Is Tillys Fast Fashion? An Expert Breakdown!
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With the fashion industry rising more and more every day, we stumble upon a new brand at every turn. Even though every brand has its unique colors, generally most of the brands have been blending into each other because of following the fast fashion model whose foundation is upon creating only trendy materials. This takes away creativity from the designer as their designs are overshadowed in favor of the new market trends.
We are going to look at another fashion brand today named Tillys and we will slowly determine whether it is fast fashion or not for eco-conscious people who do not want to damage the environment in any way. Diving into the history of the brand, Tillys was established in 1982 by the couple, Hezy Shaked and Tilly Levine. Going through a rough phase back in the day, the couple realized that clothing is a business that has very less chances of failing. They picked up some items that they thought suited best for the look of their brand and began selling.
They started with a few boxes of clothing and today, they own over 140 stores in 20 states in the United States. While the brand does not produce its clothing, it displays clothing and accessories made by brands such as Adidas, Fox, Quiksilver, Vans, and many more. The brand’s focus seems to be on teenagers and young adults as suggested by its casual and cool collection of clothing that is inspired by the West Coast. Its foundation seems to be grounded in activity and excitement to attract young people to its bright and bold designs.
As the brand offers clothing from various fashion brands, it has a wide collection containing something for everyone. Moreover, as it also focuses on online selling, youngsters with school and jobs can easily purchase items from their favorite brands through the website. The design of its website seems to be directly influenced by the type of clothing the brand sells. The design team seems to be focused on promoting an active lifestyle and a sense of urgency associated with youth.
Sustainability Rating: 3/10
Category: Clothing, Accessories, Shoes, Bags
For: Women, Men, Kids
Products: Casual Wear, Swimwear, Workwear, Hats, Boots
Style: Trendy, Classic, Chic
Quality: Low, Medium
Prices: -
Size: S-2XL (International Size)
Fabrics: Polyester, Polyester Blend, Acrylic, Cotton, Spandex, Cotton Blend, Nylon, Linen
100% Organic: No
100% Vegan: No
Ethical and Fair: No
Recycling: No
Manufacturing Countries: Not Transparent Enough
Certifications: Not Transparent Enough
A huge advantage of shopping at Tillys is that if you buy items worth more than $59 on its website, it offers free shipping no matter where you are! Also, if you are a loyal customer, it has a reward program through which you can earn points and use them for future discounts which is a great business tactic as customers are motivated to buy more to get discounts. It also holds regular clearance sales to make customers happy and get rid of items that are not in trend anymore. Its clearance section is so cheap that you can easily get 4 shirts under $25!
As good as this sounds, it also sounds quite suspicious as who sells 4 shirts for $25 even in a sale? Plus, Tillys promises that it offers the highest-quality material that it can find in other brands and sells it at cheap prices to benefit its customers. Most of the time this is far from the truth as the fast fashion model is built upon selling cheap quality clothes at cheap prices.
While discussing sustainability, Tillys says that “sustainability has become an equally important initiative for us and for our customers. We are constantly looking to reduce our impact on the environment specifically in the reduction of waste, pollution, and carbon output.” This is quite an encouraging statement hinting at the company being aware of the importance of sustainability in this day and age.
It has a separate dedicated to sustainability on its website where it mentions all the eco-friendly materials that it uses such as recycled cotton fiber, recycled polyester, organic cotton, and more, and how it encourages all the brands that fall under it to use these materials. It also mentions how it encourages water reduction and less production of harmful gasses to its partner brands. In 2021, it began a program titled “Restored by Tillys” which aims at increasing the lifespan of clothing instead of dumping them in landfills. It is said that the fashion industry has a huge part to play in the production of waste materials due to the trend of fast fashion.
While Tillys very enthusiastically writes about the importance of sustainability and an ethical environment in the workplace, it does not outline how it manages to keep track of the various brands under its name and whether it requires them to sign any form of code of conduct or agreement before conducting business with them. With so many brands providing them with clothing and other items, it may be hard to keep track of what is coming into the store. This sort of transparency is required by customers looking for an eco-friendly destination to shop.
Moreover, merely writing about sustainability is not enough. When you read thoroughly, you can notice that Tillys provides vague information about materials and fabrics without any information about their implementation.
Furthermore, it houses brands such as Adidas and Levi’s which are not very concerned about their sustainability practices. They can be categorized as fast fashion as they use inorganic materials and third-world countries for the production of their items. That is the reason behind Tillys' low prices as well. It does not invest in high-quality materials so it does not need to sell at high prices to make a profit.
It has a rating of 2.5 stars on sitejabber which shows that customers are not very satisfied with the brand’s services and quality. Many complain about the customer service and the cheap quality of the clothing which is expected of a fast fashion brand.
After carefully looking into the practices of Tillys, we can safely assume that it is indeed, a fast fashion brand and it is not very concerned about sustainability at present. It seems to be projecting an image of being eco-conscious but it looks more like a show than anything. If you are conscious about where you shop due to being environmentally conscious, we would advise you to steer clear of Tillys.
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