Raising Awareness of the Fast Fashion Crisis on a New Media Platform

Abstract

Fast fashion is a business model in the fashion industry that generates revenue by producing large amounts of clothes that are stylish and cheap, in a short time. There are many drawbacks to fast fashion, including but not limited to overuse of resources, environmental pollution from chemical by-product and textile waste, and violation of worker’s rights in developing countries. Meanwhile, due to the low quality of the clothes, consumers have started to treat them as disposable items, causing an overflow of discarded clothing that filled up landfills in developed and developing countries alike. The fast fashion industry is causing visible damage to the environment and society that can no longer be ignored. This paper aims to explain how the fast fashion business model is unsustainable and find a way to address it. I will be making a virtual exhibition where visitors can see the effects of fast fashion on the world, as well as alternatives to the benefits of fast fashion, in an attempt to pull people away from supporting the destructive business model. The exhibition will be created in a virtual reality environment to increase immersion, accessibility and to potentially reach new audiences outside of more well-known media platforms.