Whyourinsatiablelustforfast fashionstillpunishesthepoor
BY ANNIE BROWN FIVE years on from the Rana Plaza disaster which killed 1138 garment factory workers, our insatiable lust for fashion is still destroying lives. An eight-story building in Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka collapsed on April 24, 2013 – killing more than a thousand workers and injuring 2000 more. The victims were producing garments for companies like Primark and Inditex, Zara’s parent company. It was one of deadliest industrial accidents in history and a watershed moment that has led to greater transparency and improved safety in supply chains. But where there has been success, there has also been failure, with almost half the wounded workers left unemployed and without compensation despite suffering mental and physical injuries. Fashion Revolution, the campaign group founded after the disaster, yesterday published a Fashion Transparency Index, a ranking of 150 major brands based on how much information they disclose about their supply chains.
Amazon, Anthropologie and Sainsbury’s Tu, Sports Direct and Monsoon’s Accessorize were among those who scored lowest.
Adidas and Reebok were the brands found to be the most transparent, closely followed by Puma, H&M, Espirit, Banana Republic, Gap and Marks & Spencer – but even the best only scored half of the points available. This is Fashion Revolution week and events are being held across the world, including in Scotland.
Emily Ford-Halliday, lecturer of fashion at Edinburgh College of Art, is behind events under the 1138 festival banner in the capital. She believes consumers hold the power for change.
Emily said: “People are dying from fast fashion every single day, from accidents like in Rana Plaza, or they are being poisoned by chemicals used to process clothes. They are not able to feed themselves because low wages.
“We are in a digital age where we are being bombarded by imagery telling us to buy things.
“Young people are even more consumed by this idea that we need to buy things to feel happy.”
Big brands have latched on to social media platforms such as Snapchat, Instagram and Twitter to blitz our day with offers.
Emily added: “The big brands are monopolising those platforms and young people are being desensitised to the fact they are being indoctrinated into buying.”
Some brands like Topshop are now introducing a new collection each week.
Emily said: “There is the idea now that you are never going to be up to date.
“It is important that we are considering the choices we make and the impact they are having on people and the environment.
“We are living in a global society now. It is about us making responsible purchases, researching brands and asking who is making my clothes, how are they making them and what is the impact on the natural environment and the people where the factories are placed?”
As consumers we must of consider how a T-shirt costing a fiver could be produced be shipped at such a low cost that it leaves room for profit.
Much of the clothing of today costs less to the consumer than 10 years ago – and workers in sweat shops are bearing the brunt.
Some consumers of fast fashion will assuage their guilt by taking their excess to charity shops but often they can’t sell them and they have to pay to dispose of the items, which eventually end up in land fill sites.
The 1138 festival has been laying on everything from fashion fairs to club nights and students at Edinburgh College of Art have produced their own sustainable designs, to bring the idea of environmentally friendly longevity to our wardrobes. Big brands like Primark and Zara have been publicly shamed in the past for their unethical supply chains and fashion houses realise ethics are now on-trend. H&M have garnered plenty of positive publicity for their Conscious brand, which uses recycled and organic material. But the company, a prolific purveyor of fast fashion, have been criticised by the Clean Clothes Campaign, the largest global alliance of labour unions and charities fighting for garment industry workers. Last month, they wrote a public letter to H&M claiming hundreds of thousands of its employees receive “poverty wages”. Dr Sue Thomas, assistant professor in fashion at Heriot watt University, has drawn up an MSc in ethics in fashion, which will meet the demand for companies employing specialists in the field. More and more brands like ASOS are now employing ethical sourcing coordinators, a mark of how significant this aspect of their business has become.
She said: “We are not about making frocks, we were getting students used to doing deeper research. We have students interested in everything from micro-fibre to workers’ rights.”
Sue, who has written the book Fashion Ethics, believes Rana Plaza was a “wake-up call” for the fashion industry but more must be done by everyone from the designer to consumer.
She said: “The imagery was completely scathing. The industry knew what was going on for some time and were driven by price so didn’t change.
“But the outcry from Rana Plaza brought working conditions to the forefront of everyone’s thinking. Things have improved without a doubt but there is still work to be done.
“It is our planet, our people and our animals and it’s our kids’ future. When I look at the pictures of the dead from Rana Plaza, I know loss of life is not worth it for the jumper or dress I am wearing. Things have to change.” ●To participate in fashion Revolution see 1138 Facebook page and go to www.fashion revolution.org