How Halloween Hurts: The Scary Reality of Fast Fashion
By: Andie Horowitz
Halloween— or for some, “Halloweek” — is the perfect opportunity for people to express themselves through fashion. In the United States and the UK, brainstorming, finding, and creating the perfect costume has become a valued tradition by many. Feeding into this practice allows people to be whoever they want to be, even if it’s just for a night or two. It’s freeing. It’s amusing. It’s creative. Yet when the culture is investigated under an environmentally-conscious lens, it’s extremely dangerous.
The practice of dressing up has become well-established within our society, and for many years, large brand companies have used this value for profit. This gave rise to specialized costumes stores, such as Party City and Spirit Halloween, and more recently online hubs like Yandy. Each company depends on the high demand for costumes evident each year, with every annual cycle providing the opportunity for the creation of culturally relevant products. Consumers then become motivated to buy new costumes each year, failing to utilize clothes they already own or outfits they’ve already worn.
The capitalistic culture behind these ideals embodies the harmful implications of fast fashion: hundreds of garments are made and sold only to be thrown out after one single use. More specifically, Hubbub, an organization focused on environmental issues, found that one in four costumes are only worn once. Another aspect directly contributing to the problem is that mass-produced costumes are typically made from environmentally harmful material like plastic. Hubbub also recently conducted a study that concluded that 2,000 tons of plastic waste are generated from the consumption of mass-market Halloween costumes in the UK alone. While this idea alone is threatening enough, the issue becomes even more pervasive upon realizing that the consumption of Halloween costumes is larger in the United States. The level of waste, compounded with the lack of sustainability in costume culture, contributes to the looming threat fashion poses to our environment.
With these factors in mind, it’s important as consumers to make environmentally conscious decisions when celebrating Halloween. This can consist of creating a DIY costume from items already in your closet, or borrowing something from a friend— anything that can help to reduce waste. Many people may not realize it, but the purchasing power of even one individual carries weight. Changing our shopping habits, and becoming more aware of what exactly harms the environment is a step in the direction that the world desperately needs. Without this awareness and the actions that reflect it, Halloween has the potential to become even scarier— and not in the way that we would like it to be.