This is What Greenwashing in Fast Fashion Looks Like

Primark’s latest move is a blatant attempt at green PR

Photo of Primark’s new seasonal bag, shared by Paul McConnel on LinkedIn

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?