The complex skill of fashion design is being downplayed by the mass production of fast fashion companies.
I previously wrote an article on overconsumption and tied a bit of the fashion aspect to it. However, when I saw a designer put his stress into the internet of fast fashion companies mocking his work it inspired me to give significance to this tragedy.
“Im one the worlds biggest fast fashion designer and unfortunately this is happening against my own will,” said fashion designer Marcelo Gaia in a TikTok Video.
Gaia founded Mirror Palais in 2019 designing pieces in New York. The website states that his inspiration for his designs come from his mothers closet, his family and his religion. Mirror Palais started as a small business but later rose to the top with leading celebrities wearing his designs.
News outlets like V Magazine, Teen Vogue and Cosmopolitan all put Gaia on a platform for his designs and the representation of his brand.
“Since I launched in 2019, I’ve had countless styles of mine go viral on social media, now I work as the unpaid research and development department for countless fast fashion companies,” said Gaia.
During the Tiktok video posted by Gaia, the background images showed multiple fast fashion companies like House of CB, Oh Polly and others who’ve copied his work. As the video continues he uses a limited edition design as an example that he released on Valentines Day. The two piece set sold out yet in the universe of fast fashion there was plenty in stock.
The selling report for Mirror Palais showed a total of 35 tops were sold and 18 bottoms of the set were sold.
“I was in shock when I saw it show up on TikTok Shop,” said Gaia. “What I did find shocking was I can see how many of these are sold, as you can see they sold 2,163 sets.”
As I mentioned in my previous article some people might feel the need to go through the cheap route to obtain the new trend for the month. But fast fashion uses cheap and low quality fabric. Gaia stands for importance on fabric education. He uses high quality silk, sequence and thread.
On the Mirror Palais TikTik account he starts to let his audience in on why prices are so expensive.
“This is a 100% silk, hand beaded bias cut dress that retails for 1,495,” he said in a Tiktok video.
He goes into detail explaining the Beaded Giraffe Bias Lady Length Dress. He highlights the fabric and beads and sequins that have all been sewn by hand.
“This dress cost $500 to make so when you factor in the cost of development, of the photoshoot, of our overhead that’s how we land on the retail,” he said.
Unlike Mirror Palais, fast fashion corporations ignore wages and give little to none acknowledgement on the beauty of fashion design. According to the article published by Earth.org it brings attention to the cheap wages, harmful work areas and cost in the fast fashion realm.
“In pursuit of the latest trends, we often overlook the true cost of fast fashion – a cost paid in sweat suffering and silenced voices of garment workers across the globe,” said Mykhail Helm, the author of the article.
Tiktok influencer, Devin Drain purchased one of the Mirror Palais dress costing $650, despite it being on sale. The whole objective of the video was acknowledging Gaia being ripped off with fast fashion. She is one of the many people that confess to falling into the tricks of the fast fashion industry.
“The conundrum that I find myself in is, is it on the consumer to not buy things because it’s fast fashion.” Drain said. “When we’re all trying to survive this hell scape universe when I can’t afford to buy the ethical thing all the time.”
She goes into questioning if consumers should feel guilty about purchasing from fast fashion brands. This is the challenge that I find myself in because I want to look stylish and be on trend but I cant afford the price that it comes with. I feel guilty ripping off designers, so I just stick to wearing basics and putting on a chic look.
