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Jaylan Fraser-Mines

Mr. Redman

Writing Research

May 3, 2017

Fast Fashion

Fashion around the world is used as a way to express one’s personality and often times

represents the culture of a region as a whole. This has been true for many centuries, but the way

clothing is viewed and made is drastically different today than it was years ago.

Nearly every industry, from food to power, has become more globalized with the

advancement of technology and the ability to communicate quickly. It takes less time to get from

place to place and cultures are able to interact more frequently. This globalization has been

integral to spreading jobs around the world and promoting competition in business, but there has

been a separation between the things consumers buy in a store and the understanding of what it

takes to make those products.

The fashion industry has direct influence in every person’s life because clothing is an

essential part of even basic lifestyles. The adjustment to a much more fast paced way of life has

transformed the way clothes are produced, adopting the term fast fashion. The industry has

changed in the past few decades and shifted the attitude that consumers have towards clothes.

Fast fashion has had alarming effects on the environment and those who are responsible for

manufacturing these garments, and it’s hard not to wonder if this way of producing clothes is

maintainable for posterity.

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In Glendale, California, a high school junior sits in her room where “shopping bags are

strewn about everywhere - from H&M, Zara, Forever 21- stuffed with clothing that has yet to be

unpacked, folded, put away, or even worn” (Moon 9). Elsewhere, a young girl films a video

parading her newly purchased clothing, including one pair of jeans which she bought simply

because it was $6-denim day at Forever 21 (Moon 8). ​These scenes of accumulated clothing are

not uncommon among shoppers of the current era. They have come to exemplify the change in

the consumer mindset and fashion industry structure that has emerged from fast fashion.

Fast fashion is a term used to describe the contemporary fashion industry in which

retailers aim to produce trending items for stores in as close to real time as possible. Its name is

an allusion to the term fast food; rather than food, however, the fast fashion industry produces

low quality clothing to sell in surplus. Fast fashion is characterised by “​the sheer cheapness, the

low barriers to gratification, [and] the disposability of stylish clothing” (Moon 8) and has gained

prominence in the industry in the most recent decade. As a result, the characteristics of the

fashion industry have diverged greatly from those that were standard 60 years ago.

The structure of the fashion industry has changed drastically since the mid 1900s. At the

time, the process of getting clothing into stores for consumption required “the fashion industry

[to operate] under a series of fixed relationships. People shopped at department stores, which

bought their clothes from manufacturers” ("In Trendy World..."). This timely process

consequently split the release of new items into two seasons: spring/summer and fall/winter. Yet,

once retailers realized that they could cut out the middleman and manufacture the clothes

themselves ("In Trendy World..."), they were no longer limited by the time it took to get new

clothing to their inventory. To keep stores stocked with these new items, brands have collapsed
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this very complicated global design and production of fast fashion from what used to be a

three-month cycle to now just two weeks (“​Inside The World...”)​. ​Thus, the idea of fast fashion,

where new styles can be offered as soon as they are designed, has continued to gain momentum.

Customers have readily adopted this change and are clearly enthusiastic about the transition.

A fast fashion brand, like H&M, ​changes the merchandise it carries with great frequency

and the turnover keeps customers shopping in their stores ("In Trendy World..."). Customers are

engaged by the continual exposure to new items and “are conditioned to expect a constant stream

of new fashions” ("In Trendy World..."). In replacement of a few selling seasons that would last

months, many new “micro seasons” are put in place for just a few weeks, which has​ ​“created a

sort of year-round calendar for fashion” ("In Trendy World..."), in an attempt to retain customers

who are constantly looking for new items. This surplus of clothing distinguishes fast fashion as

its own industry structure. As one of the leading fast fashion brands, H&M sells more than half a

billion items of clothing every year in more than 945 stores worldwide (​Von Hahn). No other

type of retailer can match the volume with which fast fashion brands sell, even if the quality of

the clothing may be compromised in doing so.

