Week 3-Uyen Ngo

On Wednesday, I stopped by a restaurant close to Forever 21. While waiting for my food, I instinctively went to around. This is when I saw a shirt that deemed the designs of flowers in which you could obviously see the Asian influence arise in. We have spoken a lot about the ethics of consumerism and the inhumanity of sweatshops. However, I have forgotten the social and cultural problems that also arise from these fast fashion companies. Like many fast fashion companies, Forever 21 is known for ‘‘doing something ethnic’’ involving a range of visual techniques that responded to marketplace visions of Asianness" [1]. Because the way their business is set up, they do this appeal to the mass market and what is "on trend" even if it meant appropriating ones culture. In fact, they have been known for doing so. At one point they sold a "braided feather headband" in a time period when feathers and the whole "boho" trend was occurring [2]. This actually made me think back to when I was growing up and was avidly shopping at Forever 21 and how looking back, their clothes were actually filled with appropriation of whatever culture deemed best fitting for the current trend

While they have definitely been more socially aware and have improved in these designs, it is obvious that they still have moments of this. It has been 3 weeks of not purchasing any items from fast fashion places and it has actually been quite easier than I thought. I have come to realize that it is not hard to remind yourself of the ethnical and cultural issues that these company pertain and that makes it a lot easier to stop yourself. I did however, purchase an item on Amazon by mistake, but it was something that was a necessity, which is a cap for my water bottle that I had lost. But I am hoping to look more into the ethics of Amazon in the following weeks to come

Works Cited

1. Thuy Linh Nguyen Tu. “”Material Mao”: Fashioning Histories out of Icons.”

2. “12 Times Forever 21 Has Made People Really, Really Upset.” HelloGiggles, hellogiggles.com/lifestyle/home-decorating/times-forever-21-upset/.