In today’s fast world, fashion has also become first. Every few days, an Instagram fashionista uploads a new picture wearing trendy clothes that make the followers drool.
The next thing we know is that all those followers are looking for the same clothes online and in stores, all this just to stay relevant.
The trendy clothes at low prices are called fast fashion. The fast-fashion brands copy the styles of high-end brands as soon as they hit the ramps and make those designs available for normal people at much lower prices.
This may sound exciting, dreamy even. After all which girl doesn’t love to dress like her favorite celebrity?
That too, by paying one-third of what that style truly costs. But the truth is, fast fashion is doing more harm than good to our planet.
You must be thinking it’s absurd. After all, how can clothes damage our planet? Well, the process of making those clothes can and is causing damage.
Let’s take a look at all the practices that fast fashion brands follow and how they are destructive to our planet.
- Use of cheap textile dyes.
Fast fashion is all about making trendy clothes affordable and accessible to all social classes. To achieve this goal, fast fashion brands use cheap textile dyes.
These dyes are toxic, and when they run into seas and lakes, they cause mutations in animals and plants.
Sometimes, these dyes block sunlight from reaching the bottom of the lake. The algae do not photosynthesize, and the result is the death of all those plants and fish living in there.
- Use of cheap cloth material.
To make cheap apparel, fast fashion brands use cheap fabric like polyester, a material that harms humans and the environment.
When in contact with skin, polyester fabric releases phthalates.
As our skin absorbs sixty percent of whatever comes in contact with it, those phthalates are absorbed as well.
This results in hormonal disturbance and other dangerous medical conditions.
Polyester may also cause irritation, eczema, and psoriasis in people with sensitive skin.
Since polyester is made with plastic, it is not good for the environment either. The material takes hundreds of years to degrade, and our planet can not afford more of such material.
Polyester clothing also sheds millions of plastic microfibers on every wash. These fibers go into the ocean, harming marine life.
- Exploiting labor in third world countries.
All those cheap trendy clothes that you so happily buy and wear come at a massive cost. The fast-fashion brands set up factories in third-world countries and exploit poor people.
The laborers get pennies for working twelve to sixteen hours, what makes it worse is the poor conditions in which these laborers work.
The poor men deal with toxic chemicals without adequate safety equipment and often get serious health problems.
- Torturing and harming animals.
Fur is a that never dies, and these fast fashion brands obviously can not afford to use real fur for the costumes they produce. So, they torture dogs, cats, and raccoons for their hair.
They breed these animals in small spaces and use their hair as fur.
- Compelling people to buy excessively.
By releasing new styles at cheap rates every day, fast fashion brands coerce people into buying more clothes. When people get new, trendy apparel, they discard the old ones, resulting in piles of polyester, and toxic dyes that are impossible to get rid of.
All this leads to more damage to the environment.
As responsible human beings, it is our job to choose the right brands when buying clothes, and to do that, we must know which brand is promoting fast fashion and which isn’t.
One brand that everyone is talking about these days is Kameli Boutique, an Australian online shopping brand that ships its products worldwide.
The brand’s headquarters are in Melbourne, Sydney, and deal with all the manufacturing and shipping.
Though everyone loves the adorable designs, they all have one massive concern, is Kameli Boutique a fast fashion brand?
To find that out, we went through the brand’s website to see if it has all the fast fashion brands’ key factors, which are:
- A wide range of styles and colors to choose from.
- Polyester is the prime clothing fabric.
- All the trendy garments and styles that celebrities wore, or were seen on catwalks recently.
- Lower prices than pioneers of fashion trends like Gucci.
- Having factories in third world countries where labor is available at cheaper rates.
So did Kameli Boutique have all these red flags? Let’s find out.
Does Kameli Boutique offer thousands of clothing styles in different colors?
Yes, Kameli boutique has numerous designs on its website.
Does Kameli Boutique use Polyester as the primary clothing material?
Yes, all the clothes listed Polyester as their primary fabric. Some dresses had cotton in low quantities mixed with polyester.
Does Kameli Boutique launch all the trendy garments and styles shortly after celebrities wear them?
Yes, the brand has all the trendy clothes available on its website.
Does Kameli Boutique have lower prices than pioneers of fashion trends?
Yes, the highest price on this website is one hundred and twenty-five Australian dollars. The brand also offers frequent sales in which clothes are available at prices as low as twenty Australian dollars.
Does Kameli boutique have factories in third-world countries?
We did not find any information regarding this on their website or elsewhere.
Since the brand carries out all the common fast fashion brand practices, it is safe to say that Kameli Boutique is a fast-fashion brand.
Is Kameli Boutique ethical?
The brand’s website does not say anything about sustainability and ethics. This, and the fact that it is a fast-fashion brand, proves that Kameli Boutique is not ethical.
Where does Kameli Boutique get its clothing from?
Most fast fashion brands get clothes from countries like India, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Cambodia.
Kameli Boutique has not given out any information in this regard, so all we can do is wait for the brand to reveal more about itself.
