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'Sweatshop' owner of Boohoo factory reveals he pays workers £3.50 an hour

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Owner of factory reveals how much workers are paid

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Owner of factory reveals how much workers are paid

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Displayed on a noticeboard in the foyer of a clothes factory, in the heart of Leicester's notorious garment district, is a list of the country's minimum wage requirements.

Staff are informed those aged 25 and over are entitled to £8.72 an hour. If you're between 21 and 24, you should get £8.20 while £6.45 is the rate for 18 to 20-year-olds. The irony is staggering.

Many of the 30 or so people who work at this establishment off St Saviours Road, we discover, are actually taking home as little as £4 an hour. The chasm between this world in the backstreets of the Midlands, and the label which appears on the clothes it churns out, is vast.

The factory supplies Boohoo, the umbrella fashion company whose corporate stable includes Coast, Misspap, Nasty Gal, Karen Millen and Pretty Little Thing. On June 19, they also snapped up high street brands Warehouse and Oasis from administration.

While there is no evidence that all these labels use the same Leicester sweatshop factories at the centre of the furore over poverty pay, it is nevertheless alarming that its main brands do.

Owned by the Kamani dynasty, Boohoo was worth in excess of £5billion, more than Marks & Spencer and ASOS combined - before our revelations last week of 'sweatshop slavery' helped contribute to a shares crash.

Group chairman Mahmud Kamani founded Boohoo.com with his colleague Carol Kane in 2006.

His sons Umar, 34, and Adam, 27, founded Pretty Little Thing in 2012. The online label employs reality stars as ambassadors and their target audience is teenage girls.

The fact Umar Kamani, who counts Jennifer Lopez and rapper P Diddy as friends, has been defending the reputation of the brand in the exclusive tax haven of Monaco has also raised eyebrows in the City.

The question raging all week since my last investigation into these Dickensian practices has been: How do we really know that factories like the one visited by the Mail are breaking the law and not paying their employers the minimum wage? Because the boss, a portly man in his fifties, unashamedly admits it.

'Anyone saying they are paying all their employees the minimum wage in the garment industry is a fraud,' he declared. 'It's a lie because it's not possible.'

It's an astonishing admission. He is breaking the law but doesn't see it that way.

'People who come from India or Bulgaria don't have money, they don't speak English but they need money to put food in their bellies,' he said. 'The starting point is £4 or £5, then we train them and they get more.

'We pay the minimum wage but not to everybody. Unless you're a big company it's not realistic in this industry where the margins keep getting squeezed.

'Boohoo is the company that gives us our bread and butter. They are a blessing because without them everyone would go to China and get them made cheaper.'

The businessman, who started as a machinist when he arrived here from India 30 years ago, did not wish to give his name but was happy to show us round.

About 100 boxes, ready to go, are piled high in one corner bearing the label of one of Boohoo's companies, Nasty Gal, so there can be no doubt about the destination.

The Kamani empire has offices in Manchester, London, Paris, Berlin, Los Angeles, Sydney - and Leicester. The company has been coy about disclosing the extent of its operation in Leicester, saying only that it sources 40 per cent of its clothing from the UK.

The 'sweatshops' scandal has resulted in a National Crime Agency investigation in Leicester - where crowded garment workshops are feared to have contributed to a spike in coronavirus in the city, which was put back into lockdown last week.

The Mail told last Saturday how workers dared not go home if they had signs of Covid, fearing they would lose their jobs.

Public bodies and Government officials have also missed repeated warnings about poor conditions.

In 2017, the joint Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights, chaired by Harriet Harman, found between a third and three-quarters of clothes factory workers in Leicester were paid below the minimum wage, worked in unsafe conditions or without employment contracts.

The difficulty in obtaining evidence is that it is common practice for employers to hand out wage slips which understate the number of hours.

Harbhajan Kaur, a mother of three in her fifties, works as a machinist in the vicinity of St Saviours Road. She said she is paid £5 an hour but her payslip says she gets £8.72.

She is also listed as a part-time worker but works full-time, allowing her boss to pay her below the minimum wage.