A large part of a fast fashion brand’s success in keeping customers in stores comes from

keeping the cost of clothing very low. ​Producing such a large quantity of clothing and selling it

at such a low cost might seem counterintuitive, however, fast fashion brands “​put a small markup

on the clothes and earn their profit off selling an ocean of clothing” ("In Trendy World..."). The

goal of these brands is always to sell as much as possible so as to maximize their profits. The

most significant way they achieve this low cost is by lowering the quality, and thus the

durability, of the items that they sell. One customer said, “​the best thing about H&M is that their
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clothes last the perfect amount of time -- just when you start to get sick of them, they kinda fall

apart”​ (qtd. in ​Von Hahn). The clothing sold at fast fashion stores is not meant to last, and this

keeps the cost of their products reduced to maintain customers. The clothes’ low quality also

keeps customers shopping in stores to replace their worn out pieces. Fast fashion brands “offer

items at such absurdly low prices that it costs less to throw them out and buy something new than

it does to take them to the dry cleaners”​ (​Von Hahn) or have them mended. This process is called

built-in-obsolescence since the “clothing is notorious for looking faded and dated in a handful of

wears” (Cline). Consumers in America are buying an average of 71 fashion items each year,

which is double what they were buying in the 90’s, let alone in the 60’s when malls became

more popular (Cline). The mindset of the fashion shopper has shifted drastically, where the focus

is no longer on the longevity of the clothing. Fashion has become disposable and allowed for

consumers to shop more and more frequently. Consumers no longer save up their money to

invest in pieces that will last them a long time; they are set on getting the very most items with

the money that they have (Cline). The growth in fashion consumption is not exclusive to the

United States; this trend is visible in countries around the globe.

This fast fashion model has continued to increase in other countries around the world,

particularly in developing countries where the economy is growing rapidly and there is a high

percentage of young people (Saini). Countries like India and China are producing more clothing

for themselves than they are for the United States (Hobbes). Fast fashion has gained momentum

worldwide and is becoming the norm for fashion retailers and their customers.

The emergence of fast fashion has only taken place in the most recent decades, but the

demand of the industry has had a resounding affect on the shopping culture. When the middle
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class began to occupy the suburbs, “​big stores and malls, where shoppers could buy everything

under one roof” ​(​Bain), began to define the shopping experience​.​With the increasing usage of

technology in everyday life, Christina Moon, an Assistant Professor in Fashion Studies at

Parsons The New School for Design in New York, says, ​“popular writing has simply lumped fast

fashion in with the generally sped-up pace of life in the digital age” (Moon 1). Social media has

played a key role in the success of fast fashion businesses; it​ has allowed trends to spread at a

greater speed and the coverage of fashion weeks reaches a broader audience in a shorter span of

time. ​People, and therefore consumers, are also exposed to an increasingly larger number of

photographs, and thus fashion items. As a consequence, fashion has become “intensely

preoccupied with image and appearance because of the internet, social-media, and the

significance of runway shows” (Moon 10). Customers are purchasing more frequently for “the

way clothing looks and appears in image” (Moon 10) rather than the quality of the item. With an

enhanced need for instant gratification through the use of technology, customers have

unknowingly promoted the industry to move to fast fashion models.

While the significance of technology and social media in the growth of fast fashion is

apparent, the immigration of Koreans with textile experience has also played a key role in the

establishment of fast fashion brands, especially in the American market. Jobber Market is a

garment district in Los Angeles where the families that work there “make [a] living by designing

clothes, organizing the factory labor that will cut and sew them... and selling them wholesale to

many of the most famous retailers in the U.S.” (Moon 2). It is the home to Forever 21, and there

are “more than 6,000 Korean-owned clothing labels [that] operate there” (Moon 4). Most of the

brands are run by families, particularly of South Korean descent. A large part of South Korean
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industrialization stemmed from its garment production during the 1960s and ‘70s when is made

clothing to be exported to the U.S. market (Moon 5). Many of those who emigrated from South

Korea had knowledge of and connections to the fashion industry from their work experiences in

South Korea. By the early 2000s, many of these immigrants’ children were reaching adulthood

and heading off to “American universities to study business, or to schools like Parsons to acquire

skills in design, marketing, and merchandising” (Moon 6). Once they’d returned back home, they

augmented their families’ businesses with their new skills and their knowledge of American

culture from their youth. New trendy garment styles, in combination with very efficient

production, cultivated what would soon be known as fast fashion brands (Moon 7). Forever 21,

owned by the Chang family, was one of these brands and established more than 50 stores within

its first 17 years (Moon). But the Chang family is actually only one of many that have found

tremendous success in the fast fashion business.

While the large number of fast fashion companies has made the industry very

competitive, those who have found success have done so in an intense way. It’s easy to identify

Bill Gates as the richest person in the world and the reason for his wealth, but it’s far less likely

someone could match Amancio Ortega, the second richest man in the world, to his brand with

such ease. Ortega is the founder of Zara, a leading fast fashion brand that started in Spain​.

