Who Made Your Girl Power T-Shirt? Choose To Challenge Fast Fashion This International Women’s Day

Every year, online fast fashion brands capitalise on the International Women’s Day hype to sell feminist slogan T-Shirts and merchandise. But can these brands really be working in the spirit of the day when they directly fuel the gender inequality and gender-based violence that plagues the industry? 

In 2021, traditional fast fashion conglomerates have ceded ground to nimble online players, such as Boohoo and Missguided. In January, ASOS purchased Arcadia Group’s lineup, including Topshop and Miss Selfridge, and Boohoo bought Debenhams. These online brands are free from expensive stores and clunky supply chains, and have made fast fashion cheaper and more shoppable through channels like Instagram. 

In order to meet the rapid pace of supply and demand, brands like ASOS employ the labour of people in low wage economies. The clothing industry is dominated by female garment workers: over 70% of clothing workers in China are women, in Bangladesh it is 85%, and in Cambodia the percentage is closer to 90%. These women face conditions where low wages, gender-based violence and horrifying working conditions are rife. 

Data from the 2019 Tailored Wage Report from the Clean Clothes Campaign, shows that zero workers within Asia, Africa, Central America or eastern Europe were paid enough to live with dignity. 31 out of 32 global leaders in the fashion industry cannot prove they pay their workers a living wage. In 2018, Nike was sued by two former female employees who accused the sneaker giant of creating a culture of gender discrimination and sexual harassment. 

It’s important to consider the painful irony of commemorating International Women’s Day with clothes made by the hands of women working in horrendous conditions. Or Boohoo’s IWD campaign, designed to recognise and empower women in our local communities, in the context of their summer Leicester factory scandal. 

What can we do?

How can we help these women all over the world who are earning 25 cents an hour? By no longer buying fashion brands known to exploit third world labour, for example by failing to pay a living wage. Consumer resources like Conscience Collective provide information and ethical brand recommendations so that shoppers have a better understanding of who made their clothes. 

International Women’s Day is an opportunity to celebrate feminism, and to acknowledge the multifaceted experiences of women around the world. International Women’s Day seeks to celebrate women’s achievements, and lobby for accelerated gender parity. An effortless way to stand in solidarity with women facing horrific exploitation in the name of fast fashion is to ‘Choose to Challenge’ its shiny charms. 

An industry that provides so many women with so much joy (and the capacity to express who we are through what we wear) is propped up on the suffering of female workers. But it is women who are fashion’s primary consumers, meaning we have the bargaining power. Companies make or break when we collectively choose to raise our voices and vote with our money. 

Brands for women and by women

This year, women everywhere must ‘Choose to Challenge’ fast fashion and instead support a plethora of brands that actively support and empower female workers. Support female business-owners and entrepreneurs, who are proactively developing solutions for ethical production processes. 

Reflexone uses eco materials that are either recycled and organic, with biodegradable and recyclable packaging. CONTUR’s ECONYL® is made by recovering and repurposing old fishing nets and ocean plastics which is converted into high-performance activewear in London. The CC directory is a platform from which users can discover information about sustainable and PoC owned brands they can buy from.

Gloria Steinem famously said “The story of women’s struggle for equality belongs to no single feminists nor to any one organization but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights.” The aim of the ‘Choose to Challenge’ theme for 2021 is to make the struggles women face across the world visible. In challenging the inequalities and exploitation of the fast fashion industry, women, as both consumers and producers, can become the change they want to see. 

Choose to Challenge with Conscience Collective

It is vital that we collectively disrupt the dominance of larger fast fashion brands that exploit particularly the labour of women in low wage economies, whilst also contributing to the climate disaster. Conscience Collective supports female entrepreneurs and women of colour brands who are proactively developing solutions for more ethical and sustainable production processes. Through our collective success, women across the world can ‘Choose to Challenge’ environmental and social injustice, and drive forward an agenda based on inclusion, education, and environmental accountability and responsibility. 

Written by Caitlin - Conscience Collective