Excess in Fashion: How Overproduction and Overconsumption Shape the Industry

The fashion industry is one of the leading contributors to global overconsumption and waste. To keep up with demand, many companies have lowered the quality of materials, allowing for faster and cheaper production (Simonsen, 2024). This has led to the emergence of fast fashion, which fuels a continuous cycle of overproduction and excessive consumerism. Consumers are conditioned to constantly buy new clothes, dispose of them, and repeat the process (Webster, 2023). This cycle has far-reaching environmental, social, and economic consequences, with overproduction at its core.

Brands like Zara, Fashion Nova, H&M, and Shein are among the most significant players in this system, contributing heavily to overproduction. Their business models are built around quickly replicating trends from high-end brands like Gucci or Balenciaga, but with cheaper materials. These fast fashion companies release new collections rapidly, producing far more items than can realistically be sold. Often, the excess is dumped into clearance sales. The statistics are staggering: between 80 billion and 150 billion garments are made annually, and 10% to 40% of these go unsold—amounting to 8 billion to 60 billion garments left unaccounted for each year (Tonti, 2024). This overproduction feeds the global waste crisis, but consumers are often unaware of where these unsold items end up, due to a lack of transparency in the fashion supply chain.

The rise of social media has exacerbated the issue. Platforms like TikTok and YouTube are flooded with "hauls," where influencers showcase bags full of new clothing. These influencers, who rarely disclose whether they actually wear the clothes they promote, set a trend for frequent wardrobe refreshes. As a result, consumers feel pressure to keep up, driving demand for cheap, trendy clothing (Gomez et al., 2024). Fast fashion items, however, often deteriorate after just a few wears, pushing consumers to buy even more. This pattern feeds into the industry’s overproduction, creating a cycle that is hard to break.

Addressing overconsumption is a shared responsibility. Consumers play a key role by feeding demand, but they are not the only ones trapped in the cycle. Companies must also be held accountable for their production choices. Without transparency, it's difficult for consumers to make informed decisions about the brands they support. Only when companies are transparent about their supply chains can consumers take meaningful action.

The path to breaking the cycle of overconsumption requires more than simply reducing shopping habits. It demands that consumers take a deeper look at the root of their buying impulses. As Slone (2024) suggests, finding the motivation behind the desire to constantly shop is crucial to disentangling ourselves from this destructive behavior. With conscious choices and accountability from both consumers and brands, we can mitigate the damage caused by fast fashion and move toward a more sustainable future.

Sources: 

Sustain UCLA. (2024, February 16). The fast fashion epidemic. https://www.sustain.ucla.edu/2024/02/16/the-fast-fashion-epidemic/

Fashion Magazine. (2024). The overconsumption problem. https://fashionmagazine.com/style/overconsumption/

Cartner-Morley, J. (2024, January 18). ‘It’s the industry’s dirty secret’: Why fashion’s oversupply problem is an environmental disaster. *The Guardian*. https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2024/jan/18/its-the-industrys-dirty-secret-why-fashions-oversupply-problem-is-an-environmental-disaster

Mitchell, B. (2024). Factors driving overconsumption amongst fashion consumers. *California State University Scholarly Works*. https://scholarworks.calstate.edu/downloads/70795g794

Webster, G. (2023). Too fast of fashion: A literature review on the destructive social and environmental impacts of fast fashion. *Perspectives*, 15, Article 10. https://scholars.unh.edu/perspectives/vol15/iss1/10