She said: 'We are treated like donkeys because there are a lot of orders to fill. People are buying more online, which means we have to make more clothes.

'We are put under a lot of pressure to come to work, even if we are not feeling well. The bosses even threaten us with the sack.

'Even if things are really bad with coronavirus, people will do all they can to come in.'

It is a harrowing picture of life at the coalface of the fast fashion world. While adverts feature pouty models in skyscraper heels, £5 party dresses or £3 bikini tops can be found on every high street.

In this 'pariah city', rock-bottom prices equals slave-labour wages.

'They just want to make an issue out of Leicester,' insisted the boss who admitted to the Mail that he was paying staff £4 an hour. 'We are getting the police here, media. What is that all about?

'People are desperate and we are providing employment. I'm being asked to produce a garment for 90p. From that I have to pay rates, taxes. It's just not possible to pay everyone £8.72.'

Boohoo has now said it has launched an independent review into its supply chain, led by Alison Levitt, QC.

The firm said that it was 'shocked and appalled' by the allegations and is 'doing everything in our power to rebuild the reputation of the textile manufacturing industry in Leicester'.

But isn't that impossible when you are selling dresses for £5?

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'Sweatshop' owner of Boohoo factory reveals he pays workers £4 an hour

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Displayed on a noticeboard in the foyer of a clothes factory, in the heart of Leicester's notorious garment district, is a list of the country's minimum wage requirements. Staff are informed those aged 25 and over are entitled to £8.72 an hour.

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 PrettyLittleThing has “built their brand off exploitation,” A protest called out unethical labor conditions at PrettyLittleThing.

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 PrettyLittleThing has “built their brand off exploitation,” A protest called out unethical labor conditions at PrettyLittleThing.

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We are currently living through the age of fast fashion, where numerous brands pump out new styles on the daily, typically made using environmentally-destructive manufacturing practices, by laborers who are often underpaid, lack proper protection, and are mistreated. With this information becoming more and more exposed, fans of popular fast fashion brand Pretty Little Thing may be wondering, is Pretty Little Thing ethical?

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A group of fair fashion advocates recently protested the fast fashion brand outside of its fashion show, demanding that Pretty Little Thing (stylized as PrettyLittleThing) make some serious changes in the realm of ethics and sustainability. Keep reading to learn more about PrettyLittleThing, its ethics, and the protest.

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PrettyLittleThing is a fast fashion brand owned by boohoo group.

PrettyLittleThing is a major U.K.-based, fast fashion, mostly-online retailer that ships to countries around the world. One of 13 brands owned by boohoo group, PrettyLittleThing sells clothing, shoes, accessories, beauty products, and even some home goods, geared at teenage girls and women. Molly-Mae Hague, a former Love Island contestant, joined the brand as creative director in 2021.

Is PrettyLittleThing ethical or sustainable?

The blog Good On You, which rates fashion brands based on sustainability, labor treatment, and animal welfare, gave PrettyLittleThing "We Avoid" as its overall rating, which is the lowest rating possible. That was due to: the lack of evidence that PrettyLittleThing has done anything significant to reduce its environmental impact, the brand sharing zero information about its factories or workers, and for the brand using leather and wool without sharing any information about the supply chain.

And in 2020, boohoo group was the subject of a slavery investigation by The Sunday Times, in which an undercover reporter got a job at the factory, and was paid less than half of Britain's minimum hourly wage.

Based on those two things alone, no, PrettyLittleThing is not guided by ethics or sustainability. But what does the brand have to say for itself?

PrettyLittleThing claims to be going greener.

PrettyLittleThing is actually known for selling "The £5 Dress" (about $6.79 USD), which the brand claims to make using fabric that would otherwise go to waste, in a supposed effort to make products accessible and affordable "to everyone." That said, PrettyLittleThing could be much more effective in reducing waste if it worked to design patterns that produced less waste in the first place.

Not to mention, The £5 Dress is still made in the same sweatshops as PrettyLittleThings other garments, about which boohoo group provides no information, despite the parent company making a 2021 pledge to do so for all of its brands by the end of 2021.