Production is done locally in Spain to reduce travel time and to deliver to their large stores

within 15 days ​(​"The Reclusive Spanish...”​). They keep their customers coming to their stores,

sometimes twice a week, with more and more products, and this success is found without

advertising. Zara alone has more than 1,900 stores worldwide and continues to expand. Ortega is

notoriously secretive and his brand is best known for adapting their clothes to the desire of their
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consumers (​"The Reclusive Spanish...”​). Each day, Zara sales clerks send reports about what

items of clothing customers are asking for; in some ways the design is customer driven (​"The

Reclusive Spanish...”​). So it’s likely that if you sent a large group of people into a Zara store and

had them all ask for a certain shirt in green rather than blue, you would see that green shirt in the

next couple of weeks. This same diligence, which has made Zara so successful, has brought

great wealth to those who own fast fashion brands.

Consistently, fast fashion owners dominate the list of the most wealthy. In Japan the

richest person is ​Tadashi Yanai, owner of Uniqlo, and in Sweden, the richest man is Stefan

Persson, owner of H&M​ ​. In Ireland, the owners of both Selfridges and Primark are the highest

earning family​. The immense success that these fast fashion brands have found is in large part

due to the fact that they are simply “faster and cheaper than the competition” (Bain). Stores that

found success as mall-based retailers are now scrambling to compete. Abercrombie, a

once-industry-leading brand, had their stock prices drop 50% between 2011 and 2014

("Abercrombie & Fitch"). Other mall retailers have had similar woes including “American Eagle

Outfitters and Aeropostale, [which went] down a fifth and 80 per cent respectively”

("Abercrombie & Fitch"). Their models are not able to fill their stores as frequently and it’s hard

to compete when neighboring stores are adding new items every couple weeks.

Other brands, however, have found success in promoting their business as an opportunity

to combat the waste and consumption that comes as a consequence to fast fashion. Some have

coined the term “slow fashion” in which “​durability-focused companies say their success lies in

providing a true antidote to fast-fashion: ultra high-quality clothing, made sustainably, that

people can afford​” (Cline). One of the most successful, which has been featured in Forbes, the
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New York Times, and numerous other media companies, is Tom Cridland. Cridland is famous

for his “30 Year” items, which are guaranteed to last 30 years, otherwise they will repair it.

Cuyana is another slow fashion brand whose slogan is “fewer, better things” (Cline). These

brands, like many slow fashion brands, operate online “by cutting out brick-and-mortar

expenses, wholesaling and retail markups, [and] their products go for prices that might not scare

off a generation” (Cline) used to extremely cheap clothing. These brands produce clothing with

longevity in mind because they recognize that people would be more likely to pay extra for items

that last longer; in fact, “41 percent of Americans responded that they are willing to pay more for

products and services provided by companies that are committed to making a positive impact

socially and environmentally” (Cline). And the trend is continuing to rise. In this same survey,

millennials represented “51 percent of those who will pay extra for sustainable products”

(“Global Consumers...”).

The emergence of fast fashion has been fast paced and far reaching. It has become the

norm in fashion consumption around the globe, as consumers expect more trendy items at a

much faster pace.

This fast production pace still requires the same resources though, but this time at a much

greater volume. This can be taxing on the environment and intensified by the fact that fast

fashion clothes are of a lower quality and must be replaced more frequently.

It takes 700 gallons of water alone to produce just a single t-shirt (“In Trendy World...”).

That’s enough water for someone to drink for 900 days (Wicker). Of course, this is before the

shirt has even been used. In an age where fashion is being produced at a rate greater than it has

ever been before, the lifespan of these clothes has had a detrimental effect in nearly all of its
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phases. The fashion industry is “one of the most polluting in the world - second only to the oil

industry​” (qtd. in Burnyeat)​. The production, use, and discard of clothes constitute a hugely

unsustainable lifecycle in which fast fashion clothing lives.

Clothes are produced by taking natural resources and then treating them to fabricate

textiles and ultimately stylish pieces. The resources used in the fashion industry are immense in

number and vary throughout the creation and use of the clothing. One of the main resources used

to produce fast fashion clothing is cotton.

