The Wardrobe To Die For | Lucy Siegle | TEDxSalford

Lucy Siegle examines the inhumane and environmentally devastating story behind the clothes we so casually buy and wear.

Good evening, Salford.

How thrilling to say that
and see my name so big up there.

I hope you've had a great day.
I'm actually going to talk to you

about fashion, and I've decided,
because you've taken in

so much information today
and there's such a broad spectrum

of opinion here, and you know all about
things like quantum physics

and tech, and stuff like that,
I'm not speaking to a normal crowd

of fashionistas -- I don't know,
maybe some of you are fashionistas --

but I talk to you and
I do fashion by numbers.

I'm saying fashion by numbers,
not the numbers,

which I think
is more grammatically correct.

Now, I'm going to talk to you about
fashion by numbers,

because I love fashion
and I love style,

and I think there's lots
of really absorbing things

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

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

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

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

on the contemporary fashion industry,
was one that I had to estimate

by putting together
lots of different research.

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

that are created every year.

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

it depends how avaricious
a buyer you are.

Some people might feel
that they all end up

in your laundry basket,
which I also feel,

having to do my family's laundry.

So, that's an estimated number
of new garments

produced worldwide every year.

Now the weird thing is
that we still end up

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

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

Which points to a certain disposability,

a certain throwaway culture,
in fashion.

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

when I did an inventory of my wardrobe.

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

because it's
really, really illuminating.

even if you think that
you're not a fashion addict,

you're not a fashion victim,

you will be surprised at
how many duplicates you have.

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

because -- not because 19
is my lucky number,

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

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

and when I thought about it,
the environmental footprint

of fashion is absolutely enormous.

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

to produce enough cotton
for a single pair of jeans.

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

Now, fashion is a full spectrum industry,

and with the exception
of the food industry,

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

that owes quite as much
to the planet as fashion does.

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

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

by a phenomenon known as fast fashion.

Now, sometimes,
it's quite difficult to imagine

how people got dressed 20 years ago,

before fast fashion really kicked in,
but we know they did,

but did they all just wear
the same pair of Dralon flares?

How did they actually manage it?

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

of getting dressed,
which revolves around

very, very quick microtrends
that can very quickly translate

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

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

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

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

quite successfully.

So, we think about how fashion
actually presents itself.

What it doesn't really do, is tell you

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

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

Lucky them, because
they're nice and young,

but, there has been
a completely revolutionized system

to the way apparel
is produced and sold.

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

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

we have autumn/winter
and spring/summer,

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

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

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

with the contemporary fashion industry

as Gregorian plainsong has with the
contemporary music industry.

Absolutely nothing to do with it.

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

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

Every week there are new styles,
there is new stock in shops,

new stock online, and it's become
a very, very quick process.

Some people would call it a churn.

Now, when I look at the bright young hopes
of British fashion,

and we see these brilliant designers
have got something.

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

Roksanda Ilincic.

So, these are great names,
great hopes for the future.

And then we hear about the people

who basically succeed
to the big luxury conglomerates

and take over those brands.

And these are big, big names,
going out there

into this multi-billion pound sector

and representing British style.
But often I think,

'Will they be OK?'
Because, actually, it's not just

fast fashion or high street fashion
that's become super fast,

but also the luxury industry.

This is the way
that we really, really shop;

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

Now, one of the things
I really like to do

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

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

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

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

And one of my favourite observations,

although it does not say
particularly good things,

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

or just kind of loitering nearby,

and a girl came out
with four of these bags.

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

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

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

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

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

she just left them on the pavement
and walked off.

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

if we produce clothes that are
effectively disposable,

we will all start to treat them
like litter.

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

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

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

but the same cycle and the same churn

is starting to happen
throughout the fashion landscape.

So, effectively,
these designers that we saw,

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

and all round the world in fact,
actually are in a similar churn.

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

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

resort-wear, yacht-wear,

getting on a yacht, getting off a yacht,
post-yacht, pre-yacht,

who are all these people
that they are designing for?

Who has all these yachts?

(Laughter)

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

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

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

Those of you who are
old enough to remember

will remember there was
a certain lack of choice,

a certain sort of look
that the high street had,

maybe 20-25 years ago, which wasn't
that appealing, wasn't that aspirational.

So, the high street brands
have really democratized style,

you're able to get hold of it.

I remember moving to London
and coming back to the North West,

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

I mean that doesn't happen now,
it happens in the reverse.

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

So, 814 million garments a year,

this is also an estimate, are produced
by Zara/Inditex, the Spanish brand.

That's a lot of clothes.

And they have 45,000 designs,
so their designers

are constantly coming up with trends,
every single year.

