Emma's EPQ

In 2013, the Rana Plaza garment factory collapsed, killing approximately 1,100 people and injuring another 2,500. Most of these were young women. Cracks were discovered in the building before the collapse but the building owner ignored warning that the building was dangerous so the workers continued working the next day, when the building collapsed. From the research I have completed, the Rana Plaza Disaster has been mentioned many times as one of the reasons why the sustainability and ethics of brands are being questioned. This piece of research was useful for my project so that I can understand why the treatment of workers is so important.

I watched 'Fashion Conscious' on BBC iPlayer which is a short series about different aspects of the fashion industry. I found this to be really useful as it showed issues with the fashion industry and also looked at solutions that are being developed. It was also useful as it looked, in detail, at different problems with fast fashion, eg. water usage and materials. These are the notes I made whilst watching. ·        Future Fabrics – fish leather treated with natural products, the fish is eaten by locals and the skin was being thrown away so they use it to make clothes instead (luxury, couldn’t be max produced) – ethical issues and not necessarily sustainable. Refibra (recycled cotton and wood pulp), stocked in 1m, can buy a smaller amount which is against fast fashion as designers make something their own again – more sustainable and value clothes more. More expensive – sustainable products will be cheaper than non-sustainable ones if the producers ...

I wanted to research whether consumers are willing to shop more sustainably or not so I read 'Could I go a year without buying any new clothes?' and 'Don't feed the monster! The people who have stopped buying new clothes' . 'Could I go a year without buying any new clothes? is written by a woman who decided not to buy new clothes for a year. She talks about how fashion has been a 'comfort blanket' for her but was also negative as she gave tooo much time to thinking about clothes. This article was a useful piece of research as it shows the positives of buying second hand (spending less money, not feeling that you have to buy something every time, appreciating clothes more) but also highlights some for the issues with second hand shopping (doesn't cater for all bodies, harder to find what you want). The article also gives tips for not buying fast fashion which helps other consumers. The other article,  'Don't feed the monster! The people ...

I read up to page 31 of The 2019 Ethical Fashion Report . From this, I found how companies can be rated on their ethical practices. It also highlighted different considerations within ethics that I hadn't heard about in my other research. The report was also useful as it compared the company's scores on the 2018 report to the new report, which shows the way that fast fashion is changing. The report was by the British Fashion Council which is a reliable source. These are my notes. ·        Population set to increase to 8.5 billion by 2030 which could lead to an increase (by 63%) from 62 million to 102 million tonnes in global textile production – equivalent to 500 billion t-shirts ·        Small and Medium enterprises make up half of fashion businesses and they often demonstrate how fashion can be done differently. They can create new environmentally friendly practices ·        SMEs can be ...