Research: Fashion Fix

This week, I have listened to Fashion Fix. I listened to the 3 episodes that were more focussed on fast fashion and the ethics of clothes to fit with my research. They were ' Sustainable Streetwear with Emmanuel Enemokwu', 'Ethical Denim with Molly Hopwood and Tansy Hoskins' and 'Garment Worker Rights with Kalpona Akter'. I chose to only look at these episodes as the other episodes in the series were about different aspects of the industry that didn't fit my topic of Fast Fashion.

The podcast interviews people who work within the industry, mostly by trying to create sustainable brands which has given me insight into the issues that these brands have to think about eg. sourcing the most sustainable materials at a good cost. The episode about garment worker's rights has provided me with a lot of information about the treatment of workers and what companies can/should do to be more ethical. I have also found this podcast useful for gaining statistics about the fashion industry as it gave facts about the amount of clothes we buy, waste and produce. I made notes while listening to this. 

Sustainable Streetwear with Emmanuel Enemokwu

·       Emmanuel runs a streetwear start up that aims to be kind to the world

·       Polyester – synthetic, made from oil, 200 years+ to decompose

·       Cotton – natural fibre

·       Sustainability means consuming the planets resources at a rate at which they can be replenished (BBC Environment Analyst)

·       Ellen McArthur foundation say textile production produces more greenhouse gas than international flights = shipping combined

·       Organic cotton – more sustainable than conventional cotton – minimise environmental impact by reducing chemicals, pesticides and some of the water

·       Life cycle of the product – creation to disposal

·       More costly because organic cotton costs more, can solve it buy buying larger amount and consumers are more willing to pay more for organic cotton than conventional

·       The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has calculated that a Polyester shirt has more than double the carbon footprint of a cotton shirt

·       Issues with cotton – Rap Waste Charity found that 1kg of cotton (roughly one shirt and a pair of jeans) can use as much as 10-20,000 litres of water to produce

·       Organic blended content standard logo – item contains at least 5% organic fibres, blended with non-organic or synthetic materials

·       Organic 100 content standard – at least 95% organic material

·       Fashion Week – Extinction Rebellion say its unsustainable, British Fashion Council who run it say they want it to be a place to make change

Ethical Denim with Molly Hopwood and Tansy Hoskins

·       Over 100 billion items of clothing are produced globally each year using 1000s of chemicals, 3/5 items end up in landfill within 1 year (BBC Earth)

·       Molly – Denim For Good collection (Tu – Sainsburys)

·       Tansy Hoskins – wrote stitched up

·       Denim made from cotton – water intensive, chemically intensive

·       Approx. 16,000 litres of water needed to grow the cotton for one pair of jeans

·       The Arral Sea – dried up because water has been used for cotton crop. No longer ocean, bed of the ocean is filled with pesticides. Fishermen lost jobs because the ocean has gone.

·       Forced labour in Uzbekistan – forced to pick cotton during every harvest season. Anti Slavery International (charity) – brands to pledge not to use Uzbeck cotton until this stops.

·       Route of rivers changed to feed the water into cotton plants

·       Direct correlation between production of cotton and reduction of the sea

·       MPs report – we are wearing the fresh water supply of central Asia

·       Once harvested, cotton ends up in industrial mills – labour conditions (child labour), local industrial units

·       Factory – dip dry technique, jeans dipped into dye and then dried and dipped again and dried. Dangerous processes used to make jeans look faded (trendy) – sand blasting to create creases/lighter blue patches – creates ting particles of dust and silica that is inhaled by workers. Little information about how this is done – can lead to sand blasting or lung cancer.

·       Stone washing – water intensive, jeans pounded by stones to create faded look, lots of electricity

·       Every day almost 50% of the population are wearing blue jeans (University College London)

·       BCI cotton (better cotton initiative programme) non-profit that educates farmers on growing sustainable cotton

·       Her denim range contains 25% post consumer waste (recycled fibres)

·       Used lasering to give worn look – safe for producer (behind glass, eyewear) less water, less energy

·       Sustainable clothing brand in a supermarket - £22. Price kept down by buying material in bulk as large number of consumers – cheaper than other sustainable ranges because of the amount they’re able to produce

·       Rana Plaza disaster – Bangladesh garment factory collapsed, and more than 1000 people were killed.

