We label ethically reared chickens, but what about our clothes?

6.58.00pm GMT Thu 12th Mar 2009

Liz Leffman visiting a garment factory in Sri Lanka

Liz Leffman was a speaker this week at the Fashion as an Ethical Industry (FEI) Conference, held in London. The subject of the conference was "Putting Ethics into Practice"

Liz Leffman gave a presentation in which she demonstrated how the market is dominated by a very small number of countries, with China as the most significant supplier to Europe. As in many countries, Chinese workers are not allowed to create unions, and the living conditions of migrant workers are often very poor. But many retailers are ignorant of this, according to Leffman, or choose to turn a blind eye.

"Retailers will happily stick a label on a chicken to prove that it has been ethically reared. But when it comes to garments, there is no industry standard, and consumers are often unaware of the conditions that many people have to work in" Leffman said.

"Consumers are better informed about food than they are about fashion. Yet the people who make garments often work in conditions that we would not tolerate for ourselves. It's not that retailers don't care, it's just that very often they lack the information about what is really going on.

"The garment industry has made it possible for many millions of the poorest people on the planet to have jobs," she added "I'm proud of that and wouldn't want it to change. But when we demand cheap, throw-away fashion, we need to recognize that someone has to pay, and that someone is often a worker in a faraway country"