Cotton is a versatile plant when it comes to the fashion industry because it can be spun

into fiber and easily dyed or treated. It can also be harvested in large quantities, making the

creation of textiles and thus clothing even faster, a characteristic that is particularly desirable for

fast fashion brands. Cotton has been used for decades as a resource for fashion production, but

increased demands have forced cotton production to outpace its natural growing cycle.

To achieve higher speeds of growth, a lot of limited resources, such as fresh water, have

to be used. Land space is required, which takes the place of natural habitat and reduces the

biodiversity in the area. Growing cotton is a resource intensive process; as more clothes are

manufactured, the space, time, and energy to produce continue to increase. According to the

documentary “The True Cost,” 80% of cotton grown today is genetically modified, most of

which is roundup ready, meaning that entire fields must be ready to harvest and therefore the

entire population of plants is treated with pesticides rather than spot treating known weeds.

These pesticides and chemicals contaminate the agricultural land and surrounding waterways.

The same can be said for the production of some fabrics, like leather, in which the raising

of animals requires “​huge amounts of feed crop and pastureland, water and fossil fuels”
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(Lambert) and, in addition, the animals produce 130 times as much excrement as humans, which

goes untreated into the ecosystem. As pollutants aggregate in the environment, the harms

become more widespread and far reaching.

An especially polluting process in clothing production is dyeing. In order to attain the

large variety of vibrant colors, textiles are treated with a number of chemicals. These chemicals,

some of which are cyanide based (Lambert), are expelled as waste with the water it was

dissolved in. Vincent Stanley, a co-editor of “The Footprint Chronicles,” the name of Patagonia’s

product impact site, notes that ​t​he textile industry alone is “one of the most chemically intensive

industries on earth, second only to agriculture, and the world’s largest polluter of increasingly

scarce fresh water.” Often illegally, these chemicals remain untreated and are introduced to

natural water sources (Stanley). This waste water, warm from production and saturated with dyes

and chemicals, increases the ph of the water ways and brings with it salts and metals that travel

further into the ecosystem (Stanley). As a result, animals are left undefended; the chemicals

“leach into farm land or settle into the viscera of fish” (Stanley). Pollution can have a detrimental

affects on local organisms, particularly when those chemicals are not used efficiently.

Since most of clothing production, and thus dyeing, is done in developing countries, there

is a lack of technology to keep the process efficient. Without computerized production,

consistent coloring between batches is challenging. In the industry “​10% of fabric is usually

scrapped because of inconsistent dyeing, with another 10-20% re-dyed” (Desai). This

inconsistency results in additional use of chemicals, contributing further to the volume of

wastewater, and thus pollution, produced by the industry. It is estimated that “20 percent of

industrial water pollution comes from textile dyeing and treatment” (Stanley).
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Due to the fact that fast fashion requires a rapid turnout of new clothing, the impact of

chemicals, be it dyes, pesticides, or others, is magnified by their more frequent use. Simply

doubling the useful life of these clothes could reduce polluting “emissions by 24%, saving large

quantities of fresh water and significantly cutting the release of hazardous chemicals” (​Russell).

With fewer clothes being manufactured, the use and impact of chemicals would be directly

reduced.

Once the clothes have been produced and constructed, the clothing is delivered to stores.

Since fast fashion relies so heavily on the cheap labor most frequently found in developing

countries, clothes have to travel hundreds or thousands of miles just to get to a store to be sold.

The fuel alone to transport the large volume of fast fashion clothing is notable, as the emissions

of these vehicles contribute to further pollution.

Upon purchase in stores, consumers begin to use the clothing. The washing, drying, and

ironing of clothes, fast fashion or not, uses significant amounts of water and energy, which are

damaging to the earth solely because that type of care uses limited resources, like fossil fuels and

fresh water. In fast fashion however, the real damage comes from the low quality of the fabrics.

This low quality causes chemicals and, most importantly, microfibers to leech from the clothes.

The chemicals enter the waterways and pollute fresh water needed for drinking. Unlike

chemicals, however, microfibers are not dissolvable. Mircofibers typically come from synthetic

fibers, which besides emitting nearly three times more CO2 than cotton, causes tiny plastic fibers

to fall from the clothing and wash away into the environment (​Russell). These synthetic fibers

are already present in nearly 60% of clothing made today (Russell) and “​a single garment

cleaned in a domestic washing machine can produce more than 1900 fibers” (​Welle). Microfibers
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are particularly damaging to the environment because their size makes it challenging to clean up.

