Fast fashion brands have dodged responsibility for their supply chain and the safety of their garment workers through globalization and layers of subcontracting. By contracting factories in other countries, fast fashion benefits from the lower production cost and ability to exploit workers with unreasonable demands because the factories don’t have as much bargaining power due to how the industry chases less developed economies with less worker protections. This is known as the race to the bottom. Additionally, there’s a lack of transparency and knowledge. Many fashion brands don’t even know about the conditions of their own supply chain. They deliberately use layers of contracting factories so that they don’t have to be liable for the workforce. They just make demands and the factory does what it has to to meet them. It’s hard to monitor and regulate a system you can’t even trace, especially across multiple countries. That being said, in the last couple years, several pieces of legislation have been introduced that are working to intervene and address the issues in the fashion supply chain. They will require fashion brands to take responsibility for their supply chains and acknowledge the conditions of garment workers. They are introducing the ethical standards and regulations that should have been implemented (not assumed) from the beginning. These bills include the Garment Worker Protection Act which addresses wage theft in California, the New York Fashion Act which requires supply chain mapping and disclosure, and the FABRIC Act which aims to increase the ethics of American garment manufacturing across the board. The NY Fashion Act and FABRIC ACT are currently in Senate committees (NY Fashion is in the Consumer Protection committee and FABRIC is in the Finance committee). You can look them up and see who is on the committees and reach out to express your support of the bills. You’d be surprised how few people do this which makes your voice really stand out when you do! Give it a try!