That pledge was made as part of ​​boohoo group's sustainability plan, which is known as UP.FRONT. The plan details three areas that boohoo group is supposedly focusing on: making clothes "smarter" and more sustainably; doing more for its suppliers and being more transparent about its supply chain; and running the business more responsibly, as well as being more responsible and tackling climate change.

The UP.FRONT document mostly focuses vague goals that boohoo group aims to accomplish between 2021 and 2025, such as: being less wasteful in clothing production, using less packaging, reducing carbon emissions by 52 percent, improving conditions for U.K. garment factories; and sharing a transparent factory list with customers.

So while boohoo group claims to be hard at work on becoming a better company in terms of sustainability, transparency, and worker rights, it appears as though PrettyLittleThing is just as unethical as most other fast fashion companies.

A protest called out unethical labor conditions at PrettyLittleThing.

On Feb. 16, 2022, the PrettyLittleThing X Molly-Mae fashion went up at The Londoner Hotel in London's Leicester Square. Right outside, fair fashion campaigner and influencer Venetia La Manna and Oh So Ethical led a protest of the fast fashion brand.

"There is nothing sustainable about thousands of new items added to their site each and every week. We staged the demo to demand that they pay their garment makers fair living wages, recognise their unions and commit to a drastic reduction in output," La Manna wrote on Instagram. "The social and environmental issues of fashion are far reaching, and last night's runway show presented a good opportunity to shine a light on some of them."

At the protest, La Manna and the other leaders encouraged people to stop supporting PrettyLittleThing and other boohoo group brands (which include Nasty Gal and Karen Millen). We have many guides to shopping sustainably on Green Matters - our No. 1 tip is to shop secondhand; we also recommend supporting sustainable, small fashion labels when you can.

Green Matters' new book, Green Living, is the perfect guide to living an eco-friendly lifestyle for people at every stage of the process. You can order Green Livinghere.

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Why Anti-Fast Fashion Activists Protested the PrettyLittleThing Fashion Show

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We are currently living through the age of fast fashion, where numerous brands pump out new styles on the daily, typically made using environmentally-destructive manufacturing practices, by laborers who are often underpaid, lack proper protection, and are mistreated.

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Pretty Little Thing was marked down in the Human Rights category because its parent company Boohoo Group was found to be selling clothes made by Pakistani workers who earned 29p per hour, according to a December 2020 article in The Guardian
The investigation was carried out after claims that workers were paid below minimum wage (as low as £3.50 per hour)

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Several ethical issues with Pretty Little Thing, and it received a worst Ethical Consumer rating for Environmental Reporting, Climate Change, Pollution & Toxics, Palm Oil Sourcing, Animal Testing, Animal Rights, Workers’ Rights, Supply Chain Management and Tax Conduct.

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Pretty Little Thing is renowned for its fast fashion, epitomised in its sale of dresses on Black Friday for 8p.

Owned by Boohoo Group, the Pretty Little Thing brand is a mainstay in the UK’s fast fashion scene.

Here we outline the main criticisms of the company.

How ethical is Pretty Little Thing?

Our research highlights several ethical issues with Pretty Little Thing, and it received a worst Ethical Consumer rating for Environmental Reporting, Climate Change, Pollution & Toxics, Palm Oil Sourcing, Animal Testing, Animal Rights, Workers’ Rights, Supply Chain Management and Tax Conduct.

Below we outline some of these issues. To see the full detailed stories, and Pretty Little Thing’s overall ethical rating, please sign in or subscribe.

People

Pretty Little Thing was marked down in the Human Rights category because its parent company Boohoo Group was found to be selling clothes made by Pakistani workers who earned 29p per hour, according to a December 2020 article in The Guardian.

It was also marked down for the Leicester garment factories scandal. An independent investigation published in September 2020 by Alison Levitt QC stated

“Boohoo’s monitoring of its Leicester supply chain has been inadequate for many years.”

The investigation was carried out after claims that workers were paid below minimum wage (as low as £3.50 per hour). The investigation said “allegations of unacceptable working conditions and underpayment of workers are not only well-founded, but are substantially true."