Particles of such a small size travel easily through the ecosystem. They may be ingested by

smaller organisms whereupon they manifest in large quantities in organisms at the top of their

food chains.

The clothes that we wear can also affect our individual health. Skin is an organ that is

constantly taking in particles from its surroundings which then enter the body and make their

way into the bloodstream. Fast fashion clothes are treated with a lot of chemicals that are then

absorbed through our skin as we wear clothing (Ross). This exposure can sometimes lead to

hormone disorders or even cancer (“Greenpeace Exige...”). Some organizations, like

Greenpeace, have been on the forefront in calling out fast fashion brands to reduce their use of

chemicals. Zara is one fast fashion brand which has responded by implementing changes and

goals to remove all toxins from their clothes by the year 2020 (“Greenpeace Exige...”). Action to

address these health issues has to be taken quickly as continued exposure only increases the

effect of these toxins.

Cheap fast fashion clothes affects the environment long after the consumer no longer

wears them​. ​After​ clothes have been discarded by their user, there are typically two options for

their disposal: donation or disposal. While the former is more ideal, it is far more likely that used

clothing will end up in a dump. In the United States, 84 percent of used clothes are brought to

landfills or an incinerator (Wicker). ​If the 14 million tons of clothing produced by Americans

each year were used in a recycling program, it’s estimated that the environmental benefit would

be the “equivalent of taking 7.3 million cars and their carbon dioxide emissions off the road”

(Wicker). ​In New York City alone, it costs ​$20.6 million to move​ “​200,000 tons of textiles... to
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the dump every year” (Wicker). The fabrics used to make the fast fashion clothes that are

commonly found in landfills are typically made from synthetic fibers like polyester or nylon.

These fibers are “a type of plastic made from petroleum, [and] will take hundreds of years, if not

a thousand, to biodegrade” (Wicker). The textile must sit in increasingly larger dumps, taking up

land space. What does degrade releases chemicals into its surroundings, which can pollute the

groundwater in the area it is buried (Wicker). Contaminated groundwater is not potable and this

can be devastating for the communities where this waste is located.

Some companies have been working hard to find ways to recycle textiles to combat the

continued disposal of used clothing. The benefits would be immense as new resources would not

be needed to produce new fabrics and companies would be able to enforce closed-loop

technology. Closed loop technology would reuse fabrics endlessly, as the material travels

“through textile factories, garment factories, stores, your closet, secondhand retailers, textile

recyclers and back to textile factories again” (Wicker); nothing would have to go to a landfill.

Yet as of now, the process to recycle clothes, especially fast fashion clothes, is not efficient

technologically or in terms of profitability.

When cotton is recycled, it “results in a lower-quality textile that tears too easily to be

wearable” (Wicker). Yet cotton can not be recycled once it has been dyed or blended with other

fibers. Other fabrics, like polyester, have to be broken down into their core components in order

to be recycled. Patagonia is a company that uses technology to recycle some of its polyester

clothing, but they do so without earning any profit because “the process is prohibitively

expensive and finicky, requiring high-quality polyester textile as an input, instead of the cheap

polyester textiles typically used by fast-fashion retailers” (Wicker). The recycling technology
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will become more useful once it can easily distinguish and separate cotton, synthetic fibers, and

blended fibers, since most fast fashion clothing, and clothing in general, is made up of a

combination of these fabrics (Wicker). Closed loop technology is also desirable for fast fashion

brands as they would have fewer upfront costs in producing their products.

One of the most successful companies in fast fashion, H&M, introduced an annual grant

in 2016 as an incentive to close the loop in fashion production (​“H&M Conscious...”)​. The grant

is €1 million for five winners to help produce their innovative ideas to make the fashion industry

more sustainable. Closing the loop in fashion would be beneficial for traditional and fast fashion

brands alike because the cost of natural resources would be eliminated or otherwise significantly

reduced. If fewer resources are used to make clothing, the environment will be taxed less and

fashion production would become a more sustainable industry.

