Fast fashion factories: Why are brands like Oh Polly and SHEIN pretending to be honest now?
âOut of sight, out of mindâ was how brands once approached their sweatshopsâa harsh but fitting descriptionâin countries in Asia and South America. Consumers are now smarter than they once were, or the problems got too big to ignore. Either way, brands have started using their third-party production facilities as smart marketing tools, only theyâre just not quite smart enough.
But this outsourcing to factories is not just a fast fashion problem. Haute couture brand Dior presented its show in India earlier this year in collaboration with an embroidery school in Mumbai, after it came under fire for outsourcing its designs to factories in India, as first reported by The New York Times.
Brands responsibly outsourcing to Asia is a debate which has been revisited time and time again, with no real thesis. This has all recently been brought into question with the SHEIN influencer trip discourse. The now viral trip showed a group of influencers on a visit to SHEINâs facility in Guangzhou, China. The coverage of the influencers is chaotic, to say the least, with TikTok netizens sceptical over whether the facility was built only for the trip, with actual production happening elsewhere.
It begs the question, why post it in the first place? Surely brands are shooting themselves in the foot by putting their business online for the world to see. As labels fight for social relevancy, trends are moving away from heavily produced content into organic, so-called behind-the-scenes themes. The âbraveâ brands followed suit and are creating more in-depth content about how collections are made and designed. This is a tactic called âradical transparency,â as confirmed by Ayesha Barenblat, the founder and CEO at Remake, a global advocacy organisation fighting for social and environmental issues in the clothing industry.
âBrands try to capitalise on growing public interest in sustainability with greenwashing tactics,â says Barenblat. Today, consumers expect transparency and want to know where their clothing comes from, and how itâs made. BoFâs State of Fashion report in 2022 detailed that âsustainability is particularly important in gaining the trust of younger fashion consumers, as some 43 per cent of gen Zers say they actively seek out companies that have a solid sustainability reputation.â
UK brand Oh Polly has been posting its own questionable production facilities on social media. In a now-deleted TikTok, the brand displayed a production facility, likely in South Asiaâa country known to be exploited for its low-cost workers and services. The factory worker in shot was seen creating the companyâs âCelestialâ collection, though thereâs nothing celestial about underpaid workers.
This collection is dubbed as being âcreated by our team of talented artisansâ on the Oh Polly website, with the cheapest item starting at ÂŁ59, though there is no mention of where these artisans are based. Netizens were quick to call Oh Polly out for its misled judgment, comments flooded the fashion brandâs page with questions about how itâs paying its workers. In response, the social media team simply directed the concerned users towards a generic Modern Slavery Statement hidden away on the footer of its website. Greenwashing much?
The labelâs Modern Slavery Statement is one youâll find a similar variation of on most fast fashion sites. It’s a PDF document that lists what the brand is doing to make sure thereâs no funny business going on at its facilities. Oh Pollyâs own agreement states that it issues a code of conduct to its suppliers, which details its âno tolerance policyâ for concerns like forced and child labour, as well as dangerous working conditions. It also goes on to say that when Oh Polly begins working with a new supplier or facility, it extensively reviews country-specific risks, the facilityâs reputation, and vulnerability to slavery and human trafficking. All in all, this doesnât tell us anything.
Thereâs no transparency about what happens if any of this is breached after the company signs a contract with the facility, nor any details of the annual audits, which Oh Polly requires to be conducted by an independent third party, as stated on its Modern Slavery Statement.
Itâs not the first time a brand has been called out on its shady practices, but the issue is that consumer rage never outlasts the season. It also begs the question, why donât brands simply avoid utilising these factories? Other than being significantly cheaper to outsource to such factories in Asia, these also allow C-suite members to be unaccountable. They get to hold their hands up and say âwe didnât knowâ when something goes awry, because itâs happening on the other side of the world.
âAccountability and progress only come from worker-led legislation, binding agreements like the International Accord, and supporting union-led demands like the recent wage negotiations happening in Bangladesh,â noted Barenblat. She went on to explain that union partners are feeding back that workers are not able to afford food and necessities due to inflation and, without legislation in place to protect them, arenât automatically entitled to a wage increase.
And, with the brands whoâre outsourcing to these facilities not putting any requirements on the owners to have sufficient controls in place either, the workers are stuck between a rock and a hard place, with no one to turn to.
Though fashion ultimately needs policy and legislation to protect garment workers, consumers need to be buying less and when they do purchase, do so more consciously. Look at labels, understand where your clothing comes from, and how itâs made. Take the time to research the brands you purchase from. The folks at Good On You have rated thousands of brands on their social and environmental sustainability to make it even easier. Yes, these problems seem much bigger than the consumer, but the change is already happening, and with the rise of AI and blockchain technology improving supply chain transparency, itâs now too big a wave to ignore.
We attempted to reach out to the team at Oh Polly for comment. However, perhaps expectedly, received no response from them.