Many large clothes companies list the countries where suppliers are located, due to how sourcing from oppressive regimes and supply chain workers’ rights abuses are common in the clothing sector. As neither Boohoo nor Pretty Little Thing disclosed the country of origin of its suppliers, it lost half a mark under Ethical Consumer’s Human Rights category.

It scored our worst rating for Supply Chain Management. It didn’t appear to audit any of its suppliers outside of the UK, wasn’t part of any multi-stakeholder initiatives, and despite appointing Sir Brian Leveson to provide independent oversight of its ‘Agenda for change’ it was unclear in what ways this change was supposed to be happening.

Its parent company, Boohoo Group, also had no policy against sourcing cotton from Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, even though it is widely known that these are two of the world’s largest exporters of cotton and each year governments forcibly mobilise over one million citizens to grow and harvest cotton.

Boohoo scored just 11% in the 2019 Fashion Transparency Index, which ranks 200 of the biggest global fashion brands and retailers according to their disclosure surrounding their supply chain and social and environmental impact. The average score was 21%.

Animals

Pretty Little Thing lost a whole mark under Ethical Consumer’s Animal Rights category. Within the Boohoo group, items containing leather, wool and down were either found as for sale or were discussed in company policy as materials. It stated that by 2025 “All our leather, wool, feather and down will be sourced in line with industry best practice”, suggesting that for the time being it wasn’t following best practice - and this seemed to be the case, as no further detail was found.

Ethical Consumer also found that Boohoo and Pretty Little Thing lacked any clear policies related to animal testing, despite selling several cosmetic products.

Environment

Pretty Little Thing scores our worst rating for Carbon Management and Reporting, because its parent company Boohoo didn’t appear to have taken adequate steps to address its emissions.

The only steps it discussed were LED rollouts and installing solar panels in Burnley and Manchester.

Nothing was mentioned of its supply chain, which is where most of its emissions would be, nor of transport or other key issues within the clothing sector. While it had a carbon reductions target in line with international agreements, it provided no information about how it planned to meet these targets.

It also scored a worst rating for Environmental Reporting, because it provided virtually no detail about environmental issues caused by company activity and its efforts to address them, and it didn’t have any meaningful future dated environmental reduction targets.

It scored our worst rating for its toxic policies related to clothing. Boohoo stated in its Sustainability Plan 2021 that it was launching a 'clothes.made smarter' scheme, saying "We've analysed our material mix and developed guidelines for more sustainable materials, with a big focus on polyester and cotton which are the materials we use the most across the group." But little detail about what this meant was detailed, and no information about whether it sourced sustainable cotton was identified.

It also scored a worst pollution and toxics rating for cosmetics, because it appeared to have no policies prohibiting the use of parabens, triclosan or phthalates.

Politics

Pretty Little Thing lost a whole mark under Ethical Consumer’s for Likely Use of Tax Avoidance Strategies category. This is because its parent company Boohoo Group is incorporated in Jersey, a jurisdiction considered to be a tax haven, despite the majority of its operations being on the UK mainland.

Four of Boohoo’s directors were paid over £1m for the year ended February 2021, which was considered to be excessive.

Want to find out more? Subscribe to see the full detailed stories about Pretty Little Thing.

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How ethical is PrettyLittleThing.com Ltd? | Ethical Consumer

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Our ethical ratings and stories for PrettyLittleThing.com Ltd | Ownership structure and associated brands | Related shopping guides.

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The fast-fashion brand also fail to disclose any policies they have in place

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The fast-fashion brand also fail to disclose any policies they have in place

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Pretty Little Thing is one of the most affordable clothing shops in the world - but how sustainable is it and does it use ethical practises?

It's the perfect place to shop for those on a budget. The online fast fashion store could fill an entire wardrobe with stylish items for under £100, which goes some way to explain why it's so popular - as well as the fact Pretty Little Thing caters for nearly every woman, with curve, maternity, petite and tall ranges available.

READ MORE: How ethical is Zara?

The brand, which boasts Kylie Jenner, Little Mix, Lil' Kim, Molly-Mae Hague and Ashanti as ambassadors, has 17.3 million followers on Instagram at the time of writing and had global net sales of £275.5 million in 2019.

