How To Know The Best And Worst Brands For Sweatshop Labour

By Jody McCutcheon

Why do we love our favourite fashion brands? Is it because we believe they look or feel good on us? Because various targets of our admiration wear them? Price point? Or simply because they’re all the rage?

It’s important that we contemplate the reasons we’re drawn to the garb we wear. Because clothing is more than just practical – we often like to think of the garments we wear as manifestoes of our individuality. Yet the impact of the brands we support with our dollar votes resonates beyond our personal lives. Perhaps the biggest impacts of our preferred outfits are felt by the environment and those who produce the clothes in company factories. In this light, then, it makes sense that our fashion choices should be about more than just us, the consumer.

There are many good, practical reasons beyond simple hipness for supporting a fashion brand, from the quality of its products to its treatment of employees and environment. The sad reality, though, is that when it comes to these attributes, many brands have sketchy records. In other words, many of your favourite brands are probably quite nasty,  whether because they employ sweatshop labour or because they fail to sufficiently consider the environmental impact of their products and manufacturing processes.

But navigating fashion brands can be tough. How are we supposed to be able to tell which are the best and worst brands for sweatshop labour?

Well-considered fashion choices are increasingly crucial, as the clothing industry has become more prolific than ever. Between 2000 and 2014, global clothing production doubled due to brands’ operational and production efficiencies. Correspondingly, consumer-friendlier prices have helped clothes fly off the shelves. According to Greenpeace, despite more global acknowledgement of the human rights and environmental problems related to fast fashion, clothing sales rose 80% from 2002 to 2015, from $1 trillion to $1.8 trillion. So is the problem the fashion companies, or us?

More Is Less

Something else to consider is that developing-world fashion shoppers are gradually catching up to first-world fashion consumers. Whilst some may laud this as economic development in action, the fact is that greater demand for clothing means more demand for garment workers. Higher demand for workers should lead to them being able to demand higher prices, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

In general, increased demand for clothing means sweatshops continue to operate worldwide, and the sweatshop scandals of the 1990’s are far from behind us. From Bangladesh, site of the 2013 Rana Plaza fire that killed over 1,100 clothing workers, to Changshu, China; from Los Angeles to Istanbul, Turkey; from Honduras to Indonesia, clothing factories tend to have terrible human rights records. Clothing workers are at the mercy of ruthless employers who subject their employees to long working hours and low wages, while discouraging the creation of unions that protect workers from mistreatment.

How To Choose Wisely

Want to be a more ethical shopper? First, shop less. A LOT less. When we go crazy in the stores, like some YouTuber on a ‘haul video’ mission, it only increases demand for fast fashion; in effect, you’re endorsing fast fashion brands and the harm they do. So when you do shop, ensure  your purchases are made by brands who are fully transparent with regards to their supply chain and how they treat their workers.

Here’s my list of suggestions on how to best do just that.

1. Use A Tool

Good On You is the world’s leading source and app for rating fashion brands’ ethics. They have currently rated thousands of fashion brands from Hugo Boss, G-Star, H&M, Tommy Hilfiger, Eileen Fisher and more, rating them on a scale from ‘Not Good Enough’ to ‘Great’ depending on the brand’s sustainability efforts. The app tells you such information as:

• a brand’s policies towards labour
• how much packaging they use
• whether they use animal products, and how they source them

In short, it’s a great way to learn all about a fashion brand’s ethical policies.

2. Read A Report or Two

Baptist World Aid compiles an annual report that gives fashion brands a grade from A to F depending on  the strength of companies’ labour rights management systems to mitigate the risk of exploitation in their supply chain. 78% of the companies assessed directly engaged in the research process.

Another great site comes from, unsurprisingly perhaps, Fashion Revolution. Their Transparency Tracker  ranks 40 of the biggest global fashion companies according to their level of transparency based on a questionnaire and publicly available information about supply chain issues.

3. Avoid  the Worst Offenders

Vote with your wallet and avoid the worst offenders. According to several reports such as this, this and this, these brands include:

• Victoria’s Secret
• La Senza
• Claire’s Accessories
• Monsoon Accessorize
• Abercrombie & Fitch
• Hollister
• Forever 21
• Disney
• Coco Beach
• Asphalt
• Joe Fresh
• Carrefour
• Matalan
• Benetton

4. Beware your sources

With increasing numbers of mainstream magazines now covering the growing trend for sustainable fashion (and clean beauty), it can be confusing. Publications such as Vogue, Bustle, Marie Claire, The Guardian, Glamour, I-D, Quartz and many others sometimes cover ethical fashion, which leads consumers to believe that everything they cover is ethical – which is far, far from the reality. Stick to blogs and magazines such as Eco Warrior Princess, Style with a Smile and of course, Eluxe – they won’t cover anything BUT ethical fashion!

Follow The Leaders

Let’s look on the positive side: there are lots of brands working to achieve sustainability by using renewable energy in their factories; reducing water and chemical usage; developing and implementing new, input-reducing materials and manufacturing processes;  improving the durability of their products, and by treating workers right. This means better wages, shorter working days, accessible skills training, and allowing the formation of unions to protect workers’ human rights. Anything less would be uncivilized.

Patagonia, makers of outdoor and hiking gear, encourages shoppers to not be wasteful and buy only items they need, while also offering to mend older items to make them last longer. While it may eat into the company’s bottom line, this is exactly the type of neo-commercial mindset the planet needs–not the wasteful, fast-food mentality behind fast-fashion.

Other brands working hard to make a difference include:

• People Tree
• Converse
• Zara
• Levi’s
• Raven + Lily
• Mata Traders
• Bead & Reel
• Svilu
• Coclico
• Edun
• Maiyet
• Kowtow Clothing

Most of these above are far from perfect. Many of them are ‘fast fashion’ brands. But given their slice of market share, any difference they’re trying to make will have a huge impact, making ‘sustainability’ the new normal. It will also encourage others to follow suit.

You can see more information about the high street brands mentioned above in this article here, but also remember that any brands that you see here in Eluxe Magazine’s Fashion section  – there’s lots here you won’t find anywhere else!

Conclusion

It’s great to have favourite fashion brands, preferred clothing we can slip into that makes us look and feel good. But it’s time to really consider the reasons we love them, and to love them for solid reasons–preferably ones that don’t revolve around fashion zeitgeists or everyday low prices. The best reasons to love the clothes we wear are because they do less harm to our planet and  fellow citizens.

All images: Matthew Spizeri for Eluxe

Sources/Further Reading

http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2017/04/economist-explains-6

http://www.economist.com/news/business-and-finance/21720200-global-clothing-production-doubled-between-2000-and-2014-looking-good-can-be

http://www.greenpeace.org/international/Global/international/briefings/toxics/2016/Fact-Sheet-Timeout-for-fast-fashion.pdf

http://www.gurl.com/2016/05/01/clothing-stores-and-brands-that-use-sweatshop-labor/

http://www.made-by.org/

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/31/business/international/top-retailers-fall-short-of-commitments-to-overseas-workers.html?_r=0