Fast Fashion and Dance

What is fast fashion? This phrase refers to clothing that is quickly and inexpensively produced; the styles duplicate the latest catwalk designs and move through stores at a monumental pace. This business design was developed to follow current trends and capitalize on consumer demand. Fast fashion requires quick design, production, distribution, and marketing of clothing. This fast process means that retailers are able to offer large quantities of products with greater variety, allowing consumers access to fashion trends for a lesser price. On the surface, this may sound good, but the fast fashion industry is having a profound effect on the health of people, animals, our environment, and the planet. 

A recent report from Business Insider, disclosed that production for the fashion industry is responsible for 10% of global carbon emissions. This practice pollutes our waterways, dries up water sources, and accounts for 85% of all textiles in the dump each year. 

Fast fashion brands use fabricated fibers, often obtained from plastic, such as polyester, nylon and acrylic which take hundreds of years to biodegrade. A 2017 IUCN, International Union for Conservation of Nature, calculated that 35% of all microplastics, tiny pieces of non-biodegradable plastic, in the ocean come from the laundering of synthetic textiles like polyester. With the prolific use of these fabrics, the simple act of washing our clothes releases an estimated 500,000 tons of microfibres into the ocean each year.

What does this have to do with dance culture? First, the one and done nature of costuming in dance culture says that we need new costumes each year for new dance numbers. Costuming is a critical piece of communicating the overall vision of a choreographer and their dancers, but a recent trend in competitive dance is making matters worse. Many choreographers are passing over ordering costumes from traditional dance catalogs and instead ordering from fast fashion giants like Shein or H&M, often ordering more costuming than they actually need. Studios are choosing to do this to mitigate the high cost of costumes used for competitive dance and because these fast fashion icons provide a current, sometimes, edgy or modern look not offered through traditional costume catalogs. This demand and the sheer number of dancers in our world is compounding an already terrible problem and adding to a catastrophic global effect. In April 2021 it was found that 24.75 million people over the age of 6 were involved in choreographed dance and every year competitive dancers in the United States buy new costumes, tights and shoes for the dance numbers that they will perform in for one season and then discard. If every dancer only purchased 2 new items, that's 49,500 items headed to the landfill after this competitive season. That much waste is not sustainable for our planet and I believe as a community we can do better.

This is why I created Everybody Dance. It is my small way to cut waste, help everyone experience dance, and support my community. I'm asking that dance studios, choreographers and dancers make an effort to recycle, upcycle, and donate their dancewear, costumes and shoes to help curtail this global problem.

1. Crumbie, Alex."What is Fast Fashion and Why is it a Problem", Ethical Consumer, October 5, 2021, https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/fashion-clothing/what-fast-fashion-why-it-problem
2. Maiti, Rashmila."Fast Fashion and it's Environmental Impact", Earth.Org, December 1,2022, https://earth.org/fast-fashions-detrimental-effect-on-the-environment/

Please help this cause by donating your gently used dancewear and costumes to Everybody Dance or contact us if you'd like to receive some of the wonderful items donated by generous dancers in our community. Be a part of the solution and join with me in helping to protect our planet!