Here, we take a look at the practises behind the brand.
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Is Pretty Little Thing ethical?

Pretty Little Thing is owned by Boohoo Group PLC, which was accused of modern slavery in July 2020.

An investigation by The Sunday Times discovered that the company were paying their garment workers an hourly wage of £3.50 at a factory in Leicester - much lower than the minimum wage of £8.72 for those over 25.

While the COVID-19 pandemic was spreading all over the world at the time, workers' rights group Labour Behind the Label found that staff were also being 'forced to come into work while sick' with the virus. Unsurprisingly, this was later linked to an increase in cases in the city.

Despite their workers being paid very poorly, they were still able to offer 99% off clothing and to give away £10,000 on social media on Black Friday in 2020.

According to Good On You, some of Pretty Little Thing's supply chain is certified by Sedex Members Ethical Trade Audit - SMETA Best Practice Guidance in the final stage of production.

Unfortunately that's about the only point that the brand gets when it comes to being ethical, as they scored an appalling 0-10% in the Fashion Transparency Index. There's barely any information about the brand's supplier policies and audits, and they don't disclose any information about the practises they put in place - if they do at all - to ensure gender equality and regarding forced labour and freedom of association.

The fast-fashion brand also fail to disclose any policies they have in place to protect suppliers and garment workers in their supply chain from COVID-19 and the financial impact it may have.

In April 2021, BBC reported that Boohoo group was found to be selling the same item across its various brands for different prices. The error was discovered in the case of many items, including one coat, which was selling for £34 more on Coast's website than on Dorothy Perkins'. Boohoo claimed this was a ' genuine mistake '.

The brand also recently went under fire for its 'tribute to the victims of the 9/11 attacks.' Pretty Little Thing posted a photo of the World Trade Center twin towers in black and white with the words 'Never Forget' in pink. Social media users called the fast-fashion company out for 'branding' the post.

Pretty Little Thing's CEO Umar Kumani was also recently called out for posting about his lavish lifestyle as well as the £1.5 million diamond ring he used to propose to his now-fiancee, Nada Adelle. This after reports surfaced that the brand 'forced' its workers to come into work despite being sick and not providing living wages.

READ MORE: How ethical is ASOS?

Then there's the fact that the brand's Creative Director Molly-Mae Hague earns a six-figure salary. The former Love Island star got the job in 2021 and more recently was called out for claiming 'we all have the same 24 hours in a day ' during an interview.

In line with the backlash against Molly-Mae's comments, the brand's fast-fashion model, and the reported unfair wages of its workers, several protesters gathered at the entrance of The Londoner hotel on 17 February to demand that PLT and its parent company Boohoo "pay their garment workers fair living wages, recognise their unions, and commit to a drastic reduction in output."

Is Pretty Little Thing sustainable?

Pretty Little Thing don't use eco-friendly materials, nor have they made much effort to reduce the use of hazardous chemicals or water in their supply chain.

While they do report greenhouse gas emissions from their direct operation, they don't bother when it comes to their supply chain.

Some of the better practises they have in place include reGAIN, an app which enables shoppers to send the brand their old garments in exchange for a discount.

They have also released a recycled collection, made from 100% recycled materials, and their packaging is now made from 100% recycled material.

In September 2021, the brand released its PLT Renew collection, which they said is 'made with love from more sustainably sourced and recycled materials, to reduce the environmental impact.'

Early in 2022, PLT announced its plan to launch a reselling marketplace (similar to Depop), where customers can sell used clothing - any pre-worn clothing, not just those bought from the fast-fashion brand.

"This platform encourages sustainability and encourages people to shop for pre-loved and recycled pieces," Molly-Mae said of the project, which is set to launch late in 2022, according to WWD.

The platform will be synced with PrettyLittleThing's order history, so customers who want to put up their old PLT items on sale can automatically pull up the data to their store (images, product info, and more).

Pretty Little Thing animal welfare policy

Pretty Little Thing's sustainable policy information is very limited, while their labour rights and animal welfare policies appear to be missing entirely from their website.

