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Falling fast
Forever 21退出中国市场引深思
The evolution of fashion has changed our shopping habits. Fast fashion arrived, making stylish clothes more affordable. Then trend cycles sped up and shopping became a form of entertainment.
时尚的演变改变着人们的购物习惯。快时尚的到来让更多人买得起时髦的服饰。时尚潮流的周期随之加快，而购物也成为了一种娱乐的形式。
However, fast fashion now faces a bottleneck. With decreased sales volumes and competition from H&M, Zara and The Gap in the Chinese market, US clothing brand Forever 21 announced it will fully withdraw from China.
但如今，快时尚却遇到了瓶颈。由于在中国市场的销量下降，并面临着来自H&M、Zara、Gap等品牌的竞争，美国服饰品牌Forever 21宣布将完全退出中国市场。
Fast fashion may not be as popular as it once was. Discounts, clearance sales and closures clearly show that demand for fast fashion is getting worse. Research from US-based fashion resale website Thredup points out that one in four women aged 18-25 plans to quit fast fashion in 2019. A major reason is to be more eco-friendly.
快时尚或许已经不复往日的火爆。打折、清仓销售、歇业等种种迹象表明，人们对快时尚的需求正日渐下降。美国时尚零售网站Thredup的一项调查指出，在18-25岁的女性中，有1/4的人计划2019年不再购买快时尚单品。一大原因在于她们想要更加环保。
Millennials, who were born between the early 1980s and early 2000s, are now the largest consumer group. Fast fashion, with its cheap and low-quality materials meant to be thrown away the next season, is no longer attractive.
生于1980年代早期至2000年代早期的千禧一代是如今最大的消费者群体。快时尚服饰由于廉价低质，穿过一季便只能被淘汰，已经不再拥有吸引力。
According to Huffpost, because of cyberspace, social media, and e-commerce, the young generation has developed a different idea of value and consumption. Fast fashion brands cannot meet their demands for quality and uniqueness.
据《赫芬顿邮报》报道，受网络空间、社交媒体以及电子商务的影响，年轻一代形成了不同的价值观和消费观。快时尚品牌无法满足他们对于品质和独特性的需求。
The other big factor is that fast fashion brings problems to the environment and to public health. On the one hand, the constant demand for clothing puts enormous stress on land and water resources. Farming cotton for clothing ruins the soil, and pesticides are overused. So are harmful dyes. It makes the fashion industry the second largest polluter of clean water.
另一大因素在于快时尚对环境和公众健康所带来的问题。一方面，持续不断的服饰生产需求给土地和水资源造成了巨大的压力。为生产服饰而进行的棉花种植会破坏土壤，并存在过度使用农药的现象。有毒有害的染料也令时尚产业成为水资源的第二大污染源。
On the other hand, fast production also means that more clothes are disposed quickly, which creates a huge amount of waste. Old clothes go to landfills, which will further increase the pollution of soil and water.
另一方面，快速生产也意味着更多的衣服会被快速处理掉，从而产生了大量的垃圾。而旧衣服被丢弃到垃圾场，也进一步加剧了土壤和水资源的污染。
Fast fashion also puts incredible stress on workers. More than 1,100 people died in a clothes factory collapse in Bangladesh six years ago. The collapse uncovered the bad situation of the workers. They worked overtime against their will. Some averaged up to 14 hours a day, making only $2 (about 14 yuan). Furthermore, most of them were women with children to feed.
快时尚令工人们也经受着巨大的压力。6年前，1100多人死于孟加拉国的一场服装厂倒塌事故。该事故也曝光了工人们恶劣的工作环境。他们被强迫加班，一些人平均每天工作14个小时，却只能挣到2美元（约14元人民币）。而且，大多数工人都是需要抚养孩子的女性。
British designer Vivienne Westwood once said, "Buy less, choose well, make it last." Buying is what makes the fashion world go round. It's time to start questioning fast fashion and see the true cost of those cheap T-shirts.
英国设计师维维安·韦斯特伍德曾说：“少买点，买好点，穿久点。”购买是时尚世界运转的动力。是时候开始质疑快时尚，了解这些廉价T恤背后所付出的真正代价了。
