Covid-19 Daily Bulletin 09/07: Fast Fashion Forever

Covid-19 Daily Bulletin 09/07: Fast Fashion Forever?

The issues with fast fashion are being called out

With Friday on the horizon, here’s our latest bulletin. Today, we’re looking at fast fashion.

Is fast fashion falling out of vogue?

The pandemic offered online fast fashion retailers a huge opportunity. With lockdowns in place, millions of consumers were forced to stay at home with nothing much to do. In pivoting quickly to loungewear and taking advantage of consumers’ new online shopping hobbies, there was money to be made.

But the rapid speed at which fast fashion works comes at a cost – both human and environmental – and the industry is being called out.

Using our Consumer Research platform, we found that people on social media have been calling out fast fashion for some time. Looking at English-language mentions from January 2017 to June 2020 (excluding shares), conversation has been growing steadily.

But it seems that lockdown has accelerated awareness on issues with fast fashion. Conversation jumped up 31% in the last three months compared to the three months prior.

What happens when we include shares in the data?

Mentions in June this year absolutely skyrocketed.

In comparison to May, overall mentions (including shares) increased by 482% in June.

What we’ve seen over the last month is a relatively small number of messages (shown in the first chart) that have sparked a huge amount of interest (represented in the second).

People have become more aggressive when demanding change, provoked by a 97% increase in media reports on fast fashion in June in comparison to May. These stories referenced sweatshops producing clothes for some of the largest fast fashion brands in the world and orders being left unpaid by corporations, according to BuzzSumo.

Those driving the conversation during lockdown weren’t all influencers in the traditional sense. One account, run by a hair stylist with a few thousand followers, was able to reach millions of people with their critical take on fast fashion.

It’s important to note that there’s no single issue at work here. Conversation from March to June stretched across:

The exploitation of workers – 55k mentions
A lack of pay and unpaid wages – 39k mentions
Sustainability – 35k mentions
The disproportionate effect on women – 14k mentions
Corporate bonuses while orders were unpaid – 5k mentions

What does it all mean?

Online fast fashion brands may have been quick to adapt to the pandemic (and to any other trend that’s come their way in recent years). They may even have found more success than they expected in what has, for many businesses, been a terrible few months.

But the issues with fast fashion are becoming a bigger and bigger part of online conversation and public consciousness. In a world where key workers are heroes and concern for the environment remains high, no kind of exploitation will go unnoticed or uncalled out.

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Stay safe,

Brandwatch Response Team