Disadvantages Associated to Development of Fashion in Society

Disadvantages Associated to Development of Fashion in Society

Disadvantages Associated to Development of Fashion in Society

Everything has two sides, and of course, fashion is no exception. While many affirm that fashion has a positive impact on society, the adverse effects on society cabbot be ignored due to the excessive development of fashion.

One of the most significant issues that the fashion industry has had to face is the constant allegations against major corporations on employee rights. The globalization of the economy has led to large fashion firms outsourcing production to countries that have limited employee rights. They seek to reduce operational costs and rack up profits. This practice leads to employee exploitation and the reinforcement of poverty in developing nations (Boorady & Hall, 2018). Such situations have mainly been seen in Asia where large apparel companies from developed nations such as the United States outsource labor. There has been recent international attention towards this, and even the European Union has categorized this as slave labor (Hasan, 2019). Several countries have developed more substantial employee rights to protect their workers against exploitation, especially by multinational corporations that seek to establish operations in developing countries with lower wage rates and more flexible worker legislation. An international code should be developed that safeguards workers, regardless of the economic state of their country.

Secondly, excessive production leads to waste,and consequently creating severe environmental pollution problems. With environmental change being the world’s most immediate problem, various industries have had to reevaluate their operations and how much they contribute to the global crisis (Pedersen, Gwozdz & Hvass, 2018). The fashion industry, especially the fast fashion industry, is one of the largest emitters of carbon, releasing more carbon than the international flight industry and maritime shipping industry. In 2019, people bought approximately 60% more clothes than they did in 2014. With fashion prices having reduced drastically and fashion cycles increased, this leads to more waste as people are more likely to throw away clothes sooner. Producers are also likely to ramp up production to keep up with the growing demand, and this has led to fashion production accounting for approximately 10% of the world’s carbon emissions (McFall-Johnsen, 2019). Nonetheless, recent discussions concerning environmental change and global warming have led to fashion firms, increasingly acknowledging their role in reducing the environmental pollution. Therefore, fashion companies have established environmental protection programs as part of their corporate social responsibility to promote sustainable business.