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A short class with Sarah and her students. The other ways are under More.
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You audited twenty items. What did you find?
Twelve of mine are mostly polyester, so that's 60 per cent synthetic.
Good use of percentages. Now, what is cost per wear?
The price divided by the number of times you wear something.
So a ₹600 shirt worn 30 times, and a ₹300 top worn 3 times?
The shirt is ₹20 per wear and the top is ₹100 per wear, so the cheap top is actually five times more expensive per use.
Exactly. Cheap to buy is not always cheap to own.
When you mapped your T-shirt's supply chain, which stages could you trace?
Only the country where it was sewn. The label said nothing about the cotton farm or the dye works.
What does that gap tell you?
That the brand is not very transparent about its supply chain.
Now the money. If labour pay doubled from 60 cents to USD 1.20 and nothing else changed, what would the shirt cost?
Five dollars sixty, only 12 per cent more.
So a big rise for workers means a small rise for shoppers. Would you pay it?
Let's reflect. What did you find in your audit?
Most of my clothes came from three countries, and I wear half of them rarely.
So what? Why does that matter?
Every rarely worn item still used water, energy and someone's labour, so its true cost was wasted.
Now what?
Our class could run a clothing swap and aim for 50 items, so those clothes get worn instead of thrown away.
That is a specific, measurable action. Remember to evaluate it afterwards.
Activities apply the unit's ideas to students' own clothes and produce real evidence.
Dividing price by uses shows that cheap items can be expensive per use.
Mapping a supply chain reveals how much brands disclose and where hidden costs arise.
Stakeholder debates show why workers, owners, shoppers and governments see fashion differently.
What? So what? Now what? turns findings into specific, realistic action.
Cost per wear: A ₹600 shirt worn 30 times costs ₹20 per wear, while a ₹300 top worn 3 times costs ₹100 per wear.
Following the money: Doubling labour pay on a USD 5.00 T-shirt from USD 0.60 to USD 1.20 raises the price to USD 5.60, an increase of only 12 per cent.
Action with a target: A class clothing swap aims for 50 items exchanged and records how many were actually swapped.
Count it, trace it, test the claim; debate it, act, reflect again.
Riya's cheapest top cost ₹300 but she wore it only three times. Her favourite ₹600 shirt had been worn thirty times. When she worked out the cost per wear, the "bargain" was five times more expensive, and she started buying fewer, better clothes.
W-S-M-T-D-A: Wardrobe, Supply chain, Money, Test claims, Debate, Act, the six activities in order.
W.S.N. - What? So what? Now what? The three steps of reflection.
Term
How do you calculate cost per wear?
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What does a supply chain map show?
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What are the three reflection questions?
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What should you check to test a green claim?
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Why use stakeholder roles in a debate?
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A survey of your own clothes that records labels, fibres, prices, use and condition.
The price of an item divided by the number of times it is worn.
A diagram tracing a product's journey from raw materials to disposal, including the places involved.
Any person or group affected by, or able to affect, a decision or industry.
A formal discussion of a motion in which speakers argue assigned positions using evidence.
An event where people exchange clothes they no longer wear, keeping them in use.
Thinking about an experience to understand what it means and how to act differently.
Ten attributes, such as inquirer, open-minded, principled and caring, that IB programmes aim to develop.
This lesson turns the unit on the true cost of fashion into hands-on work: six activities that apply economics, geography, history and civics to students' own clothes, and a simple reflection model for thinking about what the activities reveal and what to do next.
The activities move from investigation to action. Students audit their wardrobes and calculate cost per wear, map the supply chain of one garment, follow the money through a cost breakdown, test brands' green claims against certifications, debate a motion from the viewpoints of different stakeholders, and plan a practical action such as a clothing swap. Each activity is followed by reflection using three questions: What happened? So what does it mean? Now what will I do? Together they help students connect the unit's ideas to their own choices and show what they have learned.
An interdisciplinary unit is not complete until students use what they have learned. These activities apply the unit's economics, geography, history and civics to something every student owns: clothes. Each activity produces evidence, and each is followed by reflection.
Choose 20 items of clothing. For each, record the country of manufacture and the fibres from the label, the approximate price, how many times you wore it in the last month, and its condition. Then analyse your data. If 12 of your 20 items are mainly polyester, that is 12 / 20 = 60 per cent synthetic. Calculate cost per wear = price / number of times worn. A shirt that cost ₹600 and was worn 30 times cost ₹20 per wear; a top that cost ₹300 and was worn only 3 times cost ₹100 per wear. The cheaper item turned out to be five times more expensive per use.
Pick one garment and draw its journey: cotton farm or oil refinery (for polyester), spinning, weaving or knitting, dyeing, cutting and sewing, transport, retail, use and disposal. Mark the countries you can identify from the label or the brand's website. Note which stages you could not trace: the gaps show how much, or how little, the brand discloses.
Use the unit's cost breakdown of a USD 5.00 T-shirt: cotton USD 0.50, labour USD 0.60, transport USD 0.40, branding and marketing USD 1.00, and retail markup USD 2.50. Labour receives 12 per cent of the price. If labour pay were doubled to USD 1.20 and every other cost stayed the same, the price would rise to USD 5.60, an increase of 12 per cent. Discuss: would shoppers accept that, and who else could absorb the cost?
Collect three environmental claims from clothing labels or adverts. For each, check whether it names an independent certification (such as Fair Trade, GOTS or OEKO-TEX), gives specific evidence, and is backed by information about factories and materials. Classify each claim as supported, vague or possibly greenwashing.
Debate the motion "Fast fashion does more good than harm for developing economies." Assign stakeholder roles: a garment worker, a factory owner, a brand executive, a shopper, an environmental campaigner and a government official. Each speaker must use evidence from the unit, such as jobs and income on one side and low wages, unsafe workplaces such as Rana Plaza, and pollution on the other.
Plan one practical action, such as a clothing swap, a repair workshop or an awareness campaign linked to the Fashion Revolution question "Who made my clothes?". Set a measurable goal, for example 50 items swapped, record the result, and evaluate what worked.
After each activity, write three short answers:
Good reflections are honest and specific. Instead of "I learned a lot", write "I found that 60 per cent of my clothes are synthetic, so my washing sheds plastic fibres; I will choose natural fibres when I next need a shirt, although they cost more." Reflection also links to the IB learner profile: an audit makes you an inquirer, a debate makes you open-minded, and acting on what you learn makes you principled and caring.