Fast Fashion

Fast fashion is a term used to describe purchasing clothing which is cheap and of poor quality, instead of spending more on higher quality clothing which lasts longer.

Sweat Shops

Suprisingly, there are many high street clothing chains which operate sweat shops to generate fast fashion. These include Primark, Matalan, Gap, H + M, supermarkets and Marks and Spencers. Sweat shops are in the UK and abroad.

In the UK, there are sweat shops with illegal immigrants as the workers who get very low pay and even have to work all day, every day. Working conditions abroad include: low pay, long hours, unhealthy work areas, unethical health and safety regulations and poor treatment of the employees.

Children as young as 9 years old are working for as little as 60p per day on shifts lasting more than 9 hours at a time. There are no employment laws or obligations that have to be followed, which has even caused death. An extreme example of poor treatment is the case of a 9 month pregnant woman working in a factory which supplies Gap. She was refused immediate leave after going into labour, being made to fill in forms which took and hour and a half. She claims she was in such pains she could barely stand. When she finally made it out of the gates, she collapsed and gave birth in the street but the baby unfortunatley died.

Catwalk to high street

Fashion has a very quick turnaround with 2 seasonal trends each year. To make the public want to go out and buy the in season clothing, the high street changes their stock more regularly. Because of the quick turnaround of fashion, the high street hosts regular sales to sell off the fast fashion to allow the new stock in. Designer outlets also get rid of last seasons lines which makes it affordable for the public, therefore contributing to fast fashion.

With fast fashion, its unlikely that the after sale leftovers are recycled. This is due to the poor quality and fast turnaround of fashion. Fast fashion does not contribute to ethical fashion as it is likely that whats leftover from previous seasons is not re-used or recycled, therefore is wasted.

Emily Fielding