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This is What Greenwashing in Fast Fashion Looks Like
Primark’s latest move is a blatant attempt at green PR
So, apparently, Primark is releasing this paper bag, which doubles as gift wrap for the Christmas season.
If you have a hard time figuring out why fast fashion, greenwashing, and doing PR for your capitalist business during a global pandemic are problematic, here is a rundown.
The academic definition of the fast fashion industry consists of these four characteristics:
- Short lifecycles for most products, representing a trend and being marketable for a period of time, which is increasingly short;
- High volatility for trends, with them being influenced by external forces out with the boundary of the organization’s control;
- Low predictability in relevance to the volatility, resulting in a decrease in sales forecasting accuracy;
- A high degree of impulse purchasing, influenced by the consumers’ placement of hedonic value to fashion goods, resulting in an instant need to purchase.
And Primark ticks the box for each one.
Why is fast fashion a problem?
A short product lifecycle leads to high product traffic. Frequent disposal leads to frequent purchases — after all, you don’t want to go undressed and Primark (and companies like it) are always there with something new everything you visit to fuel your addiction.
However, while people often focus on the issues with consumers and capitalism, the aspect of disposal remains unaddressed. And what a big aspect it is.
Initially, the core consumers of fast fashion were people, who could not afford traditional fashion. This has now changed following the rapid growth of the industry, now serving a wide variety of market segments.
Many are becoming aware of the impact the industry has on the environment and are demanding a more sustainable supply chain and higher quality of materials.
The quality of materials is a result of both the physical and mental state of fashion. Clothes perish and have a planned obsolescence of less than a month.
