When we hear the words fast fashion, we tend to think of online clothing retailers and their websites: Primark, Shien, Temu… But with up to 954 million active users daily, TikTok really takes the cake. In March 2023 ByteDance, the company which owns TikTok, promised to be net zero by 2030 and to use 100% renewable energy.
Records from only a year later show that TikTok’s carbon footprint was more than the whole of Greece, at 51.67 million metric tons.
Only 6 months after the pledge was announced, TikTok then released its own online shop. TikTok Shop is an in-app shopping feature which is meant to link consumers directly with brands.
Why would a company that has promised net zero in under 10 years create its own version of these fast fashion websites all of us know. There is no publicly known or verified data that indicates the waste that TikTok shop releases environmentally & socially. We can only infer that it is an extraordinarily strong contributor to fast fashion as information would be easily accessible.
When we contacted TikTok for a comment or direction to a space on their site for more climate information no response was made.
Textiles were the third most brought item off TikTok’s site in 2024. TikTok is also marketed towards users aged 13-27 (GenZ) and this is particularly concerning for younger members of the generation (13-16) who make up a large proportion of TikTok’s user base, and are still forming their consumer habits, which is leading to this unhealthy overconsumption of clothes. Younger users may be more susceptible due to social pressure, and the normalisation of overconsumption through influencer culture. The constant exposure to buying more and “haul” content is shown to be the ideal.
To explore this further, we decided to see how long it would take for a brand new TikTok account to be shown a fashion advert via their TikTok shop. We set our settings to that of a user aged 13-16, and within two minutes of scrolling I was advertised a cheaper alternative to a Jelly Cat Keyring.
Although this product is more an accessory, my phone screen was a wash of “discounted flash sale price” “Sold out everywhere” and multiple % off options. Using urgency driven words and persuasive language, this demonstrates how quickly TikTok’s algorithm exposes young users to consumption-focused content.
“We are made to believe it will be a staple of our wardrobe”
@Alanaburge.portfolio
Alana is a fashion student from Bristol; she spoke to us about what effect social media is having on the fashion industry & micro trends…
“I think social media has hugely impacted fashion. In terms of micro trends, our feeds become saturated with the same items to the point where our brains associate that garment as being something we need in our wardrobe. Through strategic marketing skills from brands and influencers selling us the products telling us what’s trendy and what’s out of season.”
We also conducted a survey and found that, 60% of those who are aged 17-27 who answered voted they know what a micro trend is, yet the same amount said that when buying clothes, they do not consider where they are from/how they are made.
“People don’t realise if a piece of clothing is micro due to over saturation”
“I think the peak of micro-trends was during covid when everyone’s screen time was extremely high and the trends were going in and out every month.”
She also discussed, how as someone working towards the fashion industry that she has seen a noticeable change in the quality of materials and how brands market their products.
Another relevant article written by TDC (TheCoolDown) reads…
“Micro trends are now developing so fast because of TikTok’s algorithm, there is no point in creating the product as by the time it is made and put onto the platform, users have already moved on. The product is instantly a waste.”
TikTok is not the sole cause of fast fashion, but as it is the most popular among teens and young people. Moving forward…
- TikTok could slow down the promotion of overconsumption-driven content. By filtering words such as “Haul” “Must buy” etc… commonly used words that drive overconsumption content on their platforms
- Transparency about what users see/buy. Adding labels to TikTok and certain products with disclaimers, encourages critical thinking rather than passive thoughts and consumption
- Ethical promotion. Require a sustainability pledge or requirements for a brand/ product. A regulation on what brand is boosted on the platform. Restrict targeted fast fashion advertising to minors. Also forces brands to compete on ethics and not just money.
TikTok is no longer just a platform for dance tutorials and mukbang’s, it’s a full-scale trend making, fast fashion shopping machine. Through its algorithm, TikTok Shop, and influencer culture, fashion trends are becoming so meteoric that micro-trends are now giving way to nano-trends.
Disappearing as quickly as they appear, little transparency around environmental impact, TikTok could be enabling a problematic new era of hyper-fast fashion. Raising questions about accountability in an industry already struggling with environmental impacts.