Gen Z are often hailed as being pioneers of sustainable fashion, but a decade on from the Rana Plaza disaster I wonder if this is true.
Monday marked 10 years since 1,134 people were killed and at least another 2,000 injured when an eight-storey building that housed five garment factories collapsed in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
During the recovery operation it was discovered that many brands including Primark, Mango and Benetton used the factories to produce clothes. The disaster, considered the deadliest in the history of the garment industry, drew attention to the human cost of low priced clothes and kickstarted the Who Made My Clothes movement.
A month after the Rana Plaza disaster, 200 brands and retailers including Primark and the H&M group signed a legally binding accord spanning fire, electrical and building safety that is applicable to any Bangladeshi factory or workshop supplying them with garments. Last year a Pakistani version of the accord was announced and signed by 35 companies, including Zara’s parent company Inditex.
Some say that conditions have slightly improved for workers since the accords but many campaigners say abuse is still rife, with brands doing little to improve low wages and worker’s rights.
Those at the older end of the Gen Z age bracket (born between 1997 and 2006) would have been in their teens when the disaster happened. Instagram was the main social media app at the time, and images of injured and deceased garment workers being pulled from the rubble were widely shared.
Fast forward to 2023 and there is a plethora of research that says Gen Z is the driving force behind sustainable fashion with many citing labour rights as a key factor in their decision to choose second hand.
According to eBay, in 2022 80% of Gen Z bought secondhand goods, while nearly one in three began selling them. Currently, the value of the global secondhand and resale market for apparel is estimated at $96 billion. By 2026 it’s estimated to reach $218 billion.
On TikTok, there are endless videos of Gen Z wearing second hand clothes and talking viewers through their favourite vintage buys or charity shop finds. However, they, like any, are a complicated generation. Sure they’ve given us resale sites and Greta Thunberg, but they’ve also grown up on Pretty Little Thing and “girlbosses” like Molly-Mae Hague.
In fact, fast fashion has never been so in demand. In 2021, the Chinese retailer Shein – which was founded in 2008 – overtook Amazon to become the most downloaded shopping app in the USA. Last month, its website – which lists crop tops for £1.99 – was ranked the most visited fashion site in the world. On average it adds between 700 and 1,000 new items per day.
Indeed, much of Gen Z have never known a life without fast fashion. It’s a generation that was raised on sites offering low prices, free returns and the thrill of daily – and even hourly – newness. For an extra thrill, many of these sites offer same-day delivery.
Combine this with the boom of the “outfit of the day” hashtag on social media, and you have the perfect recipe for mass consumption. Oxfam estimates that more than two tonnes of clothing are bought each minute in the UK, more than in any country in Europe.
As for those shoppers that may express concern over say the origins of Missguided’s £1 bikini? Fast fashion brands have been quick to greenwash. The term “sustainable” is slapped over products that contain recycled polyester, while the brands themselves continue to lack transparency over their supply chains.
While marketplaces such as Depop and Vinted offer a way of letting fast fashion enter the circular economy rather than landfill, they aren’t doing much to reduce the initial demand for fast fashion. Many items on resale sites are even described as ‘never worn’ or ‘worn once’.
A 2018 study by sustainability consultants Quantis found that in order for circular economy to be effective, it “must not create more consumption, which may occur if there is a rebound effect of increased or ongoing fast fashion consumption”.
The number of people buying secondhand may be soaring. But, as long as shopping is seen as a bonafide hobby centred on newness, fashion will remain – for the most part – complicated, and needs to be held accountable.
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