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A short class with Sarah and her students. The other ways are under More.
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Let's look back over the unit. How did fashion change over time?
It went from handmade clothes to factory mass production, and then to fast fashion, with new styles every few weeks.
And how do brands keep prices so low?
They make clothes in countries with lower labour costs through a global supply chain.
In our five-dollar T-shirt, who got the largest share?
Branding and the retail markup together took 70 per cent, and labour only 12 per cent.
And which event showed the human cost of that system?
The Rana Plaza collapse in Bangladesh in 2013, when more than 1,100 workers died.
Name the three environmental impacts we studied.
Water use and pollution, textile waste and the carbon footprint.
The unit quoted 8 to 10 per cent of global emissions. Why should we be careful with that number?
Because different studies give different estimates, so we should say where a figure comes from.
Good critical thinking. And the social costs?
Child labour in cotton farming and stitching, and a workforce of mostly young women who face low pay and harassment.
So the true cost has economic, environmental and social parts.
Which alternatives did the unit offer?
Slow fashion, certified sustainable brands, and the circular economy of reducing, reusing and recycling.
Who is responsible for making them happen?
Everyone: consumers who buy less and ask questions, brands, young activists like those in Fashion Revolution, and governments that enforce labour and environmental laws.
Which discipline helped you understand rights and corporate responsibility?
Civics, while economics explained wages and prices, geography explained resources and pollution, and history explained the industrial revolution and labour movements.
That is the point of an interdisciplinary unit: each discipline shows part of the true cost.
The price of clothing hides environmental and social costs paid by others.
Global supply chains keep prices low, but most of the price goes to brands and retailers rather than workers.
Water use, pollution, textile waste and emissions are major hidden costs.
Child labour and the treatment of a mostly female workforce make fashion a human rights issue.
Consumers, brands, activists and governments must all act to reduce the true cost.
Rana Plaza: The 2013 collapse of a garment factory building in Bangladesh, which killed more than 1,100 workers, showed the risks of unsafe supply chains.
Cost breakdown: Labour received USD 0.60 of a USD 5.00 T-shirt, while branding and the retail markup together took USD 3.50.
Consumer action: Fashion Revolution encourages people to ask brands "Who made my clothes?" to push for transparency.
Cheap at the till, dear to the earth; the true cost is more than the price tag's worth.
A T-shirt tells its life story: picked as cotton in a thirsty field, dyed in a river town, sewn by a young woman earning too little, sold for five dollars, worn twice and thrown away. Then it imagines a second life: swapped, repaired and worn for years.
F-E-E-S-S-A: Fast fashion, Economics, Environment, Social justice, Sustainable alternatives, Action, the unit's sections in order.
E.G.H.C. - Economics, Geography, History, Civics, the four lenses of the unit.
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What is the central idea of the unit?
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What share of the USD 5.00 T-shirt price went to labour in the unit's example?
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What happened at Rana Plaza in 2013?
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Name three sustainable alternatives studied in the unit.
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Which four disciplines does the unit connect?
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The full cost of a product, including the environmental and social costs that its price does not show.
Inexpensive, trend-led clothing produced quickly and in large volumes with frequent new stock.
The stages and countries a garment passes through, from raw materials to the consumer.
A wage high enough for a worker to afford a decent standard of living, often higher than the legal minimum wage.
Discarded fabric and clothing from production and from consumers, much of it landfilled or burned.
An approach that values quality, durability and ethical production over quantity and trends.
A model that keeps products and materials in use through reducing, reusing, repairing and recycling.
A unit that combines two or more disciplines, here economics, geography, history and civics, to understand one issue.
The unit "Economics and Sustainability: The True Cost of Fashion" shows that the low price of clothing hides a much higher true cost, paid by garment workers, communities and the environment, and that consumers, brands, activists and governments each have a part in reducing it.
The unit traces how clothing moved from handcrafted garments to fast fashion: cheap, trend-led clothes made quickly through global supply chains. Its economics shows that brands and retailers take most of the price while workers often earn below a living wage, as the Rana Plaza collapse of 2013 made tragically clear. Its environmental sections cover water use and pollution, textile waste and carbon emissions, and its social justice sections cover child labour and the mostly female garment workforce. It then examines alternatives, including slow fashion, certified sustainable brands and the circular economy, and the responsibilities of conscious consumers, young activists and governments. Throughout, economics, geography, history and civics each explain a different part of the true cost.
The unit's central idea is simple: the price of a garment is not its true cost. The rest of the unit explains where the hidden costs come from and how they could be reduced.
Clothing moved from handcrafted, made-to-last garments to industrial mass production and then to fast fashion: inexpensive, trend-led clothing produced in short cycles with frequent new stock. Brands such as Zara, H&M, Shein and Forever 21 were given as examples. Fast fashion encourages people to buy more and wear each item less.
Garments are often designed in wealthy countries and made in lower-cost labour markets such as Bangladesh, Vietnam and India, then sold through shops and online platforms. The unit's cost breakdown of a USD 5.00 T-shirt showed labour receiving USD 0.60, or 12 per cent, while branding and the retail markup together took USD 3.50, or 70 per cent. Many garment workers earn below a living wage and work long hours in unsafe conditions. The collapse of the Rana Plaza factory building in Bangladesh in 2013, which killed more than 1,100 workers, showed the human cost of this system.
Children work in cotton farming and garment stitching in some countries, losing education and health, especially in poorly regulated informal work. Most garment workers are young women, who often face discrimination, harassment and little chance of promotion, so fashion is also a question of gender equality.
Conscious consumers check labels, ask about transparency and support local artisans. Young people lead clothing drives, swap events and campaigns such as Fashion Revolution's question "Who made my clothes?". Governments can set and enforce labour laws and environmental standards, offer incentives for cleaner production and penalise violations.
Economics explains trade, supply chains, wages and prices; geography explains resource use, pollution and the global map of production; history explains how the industrial revolution and labour movements shaped today's industry; and civics explains human rights, ethical production and corporate responsibility.
No single actor can fix fashion alone. Lasting change needs shoppers who buy less and better, brands that are transparent and pay living wages, workers who can organise safely, and governments that enforce standards.