For now, however, not all useable clothing can be recycled. Clothing that is no longer

wanted by a consumer can still be donated and find a new life somewhere else. Out of 80 billion

new items that are produced each year, only a quarter will be recycled or donated (​Welle)​ and

10% of these manufactured clothes are never even sold to begin with (Burnyeat).​ ​Donated

clothing is typically sent to secondhand charity stores. These stores receive so many donations

that they typically only sell 20% of their stock (Wicker). Most of the time, secondhand stores

won’t even sell fast fashion clothes because it’s inexpensive, poor quality, and comes in such

large quantities (Wicker). What is left is sent to warehouses where workers sort through

thousands of pounds of clothing each day to be sent in bales to other countries (Wicker). There

has been a saturation of secondhand clothing and there is nearly too many donated clothes to be

used by those in need (Gorman). What cannot be salvaged for further use as clothing, about 50%
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of what is sent to these warehouses, will be cut into rags for auto shops, or processed into

“shoddy” to create building insulation, carpet padding, or floor mats (Wicker). But despite

finding further use in these other manufacturing industries, these textiles will be broken up

further and further until eventually being sent to a landfill, further adding to the volume of waste

in the textile industry.

Fast fashion has a substantially larger environmental impact than the traditional fashion

structure in large part due to the volume of clothing it produces. Chemicals are expelled from

factories and farms as more clothing is manufactured and, with a much shorter lifespan, the

clothing is sent to landfills at a much greater rate. The low quality clothing has an impact on our

own health and the health of our environment and continues to escalate as fast fashion becomes

the norm.

The environment is affected by all levels of the supply chain; chemicals are released by

factories, washed clothing, and by textiles left in landfills. However, workers at each level of this

supply chain are not treated equally. Fashion is extremely globalized, and the cheap price of

clothing has real consequences. Those working in the low positions of the industry are far worse

off than those who have command over production. Today, one in six people works in the global

fashion industry, whether that be with the fashion brands themselves, on farms that grow the

resources for textiles, or at the factories that create the clothing (Ross). Choices that are made by

the executive levels of a brand hinder the ability of those at the bottom of the production chain,

particularly in factories.​ ​This can lead to dangerous working conditions, unstable jobs, and

human rights violations in developing nations, all of which have become characteristic of fast

fashion manufacturing.
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Historically, clothing has been an expensive investment and something that was highly

valued. According to the book ​Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion​,

however, clothing prices have continued to drop since production became industrialized. These

cheap fashion prices appear democratic to consumers because most people are able to afford

them. Yet the burden of these cost cuts have to fall somewhere, and it is typically on the

low-level workers of the garment industry.

During the 1960’s only 5% of the clothing in the United States was made overseas, but

today that percentage has increased to 97% (Ross). As competition between brands forced prices

to drop, production was outsourced to low-cost economies. Especially in the fashion industry,

competition is the driving factor for profits. When every company is selling shirts, those with the

cheapest prices are the ones who get customers, and the easiest way to cut prices is to use cheap

labor. The clothing companies that “take advantage of lower labor cost inevitably put pressure on

those that do not, driving all to move towards this cost cutting approach” (Cline 54). Today, that

cheap labor is most often found in Southeast Asia, but that wasn’t always the case.

In the 19th century, industrial production was the major source of employment in the

New England area, and farm “girls were delighted, for the most part, to leave behind rural

drudgery” (Anderson) to work in the textile mills. The legacy of these factories can be found in

the many mill buildings that scatter the New England area. Production changes can help to

decrease cost, but typically push workers to fight for labor reform or better wages. The managers

of these New England factories would replace their working populations entirely to avoid the

increased expenses that came with accountability (Anderson). Factory work changed hands from

Protestant to Catholics, then Irish to French Canadians and, in this manner, “garment
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manufacturing has flowed from ethnicity to ethnicity, as well as from region to region, from New

England to the Middle Atlantic states, from North to South” (Anderson). More recently, China

became the major supplier of garment manufacturing. Clothing production though, has continued

to move to countries with even lower wages since Chinese factory wages have continued to

increase, sometimes by 10% a year (Gorman). According to host Madeline Brand of NPR’s Day

to Day, most of the garment factory work in China, besides a few specific skills, has moved to

Cambodia, where wages are typically less than $100 a month. The trend of moving production to

cheaper countries has continued to create devastating difficulties.

Protests by Cambodian garment workers have been on the rise in recent years. Their aim

to increase the minimum wage to $160 a month has spread riots and unrest between the factory

workers and their employers (Ross). In many cases, according to Cambodian union leader Chea

Mony, “manufacturers are using the crisis as an excuse to close factories and move them

elsewhere without compensating workers.” Relocating labor can cut costs further; new sourcing

locations, like Bangladesh, have low prices and minimal labor standards. But closing factory

work only makes the Cambodian crisis even more detrimental. In the nation of Cambodia, “two

thirds of the national export earnings come from the garment industry, and production has

already started to decrease, sometimes as high as 30% in some factories” (“Cambodian

Garment...”). Losing work in the garment sector has already had a significant impact on the

Cambodian economy. As those in control of the fast fashion industry continue to choose cheaper

labor over reforms in the countries they are already sourcing from, those workers who are

fighting for better working conditions inevitably lose work.

