True Cost: A New Movie Takes a Tough Look at Fast Fashion

True Cost takes a hard look at overseas sweatshops and the conditions that workers in the garment industry still face

We all love good deals.  But no one wants to get a good deal if they know that it’s harming another human being.   A new documentary call The True Cost, explores the environmental and human impacts of how clothing is currently produced.  The film looks at the conditions that workers labor under to make fashion apparel.  The True Cost is now in theaters in New York and Los Angeles. You can also see the film via  iTunes and other VOD platforms and DVD/Blu-ray.  Tragedies like the Triangle Shirt Factory fire (where garment workers burned to death in New York in 1911 ) are still happening, they are just more likely to happen in India now, not the United States.   The True Cost movie tells the story of today’s garment workers and the often horrible conditions they labor under, like sandblasting of jeans leading to death or fires in Bangladesh factories where workers are unable to get out.

Have you ever wondered how H&M can sell a dress for just $4.95? The True Cost Movie explains.

By showing the human cost of achieving profit in the fashion industry TheTrue Cost encourage consumers to think about the affects their clothing choices have on the people (sometimes children)  who make them and our planet at large.

There are some stores –like the Gap and Walmart that I no longer shop at because of their use of overseas child labor.  Comedian John Oliver shone a bright light on those abuses. Even one of my fashion favorites H&M, has been guilty of using cheap overseas labor.   Zara and Forever21  have been accused of doing the same.  How else can they sell things for under $10.00 and even under $5.00?

“The True Cost’ paints a clear picture of the serious issues the fashion industry faces around the human and social challenges of how clothes are made,” said Eileen Fisher, Founder and Chief Creative Officer. “My company is on a path to be fully sustainable but in order to make a bigger impact in the world, the fashion industry must come together.  I hope this film helps us unite faster, and with TakePart.com we can also encourage consumers to begin a conversation.”

If you read this, or see the film . you may want to visit the website TakePart.com  proprietary action platform, TAP, to  take a pledge to change your fashion consumption habits. Some things you can do are to sign the petitions to ask fashion brands to compensate survivors and families of victims of the Rana Plaza building collapse in Bangladesh, and strengthen protections for farmworkers against pesticides.

If you love fashion, like I do, then check out True Cost and John Oliver’s video too, and try to make conscious clothing choices.  For me, I know I don’t need something new from H&M or Zara every week or every month, do you?