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

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

When Zara started in the UK,
nobody understood it,

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

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

And then they'll say,
'I'll think about it, I'll come back.'

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

because shops these days don't re-stock,
they don't need to,

because they've moved
on to the next trend.

If you blink, you miss it.

Number 3 -- I'm still doing
the fashion in numbers thing.

This is the position of Amancio Ortega
who owns Zara,

on the international rich list.
He's the 3rd richest man in the world.

There's a lot of money
in this fast fashion business.

Here's Philip Green, maybe this is where
all the resort yacht wear is going to,

because he has a yacht.

And this is the little picture
of a village, somewhere in England,

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

who is the CEO of H&M.

So, that gives you some idea of the riches
that we're talking about.

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

but just to show you
a little bit of disparity,

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

It happens in Bangladesh.

It happens in other countries too,
but Bangladesh, 80% of the GDP

is constituted by
the ready-made garment industry,

and that's the equivalent of $20 billion.

So, when we talk
about problems there,

it is not feasible for companies to cut
and run, because, as you can see,

that economy is dependent on this trade.

Now, I put this in, because there was
a recent power list of fashion,

and I counted 4 muses in the top 30.

Now, I'm not really sure
what a muse does,

but there were four muses and there was
no mention of the people

that actually make the clothes,

which I thought was
really, really interesting,

and I think this really shines a light
on a problem in the whole industry.

So, there's 101 processes
to making a garment.

Just 6 to 8 of those are done
in factories like the ones in Bangladesh.

And these are basically
what the cut, make and trim army do.

And by conservative estimate,
there's 3 million, mainly young women,

who work in this cut, make and trim army,

and these are the core part
of the supply chain,

when they're actually
putting the piece together.

These are vast factories,
vast, vast production lines.

Now, 48.5 seconds is the time
that it's estimated it should take

one of the people on this production stage
to actually sew a seam.

It's relentless, relentless work.
This is a quote from Ali Hewson,

who set up the EDUN brand,
'We carry the story of the people

who make our clothes around with us.'

And we do,
but we don't acknowledge it,

which is why I showed
that picture of the muse

and I point to that power list.

These are the unseen, the hidden people
in the supply chain.

5,600 -- that's the number
of garment factories

that Bangladesh has,
mainly centred around Dhaka.

At last count,
when this report came out,

there were less than 200 inspectors --

I think that should be fewer,
but I'm just being pedantic.

Now, in 1911 we have the biggest tragedy
in the garment sector to date.

And that was the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire;

and that was
in New York's garment district.

146 people died in 18 minutes,
and this was the worst disaster

that we'd ever seen in this sector.

And that prompted,
not a revolution,

but a lot of picketing,
a big labour movement,

and it's still acknowledged.

Every year on the anniversary,

people will go and acknowledge,
the trade unions will acknowledge,

that that disaster happened.

And what really struck me was
that we never acknowledge.

There were lots and lots of factory deaths
and fire deaths and stampedes

in factories, lots of fatalities,
that were happening in the supply chain.

Probably one or two a month
that we learn about through our era,

and we never really said
anything about it.

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

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

at Rana Plaza.

Rana Plaza basically collapsed like
a house of cards.

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

but, it was the garment workers that died,

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

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

These images are probably not unfamiliar,
because they were broadcast

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

actually interviewing
these garment workers,

and actually getting their testimonies.

The difference was that
they were actually under rubble.

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

2,500 injured, 700 children left,

and the Rana Plaza battle
for compensation continues.

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

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

This is just about
Uzbekistan's cotton industry;

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

And this happens every year.

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

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

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

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

showing her own collection.

So, you see this terrible dichotomy,

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

Can we do it better?
Yes, we can.

Now, I think
the whole sustainable style movement

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

They fear that we're going to have to wear

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

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

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

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

we called it the Green Carpet Challenge.

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

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

called Lillian Bassman.

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

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

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

Don't buy anything unless
you can guarantee to yourself

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

So, we started the Green Carpet Challenge,

and we charged designers with
making us something sustainable.

This is an Armani dress.

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

from the Oscars, to the Globes,
to the whatever

all in these sustainable outfits.

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

to everybody watching,
that it could be done,

and it could be desirable.

There's more of them.

And we wanted to work
in the supply chain,

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

11 billion pairs of shoes
are made every year.

60% of the leather goes to shoes.

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

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

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

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

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

No, they're often from Brazil or China,

and in Brazil,
deforestation is being driven

by the meat and leather industry.

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

Leather that we could prove
was zero deforestation.

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

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

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

it just looks like a bag.

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

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

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

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

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

just keep abreast
of what's happening in fashion,

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

2p, add that onto a £6 T-shirt,

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

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

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

24, remember that number,
it's the anniversary

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

Thank you.

(Applause)