For this reason, it seems there's no evidence it has a policy against animal cruelty. The brand uses leather and wool, but avoids fur and exotic animal skin and hair.

They do offer a selection of cruelty-free and vegan make-up on the site.

Wear Next Opinion

Wear Next believes it's important to highlight the negative and unjust practises taking place in the fashion industry. We believe ethics and sustainability are an important talking point to bring about change and we encourage you to contact fashion brands to demand this.

However we understand that sustainable fashion isn't accessible for every body due to various factors, such as budget and the ability to find confidence-boosting clothes that fit. We will continue to offer you fashion inspiration and guidance to suit every body and budget, while also highlighting the unjust systems at play in the fashion industry.

Would you still shop at PLT? Let us know in the comments below.

Slow Fashion Brands

In the past sustainable fashion was synonymous with bamboo, beige and basic garments, but recently slow fashion has started to change.

There are plenty of exciting small fashion brands that don't compromise on style. If you're looking for an alternative to PLT, we recommend checking out these made to order fashion brands and this selection of anti-fast fashion brands, which are creative, unique, colourful and stylish.

We also recommend shopping vintage as an alternative to fast fashion. We search the virtual vintage racks every week to bring you exciting retro pieces you can buy instead of fast fashion, while we've put together a list of online vintage shops to check out now here.

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Is Pretty Little Thing Ethical and Sustainable? - Wear Next.

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Pretty Little Thing is one of the most affordable clothing shops in the world - but how sustainable is it and does it use ethical practises? It's the perfect place to shop for those on a budget.

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On the surface, Boohoo-owned PrettyLittleThing appears-well, pretty! Its Instagram account, boasting almost 15 million followers, is full of diverse, happy-looking women sporting colourful and trendy clothes. The brand, founded in the UK in 2012 as a small accessories-only company, has since grown to one of the largest fast fashion retailers. It is a go-to option for size inclusivity, featuring extensive plus, tall, and petite ranges. But we know by now that rapid production at low prices is a classically unsustainable business model, so let's dig a little deeper and see if the "pretty" continues below the surface for workers, animals, and the environment. How ethical is PrettyLittleThing?

Environmental Impact

Off the bat, PrettyLittleThing's environment rating is 'Not Good Enough'. It doesn't use eco-friendly materials, instead opting for planet-damaging polyester in most of its lineup. There is no evidence it has taken meaningful action to reduce or eliminate hazardous chemicals, nor does it implement any water reduction initiatives. While it does measure and report on greenhouse gas emissions from its direct operations, it skips over the supply chain! PrettyLittleThing also follows the take-make-waste model of fast fashion brands, selling hundreds of styles that end up in landfill after just a few wears. There is a long way to go before this brand could be considered good for the planet.

Labour conditions

For a brand promoting such pretty and happy people, scoring the lowest possible labour rating of 'Very Poor' is an even bigger disappointment. Some of PLT's supply chain is certified by Sedex Members Ethical Trade Audit - SMETA Best Practice Guidance in the final stage of production, but the rest is all bad news. It received a score of 0-10% in the Fashion Transparency Index, much like fellow low-rated fast fashion retailers Fashion Nova, Boohoo, and Revolve. It publishes zero or minimal information about its supplier policies and audits, and it doesn't disclose any information about forced labour, gender equality, or freedom of association. While PLT ambassadors seem happy, the same can't be said for workers in the supply chain. There is also no evidence it ensures payment of a living wage or any policies or safeguards to protect suppliers and workers from the impacts of COVID-19!

Animal welfare

In a not-so-shocking turn of events, PrettyLittleThing is rated 'Not Good Enough' for our animal friends. While it doesn't use fur, down, angora, or exotic animal skin or hair, it does use leather and wool without stating sources. There is no evidence it has a policy to minimise the suffering of animals, nor that it traces any animal products to the first stage of production, so there is no way to guarantee the welfare of any animals along the supply chain.