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Moving to these inexpensive nations is also a risk to the safety of the workers, as

developing nations tend to lack the infrastructure to meet the needs and demands of the fashion

industry. Currently 10% of all garment factory workers live in Bangladesh, where the minimum

wage is less than $3 a day (Ross). Bangladesh is also the location of the most deadly accident in

garment factory history. On April 24, 2013, Rana Plaza, a factory making clothes for Western

brands, collapsed. More than 1,000 workers were killed and the factory owner was ultimately

charged with negligence for the accident. Those working in Rana Plaza had been earning less

than $38 a month, or 24¢ an hour (Williamson). Cracks on the factory walls had been noticed by

the workers in factory and they had left the building the morning of the collapse before being

ordered by factory managers to return to work (Williamson). The clothing being made in the

Rana Plaza factory at the time of its collapse had labels for brands like Joe Fresh and Walmart

(Williamson). But these brands were never held accountable for the loss of these garment

workers mainly because these brands never placed direct orders with this factory.

Typically, orders are placed by large brands with megasuppliers who then direct that

work to factories that meet the standards of the brands they are supplying to. Li & Fung is an

apparel megasupplier which operates more than 15,000 suppliers in 40 countries, and

megasupplier Yue Yuen makes one-fifth of all shoes in the world (Hobbes). These suppliers hire

factories which subsequently take on orders that are much larger than their facilities can handle

and thus hire third parties to help complete orders. There have been cases where “​small factories

in Bangladesh, capable of producing just 10,000 pieces per month, were accepting orders 10

times that large and then filling them through agents, small workshops, and home-based

workers” (Hobbes). ​For every tailor in Bangladesh “working in a factory, there are several
 Fraser-Mines 19

employed in homes, workshops or backyards. Around 80 percent of the workers are informal”

(Hobbes) and outsourcing work prevents child labor or underpaid work from being regulated.

Child labor in the industry can leave entire populations without education or money by the time

they reach adulthood (Anderson). In some instances, factory “​owners play a song over the

loudspeakers as a signal to shuffle the child laborers out the back” (Hobbes). This type of factory

leadership can create more devastating issues when the poor infrastructure in these developing

countries begins to fail.

The Tazreen garment factory in Bangladesh, a nine-story building with a permit for only

three stories, caught fire in 2012. The building had no sprinklers or fire escapes and the building

was locked and the windows barred while employees worked (Williamson). There were 112

fatalities in this incident, yet this factory had already had its fire safety certificate revoked

months before the incident, and WalMart had specifically banned its suppliers from using the

factory (Hobbes). Why then, did 60% of the clothes being produced there have WalMart labels?

While brands state that they do “not own or operate any of the third party vendors or contractors

involved, [and that] it is [their] policy and practice to not purchase from any companies who

violate the law,” (Hobbes) the outsourced production to other smaller factories continues mostly

unregulated. Brands are unknowingly using companies that do violate the law. Success Apparel

was the megasupplier with whom WalMart placed their order, who then hired Simco to produce

the garments who sub-contracted Tuba Group to manufacture 7% of the items, which then

assigned that portion of the order to Tazreen (Hobbes). The complexity of the production

sourcing makes it challenging for companies to truly know where their products are actually

being made.
 Fraser-Mines 20

Most large fashion brands have codes of conduct that ensure their products meet the

minimum safety and working standards they have set. While well written and adequately

addressing the contemporary issues in the garment industry, these codes of conduct are voluntary

and, as depicted by the Tazreen fire incident, are difficult to enforce. Yet when the bill The

Decent Working Conditions and Fair Competition Act was submitted in Congress to effectively

turn these codes into law, these same large fashion companies were the first to speak out against

it, claiming it “would be an impediment to free trade” (Ross). So while nearly every prominent

fashion brand will market their products as ethically produced, there are no laws in place to

verify that their statements are legitimate. It is hard to hold these brands accountable when they

justify their lack of action by saying they weren’t aware of the issue to begin with. The victims in

the Tazreen fire were never compensated for the devastating fire because large brands claim that

“because the orders violated their policies, they’re not obligated to compensate victims”

(Hobbes). Preventing these types of infractions poses a challenge when there are simply too few

auditors and too many levels in the supply chain.

