The way we make, use and throw away our clothes is unsustainable. Textile production contributes more to climate change than international aviation and shipping combined, consumes lake-sized volumes of fresh water and creates chemical and plastic pollution. Synthetic fibres are being found in the deep sea, in Arctic sea ice, in fish and shellfish. Our biggest retailers have ‘chased the cheap needle around the planet’, commissioning production in countries with low pay, little trade union representation and weak environmental protection. In many countries, poverty pay and conditions are standard for garment workers, most of whom are women. We are also concerned about the use of child labour, prison labour, forced labour and bonded labour in factories and the garment supply chain. Fast fashions’ overproduction and overconsumption of clothing is based on the globalisation of indifference towards these manual workers.

‘Fast fashion’ is a term used to describe a new accelerated fashion business model that has evolved since the 1980s. It involves increased numbers of new fashion collections every year, quick turnarounds and often lower prices. Reacting rapidly to offer new products to meet consumer demand is crucial to this business model.

More than $500 billion of value is lost every year due to clothing underutilisation and the lack of recycling, according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

By 2030 global apparel consumption is projected to rise by 63%, from 62 million tons today to 102 million tons—equivalent to more than 500 billion additional T-shirts.

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The UN says that by 2050 the equivalent of almost three planets could be required to provide the natural resources needed to sustain current lifestyles given the growth in global population.

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In September 2015, the UK signed up to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals including a commitment to ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.

Concerns have been raised throughout the inquiry that the current ‘fast fashion’ business model is encouraging over-consumption and generating excessive waste. It demands a high throughput of garments and is based on a linear economy, according to the Clothing Sustainability Research Group at Nottingham Trent University. Such garments are relatively cheap, aimed at consumers who want to change their wardrobe on a regular, trend driven, basis. They are offered at pocket money prices. Short lead times means that wash tests and wearer trials are often not feasible, with implications for garment quality. Many are not made from single fibre materials and cannot be recycled. This trend is being copied by luxury retailers such as Louis Vuitton which offers small collections every two weeks. ‘Fast luxury’ collections are often stitched in the same factories producing cheap ‘fast fashion’.

... if you look at where the growth in the retail market in the UK is coming from, it is very much from the low value end, particularly the success of online retailers—such as ASOS and Boohoo—who are competing on low prices and fast turnaround. I saw a dress on Boohoo that retailed at full price for £5 at the weekend. We have a market where these garments are mainly aimed at young women who are ... [gaining] pleasure from what they wear and expressing their identity through their clothing, but the actual value of the item is very low in real terms, in quality terms and in emotional terms to them. The incentive for them to then recycle or want to pass that on in some way, or even for charity shops to want that kind of product in their shops, is very low. The opportunity for that end of the market to have a second hand opportunity is quite limited.

Fast fashion has allowed all segments of society, irrespective of class, income or background to engage in the hedonistic and psychogenic pleasures of fashion. At no other time in human history has fashion been so accessible to so many people across our society. This is the power of fast fashion.

There is concern also that social media is driving faster fashion and encouraging over consumption and waste. Research by the Hubbub Foundation suggested that 17% of young people questioned said they wouldn’t wear an outfit again if it had been on Instagram. Online fashion companies have established relationships with online ‘influencers’ who advertise the latest fast fashion by modelling it on their Instagram and other social media feeds. Website cookies mean that retailers can target individuals with fast fashion adverts as they browse the Internet. Users now only have to tap on the photo to be told the price and get an online link to the clothes that influencers or reality TV stars are wearing. Eco Age said that stricter regulation for online marketing should be considered, arguing that there are psychological issues connected with high levels of consumption, as well as detrimental environmental and social effects caused by overconsumption.

I believe that we, and the waves of the new generation, will look back on the practices of today’s fashion industry in the same way we now look back at Victorian Workhouses, with utter incredulous horror. It is up to legislators and British law to keep up with the massive swing of ethical commercial consumer desire and how it can help form a better fashion industry and help obliterate its disgustingly wasteful practices

The overproduction of ‘fast’ fashion which will never be purchased or used and the insane speed which the sector churns out new designs almost every week means that the never-ending production of cheap fashion which is poorly made and will last only a few weeks and then be thrown away, has made our sector a monstrous disposable industry. The entire way the sector is structured so that the prospective sales orders are put into production rather than only making the production which has been actually ordered means that countless levels of wasted garments are produced.

The majority of global garment workers and artisans are women and girls, ‘the bulk of which make far less than a living wage, persistently face poor working conditions and live in poverty. Most work long hours up to six or seven days a week with reports of being burnt out and physically unable to continue beyond their 30s. We are told that women and girls face the brunt of the exploitation in the fashion industry, often at the bottom of the value chain working in the fields or factories. It is notable that the majority of fashion CEOs are men.

In written evidence Burberry said that it refuses to source from countries if it considers labour and environmental rights to fall below Burberry’s standards, particularly if there are concerns around modern slavery. These countries include: Bangladesh, Pakistan, Cambodia and Myanmar. Burberry stated that the list is reviewed in collaboration with its supply chain team.

Forced labour is used to pick cotton in two of the world’s biggest cotton producing countries, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Labour exploitation is also taking place in the UK. ‘Made in the UK’ should mean workers are paid at least the minimum wage. But we are told it is an open secret that some garment factories in places like Leicester are not paying the minimum wage. This must stop. But if the risk of being caught is low, then the incentive to cut corners is high. The same fast fashion retailers sourcing from Leicester are also selling clothes so cheaply that they are being treated as single use items. We buy more clothes per person in the UK than any other country in Europe. A glut of second hand clothing swamping the market is depressing prices for used textiles. What can’t be sold is torn up and turned into insulation and mattress stuffing. Worse still, around 300,000 tonnes of textile waste ends up in household black bins every year, sent to landfill or incinerators. Less than 1% of material used to produce clothing is recycled into new clothing at the end of its life. Meanwhile, retailers are burning new unsold stock merely to preserve their brand.

Fashion shouldn’t cost the earth. But the fashion industry has marked its own homework for too long. Voluntary corporate social responsibility initiatives have failed significantly to improve pay and working conditions or reduce waste. The scientific warnings are stark on sustainability. Overconsumption and climate change are driving mass extinction. We need a new economic model for fashion. Business as usual no longer works.

"WTF is a circular economy, and can it stop fashion trashing the planet?" (23rd May 2019) Available at;  https://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/article/44580/1/wtf-is-a-circular-economy-fashion-recycling-sustainability-copenhagen

'Costing the earth: Fast fashion slow down' (26th March 2019) Available at; https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0003jj9 

'WAR ON WASTE' (1st January 2020) Available at; https://youtu.be/QgzYn7qgQmk

'Fast Fashion' (February 8th 2020) Available at;

https://open.spotify.com/episode/50hQVaZPCx0czXjE2lhXbi?si=hoIoJqWeT5CZXX7XyyiLzQ

'How fast fashion is destroying the planet' (September 3rd 2019) Available at; https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/03/books/review/how-fast-fashion-is-destroying-the-planet.html

'The global environmental injustice of fast fashion' (27th December 2018) Available at; https://ehjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12940-018-0433-7\

'The true cost of fashion' (November 29th 2018) Available at; https://youtu.be/tLfNUD0-8ts