Overall rating: We Avoid

So, how ethical is PrettyLittleThing? Based on our own research, we gave PrettyLittleThing our lowest overall rating of 'We Avoid'. In fact, it sits up there in our top ten fast fashion brands we avoid at all costs! The brand has to turn its act around for people, the planet, and animals before any part of its behind-the-scenes can be considered "pretty". By being more transparent about its practices and making crucial improvements to everything from worker wages to materials, PLT could see its score increase.

Note that Good On You ratings consider 100s of issues, and it is not possible to list every relevant issue in a summary of the brand's performance. For more information, see our How We Rate page and our FAQs.

See the rating.

We know that size inclusivity is one of the most significant barriers for people trying to shop more ethically, and there is no shame in shopping for brands that are making a start if they best suit your needs. Fortunately, there are tons of size-inclusive ethical alternatives to PrettyLittleThing out there to help you slow your consumption down and invest in quality pieces that will stand the test of time. Here are a few of our faves.

Good swaps

Sustainable alternatives to PrettyLittleThing

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How Ethical Is PrettyLittleThing? - Good On You

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On the surface, Boohoo-owned PrettyLittleThing appears-well, pretty! Its Instagram account, boasting almost 15 million followers, is full of diverse, happy-looking women sporting colourful and trendy clothes. The brand, founded in the UK in 2012 as a small accessories-only company, has since grown to one of the largest fast fashion retailers.

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Volunteer Label writer Katrina Maria Sweeney discusses the impact of PrettyLittleThing's infamous 'Up to 99% Off' Black Friday sale on both people and the environment.
PrettyLittleThing (PLT) has faced criticism before this Black Friday sale, with its concerning working conditions and low pay to workers at garment factories in Leicester, UK - paying workers a mere £3.50 an hour. PLT also faced further controversy when it was blasted on Twitter that, buried in their terms and conditions, they had a notice sign reading "WARNING: Some Products on our Online Store from time to time may contain chemicals that are known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm and may be included on the Proposition 65 chemical list".

However, the ugly side of PLT that was already apparent has been heightened following their large Black Friday sale and 99% off price slash, as online users were quick to criticise PLT and bring to light the concerning effects of this sale, where coats originally costing £70, were being sold for as little as 7p, and dresses were being sold for 5p. The implications of sales like this on those who make the clothes are vast. It has been said that Mahmud Kamani, the co-founder and joint CEO of Boohoo.com, (the Boohoo plc that owns PLT, Nastygal, etc), is ultimately getting away with running a modern-day sweatshop and is accused of forcing staff to work in poor conditions, even as some were tested positive with coronavirus. Many believe this exposes his company's extreme negligence and, arguably, slave labour.

On Twitter, author and model Jamie Windust talks about the effect on those who make the clothes and racial exploitations; stating "Pretty Little Thing selling literal clothes for 5p and still being able to make a profit isn't funny, it's a reminder that the industry constantly exploits Black, Indigenous, and People of Color through unacceptable pay and poor conditions''. It has been argued that such low prices show a distinct disregard for environmental and labour standards, whereby these clothes are made in unsafe conditions, which means workers are suffering more by now receiving less money than they were previously being paid. In response, PLT's spokesman only commented that the 99% discount was being offered on selected lines while stock lasts, and was to offer 'something competitive and understand people may be spending less in what is usually the festive shopping period', and declined to comment on the concerns raised on social media.

We as a society are becoming more aware of fast fashion and how it is detrimentally impacting the environment, whereby Joanna Ewart-James, executive director of anti-human trafficking and modern slavery organisation Freedom United, said the PLT's "extreme promo says everything about fast fashion". According to Greenpeace, enough textiles to fill a rubbish truck get sent to landfill or burned every second, and so with PLT's clothing, such as their dresses made of 95% polyester, once it is out of fashion or unwanted, it is likely to go to landfill and pollute the planet. This is worsened by the Black Friday sale, as having 99% off will increase sales and thus increase the plastic content that will end up having detrimental effects on the climate.

