In today’s society, fashion is more than just clothing– it’s a reflection of identity, status, and access. But what happens when an entire industry built on trends and rapid turnover defines who gets to participate in that expression? The rise of fast fashion has reshaped the way we shop, dress, and view style, but it’s also raised questions about equity and accessibility. While fast fashion is often praised for its affordability, a closer look reveals that the system is built on values and structures that inherently exclude and disadvantage lower-income individuals. Fast fashion is classist not simply in who can afford it, but in who is centered within its marketing, production cycles, and cultural influence.
To fully understand this, it is important to define our terms. Classism as a form of personal bias or institutional discrimination based on social class and typically directed against persons or groups of a lower socioeconomic status. This means that for an industry to be classist, there must be mechanisms within it that disadvantage or marginalize lower-income groups. Fast Fashion is defined as “ inexpensive clothing produced rapidly by mass-market retailers in response to the latest trends.” That final part — “in response to the latest trends ”— is crucial. It means fast fashion includes not only trendy retailers like SHEIN or H&M, but also major department stores like Target or Walmart, which now adopt similar rapid production models.
In many ways, fast fashion feels inherently classist. For one, it is against a class of people who can’t even use it. Fast fashion is popular largely because of a group of consumers — predominantly teenage girls — who want to remain on-trend and socially validated. For someone in the working class, fashion is often a lower priority. Practicality, durability, and cost-efficiency take precedence. Many people in lower-income brackets buy clothes to last, not to rotate with trends. Fast fashion, which encourages constant turnover and disposability, does not align with their needs. Instead, it glorifies a cycle that many can’t keep up with — financially or socially.
But then, there is also the argument that for lower-income students, fast fashion is a great way to still fit in and not feel like an outsider because of their class. Cheap and widely available clothing helps them feel less alienated in environments where appearance and trendiness matter. The sheer affordability of brands like SHEIN and Forever 21 makes fashion accessible in a way that high-end labels do not, and that accessibility can be empowering for people who otherwise feel excluded by fashion culture.
However, affordability doesn’t equal accessibility if time and relevance are also part of the equation. Most of the clothing sold by fast fashion brands consists of trendy, niche pieces like “going-out” tops or viral TikTok outfits. These are clothes designed for social visibility — nights out, parties, and curated Instagram posts. In this way, the main consumers of fast fashion still lean towards individuals with the time and financial security to engage in fun and leisurely activities. To add onto the equation, a majority of SHEIN’s customers are Gen Z, who are drawn in by the brand’s very calculated social media marketing. Yet, that marketing specifically targets people who already move in social spaces where trendiness is important, which is typically middle or upper-class individuals.
With these dynamics in play, fast fashion may appear to democratize style, but in reality, it reinforces a system where participation depends on privilege: time to browse, money to spend frequently, and spaces to wear trend-driven clothing. Moreover, the industry relies on underpaid laborers, many of whom are from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, effectively exploiting the very class it claims to serve. While fast fashion may provide short-term convenience, it perpetuates long-term harm. Fast fashion doesn’t just reflect class divisions — it deepens them.
We talk about fast fashion today not just because of its implications on class, but also on the environment. In honor of Earth Day, let’s shed light on the institution of fast fashion. Fast fashion is one of the world’s most polluting industries, up there with oil and transport. It also contributes significantly to water waste, microplastic pollution, and textile landfill overflow. While it is nice to be able to buy new things here and there, millions of garments are produced and thrown away annually, all in the name of keeping up with ever-changing aesthetics and trends. By choosing not to shop at fast fashion, we can reduce the demand for exploitative labor, reduce environmental impacts of the fashion industry, but also bring back individuality in fashion and clothes. With clothes being mass-produced to be all the same, and pushed out with social media, people have lost individuality in the way they dress. Self-expression has slowly become one with the crowd, and being in tune with trends even if it’s not tasteful. By rejecting fast fashion, we can slow down the production of clothes in a way that, hopefully over time, will start to undo a lot of the harms of it, while also starting to make the world a more inclusive, clean place.
