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00:00:08,106 --> 00:00:10,962
-- such a broad spectrum of opinion here,

2
00:00:10,962 --> 00:00:13,603
and you know all about
things like quantum physics

3
00:00:13,603 --> 00:00:17,378
and tech, and stuff like that,
I'm not speaking to a normal crowd

4
00:00:17,378 --> 00:00:21,774
of fashionistas -- I don't know,
maybe some of you are fashionistas --

5
00:00:21,774 --> 00:00:25,563
but I talk to you and
I do fashion by numbers.

6
00:00:25,563 --> 00:00:29,635
I'm saying fashion by numbers,
not the numbers,

7
00:00:29,635 --> 00:00:31,728
which I think
is more grammatically correct.

8
00:00:31,728 --> 00:00:33,925
Now, I'm going to talk to you about
fashion by numbers,

9
00:00:33,925 --> 00:00:38,827
because I love fashion
and I love style,

10
00:00:38,827 --> 00:00:41,528
and I think there's lots
of really absorbing things

11
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about the industry and about the idea
of expressing ourselves through clothes,

12
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but there are also some issues,
which we will get to in a minute,

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and I think some of the numbers are just
gigantic and they're quite illuminating.

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So, the first statistic,
when I was doing a lot of research

15
00:01:01,380 --> 00:01:06,274
on the contemporary fashion industry,
was one that I had to estimate

16
00:01:06,274 --> 00:01:09,353
by putting together
lots of different research.

17
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And I figured out that there are
about 80 billion new garments

18
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that are created every year.

19
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Some of you, like me, might feel that
most of those end up in your wardrobe,

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it depends how avaricious
a buyer you are.

21
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Some people might feel
that they all end up

22
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in your laundry basket,
which I also feel,

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having to do my family's laundry.

24
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So, that's an estimated number
of new garments

25
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produced worldwide every year.

26
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Now the weird thing is
that we still end up

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with 2 million tonnes of textiles,
mainly apparel, in landfill every year.

28
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So, we're slinging them away
almost as quickly as we can buy them.

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Which points to a certain disposability,

30
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a certain throwaway culture,
in fashion.

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19 is the number of jeans
that I found in my own wardrobe,

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when I did an inventory of my wardrobe.

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And I would recommend to anybody
that you do an inventory of your wardrobe,

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because it's
really, really illuminating.

35
00:02:04,754 --> 00:02:06,972
even if you think that
you're not a fashion addict,

36
00:02:06,972 --> 00:02:08,548
you're not a fashion victim,

37
00:02:08,548 --> 00:02:12,655
you will be surprised at
how many duplicates you have.

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So, I have 19 pairs of jeans
and that's significant

39
00:02:15,975 --> 00:02:18,417
because -- not because 19
is my lucky number,

40
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but it is, that's not why I bought them --

41
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I didn't realize I had 19, because I
just kept consuming without realizing,

42
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and when I thought about it,
the environmental footprint

43
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of fashion is absolutely enormous.

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So, for example, it takes between
11,000 and 20,000 litres of water

45
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to produce enough cotton
for a single pair of jeans.

46
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And then I started to look at
the impact of fashion generally.

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Now, fashion is a full spectrum industry,

48
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and with the exception
of the food industry,

49
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and perhaps the energy industry,
it's hard to think of any other sector

50
00:02:53,540 --> 00:02:58,167
that owes quite as much
to the planet as fashion does.

51
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We're all a nation of fashion addicts,
that's how we've become,

52
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and that's been enabled really
over the last twenty years

53
00:03:05,151 --> 00:03:08,075
by a phenomenon known as fast fashion.

54
00:03:08,075 --> 00:03:11,240
Now, sometimes,
it's quite difficult to imagine

55
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how people got dressed 20 years ago,

56
00:03:14,425 --> 00:03:17,929
before fast fashion really kicked in,
but we know they did,

57
00:03:17,929 --> 00:03:21,240
but did they all just wear
the same pair of Dralon flares?

58
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How did they actually manage it?

59
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Because what we've done is
we've developed a whole new system

60
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of getting dressed,
which revolves around

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00:03:28,697 --> 00:03:34,358
very, very quick microtrends
that can very quickly translate

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from the catwalk into our wardrobes
and onto the high street.

