Name: Which brands are "fast fashion"? How to tell (in 4 points)
Uploaded: 2018-09-24T14:29:51.000Z
Duration: 6 min 51 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Fast fashion is that business model where
apparel brands offer collections every two

weeks (super low turn-around) at incredibly
low prices, while saving money

On production, fabric quality, on the production
process, and on the salaries of the

I've noticed in the comments on the previous
videos on my channel, that some of you wonder

how to know, "Is this brand fast fashion,
is that brand fast fashion?

So I decided to dedicate today's video to
this discussion.

How to know, how to tell if a brand is part
of that fast fashion industry.

And to help you find out I will give you four
tips.

My first tip to get a feeling for who is fast
fashion is to follow the path of catastrophe

that has happened in the garment industry
in the past.

For example, in 2013, a big garment factory
called Rana Plaza collapsed in Bangladesh

I have talked about this event and it's implications
in a TedX Talk in Greece last November.

So if you're interested, I will link that
video in the corner and down below in the

Today though, I want to focus on a different
angle from that story.

The list of foreign brands that have been
producing garments in that factory.

The list of the brands has been published.

You see Wal-Mart in the US, you see Primark,
you see Tex in France, Benetton in Italy.

Just to name probably the most famous ones.

So you see that these brands were from many
different countries.

Some of them would be considered to be brands
with regular prices.

These brands have allowed their clothes to
be produced in a factory that was not meant

The safety rules were not respected and human
rights were ignored.

Starting from this list, see if a brand in
here might also belong to a bigger group,

For instance Inditex, the Spanish giant that
owns Zara, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Pull & Bear,

These brands are positioned differently, and
address a huge width of different style of

But the probability that Inditex uses the
same supply chain for all it's brands is extremely

In fact Zara was also producing in Bangladesh
when the Rana Plaza collapsed, and Gap.

Bangladesh had at that time a salary of 38
dollars (US dollars) a month.

Brands that want to reduce their costs at
any cost.

Understand the mindset of these apparel companies.

After the Rana Plaza collapsed, brands had
to move.

It looked really, really bad for them, and
they were in the spotlight.

They had the world's attention after that
tragedy.

So they couldn't get away saying "Oops, we
didn't know."

or "Oh, but you know it's not us, it was a
contractor of a subsidiary of a subsidiary

So over 200 brands signed a binding agreement
called the Bangladesh Accord, where clear

goals to achieve in terms of safety in the
garment factories were set.

Now this year, in 2018, it's five years ago.

Some factories that were too dangerous, too
unstable have been shut down completely.

However, can the garment workers in Bangladesh
now live from their jobs?

From 2013 to 2016 the minimum wage in Bangladesh
has been increased from 38 to 68 US dollars.

It sounds like a lot but in fact it doesn't
take inflation in to account, which is a big

And the living wage would actually be more
177 dollars to 214 dollars, depending on the

So in fact, we're still far from paying these
workers properly, in Bangladesh, just to take

It's great, and it's much needed, but it's
not enough to make the fashion industry humanly

My last tip is to simply look at the price
tag, and do the math going backwards.

For instance, if you enter Primark and you
see a T-shirt for five euros, how do they

This calculation is for a large brand which
produces high volumes somewhere overseas.

Usually 50 percent will be the margin for
the retailer.

The margin for the brand will be around 25
percent, and since, in my example, Primark

25% are left for the intermediaries, for transportation,
factory management, overhead, manufacturing

costs, and at the end, the garment worker.

This gives you an indication or feeling of
how much that person will earn from the T-shirt.

One more thing, because I think the question
will come.

I took the example of Bangladesh, and the
logical consequence would be, as consumers,

to stop buying from the fast fashion brands
that produce there.

It is sometimes a concern, because you would
think if we stop buying from Bangladesh, the

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Which brands are "fast fashion"? How to tell (in 4 points)

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