Fast fashion brands such as Shein are overshadowing smaller brands with cheap, trendy but unsustainable clothing. Melbourne brand docGIRL is aiming to craft confidence and sustainability amid the dominance of fast fashion.

Label owner Hansika G has always dreamed of having her ideas come to life and acting as a bridge to help others find confidence through fashion.

“Being a bridge to help others find their inner confidence and character gives me the most joy,” she says.

Her brand docGIRL, a collaboration duo with brother label DOCG, prides itself for producing, sourcing, screen printing and manufacturing locally in Melbourne.

Hansika takes pride in her brand curating designs that embolden and embrace their audience’s femininity.

“Fashion will always be timeless if comes genuinely,” she explains.

As a smaller fashion brand, she feels it’s important to be a label that values sustainability and differentiates itself from competitors and fast fashion companies.

“The value in sustainable clothes is so much greater because of the quality of the production,” Hansika said.

With fast fashion the goal is not quality, but rather quick sales – fast fashion is low-quality clothing produced rapidly to follow current trends, then sold at insanely cheap prices.

The term ‘Fast Fashion’ first appeared in the 1990s in a New York Times article, describing a designer’s goal to take a garment from idea to store in just 15 days.

When it comes to fast fashion, names like Zara, Glassons and Forever 21 come to mind.

Yet with platforms like TikTok speeding up trends, online retailers like Temu and Shein are outpacing brick and mortar stores, and even mimicking the designs of smaller brands.

This disproportionately impacts affects smaller labels, resulting in many not getting recognition for their designs and products.

Fast fashion giants like Shein, which is now worth over $US100 billion, have a reputation for stealing from smaller brands.

Hansika says fast fashion giants don’t appreciate expression and love of fashion, or the process of creating something of your own.

“They don’t put value on their products as much as we do, from design to execution,” she said.

For smaller brands, their products are their ideas coming to life and a way to express themselves and be understood in the form of art.

“I love the self-expression that comes with designing – it’s your expression to the world about who you are and what is going on in your mind,” Hansika explains.

She points out how upsetting it is to see Fast Fashion undermining originality and creativity in fashion, which is what fashion has always been about.

“The value of products has become less in fast fashion because of the price point, over production, and under paid workers,” she explains.

Shein’s history of stealing smaller brands’ ideas and selling them on their website for cheaper prices and lower quality takes away from the importance of creativity and sustainability which makes fashion valuable and timeless.

“As a small business owner it takes more time executing our own ideas,” she says.

It’s important for smaller brands to be recognised not only from an ethical point of view but also for the recognition of the hard work and detail that goes into creating designs.

“It’s a risk working for yourself and running your own company but it’s a risk that is worth taking,” Hansika says.

“I’m so fulfilled with this career.”

Designers like Hansika follow their passions, expressing themselves by creating real, genuine clothing.

But the fast fashion industry isn’t just harming small business owners – it also has a huge impact on the environment.

Millions of clothes end up in landfill – out of the 100 billion pieces produced each year, 92 million tonnes gets thrown away.

Because these clothes are made cheaply with poor materials, they don’t last long.

People buy them at insanely low prices, wear them a few times, and then throw them out within months.

“They just end up going to landfill, therefore it’s not eco-friendly and there’s just no worth in fast fashion,” Hansika says.

She believes part of this is because most fast fashion companies like Shein don’t value clothes, and just overproduce to sell rapidly.

“Fast fashion is just a cheaper way of producing clothes, underpay workers, and overproduce garments” she says.

To differentiate her brand from being in the same category as Shein, Hansika makes sure all her products are made ethically.

She ensures that they are produced locally with the best quality material and that her production staff are being paid accurately and fairly.

Despite these processes being longer, it’s how her label produces high quality, genuine products.

She says every decision made for her brand is to better the business.

“It’s smaller details that count and every decision whether is big or small has been decided carefully – nothing is cheaply made but with the highest quality production,” Hansika explains.