Amanda Slattery has been in the fashion business for 18 years, yet this year will mark her last year in bricks and mortar retail. During this time as a small business owner, Amanda has manoeuvred and endured her way through recessions, the rise of fast fashion, the ‘near’ death of the high street, a pandemic and Brexit.
What follows is a candid conversation about why Amanda is leaving the industry on her terms and what lies ahead.
Read MoreLast night an exposé by BBC Panorama aired probing the practices of fast-fashion giant Boohoo, who last year made a reported £1.7bn worth of sales. The majority of the filming occurred in their Manchester headquarters, where journalist Emma Lowther spent 10 weeks.
The evidence garnered showed increasing pressure to cut prices in order to save money and the unscrupulous practice of amending prices after the stock had already been made. Lowther exposed a number of occasions where suppliers were left out of pocket due to discounts being applied which were not initially agreed.
We unpick the evidence.
Read MoreGerwig is by definition a feminist filmmaker and her characters are often transgressive and curious, rebelling against their suppressive environments (think Jo March!). Barbie is no exception. While it’s important to recognise that Mattel’s 60-year-old flagship doll has had a long and controversial history and in the past has been blamed for its unrealistic beauty standards, the propensity of the film exists to raise women, well, up. In this Op-Ed Meg Pirie explores the issue of fast-fashion brands capitalising on a feminist film and how this pummels the film’s entire meaning.
Read MoreExploiting people of colour to make their clothes, selling racially insensitive clothing, discriminating against models, displacing indigenous peoples, and cultural appropriation are the norm in the fast fashion world. Social media posts in support of relevant social issues are also the norm nowadays; what’s missing is the action that reflects these positive sentiments. How can we spot performative activism? Let’s take a quick look at the language behind the facade.
Read MoreIn the 90 days leading up to April 22, internet searches for ‘How to live a sustainable lifestyle’ increased by 4,500% according to Google. Faced with great change and uncertainty, consumers have a growing interest in sustainability. However, this new mindset may not be enough to turn the tide on fast fashion. Despite struggles across the retail sector, fast fashion brands are still coming out on top.
Read MoreWe’re all familiar with the tactic of drowning a hashtag or report, something that’s a specialty of online fast fashion retailers. From giveaways to new collections released at the same time as controversy hits, this isn’t a coincidence. But in a time when consumers talk of wanting a cleaner industry, will they need longer memories to make that happen?
Read MoreDespite its promising title, viewers are offered a very limited glimpse inside Missguided’s supply chain in a PR-friendly documentary that is riddled with faux empowerment and white feminism, says Melissa Watt
Read MoreFor every environmentally and socially conscious Gen Z consumer, there is another shopping for fast-fashion on their phone. This need for cheap, fast-fashion is a direct result of the extreme pressures faced on social media to look good and to shop ‘new’ even in times of a pandemic. In order to change the way the next generation of consumers approach fast fashion, we must put ethics and sustainability above profit-making.
Read MoreWhat are the three points that you would like Defra to pick up on?
A: It is essential for Defra, and the Government as a whole, to understand that the way we make, use and throwaway our clothes is unsustainable. Our excessive fashion consumption is causing a waste problem both in the UK and overseas.
Defra should make fashion retailers take responsibility for the textile waste they create by introducing an Extended Producer Responsibility scheme for textiles and reward companies that take positive action to reduce waste. The Government’s recent pledge to review and consult on how to deal with textile waste by 2025 is too little too late. We need action before the end of this parliament (2022).
We would also like to see the Department consider whether it could apply its promised tax on virgin plastics to synthetic garments that don’t contain recycled plastic.
Defra should also bring together fashion retailers, water companies and washing machine manufacturers to work together to solve the problem of microfibre pollution. We need changes in the law to end the era of throwaway fashion.
Read MoreThe EAC report is also wrong on the point that "Short lead times means that wash tests and wearer trials are often not feasible, with implications for garment quality". This is nonsense. Every single fabric has to be tested and approved. We make up to 10,000 garments a week and we have had to test every single fabric and if it fails the tests then quite simply we can’t use them.
Read MoreThe role of the CEO in a brand is very important in making conscious transformations in the company. The barriers between CEO and shop floor create dominant social structures in house, which in turn hamper conscious structures of societies. Communication barriers and no personal involvement of the top team with shop floor pushes them to engage in practices that does not support transformative power of the organization in a positive way. All shop floors can hear is the economic growth driven voice of the CEO and they work towards luring customers to spend and consume unconsciously. Although one can argue that brands priorities are in keeping up with trends and current lifestyles of consumers, isn’t there a way they can use it towards transforming lifestyles? While sales driven autonomous corporations and economic growth driven governments think that fostering conspicuous consumers to buy more and more seems like a victory to them, it is not.
Read MoreFashion’s Dirty Secret: Stacey Dooley Investigates (BBC One) reveals the extent of damage caused by the ever-growing consumer demand for fast fashion. There have been recent claims that the fashion industry is one of the top five most-polluting industries in the world, alongside the oil industry. Investigative journalist, Stacey Dooley first set out to explore how the cotton industry has turned the Aral Sea in Kazakhstan into an arid desert. Up until 1960, the Aral Sea was filled with wildlife but the rivers sustaining this life were then diverted to provide water for cotton farms. ‘An area of water nearly the size of Ireland has disappeared in four decades,’ explained Stacey. ‘I had no idea that cotton was capable of this. It’s also a really unsustainable crop, and uses more water than any other fibre – just one pair of jeans requires 15,523 litres of water!
Read MoreMary Creagh MP’s announcement on ‘fast fashion’ holds a crucial message for everyone. The #SlowSummerFashion movement highlights the need to buy less this summer.
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