A Quick Note on My 15-Year-Old Forever21 Top

Why does some fast fashion actually last?

Apr 27, 2022

During the winter, I was running outside in the bitter cold for the first time in my life. Instead of wisely investing in actual winter running gear, I just layered things I already had that I didn’t care if I ruined. A long sleeved shirt here, a fleece vest there would work. A hoodie with a stain on it over a crewneck sweatshirt I usually wear to bed both made their way into the running rotation. You get the idea.

One of the long sleeved shirts I was wearing often was this stretchy blue crewneck I bought at Forever21 when I was in high school. For reference, I’m 32 years old, which makes that crumply piece of navy fabric at least 15 years old. At the time, it cost me about $10, and I would wear it to work at the mall and then underneath my uniform at a restaurant where I would literally cut onions for several hours. I cannot fathom how many times I washed that shirt in its early days. Cut to this year, where one day before my run, I was looking in the mirror and I realized, wow, this shirt is in really great condition. Especially considering how often it ends up in the laundry cycle.

Alyssa Hardy wearing her blue Forever21 top.

But how could that be?

Well, reader. I have some unsurprising news for you. Fast fashion quality has gotten even worse over the last decade and a half because of fabric composition and supply chain mismanagement from overexpansion.

To me, this is a two-fold issue. For starters, buying something you need from a fast fashion brand with the intention of wearing it a lot (as I did with my old blue long sleeve) isn’t the issue we’re facing with fast fashion. What we’re facing is that trendy clothes go quickly out of style and are often discarded. This is made worse when you consider that even if you wanted to keep these things, they would break down within a short amount of time.

Fast fashion brands have gotten so large that any breakdown within the making of our clothing could cause quality issues. For example, a study published in 2017 found that a knitwear brand was getting a large number of complaints about pilling – it ended up being a supply chain issue about the type of oil being used to spin the cashmere. When it comes to the fibers, brands will use shorter-strand cotton, which breaks down much faster than a more expensive longer-strand cotton. They also will use spandex and lycra in products like jeans, which is what makes them stretch out overtime.

So yes, if you feel like you have fast fashion in your closet from decades ago that is lasting longer than something you bought last year, there is a reason for it. The brands are cutting costs wherever they can, and the environment and the workers are paying for it.

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