What happened?

On April 24, 2013, Rana Plaza, an eight-story factory complex in Dhaka, Bangladesh, collapsed.

1,134 people perished that day. Most of these people were the young women working in factories, making clothing for Western brands. There is no doubt that their final moments were anything less than horrific. An additional 2,500 people were injured.

How did this happen?
It’s easy to say, “oh, things are different there.” “It was an accident. No one planned it. It was just bad luck.” But this accident was the result of many ethical failures on the part of the fashion industry.

The primary driver of the Rana Plaza collapse was the global obsession with low cost clothing.

We pay less for clothing now in 2026 than we did in the 90s, nearly 30 years ago…while every other aspect of our life has increased in price by about 60%.

The fast fashion model–based on selling us as much stuff as possible, as often as possible–fuels/encourages this desire for low cost clothing, as fast as possible.

The math of fast fashion (low prices, high profits) does not math without cheap labor.

• As labor in high wage countries (the U.S., Canada, Australia, Europe) became more expensive in the 20th century, more and more garment manufacturing moved overseas.

• And while we think of China as the biggest manufacturer of our clothing, Bangladesh is second in line, with $34-45 billion in business each year. Bangladesh has been able to swoop in and pick up more business as China has slowly grown more expensive.

• The monthly entry level wage of $104 in Bangladesh is about a 25-40% of China’s minimum wage.

• Entrepreneurs in rural areas in Bangladesh are aware that while they don’t have a lot to offer in terms of natural resources and capital, they have a wealth of ready and willing workers who will work for pennies. This included the owners of the Rana Plaza factory complex.

• The mayor of the town was notorious for overlooking safety issues and signing off permits just to move things along faster. The building wasn’t up to code. It was built atop a filled-in pond. It was originally supposed to be for commercial use, but it was illegally converted to industrial use. An additional three floors were added on top without approval. The building materials themselves were below standard.

• In general, public officials in Bangladesh–and other countries–are so fearful of losing overseas business that they do not push for safety code adherence. If they shut down a project, it will simply move somewhere else. The fashion industry doesn’t have a lot of patience.

The fast fashion model knowingly operates without care for workers…even if brands say otherwise.

Brands want more product, much faster. So they might say, “Hey, we don’t want forced overtime or children working.” But then in the next email say, “I need 10,000 pairs of leggings by next week and I need the cost to be lower than the last time.”

What’s the factory going to choose? Definitely the financial reward of producing 10,000 pairs of leggings in a jiffy.

If that order is late–even by one day–the brand can legally cancel the order or demand a discount on the already unrealistically low cost of that order. Factories are under intense pressure to work as fast and cheap as possible.

The push for low prices creates a murky supply chain.

• The industry’s demand for low prices means that often agents and factories that were chosen by the brand are subcontracting to someone even cheaper. One thing that came up over and over again in the Rana Plaza press coverage was that none of the brands whose stuff was being made there knew about it..because there is little visibility into this process of subcontracting.

• And these subcontractors–like the owners of the Rana Plaza factory–are willing to offer those bargain basement prices, by cutting wages and building shoddy factories. And they will get it done fast for the retailer. In the case of Rana Plaza, the building’s owners ignored warnings to avoid using the building after cracks had appeared the day before. Garment workers were ordered to return the following day. Why? Because they had deadlines to make and they didn’t want to risk losing business. The building collapsed during the morning rush-hour.

The human cost of cheap clothing rises each day.
It’s not just the workers across the globe, from factories to warehouses to stores…it’s the environmental impact of the manufacturing, shipping, and disposal of the clothes we briefly wear, before tossing aside. It’s the wild amount of water required to make and dye our clothes, while other humans suffer through brutal drought.
Company leaders are able to dismiss this by telling themselves that these people are somehow less valuable, less important than profitability. Racism, sexism, and classism permeate the industry, justifying the cruelty of its decisions.

In all of the trainings I attended in my career as a buyer, we never talked about the human impact of our decisions. The focus was profits, branding, and staying on the right side of the law.