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And the UK is
one of the world leaders in this trend.

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We have some of the biggest retailers,
some of the biggest brands,

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and it has to be said,
that we interpret fast fashion

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quite successfully.

67
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So, we think about how fashion
actually presents itself.

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What it doesn't really do, is tell you

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how much it's changed
over the last 20 years.

70
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So, there will be people here
who've never known anything else.

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Lucky them, because
they're nice and young,

72
00:04:07,189 --> 00:04:12,568
but, there has been
a completely revolutionized system

73
00:04:12,568 --> 00:04:17,897
to the way apparel
is produced and sold.

74
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But we really don't get this idea
from the fashion weeks that we have.

75
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It presents a very traditional face.
So, we have the two seasons,

76
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we have autumn/winter
and spring/summer,

77
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and then these are when we trickle
things down from the catwalk into store,

78
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and they set the trend
of what we're going to be wearing.

79
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In actual fact, those seasons
have got as much in common

80
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with the contemporary fashion industry

81
00:04:43,007 --> 00:04:47,416
as Gregorian plainsong has with the
contemporary music industry.

82
00:04:47,416 --> 00:04:49,689
Absolutely nothing to do with it.

83
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What really happens
is that we're now looking at,

84
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rather than two or four seasons a year,
we're really looking at 52 seasons a year.

85
00:04:58,008 --> 00:05:01,994
Every week there are new styles,
there is new stock in shops,

86
00:05:01,994 --> 00:05:06,346
new stock online, and it's become
a very, very quick process.

87
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Some people would call it a churn.

88
00:05:08,606 --> 00:05:12,495
Now, when I look at the bright young hopes
of British fashion,

89
00:05:12,495 --> 00:05:15,153
and we see these brilliant designers
have got something.

90
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Up here we've got Alice Temperley,
we've got Jonathan Saunders,

91
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Roksanda Ilincic.

92
00:05:20,624 --> 00:05:23,514
So, these are great names,
great hopes for the future.

93
00:05:23,514 --> 00:05:25,533
And then we hear about the people

94
00:05:25,533 --> 00:05:29,093
who basically succeed
to the big luxury conglomerates

95
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and take over those brands.

96
00:05:30,830 --> 00:05:33,213
And these are big, big names,
going out there

97
00:05:33,213 --> 00:05:35,546
into this multi-billion pound sector

98
00:05:35,546 --> 00:05:38,706
and representing British style.
But often I think,

99
00:05:38,706 --> 00:05:42,272
'Will they be OK?'
Because, actually, it's not just

100
00:05:42,272 --> 00:05:45,885
fast fashion or high street fashion
that's become super fast,

101
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but also the luxury industry.

102
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This is the way
that we really, really shop;

103
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we shop in a mob, we shop in bulk
and we buy very cheap.

104
00:05:57,433 --> 00:05:59,548
Now, one of the things
I really like to do

105
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is to hang around outside shops,
maybe not as crowded as this,

106
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and actually go through people's bags,
with their consent,

107
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as they come out -- I do ask first --
and it's amazing

108
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how many people buy in bulk
and buy duplicates these days.

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And one of my favourite observations,

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although it does not say
particularly good things,

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is that a colleague of mine was watching
outside Primark one day,

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or just kind of loitering nearby,

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and a girl came out
with four of these bags.

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Now, it could have happened
in lots of different stores,

115
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but Primark use these paper bags,
and it was raining,

116
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it was really, really raining,
the bag got completely soaked,

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while she was waiting for a bus,
or whatever, and it fell apart.

118
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And she just left these clothes,
these brand new clothes,

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she just left them on the pavement
and walked off.

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Now, my contention is that if we produce,
if we design for landfill,

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if we produce clothes that are
effectively disposable,

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we will all start to treat them
like litter.

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Now, I'm not saying that this also
happens for luxury goods,

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because I think if you're spending
a grand on a handbag,

125
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you're probably going to be
a little bit more careful,

126
00:07:06,481 --> 00:07:08,488
but the same cycle and the same churn

127
00:07:08,488 --> 00:07:11,614
is starting to happen
throughout the fashion landscape.

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So, effectively,
these designers that we saw,

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those shiny-faced, hopeful, big prospects
of British fashion

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00:07:18,812 --> 00:07:23,199
and all round the world in fact,
actually are in a similar churn.

