End slavery in fashion, Firth’s wife urges MPs
Livia, with husband Colin, told MPs fashion is ‘the biggest employer in slavery’ OSCAR-WINNER Colin Firth’s wife Livia has called for ministers and shops to end “modern day slavery” in the fashion industry.
Leading figures from the world of fashion and politics met MPs at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London to discuss the crisis.
Italian film producer Mrs Firth, 49, gave evidence to MPs on the House of Commons’ Environmental Audit Committee and said the exploitation of foreign workers from cheap online retailers should end.
Mrs Firth told the hearing: “Fashion is the greatest polluter in the world but it’s also the largest employer of modern slavery.”
Mass production of easily disposable, low-cost clothing is
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only possible because retailers are allowed to exploit cheap labour, she told them.
Mrs Firth, who is also a creative director of sustainability consultancy Eco-Age, added: “There will never ever be an end to the environmental destruction from fast fashion until we solve this issue of the social impact and the use of modern day slavery in the supply chains.”
She called for “governments, citizens, businesses and financial institutions to unite for a fair world, fair trade and fair business practices”. Mrs Firth said: “The talk was about how to address the issues of over-production generated by fast fashion, the consequent over-consumption generated by our addiction to disposable fashion and the myth of its democracy.
“Also, the huge amount of waste generated by this cycle.”
She is advocating “strict legislation in the fashion industry in the same way as competition law, bribery law, data protection law and so on”.
Ahead of a report next year, the committee is examining the link between the rise of cheap clothes and the decline in the number of times a garment is worn before it is thrown out.
The committee’s chairwoman, Labour’s Mary Creagh, said: “The fashion industry must clean up its act.”