Years ago, I spotted myself a cute blue summer top from a fast fashion store – but once I brought it home, I never wore it.
Every time I saw it, I felt like my workers were being exploited in that supply chain, making my new clothes. I didn’t know what to do about it and it felt easier to just leave it in the back of the wardrobe and pretend it wasn’t there.
And I’m not alone. A third of British shoppers polled last year felt guilty about the clothes they bought – and it’s easy to see why.
Not a week goes by without an embarrassing topic about the fast fashion industry.
Last year we heard that waste from high street brands was being incinerated causing toxic pollution in Cambodia and that the Competition and Markets Authority is now investigating AOSOS, George at Boohoo and the threat of greenwashing. to the public that an organization is environmentally friendly).
We hear that rapidly collapsing fashion giant Missguided owes its suppliers millions, that poor working conditions are still rife in Leicester and that workers have been shot dead outside a shoe factory in Myanmar in 2021.
It’s good that the ugly truth behind fashion’s pretty face is out – what’s not good is that most of the coverage is focused on what we as consumers have to do with it. We are encouraged to shop ethically, research the companies we buy from, buy less, buy secondhand, swap and rent our clothes.
These are all great ideas and I do some of them myself (I love charity shop treasure hunting when I have the time) but I know many of us are short on time and pointing the finger at citizens is also a very handy tactic. To make the right choice, money or information.
But now, with the cost of living crisis, it’s harder than ever for all of us to do the right thing. It means that many of us are carrying around an uncomfortable feeling of guilt that we have a lot to work on, and somehow, it’s all our fault.
A similar approach was taken on climate a few years ago, and finally, after years of advising citizens on individual carbon footprints and purchasing choices, the finger was rightly pointed at the fossil fuel giants. When you hear UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres outline five clear ways to prevent climate change, all of which involve switching from fossil fuels to renewables, it’s clear who the culprits are.
If we ourselves feel guilty and complicit in the system, we are much less likely to call out the real criminals. Because there are criminals in the history of fast fashion: the government failing to regulate the industry and the fashion brands themselves.
The UK government allows individual fashion owners to extract large sums of money from retailers and harm overseas workers.
If we are serious about ending environmental destruction and exploitation in the fashion sector, the buck stops with these two. Most of the clothes and shoes sold in the UK are made by suppliers in factories in other parts of the world, including Bangladesh and Cambodia. Long supply chains make it difficult for consumers to know the quality of the conditions in which our clothes are made.
In this supply chain arrangement, retailers and brands hold most of the power – suppliers’ factories demand their work. About 85% of Bangladesh’s export earnings come from the ready-made garment industry, for example.
This power imbalance was clearly seen in 2020 when the covid hit. Some household brands refused to pay for pre-made and shipped goods, and some demanded discounts or late payments.
In the year As Covid-19 hit the world in early 2020, fashion brands responded quickly.
The charity I work for – Transform Trade – has heard that some companies have immediately sent emails asking for discounts, late payment terms or cancellations altogether, despite having already entered into binding contracts with suppliers such as Bangladesh, India, Cambodia and Myanmar.
It wasn’t as common as an 80% discount and six months’ worth of payments.
For example, in June 2020, a Bangladeshi factory owner, Topshop Arcadia Group, threatened thousands of jobs by saying that it had not paid them for existing orders and that the factory would have to close within days.
According to the campaign group Clean Clothes Campaign, some workers in the clothing supply chain have since been unpaid, and popular brands have faced legal challenges over human rights abuses in the outbreak.
I would love to be able to buy a top for next summer and enjoy wearing it without any doubt that a female worker in Bangladesh was paid a pittance to do it.
This means that some incredibly vulnerable people have lost their jobs and subsequently fallen into poverty. Those who had jobs had to work in even more dangerous conditions. There were reports of workers being made to work longer hours without extra pay, and physical and sexual abuse.
When fashion giants start treating their suppliers fairly and pay them promptly, suppliers can plan ahead and improve their workers’ terms and conditions.
And there is something we British consumers can do about it. We can add our voice to the campaign to find a fashion keeper that takes less than a minute.
There is already a monitoring body for the supermarket sector, and in the years since this was established, supplier reports of abusive behavior from supermarket shoppers have fallen from 79 per cent to 29 per cent.
We know that regulation with proper enforcement works. By adding your name to the petition, you can help push for a world where you don’t feel guilty, angry or angry when shopping for clothes or reading the news.
I’d love to be able to shop for my best for next summer and dress like a working woman in Bangladesh who was undoubtedly paid a pittance to work, or maybe a child.
By adding our name to the fashion watchdog call, we’re helping to level the playing field for retailers who want to do the right thing and operate responsibly – without a watchdog, these businesses will be disrupted by more ruthless operators.
Even before the cost of living crash, a third of British consumers said they could not afford to shop ethically. Now, with rising energy prices pushing millions into fuel poverty, it is unrealistic and unfair to expect British consumers to tackle entrenched inequality through shrinking pay packets.
Keep the fashion forward. Add your name, tell your friends and stop feeling guilty.
Do you have a story to share? Contact us by emailing jess.austin@metro.co.uk.
Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.
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