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H&M: cheap or conscious fashion?

By FashionUnited

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H&M may be busy marketing its new Conscious Collection, due to hit stores in April, but that hasn't stopped the retailer from producing incredibly cheap fashion of questionable ethics.

A sign in its Oxford Street window today advertises a skirt for just 3.99 pounds. One wonders how that would fit in the remit of a 'consciously' sourced production of an ethically-aware company. The 3.99 price of this item would have to cover the fabric, the wages of the manufacturer's sewers, shipping to the UK (products of this price range cannot be made in the wealthy EU states), it's marketing costs and of course the company's profit.

It's a safe bet the company's profits have an estimated one hundred percent mark-up, leaving the total cost to produce this skirt at less than 2 pounds.

It would seem the Bangladesh manufacturing crisis of last year has had little impact on trading standards. Factories and their workers are still being squeezed of every possible margin so that the high street conglomerates can sell huge volumes of cheaply made clothes. There is little consciousness about a 3.99 skirt.

Image: H&M Oxford Circus

Ethical Fashion
H&M