6. Their focus on sustainable fashion and beauty aims to raise awareness about this zeitgeist issue and shine a spotlight on those working towards making the fashion industry a more ethical place. One day we’re posing for social media in oversized graphic tees, and the next we're opting for striped cotton. 4 Facts You Need to Know about Fast Fashion. It’s the second largest retailer in the world, trailing just behind Inditex (the owner of Zara), and operates in 62 countries.H&M has long been the target of widespread concern about the impact of fast fashion on the environment and the workers who make our clothes. The global environmental injustice of fast fashion, Environmental Health (2018).DOI: 10.1186/s12940-018-0433-7 Many fast fashion brands have made amazing strides to have better conditions for workers and lessen their impact on the environment, but as always, there are stragglers. Read more. Brands in the fast fashion space are also often caught exploiting workers, both internationally and domestically. An exposé by the Financial Times in 2018 discovered workers at factories in Leicester were paid as little as £3.50 an hour, under half the minimum wage for people aged 25 and over. Fast Fashion Facts August 16, 2016 In case I haven’t managed to convince you that you should be choosing slow fashion over fast fashion, I’ve pulled together some facts on fast fashion which may help to convince you to give up your fast fashion addiction. The phrase “fast fashion” has been lampooned around quite a lot lately. To understand how and why this is happening, we need to enter the world of fast fashion, where tech-driven clothes are cheap and trend-heavy outfits are king. As garment workers toil under exploitative working conditions, FEMNET works toward greater transparency in the fashion industry. Unfortunately, fast fashion is rampant right now. Contact your local Fashion Revolution Co-ordinator to find out more about what is going on where you area and what you can do. What’s more, 85% of all textiles go to the dump each year. Turns out I'm not alone: the apparent market has grown 60% in the last six years, and that trend isn't slowing down. By Kelly-Leigh Cooper BBC News . That inherently makes them a part of the fast fashion movement. You should start by knowing who your manufacturers are and visiting them.” On these visits, she says brand representatives must watch out for signs the factory is sub-contracting; they should be concerned, if the factory does not have enough workers for the amount of t-shirts it produces. HuffPost UK Style believes that our thirst for fast fashion is dramatically impacting the lives of thousands of workers in a negative way. Culture The hidden human cost of fast fashion. Below are just some of the organisations that are working to improve the conditions for those who make the clothes we wear. When people hear the term fast fashion, they know it isn't on trend with the eco-friendly and sustainable fashion movement but not exactly why it is a problem, and labor exploitation and forced labor isn't typically what comes to mind. Fashion production makes up 10% of humanity’s carbon emissions, dries up water sources, and pollutes rivers and streams. Fast fashion has been circulating in the news for the past year or so, and was even the subject of a documentary film released last month at the Cannes Film Festival called The True Cost. An average garment worker in Bangladesh who sews shirts for fast fashion brands might make 28 taka an hour, or around 33 U.S. cents, and struggle to pay bills even working 60 hours a week. Protect migrants and refugees. The fast-fashion environmental impact derives from the overconsumption of clothing, as well as a disregard for production and materials. “Fast fashion” — which is to say cheap, disposable clothing, made indiscriminately, imprudently, and often without consideration for environmental and … As bad as the problems of the industry are it is even more important to be solution oriented and and also acknowledge our successes.. All sources are listed at the bottom of the page. Indeed, you might be wearing their garbs right now. But worker rights advocates say fast fashion has another, darker cost: Demands for constant product turns may be putting workers’ lives at risk in … “Fast fashion isn’t free,” says fashion journalist Lucy Siegle in an article for Vogue.. “Someone somewhere is paying for it.” Fast fashion has consequences — and new reports have claimed that it’s causing female workers to face widespread abuse on a daily basis. Workers make clothes at a factory in Jakarta, Indonesia. In fact, Thomas writes, that same year Americans “spent $340 billion on fashion,” and “much of it was produced in Bangladesh, some of it by Rana Plaza workers … According to an April 2016 Oxfam report, more than 60 million people work in the garment industry to fuel fast fashion: more than 15 million of those are based in Asia and more than 80% are women, often young and from poor rural backgrounds. Fast fashion's low price points rely on even lower manufacturing costs. Fashion facts are not just for educating yourself, but also a great tool to score high in your next debate about fashion. 'Fast fashion' is a phrase coined to describe inexpensive clothing produced rapidly by mass-market retailers in response to the latest trends. Ellen Ruppel Shell, author of Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture, argues that when we buy “cheap chic” clothes at places like Target or Mango, even though there’s not planned obsolescence — the clothing isn’t designed to fall apart (though some have alleged that it is) — we don’t expect it to last. Fast Fashion Is Not Good For You Or The Planet. Fast fashion can be defined as cheap, trendy clothing, that samples ideas from the catwalk or celebrity culture and turns them into garments in high street stores at breakneck speed. For those who don’t know, it refers to the blink-and-you-miss-it speed with which apparel is being produced and purchased.The upside of this phenomenon is that clothes have indeed become cheaper and … Fast fashion is harmful from a social perspective, too. What is more, fast fashion is in the top 5 of the most polluting industries in the world, an issue that poses a serious threat to the environment.Thankfully, it’s also an issue that could be solved by decreasing individual consumption. You might recognise the culprits. In contrast, American garment workers earn about $9 … Fast fashion retailers have made the case that they have democratised the fashion experience – no longer reserved for the elite, fashion is available and accessible to all. With such a high demand for clothes, it is hard for the factory workers to keep up. Chinese factory workers make slightly more: $117 to $147 a month. On the eve of London Fashion Week, we reviewed the evidence amassed in the Environmental Audit Committee’s investigation into fast fashion. Fast fashion’s low quality changes how you think about clothes. Swedish retailer H&M is one of the world’s most recognisable fast fashion brands. ... Hidden child labour: how Syrian refugees in Turkey are supplying Europe with fast fashion.