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Highlighting key points of brief and specifications for design.

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We worked in class to discuss our goal and how we can expand into our chosen topic. This was interesting as it really put into perspective how everything we discussed was related to each other.

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I decided to delve further into the topic of fast fashion and it’s environmental impacts. There’s lots of different directions here but I think I’ll
focus primarily on the exploitation of women and children in the garment industry. This will be displayed over a few posters that I will work on during my development stage.

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I wanted to explore some editorial illustrations and ways different artists have shown fast fashion issues in their work. I particularly like the illustration with the mobile phone, it has given me some ideas to develop into thumbnails - showcasing the idea of what you see in front of you versus what’s happening behind the scenes.

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I’ve chosen this image for the contrast in its simple yet bold message. I like that it’s a somewhat lasting piece of art, the message of which takes place as the water rises “ruining” the piece until it’s no longer legible. It shows the physical aspect of global warming, meanwhile giving a message to those who don’t necessarily believe in it - a message you can see with your own eyes, and that will affect you both at that moment and also over time.

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I chose an image online of a hand reaching up through a pile of clothes and tried to recreate it using mixed media. I ripped some newspaper to create an opening round the hand, and ripped around some clothing items to add to it. I kept the background blue hues that could represent the sky or sea, and used photoshop to embed and rotate an image of two hands joined together to give the illusion of one helping the other.

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This is a mixed media piece of alcohol marker on paper and two images from photoshop. I really want to hammer home the businesses who have a lot of responsibility to take for fast fashion. Missguided & Boohoo are big players in the fast fashion industry and are known to have previously exploited their workers. If you go on the website you’ll see lots of trope about recycled material, and fair wages, but they play a good game at telling customers what they want to hear. I mirrored that in this concept and added some facts and figures that consumers may not know, or are ignorant to.

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I recreated an image of a young woman working in a sweatshop on a sewing machine. This was a quick 2 minute exercise with a limited colour palette.

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Thumbnail #1 the concept for this is to have 4 posters, each showing a similar image with elements changing.

They will show four consecutive dates from 2010-2021, with a hand in the foreground holding a modern phone, viewing an online image of a dress with a pop up that says “1000 new styles added each day”, this will also increase in numbers as the posters go on. In the background there is an ever growing pile of clothing waste as the years increase from a small pile to taking up the entire screen.

Thumbnail #2 this concept is another duplicate with 3 posters in the series.

These posters will show a different person looking in a mirror holding an item of clothing in each illustration, with a different garment worker reflecting them in each.

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Thumbnail #3 is a series of two posters that would sit on top of each other as opposed to side by side.

The top half shows a garment worker overrun with materials, flowing into the bottom poster of someone shopping in a fast fashion retailer from the same materials.

Thumbnail #4 can be a solo poster or a series of 3-4. This shows a rework of a fast fashion brand website, with product information exchanged for facts on that brands relationship with fast fashion. I’ve used a play on the word “misguided”, with a play on the own brand slogan of “we are Missguided.” This could work with some alternative brands in the industry that would go side by side as web pages in the poster series.

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I used different ideas and concepts from my research and thumbnails and started picking out elements from both. I like the idea of having a phone but seeing a different image on screen than what is behind it, for this example it would be a fast fashion website on the mobile screen but a landfill pile in the background. I’m looking to possibly use some text, something punchy but effective on the screen.

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Working on the mirror concept from my thumbnails I came up with the idea of someone holding an item of clothing with the reflection in the mirror being of exploited workers who made the garment. I think developing on this further I would slightly shrink the mirrors and use the space surrounding it to look like a clothing store, along with adding a frame so it looks more like a mirror.

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I liked the different elements of newspaper cuttings used on Amy’s moodboard and used it to create a collage of a hand holding a mobile phone. I’ve used different font sizes and background colour for shading and following the different shapes in the palm. I chose to keep the wet dark area in because as I was using my own hand as a reference, and have some dark coloured veins in that area, I thought it replicated that well.

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I’m still torn between two ideas at the moment so I’ve sketched up some roughs. This is idea #1, I’d like to use collage for the foreground and maybe the landfill piles in the background, and paint in the background where the sky is.

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I drafted up some roughs for my second idea but quickly found that I couldn’t quite execute it how I wanted to. The illustration looked more like someone looking in a painting than a mirror and without over complicating it I couldn’t get it quite right.

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I was inspired initially through a moodboard image of someone holding a mobile phone, and developed on this idea from there. In addition to this I was also inspired by a lot of illustrations that involved newspaper and painting over it, I reworked these ideas by using different shades of paper to show the light and shadows on the hand.

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I simplified my initial phone idea and only included minimal text. The body of the phone is collage and the main screen is alcohol marker and fineliner. Unfortunately my pink pen ran out so I had to do some digital manipulation for the last phone! These will sit a top my collage hand, due to time constraints I could only physically make the one.

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This was some A3 cartridge washed with water then some mixed gouache paint over the top. I redone this a few times because I couldn’t quite get the background how I wanted, but I think it actually turned out a nice colour in comparison to the full piece.

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2010

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2014

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2018

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2021

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CONSCIOUS CONSUMERISM - Campaign Message

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CONSCIOUS CONSUMERISM - Campaign Message

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I’m focusing on the topic of fast fashion for this poster series. I’ve explored a few different ideas and settled on the issue of clothing landfills, and how our consumer behaviours also directly impact them. There is a lot we as consumers can do to help our bit in the environment, when it comes to clothing we need to start being conscious of our purchases. We can shop second hand, look for more eco friendly brands, and research into better materials for ourselves and our planet.

