Unfortunately due to society’s need to be always “on trend” or just looking for a quick buck, the idea of Microtrends has come into the limelight and has been nothing but hurtful to our way of living. The idea of microtrends is often associated with that of fast fashion. With constant changes in microtrends, these fast fashion chains need a way to stay on trend and do it quickly. Wanting to make as much money as they can, they typically resort to stealing from smaller businesses and creators.
Although this has unfortunately been going on for decades, the degree to which this is happening has only gotten worse because of the pace at which they are releasing these clothes. With the rise of small businesses and exclusive clothing companies being creative outlets, there are so many more unique pieces being released. However, because most of these pieces are hand-made or one of one, they’re more on the expensive side. Because of this, many fast fashion companies are taking advantage of this by making replicas and selling them for significantly cheaper prices. This could be the livelihood of someone, and yet, these companies are so eager to find easy cash grabs that they simply don’t care. This can minimize the amount of originality and art in general out of fear of them not being able to release on their own terms. People are putting so much effort into these designs and ideas just for them to get nothing in return.
With some of the recent trends being that of complicated crochet and yarn work, these fast fashion workers are being exploited more than ever. These complicated crochet patterns can only be done by hand and so these workers in the factories have to put in hours of work for basically nothing. Most of these factory workers aren’t even paid a full dollar. These people are being exploited for the dangers of fast fashion and by everyone else purchasing from these, we’re not only taking from artists and their pieces, but are feeding into the textile waste.