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So, they're not just doing 
the autumn/winter, the spring/summer,

132
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they're also having to work
on pre-fall/fall collections,

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resort-wear, yacht-wear,

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00:07:32,625 --> 00:07:35,989
getting on a yacht, getting off a yacht,
post-yacht, pre-yacht,

135
00:07:35,989 --> 00:07:38,855
who are all these people
that they are designing for?

136
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Who has all these yachts?

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(Laughter)

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So, let's just unravel fast fashion
just a little bit.

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So, there are some very good points
about fast fashion by the way.

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First of all, it breeds life into
a rather stagnant British high street.

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Those of you who are
old enough to remember

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will remember there was
a certain lack of choice,

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a certain sort of look
that the high street had,

144
00:08:03,481 --> 00:08:08,371
maybe 20-25 years ago, which wasn't
that appealing, wasn't that aspirational.

145
00:08:08,371 --> 00:08:11,661
So, the high street brands
have really democratized style,

146
00:08:11,661 --> 00:08:13,489
you're able to get hold of it.

147
00:08:13,489 --> 00:08:17,236
I remember moving to London
and coming back to the North West,

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and people used to come up to me and say,
'Oh, did you get that in London?'

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00:08:20,972 --> 00:08:23,688
I mean that doesn't happen now,
it happens in the reverse.

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You know, that's how democratize
style has become.

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00:08:26,882 --> 00:08:29,948
So, 814 million garments a year,

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00:08:29,948 --> 00:08:35,205
this is also an estimate, are produced
by Zara/Inditex, the Spanish brand.

153
00:08:35,205 --> 00:08:36,657
That's a lot of clothes.

154
00:08:36,657 --> 00:08:40,207
And they have 45,000 designs,
so their designers

155
00:08:40,207 --> 00:08:43,121
are constantly coming up with trends,
every single year.

156
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Not all of those will get into store,
but a large proportion of them will,

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which shows you where this engine
is coming from, all these micro-trends.

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When Zara started in the UK,
nobody understood it,

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because you'd go in there,
and the consumer would say,

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'Well, this is nice,
maybe a little bit expensive.'

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00:08:59,675 --> 00:09:02,845
And then they'll say,
'I'll think about it, I'll come back.'

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They'll come back
and it wouldn't be there,

163
00:09:05,414 --> 00:09:08,438
because shops these days don't re-stock,
they don't need to,

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because they've moved
on to the next trend.

165
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If you blink, you miss it.

166
00:09:13,783 --> 00:09:17,264
Number 3 -- I'm still doing
the fashion in numbers thing.

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This is the position of Amancio Ortega
who owns Zara,

168
00:09:20,960 --> 00:09:25,542
on the international rich list.
He's the 3rd richest man in the world.

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00:09:25,542 --> 00:09:29,145
There's a lot of money
in this fast fashion business.

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00:09:29,145 --> 00:09:32,822
Here's Philip Green, maybe this is where
all the resort yacht wear is going to,

171
00:09:32,822 --> 00:09:35,194
because he has a yacht.

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00:09:35,194 --> 00:09:39,265
And this is the little picture
of a village, somewhere in England,

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a whole village, that has been bought
by Stefan Persson,

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00:09:42,707 --> 00:09:45,392
who is the CEO of H&M.

175
00:09:45,392 --> 00:09:49,063
So, that gives you some idea of the riches
that we're talking about.

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I mention that, not because it's illegal
to make money, because it's not,

177
00:09:53,632 --> 00:09:56,018
but just to show you
a little bit of disparity,

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because who is the real engine
of this fashion churn, this fashion cycle?

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00:10:02,100 --> 00:10:05,889
It happens in Bangladesh.

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00:10:05,889 --> 00:10:10,477
It happens in other countries too,
but Bangladesh, 80% of the GDP

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00:10:10,477 --> 00:10:13,358
is constituted by
the ready-made garment industry,

182
00:10:13,358 --> 00:10:16,125
and that's the equivalent of $20 billion.

183
00:10:16,125 --> 00:10:18,021
So, when we talk
about problems there,

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00:10:18,021 --> 00:10:22,555
it is not feasible for companies to cut
and run, because, as you can see,

185
00:10:22,555 --> 00:10:26,568
that economy is dependent on this trade.