·       Cotton biodegrades over time as it’s a natural fibre – jeans now sometimes have elastane in which doesn’t break down

·       Learning to mend your clothes so things last longer – throw away culture

·       Wash your jeans every 6 months

·       81% of Bangladesh’s exports are textile based

·       Bangladesh factories used because the cost is very low – national minimum wage there is much less than in the UK (appear to be playing by the rules). Minimum wage is around £74 a month

·       China, Cambodia, India, Pakistan, Mexico, Morrocco, Tunisia, Macedonia, Bulgaria used to produce fast fashion

·       Fast fashion industry runs on exploitation – some small brands doing good

·       Rana Plaza – 8 story building, illegally built floors ontop of the building to get more workers to make British and American brand’s clothing. Had huge generators that were turned on during power shortages, machines vibrated a lot. Building started to crack – appeared the day before and workers knew it was unsafe, argument between managers and workers. Managers forced the workers to go in (usually young women) – threat fi being fired or losing money. Building shook and central pillars cracked, fell in in 90 seconds

·       Shopping decisions won’t change the fashion industry – legislation needed to make sure workers are given fair wages. No jeans that are made in slave conditions or at cost to planet. A movement needs to be created, brands won’t do it voluntarily

·       Investigate the companies promises about sustainability and do your own research

·       Fashion Revolution

Garment Worker Rights with Kalpona Akter

·       Kalpona Akter – campaigns to improve garment workers lives (used to be a garment worker)
·       Politicians started questioning fashion brands about their ethics – How do you make profit from selling a top for £2-3? Primark said that they don’t do advertising, and factories are paid earlier. Business model that lets them create cheap clothes.
·       Cheap clothes don’t come for free, the workers have to pay.
·       Bangladesh workers – claimed they had been slapped and insulted while making clothes for a large athleisure brand. A brand joined with Comic Relief, ran by the BBC, to make a t-shirt – alleged that garment workers making this only got 35p an hour.
·       2013 -1000 garment workers killed (Rana Plaza)
·       Bangladesh is the biggest garment producer after China.
·       At 12 – forced to leave school and work at the garment factory due to poverty
·       Supervisor shouting at workers – told to hurry up
·       Lunch – 1:30/2 o’clock – eat in production floor or stairs. Work from 2 till 10-11 ish, with a 10 minutes break (6:30pm) given one banana or bread.
·       More than 2-3 minutes in the toilet = shouted at
·       23 days in a row in the factory. 2-3 hours to sleep on the production floor
·       Youngest worker was 7 years old
·       Earnt $6 for 400 hours a month
·       Working hour – 8 hours
·       Right to organise
·       Minimum wage (at the time in Bangladesh) over twice as much as what she got (late 80s)
·       Increased last year to 8000 (about £74 a month) campaigners say this should be doubled so families can meet basic needs
·       Accord Bangladesh Fire and Building Safety agreement – only 2 brands had signed before Rana Plaza
·       Hundreds of workers died each year until 2013, in 2016 when agreement started working, death toll was 0.
·       Garment industry in Bangladesh – 2^nd largest in the world, 80% of foreign export, backbone of the economy, 4 mil workers in the industry, biggest industry in the country. Child labour – eliminated from exported oriented factories
·       Retail bosses in the UK asked how they can sell things for as little as two pounds – said they save money through doing little advertising or through intentionally making losses on some items to drive traffic to their websites. Not the full story – cheap clothes aren’t free, brands still have profits, workers don’t get enough money.
·       Stop buying cheap clothes- helping workers and the earth
·       Demanding that brands pay workers more
·       Don’t boycott clothes made in Bangladesh
·       Report by New York University – workers in the garment industry in Ethiopia are the worst paid in the world.
·       Garment workers in Leicester are paid less than minimum wage – not just abroad
·       Boycott suicide for Bangladesh – they need the jobs but also deserve to be paid fairly for that.
·       Everyone (factory owners, brands, gov, consumers etc whole supply chain’s) duty to make sure the people who make the clothes are paid fairly. Factory owners supposed to abide by the law, government supposed to monitor it
·       UK governments should be more strict on the brands
·       Consumers just think of price tag – use once or twice and get rid of them
·       Consumer can change this – go to brand and look for more than cost and the outfit. Find out who made the clothes – violence free factories, living wage, safe workplace. Rings bell in boss’ offices – shows people care
·       Global consumption said to rise by the equivalent of 500 billion extra t-shirts over the next 10 years – Pulse of Fashion industry report.
·       Consumers vice matters
·       How to research – Labour behind the Label. Talk to your friends, get involved.
·       Life is more important than a t-shirt
·       Emma Watson promoting Good on You 
·       300,000 regular visitors each month
·       Not my styles – another, similar app (currently not working) that was crowd funded


This podcast seems to be reliable as each statistic has been given a source which shows that they aren't made up, however, the views presented in the podcast only really showed a negative side to fast fashion so there was bias.