Object study · 04 / 08 · Edition 01

The rise of “fast fashion” and anxiety

why shopping for clothes started to feel exhausting

By Dhriti Agarwal · Sep 2026 · 2 min read

Have you ever noticed how scrolling through clothing sites or walking into an apparel store can sometimes feel strangely exhausting instead of fun?

We’ve all been there: buying a cute 2000Rs. top just to get that quick dopamine hit and look trendy on social media, only to feel a weird mix of regret and guilt a week later when a thread starts to unravel or a new “micro-trend” replaces it.

We fail to realise that we start to lose ourselves along the way in the hurry of being ‘fashionable’, we don’t just lose our budgets on those tedious shopping hauls, but we actually end up losing our uniqueness in the effort of being a part of trend that will be replaced within the week if not in less time.

That’s the unspoken trap of fast fashion. It promises us endless imagination and confidence on a budget, but it silently and unknowingly forces us into a relentless race to keep up. We have stopped to think for ourselves and rush to ‘Pinterest’ or ‘Instagram’ for “outfit inspos” as soon as we are in a clutz, we are dumbfounded when someone asks us what bottoms to wear with a top or what top to wear with a pair of jeans.

Today clothes become completely disposable and shopping sprees have start to feel like a burden. We worry about missing out, we worry about fitting in, and about what others will or won’t think, we carry this heavy burden of societal acceptance that is slowly and internally eating us alive. We fail to realize that we aren’t just drowning in clothes—we’re drowning in the stress to keep up.