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00:10:26,568 --> 00:10:31,150
Now, I put this in, because there was
a recent power list of fashion,

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00:10:31,150 --> 00:10:36,076
and I counted 4 muses in the top 30.

188
00:10:36,076 --> 00:10:39,047
Now, I'm not really sure
what a muse does,

189
00:10:39,047 --> 00:10:42,021
but there were four muses and there was
no mention of the people

190
00:10:42,021 --> 00:10:43,866
that actually make the clothes,

191
00:10:43,866 --> 00:10:45,858
which I thought was
really, really interesting,

192
00:10:45,858 --> 00:10:50,023
and I think this really shines a light
on a problem in the whole industry.

193
00:10:50,023 --> 00:10:54,493
So, there's 101 processes
to making a garment.

194
00:10:54,493 --> 00:10:59,783
Just 6 to 8 of those are done
in factories like the ones in Bangladesh.

195
00:10:59,783 --> 00:11:06,713
And these are basically
what the cut, make and trim army do.

196
00:11:06,713 --> 00:11:11,887
And by conservative estimate,
there's 3 million, mainly young women,

197
00:11:11,887 --> 00:11:14,133
who work in this cut, make and trim army,

198
00:11:14,133 --> 00:11:17,349
and these are the core part
of the supply chain,

199
00:11:17,349 --> 00:11:23,064
when they're actually
putting the piece together.

200
00:11:23,064 --> 00:11:26,924
These are vast factories,
vast, vast production lines.

201
00:11:26,924 --> 00:11:32,522
Now, 48.5 seconds is the time
that it's estimated it should take

202
00:11:32,522 --> 00:11:38,168
one of the people on this production stage
to actually sew a seam.

203
00:11:38,168 --> 00:11:41,533
It's relentless, relentless work.
This is a quote from Ali Hewson,

204
00:11:41,533 --> 00:11:45,265
who set up the EDUN brand,
'We carry the story of the people

205
00:11:45,265 --> 00:11:47,634
who make our clothes around with us.'

206
00:11:47,634 --> 00:11:49,641
And we do,
but we don't acknowledge it,

207
00:11:49,641 --> 00:11:51,818
which is why I showed
that picture of the muse

208
00:11:51,818 --> 00:11:53,385
and I point to that power list.

209
00:11:53,385 --> 00:11:58,047
These are the unseen, the hidden people
in the supply chain.

210
00:11:58,454 --> 00:12:02,041
5,600 -- that's the number
of garment factories

211
00:12:02,041 --> 00:12:05,830
that Bangladesh has,
mainly centred around Dhaka.

212
00:12:05,830 --> 00:12:08,520
At last count,
when this report came out,

213
00:12:08,520 --> 00:12:11,003
there were less than 200 inspectors --

214
00:12:11,003 --> 00:12:14,795
I think that should be fewer,
but I'm just being pedantic.

215
00:12:14,795 --> 00:12:20,721
Now, in 1911 we have the biggest tragedy
in the garment sector to date.

216
00:12:20,721 --> 00:12:23,671
And that was the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire;

217
00:12:23,671 --> 00:12:27,019
and that was
in New York's garment district.

218
00:12:27,019 --> 00:12:32,329
146 people died in 18 minutes,
and this was the worst disaster

219
00:12:32,329 --> 00:12:35,489
that we'd ever seen in this sector.

220
00:12:35,489 --> 00:12:37,836
And that prompted,
not a revolution,

221
00:12:37,836 --> 00:12:40,972
but a lot of picketing,
a big labour movement,

222
00:12:40,972 --> 00:12:42,449
and it's still acknowledged.

223
00:12:42,449 --> 00:12:45,922
Every year on the anniversary,

224
00:12:45,922 --> 00:12:49,182
people will go and acknowledge,
the trade unions will acknowledge,

225
00:12:49,182 --> 00:12:51,340
that that disaster happened.

226
00:12:51,340 --> 00:12:54,178
And what really struck me was
that we never acknowledge.

227
00:12:54,178 --> 00:12:58,407
There were lots and lots of factory deaths
and fire deaths and stampedes

228
00:12:58,407 --> 00:13:02,047
in factories, lots of fatalities,
that were happening in the supply chain.

