2016 Oval Office Revival with a 2024 Mindset

Image courtesy of The New York Times

In the months after the reelection of the Trump administration, further reflection on his possible plans for the future - especially in terms of tariff and taxation projects - has reinforced the importance of sustainable fashion and benefits of buying second hand. Throughout the election process, many Trump supporters held steadfast to their beliefs that his taxation plans would protect and favor them, but one of the pillars of the 2024 Trump campaign - his tariff plan - will shoot the price of our living to a potential all time high. 

The main focus of this plan - the implementation of which has been continuously confirmed by Trump himself - is to virtually increase all tariffs on foreign goods in order to move American consumerism to products manufactured at home. Tariffs are a specific kind of taxation on the imports or exports of goods. According to the New York Times, he intends to place a “universal” tariff ranging from 10 to 20% on foreign goods, with a possible increase of 60% or more on Chinese goods. Some may assume that this will affect the sellers more,  given that the price of transporting goods overseas will be raised, but this will in turn hike up prices for consumers in order to balance the cost for merchants. In particular, the proposed tariff specific to Chinese goods would have an extreme impact on the fast fashion market. 

Fast fashion is the production of clothing in which speed and mass production are favored over ethical working conditions and terms of employment. The market for fast fashion has exploded in recent years as the internet has expanded and consumers could suddenly be reached at the click of a button. Furthermore, it has preyed on the emergence of microtrends, as it can supply an abundance of clothing cheaply and is able to produce “trendy” things much faster than sustainable sources. Unfortunately, many - if not most - affordable clothing websites are counted as fast fashion, such as Zara, H&M, and Shien. A keystone of this industry is the extremely unsustainable production of this clothing, which is done on a massive scale and results in an extreme amount of waste and clothing that ends up in landfills. Similarly, the material is unsustainable, as synthetic material, which accounts for about 60% of our clothing according to VOX, outputs microplastics when washed or burned and is made from fossil fuels. (https://pirg.org/articles/most-of-our-clothes-are-made-from-fossil-fuels-heres-why-thats-a-problem/ ).  It also relies on underpaid labor, sometimes even child labor, in unhealthy environments for long hours. 

Chinese imports are especially prominent in the world of fast fashion. Brands like Shein and H&M rely on China for manufacturing their goods, and the spike in tariffs could result in their prices shooting up to a level that would be unreasonable for the low quality of their products. This may force them to either move production to somewhere that will be less affected by these new tariff increases, or it could force consumers to reconsider their purchases. Other fast fashion imports will be similarly affected, but on a smaller scale. Zara, for example, sources their clothing abroad, but not from China, meaning that only the “universal” tariff will affect their imports. The same goes for Brandy Melville, and many other big name brands. If this becomes the case, the allure and number one selling point for these brands will be diluted and stripped from them. Without the absurdly low prices, incentive for consumers to buy from them may be brought down. 

On one hand, this will pose difficulty to many people whose first shopping choice is fast fashion - for its convenience, pricing and trendiness - but it may encourage people to shift to more sustainable sources. Thrifting and second hand shops should be unaffected by these tariff uptakes, given that the products are already made and present in the US. Not only is thrifting a much more sustainable way of shopping, but the prices are more economical as well. The higher prices of fast fashion should lead people to consider more deeply what items of clothing they really need, versus what they want, hopefully resulting in less overconsumption. n. Shopping second hand also tends to build people’s personal style by not limiting them to whatever is trending, and making fashion into a unique expression of self - what it should be.

While the overall future of the next four years lies out of our control, consumers should do the best they can to curb overconsumption from unsustainable resources, which Trump may inadvertently help with his plans of tariff raises. The overall impact of this plan will unfortunately make life harder and more expensive, but will hopefully influence people to make conscious decisions about their clothing purchases. Taking care not to further pollute our environment with an influx of poorly made items is the best we can do to help our climate, because Trump will likely not institute any helpful climate policy. The presidency is out of our hands for another four years, but this doesn’t mean that we can’t make a wide scale impact. Everyone should play their part in trying to terminate fast fashion and protect our environment, because we can’t control rising prices, but we can control our consumption. 

Strike out,

Strike St. Louis

Written by: Emily Faber

Edited by: Ella Doppke