Good to see so much reporting on #fastfashion production in #leicester including investigative reporting - undercover Sunday times journalist who was hired in factory on Thursday. This moment has been a long time coming..../1
Former MP for Wakefield @MaryCreaghMP led an Environmental Audit Committee investigation into #fastfashion two years ago. I was one of the experts who gave evidence. Her subsequent report #fixingfashion is worth a read. Every recommendation was rejected by the government /2
Meanwhile @boohoo sent a resounding ‘fuck off’ in the form of refusing to appear or answer questions. clear that we now had a UK brand/retailer that would not be answerable. Report rejection gave green light to go for it, increase profits with no checks & balances. /3
Now @boohoo will cycle through the usual denials/playbook - ‘we don’t own factories so limited control’ blah blah. They will cut and run, ditching factories that are caught out. Will do anything to keep producing. You’ll recognise these excuses of course. 4
The reason why @boohoo has been caught out is because their exploitation is under our noses and would seem to have huge consequences for everybody. This is a fast fashion story where the impact is obviously larger than the sweat shop workers (usually a blind eye is turned). /5
Worth remembering this system of production #fastfashion has huge impact enviro and human everyday. A disproportionate amount of your taxes must go to cleaning up plastic fibres waste from disposable @boohoo garments for example. /6
But the #truecost of #fastfashion is still out of sight. Right now @labourlabel @cleanclothes and others are battling to get fashion retailers to #payup for orders that were completed months ago in Bangladesh and Cambodia. Garment workers are on the brink of starvation. /7
This must turn from a moment to THE point at which we call time on this production system of #fastfashion. That should’ve happened after 1334 people were killed in a single morning making fashion for western brands in the #ranaplaza catastrophe in 2013. it didn’t /8
‘Don’t worry’ said the #fastfashion brands, ‘it IS totally possible to produce jeans for £7 etc and do it ethically, we just need to do some tweaks.’ The #fasttashion industry inexplicably is allowed to run itself and the crisis in Leicester is the result. /9
So my ‘ask’ is that we do not fall for these dangerous lies anymore and shift from the delusion (I know hard to do this) that #fastfashion has consequences that can be managed or is somehow worth it. This is a system based on a chaotic, dysfunctional and harmful supply chain /10
Media/NGOs working on fashion stories do not get drawn into promises that this supply chain can be made right from brands/retailers. Please no more league tables of good/bad. Yes @boohoo has no shame but many other egs of brands using domestic sweatshops This is the system /11
Hey #fastfashion ‘consumers’ this is the point to ask why you should be responsible for propping this system up? Why are plastic-fibred sweatshop clothes all you are deemed worthy of? Recommend pushing back & start by following @labourlabel @cleanclothes Free yourself! ENDS