The cycle of bringing work to poor economies, such as Bangladesh, is positive in that it

provides more jobs, but most of the time large companies are exploiting the workers’ need to

work in order to keep wages low. In spite of terrible working conditions and extremely low

wages, garment factory jobs are still some of the highest-paying in these developing countries.

Often times the factory auditors are paid less than those who actually work in the factory, which

keeps the number of factory inspections low and thus prevents regulations from being enforced

(Hobbes). Audits are mostly comprised of paperwork, and inspectors typically spend one or two

days “at each factory... checking time sheets for shift lengths, birth certificates for child labor,
 Fraser-Mines 21

pay stubs for wages and overtime” (Hobbes), which can be easily forged. The countries that

produce most fast fashion clothing are desperate for the work that the garment industry brings,

which is why they are willing to accept the low prices offered to them by larger companies.

Some garment workers have begun to organize unions to fight for better working conditions and

living wages, but only 5% of the workforce in Bangladesh is actually unionized and “terminating

the contracts of workers who attempt to unionize their workplace is also common practice”

(​Narayanasamy). The fear of losing their job frequently keeps garment workers from fighting for

better working conditions because little pay is still better than no pay at all. Additionally, “30 per

cent of a factory's workers must have joined before a union will be officially recognized and

registered” ​(​Narayanasamy) and workers often face threats for joining, making that 30 per cent

threshold very hard to reach in most factories. Most of these unions are fighting to increase the

living wage, and it’s estimated that the price of an individual garment would only have to go up

1 to 3 percent to provide a safer working condition and living wage in these developing countries

(Anderson). In the United States however, that percentage is much higher at 40% in order to pay

American garment workers a minimum wage.

Labor issues are not limited to the countries that lack the laws to protect their workers.

Even here in the United States, garment workers are often underpaid and unable to fight their

employers for due wages. Most of the garment workers in America are undocumented

immigrants in Los Angeles and are thus unable to fight their employers for better working

conditions for fear of being deported (Harlan). These American garment workers are typically

paid by the piece rather than the hour, which is legal unless the wages fail to reach the minimum

wage. Most U.S. companies that keep work in the United States do so to cut costs on
 Fraser-Mines 22

transportation and to benefit from the higher quality manufacturing (Harlan). But garment

workers in America are also competing with far cheaper nations where the minimum wage is

sometimes lower that two dollars. As clothing prices in the past few years have continued to

drop, most factories in Los Angeles have failed to reach the minimum wage requirement. In that

same time, ​“the number of wage claims made by California garment workers has more than

tripled... [but] only about 20 percent of workers that receive a court-ordered payment actually

collect money” (Harlan). The low price of fast fashion has visible repercussions for the factory

workers in the United States, where illegal immigrant laws and easy access to cheap labor

cultivate low pay.

The cost of clothing is reverse engineered in order to meet the price that consumers are

willing to pay, and that cost cutting most frequently falls at the bottom of the supply chain.

Garment workers around the world face poor working conditions and extremely low wages.

These workers, though, are dependent on this work, which is why so many accidents and

infractions have continued to occur.

Fast fashion has become one of the most influential industries in the world, with some of

the most wealthy people heading its companies and millions of employees working below them.

However, fast fashion companies are operating at the will of the customer who expects to pay

cheap prices for a constant stream of new items. The customer’s desire to affordably wear new

things has pushed companies to cut costs in as many ways as possible. Fast fashion is an

unsustainable model of fashion production because of the immense amount of waste it produces

and how heavily it relies on cheap labor.

 Fraser-Mines 23

Clothes are produced in low cost economies where labor is not heavily regulated and the

sheer number of resources being used to create these clothes are consuming energy and land

space that could be used to grow food or provide water. If the fashion industry is going to

continue in future generations, it will need to reevaluate the worth of all resources used to create

pieces. This includes physical resources, but also human resources. The ability to finder workers

who are willing to accept extremely low wages will only decrease as equal human rights are

adopted by nations around the globe. A shift away from fast fashion will require a change in

mindset for fast fashion companies and their shoppers, but the benefits of having a sustainable

model of fashion production will allow for the creativity and cultural influence of this industry to

last long into the future.

 Fraser-Mines 24

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