Fashion victim?

Clothes hangers: Ethical fashion

What is the true cost of our obsession with cheap fashion? Annie Kelly reveals how high street retailers are able to sell their clothes at rock bottom prices

Fashion has never been so cheap or disposable - ten years ago we all wanted to wear Prada, now Primark is pushing our fashion buttons. Our appetite for cheap, mass-produced clothing means that budget stores like New Look and H&M are fast becoming the leaders of the high street.

The introduction of supermarkets into the fashion market has also raised the stakes. Their massive purchasing power means they can undercut the high street and sell items for as little as £3 for a pair of jeans.

Tesco’s fashion lines account for 25 per cent of its £2.2 billion yearly profit. Asda’s George range is worth £1.5 billion a year to the company. But who is paying the price for our growing obsession with cheap clothing?

Worst offenders

Anti-poverty campaigners say that our increasing demand for budget fashion is coming at the cost of millions of poor garment workers in countries such as Bangladesh, Cambodia and China.

“Practically every piece of clothing you buy on the high street, no matter what shop it’s from, has been manufactured by people not earning a living wage and working in conditions that we would consider unacceptable,” says Martin Hearson, campaigner at Labour Behind the Label. 

In the group’s 2007 Let’s Clean Up Fashion report, brands such as Matalan and Mothercare were named among the “worst offenders”. Others, such as Marks & Spencer and H&M, were criticised for not doing enough to improve the wages for factory workers.

Earlier this year ActionAid’s Who Pays?  campaign claimed that workers making clothes for UK supermarkets in Bangladesh faced harassment and intimidation in the workplace. They earn as little as £12 a month – not nearly enough to support themselves and their families.

Living wages

Labour Behind the Label says that while progress is still “tortuously slow”, there are signs that some retailers are starting to take issues like living wages seriously. A living wage is defined by the United Nations as a wage that allows workers to afford food, shelter, education and health care for their families without working excessive overtime.

“For years we have been arguing that it’s not enough for brands to only pay their workers the minimum wages set out by national governments,” says Hearson.

For example, in Bangladesh trade unions claim that the minimum wage would need to be raised from Tk 1663 (£12) a month to Tk 4500 (£33) a month to be anywhere close to a living wage.

“There have now been some successes in this area,” says Hearson. “Last year retailers wouldn’t refer to the living wage at all, but this year 14 our of 23 brands we contacted for the Let’s Clean up Fashion report said they were prepared to commit to this as a goal.”

Other brands are also stepping up their efforts to show consumers they are making changes. Spanish retail giant Zara announced in October that it had signed a trail blazing agreement with the ITGLWF (an international federation of trade unions). The agreement will see the two working in partnership over improving the lives of people working in Zara factories.