In the late '80s, supermarkets
started selling basics like t-shirts
and underwear. Ten years later,
they were also selling clothes,
especially mid-season copies of
high street fashion collections.
As a consequence, designers
needed to improve their sales
by producing more than two
collections -spring/summer and
autumn/winter - a year. This is
how "Fast Fashion" started.
Fashion companies segmented
their supply-chain, moving the
manufacturing of basic items
to poorer countries, where the
salaries are very low, and at
the same time keeping small
factories at home, used to label
items, and adjust them with
finishings according to the
market's demand.
By doing so, they make sure
that every collection fits
customers taste, and what is
more, they secure themselves
the possibility of launching more
than one collection each season.
A lot of money is made with this
system, but very little reaches
the far away venues where most
of the work is done.
Workers in these factories are
often underpaid, under age, and
under appreciated; mothers lay
their children on the ground
while they sew for 14 hours per
day between walls made of
sheets and covered in mould.
Children are employed for their
tiny hands, and are forced to
work for 10 hours a day, for
ridiculous salaries.
Us Western buyers often ignore
what "Fast Fashion" implies.
As long as we can buy cheap
clothes, we can come to terms
with anything. A Cambridge
University study reports that
women have four times as many
clothes as they had in 1980.
Most of the clothes made by big
companies like H&M, Topshop
and many others come from
synthetic materials, which
means they take centuries
to decompose once they are
thrown away. Both people and
the environment are suffering
from this "Fast Fashion" trend.
We need to start acting right
away, converting "Fast" to
"Ethical".
7
11
Issue 79 / 2015
FASHION
guestlist.net
Been out buying loads of clothes recently?
Those tops for £10 you saw the other day?
Notice how clothes are cheap but your rent
is really expensive. The prices for what you
really need in life are going through the roof
Fashion today: Fast
and dangerous
