Followers of fashion who constantly buy and discard clothing need to think twice about who makes those garments and the environmental impact, the director of a new documentary on the fashion industry said on Wednesday.
Published : 27 May 2015, 10:26 PM
Andrew Morgan spent two years making "The True Cost" to explore the impact fast fashion is having on the world, after being shocked by the deadliest garment factory accident in history - the collapse of Rana Plaza in Dhaka in Bangladesh.
More than 1,100 people were killed when the eight-storey building collapsed in April 2013, highlighting the bleak conditions facing millions of workers in poor countries producing garments for Western retailers.
Morgan, a US filmmaker, said it was startling that more than 400 percent more clothing is made now than 20 years ago, with 97 percent outsourced to poor nations where factory owners compete on price for contracts and regulation is lax.
He said the workers need these jobs but many are paid a minimal wage and have little job security, while their health is affected by the chemicals used to produce the cheap fabrics made into T-shirts that are snapped up for $5 in Western stores.
"We have to get past the smokescreen, we have to change the system," Morgan told a panel discussion in London after a screening of the film that goes on general release on May 29.