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The fast fashion industry has become a multi-billion dollar industry by releasing products and clothing collections at break-neck speed. Their affordability, and trendy clothing has built them a large, global consumer base. But recently, public outcry over Kylie Cosmetics not paying their Bangladeshi garment workers arose. And along with this, many questions have been raised as well over the ethicality of fashion brands. Let's delve inside the dirty secrets this industry has kept from us.

The fast fashion industry has built its empire on the blood and bones of many impoverished children and women. Who are paid less than 2% of the profits that are earned by these brands, according to a report by Oxfam. And, numerous well-known fashion brands are complicit in this exploitation. Beware, you might see your favourite brands named in this article.

Question it yourself for a moment, how is Zara able to churn out 20,000 designs annually, or Topshop feature 400 new styles every week, or H&M and Forever 21 receive new garment shipments everyday? How are these brands able to offer the latest trends at competitive prices? Two reasons: the garments they are supplied, come from factories that employ poverty-stricken children and women, who are paid starvation wages for working in horrific conditions.

In many countries, such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, China, Thailand and more; where poverty and deprivation of basic necessities is a structural part of society, child labour and the sweatshop model of labour persists. Recruiters for the garment industry trap needy children and women, promising decent wages, meals three times a day and time off for school, and many go along willingly. The reality of their working conditions is far from the illusions they were shown.

According to a report by UNICEF, 170 million children are employed in the garment industry. Hands that should be holding books and pens, are toiling 12 hours a day, sewing, stitching and dyeing garments to satisfy global consumer demand for fast fashion. This is the ...

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Inside the Ugliness of the Fast Fashion Industry

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The fast fashion industry has become a multi-billion dollar industry by releasing products and clothing collections at break-neck speed. Their affordability, and trendy clothing has built them a...

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Where, why and what can be done

Around 260 million children are in employment around the world, according to the International Labour Organisation (pdf). Of them, the ILO estimates that 170 million are engaged in child labour, defined by the UN as "work for which the child is either too young - work done below the required minimum age - or work which, because of its detrimental nature or conditions, is altogether considered unacceptable for children and is prohibited".

Child labour is forbidden by law in most countries but continues to be rife in some of the poorest parts of the world.

The ILO estimates that 170 million are engaged in child labour, with many making textiles and garments to satisfy the demand of consumers in Europe, the US, and beyond

The situation is improving. ILO estimates suggest child labour declined by 30% between 2000 and 2012, but still 11% of the world's children are in situations that deprive them of their right to go to school without interference from work.

Many of these child labourers work within the fashion supply chain, making the textiles and garments to satisfy the demand of consumers in Europe, the US, and beyond.

Why does it exist?

Where is it happening?

The countries highlighted above were identified by SOMO as particularly notorious for child labour in the textile and garment industry

Children work at all stages of the supply chain in the fashion industry: from the production of cotton seeds in Benin, harvesting in Uzbekistan, yarn spinning in India, right through to the different phases of putting garments together in factories across Bangladesh.

In the cotton industry, children are employed to transfer pollen from one plant to another. They are subjected to long working hours, exposure to pesticides and they are often paid below the minimum wage. In developing countries where cotton is one of the main crops, children are enlisted to help harvest the delicate crop and reports suggest (pdf) they work long hours sowing cotton in the spring, followed by weeding through the summer months.

An estimated 170 million children are engaged in child labour, or 11% of the global population of children, according to the International Labour Organisation

At the next step of the chain, in the yarn and spinning mills, child labour is rampant. The SOMO report (pdf) found that 60% of workers at the mills it investigated in India were under-18 when they started working there; the youngest workers were 15 when they joined.

Children also work in the "cut-make-trim" stage, when clothes are put together. SOMO says: "In garment factories, children perform diverse and often arduous tasks such as dyeing, sewing buttons, cutting and trimming threads, folding, moving and packing garments. In small workshops and home sites, children are put to work on intricate tasks such as embroidering, sequinning and smocking (making pleats)."

What are the challenges?

One of the biggest challenges in tackling child labour in the fashion supply chain is the complex supply chain for each garment. Even when brands have strict guidelines in place for suppliers, work often gets sub-contracted to other factories that the buyer may not even know about.

Ovaa says: "Companies that sell their products in Europe and the US have no clue where the textiles come from. Maybe they know their first supplier and there are codes of conduct in place, but further down the chain in the lower tiers it is very difficult to understand where the cotton comes from."

Tackling child labour is further complicated by the fact it is just a symptom of larger problems. Where there is extreme poverty, there will be children willing to work cheaply and susceptible to being tricked into dangerous or badly paid work.

Lotte Schuurman at the Fair Wear Foundation says if parents have no education they will end up in low-paid work; their children will be forced to work, they will miss out on their education, and they too will end up in low-paid work as adults. "You need to get out of that vicious circle of poverty to decline child labour," she says.

What can businesses do?

Credits:

Writer Josephine Moulds
Commissioning editor Jenny Purt
Art direction and design Tim Shearring and Ian Richardson
Video and map photography Kimberly Hoang
Map embroidery Jessica Thompson
Images Getty Images, Panos, Gallery Stock
Producer Daniel Turner

About this site

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Child labour in the fashion supply chain