This week marks at once the annual campaign of the Fashion Revolution and the 10th anniversary of the tragic collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory building. The event, which killed over 1,100 garment workers and injured two thousand more, sparked a global debate at the time about the true cost of the fast fashion industry. Everyday brands such as Benetton, Mango, Zara, Walmart, and C&A were revealed to have resorted to factories inside of the faulty eight-story building, setting many on a racetrack to reclaim their ethical and environmental credentials since.
The fashion industry, ten years on from the disaster
But ten years on, has anything changed? There is widespread agreement to the contrary. In fact, it would appear the pace in the fashion industry has accelerated. This is evident from the rise of ultra-fast fashion retailers like Shein, which carries the fast paced logic of the field to extremes by adding several thousand new items per day. In this regard, no one can deny it is important we have a public conversation about the toll fast fashion is taking on people and the environment. However, too often that conversation ends with individual responsibility and customers’ “hunger for cheap clothing.” The chorus is now a familiar one, as civil society calls on consumers to stop buying fast fashion and those who still do struggle with feelings of guilt. As marketing scholars specialised in sustainable consumption and fashion, we argue that it is misguided to focus on consumer responsibility to solve systemic issues that seem too large even for companies to address.
