Taiwan News
Date: 2015-09-05
By: Jocylin Fan Chiang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

In an image and youth obsessed world, fashion is what everyone craves. It helps

The price of Fast Fashion: The True Cost. Taiwan News

people to project a certain type of imagination to the world. Fashion is an essential part of our lives; therefore, nobody protested when cheaper and stylish “fast fashion” was born. In Taiwan, people went crazy over the opening of H&M and Forever 21. Many girls lined up for 4 hours on the opening day of the stores and they glowed with pride when they left with their “prizes”. However, when they were informed of the real cost behind their fabulous and cheap clothing, they were shocked. “But that’s the pay and job is better than any alternatives right? At least they aren’t jobless,” said one of my friends. “The True Cost”, a documentary that challenges the chic and trendy image of the fast fashion industry, reveals the reality behind this trillion-dollar industry.

The film covers numerous dilemmas created by the fashion industry, the most labor dependent industry in the world. Fashion, a $2.5 trillion sector, is the second most polluting industry on Earth, just behind oil. During the interview with Vogue USA, executive producer Livia Firth told the reporter what inspired her to take on the issue, “We are sold this myth that to buy a dress for under $10 is democratic—but it’s democratic for who? We discard faster and faster, and that is how the consumer becomes poorer and poorer. Two of the 10 richest men in the world are the owners of Zara and H&M. I think it says a lot about how they make their money.”     [FULL  STORY]