Production Stage
Fashion Social Impact
Production Stage
The Health of Farmers
Between 1 and 3% of agricultural workers worldwide suffer from acute pesticide poisoning with at least 1 million requiring hospitalization each year, according to a report prepared jointly for the FAO, UNEP and WHO. These figures equate to between 25 million and 77 million agricultural workers worldwide.
Source: The Deadly Chemicals in Cotton
Poor Working Conditions
Over the past thirty years, corporations have widely adopted labor codes on health and safety, yet too often in their working lives, garment workers across the globe encounter death, work-related injuries, and unhealthy factory environments.
Source: Unmaking the Global Sweatshop Health and Safety of the World's Garment Workers
Garment workers are often forced to work 14 to 16 hours a day, 7 days a week. During peak season, they may work until 2 or 3 am to meet the fashion brand's deadline.
Source: Sustain Your Style
Source: Human Rights Watch
Unsafe working conditions continue to be a problem in many developing countries where production occurs. Often, workers face unsafe, cramped and hazardous conditions at work which can lead to health problems of the workers and to dangerous situations in the factories such as fires and collapses. Furthermore, some fashion styles e.g. jeans with a worn look, require workers to engage in very dangerous practices such as sandblasting.
Source: Shop Ethical

Human Trafficking
The Global Slavery Index's 2018 report, published by the Walk Free Foundation, states that $127.7 billion worth of garments at risk of including modern slavery in their supply chain is imported annually by G20 countries, a group of nations which account for 80 percent of world trade. These imports help underwrite a global economy that trapped 40.3 million people in modern slavery in 2016, 71 percent of whom were women.
Source: The Global Slavery Index
The female workers aged 14-23 were recruited with false promises of a good job and a lump sum payment under the guise of an ‘apprenticeship’ program known as Sumangali. Once recruited many women instead find themselves trapped in the factory for up to five years and two out of three women never receiving their promised payment.
The women are subject to physical, emotional and sexual abuse. They have limited freedom - have to sleep in hostels within the factory, have limited contact with their families, and are often forced to work up to 12 hour days, 6 days a week without their promised payment.

Image: World Economic Forum
Child Labor
The International Labour Organisation estimates that 170 million are engaged in child labour, with many making textiles and garments to satisfy the demand of consumers in Europe, the US, and beyond.
Source: Child Labour in the Fashion Supply Chain
Child labour is a particular issue for fashion because much of the supply chain requires low-skilled labour and some tasks are even better suited to children than adults. In cotton picking, employers prefer to hire children for their small fingers, which do not damage the crop.
Source: Forced and Child Labour in the Cotton Industry
Consumption Stage

Excess and Growth of Consumption
Clothing costs have risen slower than those of other consumer goods, increasing their affordability, and there will be continued growth as the middle class expands and purchases increase to match this demographic shift. This combination of factors is expected to result in a tripling of resource consumption by 2050 (compared to 2000).
Source: Nature
Donating Used Clothing is Not a Sustainable Solution
Only 25% of clothing collected for thrift shops actually sells in the stores. What happens to the rest of it? That's because donated clothing is just the tip of the iceberg: some 85 per cent of clothing in North America isn't even making it into a bin where it may get a second life, and is instead going directly in a landfill, according to SMART, a group that represents for-profit companies in the recycled textiles industry.
Source: CBC
According to Oxfam, more than 70% of the clothes donated globally end up in Africa, Creating a demand for second-hand goods that lead to the collapse of many once robust textile companies. According to local (Kenya's) media reports, 500,000 people were employed in the textile industry in the 1980s. Today, that number has fallen by more than 96% to around 20,000.
Source: The Guardian