Fast Fashion: it is characterised as a highly-profitable business model, based on replicating ‘catwalk’ trends and highfashion designs, and mass-producing them at a low cost. And it’s been ripping through Europe’s streets uncontrollably – criminally, but discreetly. This is nothing new: Fast Fashion in the UK has its origins deep-rooted in the mid-19th century, gaining speed exponentially after the Industrial Revolution, and introducing new, industrial textile machines, and bulk-clothing. But the game-changer? First introduced in 1846 to decrease manual sewing labour in factories, it’s a given these days. The sewing machine catalysed a dramatic fall in the price of clothing, and an increase in the sale of manufactured clothing… merely a foreshadow of the ongoing environmental catastrophe almost 200 years later. Even the term “sweatshop” has ancient ancestry, used to refer to a group of lowly-paid employees in small workshops, to whom certain aspects of production were outsourced in the 19th century, called “sweaters.” This novel practice continued in the early 20th century, but only marginally – by today’s standards anyway. Many affluent, middle-class citizens employed a dressmaker, whilst poorer, lower class women still made many garments themselves, hence much of the sewing work was completed at home, or in small workshops, until the approach of World War II. continued →
Environmental Evolution
The Evolution of Fast Fashion
by C James, Year 10
P
icture yourself as a five-yearold child, in a primitive squatter settlement, in Nekemte Town, Eastern Ethiopia. Barren vachellia abyssinica bark comprises a bedroom wall, mahogany dust, fine grey pebbles, and a frayed “biridi libisi,” for a bed. Torturous, sixteen-hour shifts are standard, for as little as 3p per hour, to feed your four siblings: Yonas, 3, Amadi, 4, and Kofi, 7 who come to work with you. It’s a scorching 38C. Your “habesha kemis” wrings with sweat and the stench of toxic chemicals, dyes and bodily fluids never subsides. You’re lucky to return home without a bruise. But this remains the only option. For 3p an hour, so Yonas will get his portion of Shiro de Kibbe.
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