What we can do…

If reading this made you feel really sad and/or angry, I get it. I cry every time I think about the last moments of the humans who died in Rana Plaza. And what about the families and friends they left behind? No one should die for fashion.

But the good news is this: like a lot of the unjust systems and situations that exist in our world right now, we have the power to change them.
Conversely, if our decide to throw up our hands and say, “well, there’s no ethical consumption under capitalism” and then kinda mentally file away the story of Rana Plaza, nothing ever gets better. Maybe the situation gets worse. Companies continue to make and sell low quality clothing using exploited labor. Landfills fill with shitty, plastic clothing. And essential resources like water are used to make even more shitty, plastic clothing.

So let’s do something about it!!

Opt out of the fast fashion system as much as possible.

• Shop secondhand first when you can. Trust me, there is enough rad clothing out there for all of us.

• Wear your clothes over and over again for a very long time. Mend them when needed.

• Change up your shopping behaviors and habits. Not only does the fast fashion system rely on cheap labor to keep it going, it also needs us to buy a lot of stuff as often as possible. Let’s break the habit (and then, break fast fashion). In the slow fashion community, we know that the conversation starts with “Who made my clothes?” But it continues with

  • “Why am I buying this?”

  • “Do I really need/want it?”

  • “Am I prepared to wear this long as possible?”

  • “Do I love this enough to repair it and launder it properly?”

Share your knowledge & passion with your community!

Every week I receive emails from people who are building apps and AI tools that are supposed to “fix” fast fashion’s problems. But you know what will REALLY fix fast fashion? Getting involved with our communities!!
Yes, the real solution to fast fashion is mending clubs, repair fairs, and clothing swaps. But also:

• Teaching others how to successfully secondhand shop.

• Mindfully rehoming things when you no longer want/need them.

• Sharing your expertise about fabric, laundry, repair, and alterations.

• It’s even as simple as telling people about Rana Plaza.

Fast fashion thrives when we are lonely and bored, so even just spending time together is VERY powerful!

But also…don’t forget to demand better from brands.

Have you noticed that most big brands are talking about sustainability a lot less? Yeah, that’s because they think we don’t care.

So don’t be afraid to ask “Who makes your clothes? How much are they paid? Are the factories safe?” Ask again and again until you get an answer.

Brands who can’t answer…well, that’s a red flag. And often if they don’t care about their garment workers, they also don’t care about the corporate, retail, and warehouse staff either. Fast fashion is anti-human at its core. And there’s nothing cute about that.

The good news? If you do need to buy something brand new, there are tons of rad brands out there that CAN tell you all about who makes their clothes. Just ask!

The fast fashion/fast everything system exists because of unchecked greed, lack of government intervention, and a fundamental disregard for our planet and its people.
But it also exists because we keep showing up to buy it. We are handing over a portion of our paycheck to these companies that don’t care about us, because they don’t care about anyone.

Do your best to be good for this world.

As a person who worked inside this industry for most of my adult life, I know firsthand that we have so much power to change it. Without our money, these companies are forced to either do better or go out of business. And while dismantling an entire industry sounds daunting, it’s actually as simple as buying less new stuff. That’s something all of us can afford to do.

We have to stop leaning on tired excuses like “there’s no ethical consumption under capitalism.” I know that being alive right is really @#$%ing hard. I constantly feel as if I’m five seconds away from vomiting or crying. But nothing will ever get better if we’re just drowning our sorrows in shopping, drinking, or being shitty to strangers on the internet. Real change happens (and will happen) when we keep showing up. When we recognize that there are more good people in this world than bad people. When we take a minute to remind ourselves that WE HAVE THE POWER BECAUSE THERE ARE MORE OF US.

Don’t let perfection be the enemy of progress. If you need to buy something from Old Navy or some other fast fashion brand, go for it. Just take care of it. Repair it, wash it carefully, wear the heck out of it. And when you no longer can wear it/want to wear it, give it to another human to wear the heck out of it. But also: Vote. Show up for your community. Do your best to be good for this world. Anything is better than nothing. I promise.