229
00:13:02,047 --> 00:13:06,216
Probably one or two a month
that we learn about through our era,

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and we never really said
anything about it.

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But this number, we can't really
make it go away, and we can't ignore.

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This is 1,133 -- which is the number
of people who died on the 24th April

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at Rana Plaza.

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Rana Plaza basically collapsed like
a house of cards.

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There were 2,000 people working in it,
it was a mixed-use complex,

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but, it was the garment workers that died,

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because the garment workers were
the only workers that were sent back in,

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and unfortunately that is a common story,
the garment workers are always in there.

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These images are probably not unfamiliar,
because they were broadcast

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around the world, and, for the first time,
we had news agencies

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actually interviewing
these garment workers,

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and actually getting their testimonies.

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The difference was that
they were actually under rubble.

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So, they're the statistics, well,
the bold statistics,

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2,500 injured, 700 children left,

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and the Rana Plaza battle
for compensation continues.

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But it did make a stink. Who makes
our clothes? Where do they come from?

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It's not the only thing
in the supply chain.

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This is just about
Uzbekistan's cotton industry;

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1.5 million children, who are alleged
to be involved in the harvest.

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And this happens every year.

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They're sent out into the fields
around September time,

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and they will pick the harvest, which is
then sold in the international market.

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And this is Gulnara,
this is the dictator's daughter,

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and I put this in,
because this is her at fashion week

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showing her own collection.

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So, you see this terrible dichotomy,

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of how we're hiding this kind
of slave labour in the fashion industry.

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Can we do it better?
Yes, we can.

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Now, I think
the whole sustainable style movement

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has been slightly typified, and held back,
because people fear tie-dye.

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They fear that we're going to have to wear

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this kind of
knit-your-own tofu hat aesthetic,

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and they're really, really not up for it.

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So, what I did was get together
with some friends,

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and we launched something,
we didn't call it granola chic,

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we called it the Green Carpet Challenge.

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Now, we're just trying
to play around with some ideas.

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I love this. This is a photograph 
by a seminal fashion photographer

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called Lillian Bassman.

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And she didn't mean anything
sustainable when she did it,

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but I love the idea of
more fashion mileage per dress.

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So, here's another figure I'd love you
to remember, which is 30.

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Don't buy anything unless
you can guarantee to yourself

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that you're going to wear it 30 times.
That's a really good marker.

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So, we started the Green Carpet Challenge,

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and we charged designers with
making us something sustainable.

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This is an Armani dress.

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And 40, that's the number of A-Listers
that we've sent down red carpets

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from the Oscars, to the Globes,
to the whatever

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all in these sustainable outfits.

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We wanted to prove
to the fashion industry, to the editors,

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to everybody watching,
that it could be done,

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and it could be desirable.

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There's more of them.

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And we wanted to work
in the supply chain,

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so, we started looking at things
like the leather chain.

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11 billion pairs of shoes
are made every year.

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60% of the leather goes to shoes.

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Now, when you see a shoe
and it says made in Italy,

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you think, 'OK, great.'
And then you ask the people in the shop,

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and they say,
'Yeah, the leather's Italian.'

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It can't be, because if it were, the whole
of Italy would be covered in cows.

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There'd be cows round the Trevi Fountain,
it can't be.

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No, they're often from Brazil or China,

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and in Brazil,
deforestation is being driven

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by the meat and leather industry.

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So, we wanted to make a market
for clean leather.

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Leather that we could prove
was zero deforestation.

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So, we went to Gucci,
who came up with this little bag,

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and I don't think
this looks sustainable at all.

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It's not made of hemp,
it's not very granola,

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it just looks like a bag.

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100+ companies have now signed
the Bangladesh Fire Safety Accord.

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Now, I'm not going to explain why,
because I'm running out of time,

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but it is, I think,
a very, very important marker,

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and I think, given time, it could make
a real, real difference.

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What I would urge you to do
is keep an eye,

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just keep abreast
of what's happening in fashion,

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and where you buy and who signed what;
it's really, really important.

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2p, add that onto a £6 T-shirt,

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that would double the wages
of a garment worker in Bangladesh.

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Now, I think that's a cost
that we can probably absorb.

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24th April, that's the other date
I want you to remember.

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24, remember that number,
it's the anniversary

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of Rana Plaza,
and it's Fashion Revolution Day.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)