Fast Fashion: The True Cost By Andrew Morgan

Fast-fashion refers to clothing produced at a very low cost, at a fast rate to accommodate the current trends (The True Cost, 2015). ‘The True Cost’, a documentary directed by Andrew Morgan, investigates the hidden consequences of the demand for cheap and quick fashion. The ramifications have dire impacts on labor-conditions in developing countries as well as the natural environment, which is increasingly contaminated through the current practices by fashion multinationals. Consumers, nevertheless, continue to demand fast-fashion. The argument proposed throughout this essay is that the current trend in fast-fashion can be understood as a form of slow violence. First, Nixon’s concept of slow violence is unpacked, then, through the documentary,

Common conceptions of violence entail “an event or action that is immediate in time, explosive and spectacular in space, and as erupting into instant sensational visibility” (Nixon, 2011, p. 2). In contrast to this, Nixon (2011) proposes his notion of ‘slow violence’ as “a violence that occurs gradually and out of sight…of delayed destruction that is dispersed across time and space, attritional violence that is typically not viewed as violence at all” (p. 2). Since slow violence does not lend itself to immediate visibility, it is often overlooked by the media and consequently not dealt with. This allows the accumulation of problems over time as the violence continues without obstacles. Nixon recognizes that “our media bias toward spectacular violence” (p. 4) is intensified in our “sensation-driven…image-world” (p. 3), which is lacking for slow violence that occurs gradually, over time. This inattention is amplified by shifts in technology and the overstimulation of information, causing “perpetual distraction” (Nixon, 2011, p. 12). Through the immediacy of everyday life, there is an inability to grasp the long-term. This all entails that victims of slow violence are often “not to be seen, not to be counted” (Nixon, 2011, p. 13), and the effects on these dismissed casualties accrue over generations. This postponed confrontation also implies

Therefore, the costs of exhausting and contaminating resources are invisible as if assumed to last indefinitely. Equally, the costs of humane treatment of workers and fair wages are avoided. When issues are sporadically brought to light, the fast-fashion corporates circumvent responsibility and attribute blame to locally outsourced companies (The True Cost, 2015). Thereby, in accordance with Nixon’s (2011) concept of slow violence, the violence of fast-fashion is invisible and concealed. Furthermore, as these problems occur out of sight, in desolate places, far away from the Western producers and consumers, there is no direct confrontation between the effects of fast-fashion on its’ victims and its’