What We Wear, Who We Become by Saatvika

What We Wear, Who We Become by Saatvika - October 2026 Scholarship Essay

I started my research thinking I was going to study clothes.

I’d been interested in fast fashion because of its contradictions. Clothes can be cheap enough to feel almost disposable, but producing them can have serious environmental and human consequences. At first, I wanted to understand the basics. Who makes these clothes? How are companies able to produce new styles so quickly? What happens when we stop wearing them?

The more I researched, though, the less I felt like I was actually researching clothing.

I became interested in the speed of fast fashion.

A new trend can appear almost overnight. People see it, buy it, wear it, and then move on when something else becomes popular. The strange part is that the clothes themselves haven't changed. A shirt doesn't suddenly become worse because a different style is trending. Somehow, though, it can go from something you really want to something you don't want to be seen wearing.

That led me to a question I hadn't expected to ask: **How does fast fashion create identities through constantly changing styles, and why are those identities so temporary?**

I originally thought the answer would mostly have to do with money. Fast fashion is built around low prices and rapid production, so I expected my research to focus on economics and business. As I looked at companies like Zara and H&M, I started to understand how closely their production strategies are connected to changing consumer demand. They don't just sell clothes. They respond to what people want right now, and then help create what people will want next.

That's what really caught my attention.

Clothing has always been a way for people to express themselves. We use it to show what we like, where we belong, and sometimes who we want to become. But fast fashion seems to speed that process up. Instead of having one relatively stable style, we're constantly given new versions of ourselves to try.

For a little while, a certain outfit can make someone feel confident, current, or like they belong. Then another trend comes along. The old outfit hasn't physically changed, but somehow it doesn't feel like us anymore.

I started thinking about how strange that is. We buy something physical to express something as complicated as our identity, even though that identity might change before the clothes do.

Then I started connecting that idea back to the material side of fast fashion. The temporary feeling of being "new" depends on a very real system of production. Behind every rapidly changing trend are workers, factories, supply chains, natural resources, and huge amounts of clothing being produced and transported. What feels temporary to the consumer requires something much more permanent to happen somewhere else.

That realization changed the way I looked at my topic.

I wasn't just interested in why people buy cheap clothes anymore. I wanted to understand why being part of a trend can feel so important in the first place. If we know that trends are temporary, why do we still want to participate in them? If clothing helps us communicate who we are, what happens when we're constantly being encouraged to change that identity? And if we can buy a new version of ourselves every time a trend changes, what are we actually buying?

I didn't expect a research project about fast fashion to make getting dressed feel so complicated.

Now, when I see a new trend spreading online, I don't just see a shirt or a pair of shoes. I see a connection between what consumers want and what companies produce. I see how quickly something can become popular and how quickly it can become irrelevant. Most importantly, I see that the environmental and human costs of fast fashion aren't completely separate from the way we think about ourselves. They're connected to a system that depends on our desire for something new.

My research hasn't given me a simple answer about whether fast fashion is good or bad. Instead, it's made me more interested in questions that don't have easy answers.

I started by asking why people buy clothes that don't last.

I ended up wondering why we're so drawn to identities that don't last, either.

That shift is probably the most important thing I gained from my research. I used to think research was about finding the right answer. Now I think it can be about finding a question that's interesting enough to keep you thinking long after you've stopped reading the sources.

For me, that question started with a piece of clothing.