Fast Fashion Is ‘Not Okay’

A movie starring Zoey Deutch and Dylan O'Brien, yes, please! After spending my 2021 summer keeping up with the Not Okay behind-the-scenes content, I immediately ran to Hulu to watch this highly anticipated satire on July 28th.

Now, no need to worry if you haven’t seen the film because I won’t spoil anything for you today. But, I will talk about the costuming choices that truly made Danni Sanders the accurate depiction of a pop-culture-obsessed wannabe influencer.

Zoey Deutch’s character, Danni Sanders, wears some of the biggest trends from 2021 throughout the film. She is styled in chunky, colorful platform sandals, plaid and argyle patterned mini skirts, corset tops, and graphic baby tees. She even sports the trendy bleached hair strips with neon-colored french tips nails.
However, when watching the film, all you can think about is how outdated these outfits are, even if the movie was only filmed a little over a year ago. Clearly, the costume direction was intended to add to the message of how extremely fast the trend cycle is with fast-fashion brands and influencer culture.

“Fashion trends are everywhere, and they have only gotten faster over time. Trends are not necessarily always negative, but they have become a key driver of unsustainable speed, consumption, and waste in the fashion industry,” said Stella Hertantyo for Conscious Life & Style.

Similar to other industries, fashion trends follow cycles and patterns. Let’s talk about the trend cycle of low-rise jeans. Love them or hate them, they were a massive part of the 90s and early 2000s.

The first stage is the introduction period, where a new and niche style is seen for the first time. Alexander Mcqueen had their models walking the runway in the new bumster trousers in the early 90s. Then in 1993, Kate Moss wore low-rise jeans on her cover of The Face and in her Calvin Klein shoot. With their influence, this trend was on its way to the rising phase.

Stage two is the rise, and with this stage, more celebrities and influencers wear the new trend, such as the era icons Destiny’s Child, Britney Spears, and Christina Aguilera. In the acceptance phase, the jeans are being accepted by the mass population of consumers and mass-produced by fast fashion companies.

Lastly, it reached its decline phase because the trend is now mainstream and has lost its unique appeal, allowing room for a new trend. When high-waisted jeans re-entered the scene in 2010, low-rise began their decline in popularity.

Good On You defines fast fashion 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.”

Consumers desire constant novelty with a trend, but with fast fashion and social media on the rise, it has sped up the micro trend cycle into months or even weeks. The trend no longer follows through the cycle properly, essentially losing the authentic appeal to the average fashion consumer.

More importantly, what happens when you buy a trendy item from a fast-fashion brand, but a month later, it's out of style, and you aren't wearing it anymore? Most of it sadly ends up in landfills. I won’t stun you with a devastating statistical amount, but news flash, it’s a lot of waste.

So as sustainability advocates, what are our next steps to help?

You can start with being a mindful consumer. “Fashion psychologist Dr. Dawnn Karen believes mindfulness is the key to defying rapid fashion trend cycles.” Think twice before buying that next trendy item and instead resort to other shopping methods such as second-hand resale or rental that provide trendy clothes without a more considerable cost to our environment. If you are an avid Tulerette already utilizing these new methods, share this with someone who wants to become more sustainable.

Like the film Not Okay, this is a “timeless story involving a current world.” Now more than ever is the time to start rethinking our habits and how we incorporate fashion trends into our lifestyles.

-As always, elevate your wardrobe with respected fashion and embrace the shift in style