. Questions concerning how brands could charge this low and fairly pay its workers swarmed social media. Various investigations into Boohoo have exposed their malpractice regarding workers’ pay. A Labour Behind The Label investigation found Boohoo factory workers in Leicester were paid just £3.50 an hour, working in cramped and unsafe conditions that put them at risk of COVID-19 infection — with some workers being required to work even if testing positive — and a Guardian investigation found Pakistani workers “earned 29p an hour” making Boohoo clothing, often working 24-hour shifts without overtime pay.

Although this exposure has been made public, on multiple high-profile platforms, the brand remains — even as its share price fell by a third in July, removing £1.5 billion of their value. The hashtag #Boohoohaul has 7.7 million views on TikTok and #zarahaul has amassed over 327 million views. My survey revealed that 56% of those surveyed spent less than £50 on their fast-fashion purchases this year, with the most popular brand being Asos, — which supplies over 850 different brands — closely followed by Zara. One respondent even answered “Boohoo. I’m sorry”.

Fast fashion brands have got the formula right. So right that they can easily gloss over their lack of transparency by appealing to consumer desires and targeting current trends. Customer engagement is now achieved through a screen and ultimately, it works. If you’re one of the 27.45 million UK users of Instagram, then you’ll be familiar with influencer marketing.

Business Insider estimates that brand-spending in influencer marketing will grow from $9 billion in 2019, to $15 billion in 2022. Brands such as PrettyLittleThing, I Saw It First, In The Style and Fashion Nova rely on Instagram stars to promote and market their clothing. Consumers are able to see the clothes being tried on in real-time, through the use of stories, reels and IGTV, and add items to their basket with ease, usually with a simple swipe-up.

Fashion Nova has dedicated their brand strategy to using social media, gaining 14 million Instagram followers in the process and making them more Googled than Dior in 2017. Their recruitment of stars like Cardi B — who has worked alongside the brand since 2014 — have created a long-term brand loyalty which other brands have sought after. Using influencers with a high engagement who are used to the high demand that comes with the label, posting 10–20 times a day with ads and product placements dominating their posts, has worked and creates a constant conversation about the latest must-have trends. Econsultancy and Influencer Intelligence’s Influencer Marketing 2020 study found 61% of consumers, aged 18–34, admitted that they have at some point been swayed in their decision-making by digital influencers. And this is pushing sustainable brands further down the success ladder.

Customer engagement is now achieved through a screen and ultimately, it works.

Sustainable brands don’t want you to impulse purchase, nor to buy hauls of stuff to then showcase on TikTok. Instead, they promote smaller purchases that last a lifetime, which is one of the valid reasons why sustainable fashion prices are marked higher.

House of Sunny is an ethical brand featuring sustainable pieces that are a “crafted staple”. Founder, Sunny Williams, justifies their high prices — a spaghetti-strap vest top will set you back £39 — “[t]heir are more stages involved and a system that’s a little bit more layered than a fast fashion prototype.” It’s also the material itself that ramps up the price, Williams says, “low impact dyes [are] more expensive… and we cannot overlook poor finishing, raw edges or low-quality fabrics that won’t stand a couple of washes.” Their 374,000 followers on Instagram show there is interest in paying more for a good quality item.

A higher price point on sustainable fashion formulates the sustainability cycle, ensuring employees are paid fairly and environmentally friendly, biodegradable materials are used, helping to reduce the 1.2 billion tonnes of CO2 created each year by the textile industry. These factors are a huge selling point for sustainable brands, ensuring transparency for consumers who are concerned where their money is going. Brand transparency has become an important issue in recent years. A McKinsey & Co report found 42% of millennials and 37% of Gen Z want to know what goes into products and how they are made, forcing companies to be more public with their processes and structure in order to keep consumer trust.

Fast-fashion brands turned transparent with publicly implemented sustainable practices, such as H&M and their Conscious Collection, have started establishing themselves as ‘sustainable’. This has pushed newer sustainable brands further from the mainstream. It seems that everything ethical brands work toward; exclusivity, reliability and sustainability, is also working against them.

Jason Garrett-Hodoniczky, co-owner of Sustainable Fashion, a family-run clothing business based in Brisbane, that has been producing garments for over 18 years spoke to me about running a sustainable clothing business in a fast-fashion world.

When asked whether he finds competing with fast-fashion brands difficult, Jason stated that “keeping small and local is the key to true sustainability”. He felt that sustainable fashion has entered the mainstream via marketing means but questioned whether “large businesses [could] ever be truly sustainable”.

Businesses rely on consumer demand. Consumers’ desire for affordability and a seasonal wardrobe means the businesses that can deliver will thrive. Sustainable brands can try and keep up with this demand, but they will either never reach the heights that mainstream brands do due to price and marketing strategy, or they will turn their backs on their aims and ethics, becoming another cog in the fast-fashion machine.

But is this heightened success contradictory to their aims. Promises of “zero waste” or “carbon neutral” products may sound like you’re helping fix the planet’s waste problem, but how can making more garments be a positive thing? In today’s consumerist society, people are addicted to fast-fashion purchases and adding more clothing options won’t prevent this inclination.

Sustainable brands will never be as popular as fast fashion, but maybe that’s a good thing.