PLT has made claims of sustainability by having a recycled section, stating on their website their 'aim is to rework unwanted, worn-out materials and give them a second chance [...] made from recycled fabrics means you can update your new season style and take a small step in making the world a better place. With this season's best picks formed from recycled fabric off-cuts and plastic bottles - you can look great, feel great, and help make a difference to the world we live in'. Furthermore, PLT promotes a 'regain' app that claims to help the environment, yet this app allows customers to turn unwanted clothes into discounts to get cash off their next PLT purchase. And so, the cycle remains - continuously increasing consumption, and the impact on the environment. After all, as calculated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the fashion industry produces 10% of global carbon dioxide emissions every year.

Thus, the ugly side of fast fashion is evident, and while low prices can be tempting, we should look towards more sustainable independent/local, smaller businesses. Shopping from these businesses reduces carbon footprint and are able to look good without contributing to the exploitation of workers and the damaging environmental impacts on the only world we have to live in. A thought-provoking question from Kerry Bannigan, founder of the Conscious Fashion Campaign, concludes this article: "Is an unfathomable cheaply priced garment truly worth the depletion of our water, soil, and air?"

Header by Christos Alamaniotis - Head of Design

Edited by Izzie Naish - News Editor

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Volunteer Label writer Katrina Maria Sweeney discusses the impact of PrettyLittleThing's infamous 'Up to 99% Off' Black Friday sale on both people and the environment. PrettyLittleThing (PLT) has faced criticism before this Black Friday sale, with its concerning working conditions and low pay to workers at garment factories in Leicester, UK - paying workers a ...

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Pretty Little Thing shoppers have been warned by the company over clothing containing chemicals linked to cancer and birth defects.

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Pretty Little Thing shoppers have been warned by the company over clothing containing chemicals linked to cancer and birth defects.

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Pretty Little Thing shoppers have been warned by the company over clothing containing chemicals linked to cancer and birth defects.

PLT is currently running an alert on its website, telling shoppers some items sold online may contain chemicals known to cause "cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm".

Clothing, handbags and more products are all affected, according to The Tab .

One shopper tweeted: "Very alarming that Pretty Little Thing are selling clothing that have chemicals in which are known to cause cancer and birth defects and burying this information at the bottom of their Terms and Conditions."

A second wrote: Just saw this on @OfficialPLT website. "It's really buried down the bottom of the T&Cs page. Why are #PrettyLittleThing allowed to sell products that may contain chemicals known to cause cancer?"

Pretty Little Thing warns that some products such as "wallets, handbags, purses, clutches, clothing, jewellery or shoes made of vinyl or imitation leather may contain traces or [sic.] lead."

Pretty Little Thing said: "This statement is in compliance with California's Proposition 65. it is a legal requirement for all e-commerce sites that sell to the state of California.

"The list contains a wide range of chemicals that can be found in common household products, food, drugs , dyes, plastics etc."

A spokesperson for Pretty Little Thing also said: "All companies that sell products to customers in California are legally required to comply with California's Proposition 65 legislation.

"Proposition 65 requires companies to make customers in California aware that certain products may contain traces of chemicals.

"PLT works closely with its suppliers to ensure that the requirements relating to Proposition 65 are met.

"Including a general warning on our US website is a step commonly taken by companies selling products in California."

Pretty Little Thing's full statement on this can be found on its terms and conditions page. It reads:
"The following is a notice to residents of California regarding Proposition 65: California's Proposition 65 entitles California consumers to special warnings for Products that contain chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm if those products expose consumers to such chemicals above certain threshold levels. Some of our products such as wallets, handbags, purses, clutches, clothing, jewellery or shoes made of vinyl or imitation leather may contain traces or lead. In accordance with Proposition 65, We issue the following warning to our California customers: "WARNING: Some Products on our Online Store from time to time may contain chemicals that are known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm and may be included on the Proposition 65 chemical list. If you need additional information to make your purchase, please email us at: customer.services@prettylittlething.com We will respond as soon as possible to provide you with the information We possess about the materials within our products. For more information on Proposition 65, please visit here. To learn more on lead-related FAQs, visit here."

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Pretty Little Thing issue alarming warning over its clothing

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Pretty Little Thing shoppers have been warned by the company over clothing containing chemicals linked to cancer and birth defects. PLT is currently running an alert on its website, telling shoppers some items sold online may contain chemicals known to cause "cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm".