A Close Look at Ultra Fast-Fashion
There are dozens of fast fashion brands in the world. Many brands are more obvious than others, and few are held accountable. In the case presented by the New York Times, Boohoo–one of the fastest-growing retail companies in Britain–was under fire after being exposed for unfair working conditions in supplier facilities. The purpose of this blog post is to take a close look at how the company handled its scandal.
The article written by Elizabeth Paton defines ultra-fast fashion as brands whose fashion trends are driven by social media. Some other ultra-fast fashion brands are Nasty Gal, PrettyLittleThing, and Zara. These brands cycle through trends and clothes extremely quickly. To be able to adapt to trends in a matter of days, they are committing crimes behind the scenes.
In BooHoo’s scandal, The Sunday Times published an article to uncover an investigation that workers were paid under living wage in unethical working conditions. Due to this happening at the height of the pandemic, workers were also at risk to COVID-19 and were given no protective equipment.
The most important question is, how did Boohoo react? The founders put out a statement expressing they were ”shocked and appalled by the recent allegations.” They blamed the factory supplier and did not take accountability themselves. People immediately went to social media platforms to expose the company further. Many people were informed of their malpractice and unethical practices through social media. After this scandal, many people began to stop shopping at Boohoo and their partner brands.
Today, their brand reputation will be forever ruined. Some people look at these brands as cheap and unethical. After this news, the company’s market value plunged and many sites pulled Boohoo products. Boohoo does not have much room to recover its brand reputation. The association of Boohoo and being “cheap and unethical” is practically its brand name. Unless they undergo a complete rebrand, there is no way they will recover their initial reputation.
It comes down to the source. If Boohoo wanted to become a well-known and respected brand, the company would have to look within. Many other companies have received similar accusations, but people still purchase from the site. To this day, Boohoo will continue to produce cheap clothing. I believe that ultra-fast fashion brands will continue to emerge, with micro-trends birthed on social media platforms. New brands, trends, and scandals will continue to become a hot topic. It comes down to how a company presents itself and how much it can hide from the public.
Source: Elizabeth Paton
