Fast fashion claims it empowers women through the democratisation of trends for the masses. But how empowering are those cheap, trend-led products for the women that make them?

Arcadia, the parent company of Topshop, Miss Selfridge, Burton, Evans, Dorothy Perkins and Wallis, plunged into the administration of Deloitte LLP on 30th November 2020. Since then, public debate over the group’s cultural and economic impact has heated up, with a focus on the legacy that controversial businessman Philip Green and his hotly contested knighthood will leave behind, while his net worth soared to over $2billion.

Approximately 13,000 people are at risk of losing their jobs, while the company's pension scheme is short £350million. If Green’s track record of employee compassion is anything to go by, this debt is unlikely to be forgiven. After he sold department store BHS for £1 in 2015, Green threatened the pensions of over 19,000 staff, leading to a £367million cost to the taxpayer from subsequent benefits claimed. In general, women suffer a vast pension deficit, receiving on average just one fifth of men’s pension wealth in their lifetimes.

“the fall of the Arcadia empire must be regarded as a deeply feminist issue”

What’s more, Arcadia’s 2018 gender pay gap report shows that over 82% of the group’s employees are female, with women in the majority of sales assistant roles resulting in a shocking pay gap of 28.7%. In 2020, women have been disproportionately affected by rising unemployment rates at a rate of nearly 1.8 times higher than men, accelerating gender inequality. It’s against this backdrop of Covid-19 that the fall of the Arcadia empire must be regarded as a deeply feminist issue.

These conversations about jobs, however, should dive much deeper into the Arcadia supply chain. Roughly 80% of garment workers are female and aged between 18-35; it’s Philip Green’s lack of accountability for these women that exposes the underlying hypocrisy of the fast fashion system. According to it’s greenwash-heavy Fashion Footprint site, Arcadia’s mission is to: “Produce fashionable products in an ethical way – one that demonstrates a responsibility towards both people and the environment.” They proceed to detail pledges to increase diversity, wellbeing and health and safety, but only at a surface-level for Arcadia’s own employees, not for it’s contracted suppliers.

These suppliers have been “losing sleep” over the uncertainty of Arcadia’s administration, and both Arcadia and Deloitte have declined to comment on these supplier concerns, only communicating via a letter warning of a freeze on future orders. There are reports that Arcadia has already demanded discounts upon orders in-transit (ie. orders that the factory has paid for, manufactured and shipped) of 80%, a ‘saving’ which will undoubtedly be achieved through worker wage cuts.

“driven millions of garment workers into unimaginable poverty”

This phenomenon of cancelled orders is representative of an international industry crisis as a result of the pandemic and subsequent lockdown restrictions. Brought to light by the #PayUp campaign, this crisis has driven millions of garment workers into unimaginable poverty. Ayesha Barenblat, founder of ethical fashion non-profit Remake who launched the #PayUp hashtag, comments on the issue with great urgency on behalf of these critically vulnerable women.

“Arcadia Group owes $100million to suppliers dating back to April, which has meant that the mostly women of colour workers who have enriched Sir Philip have seen a sharp decline in already unliveable wages and growing cases of hunger”, she says. “We have been campaigning [against] Arcadia Group for 9 months without any response on their order cancellations and payment delays. Women within garment factories have seen the sharpest drop in wages and a rise in gender based violence. Arcadia's buying behaviour during the pandemic has directly created this pressure cooker situation that has left women unsafe and underpaid.”

Another important aspect of Arcadia’s impact on women is the aftermath of decades of workplace sexual harassment. According to Damaged Goods, a biography of Philip Green, the fast fashion behemoth “frequently reduced female staff to tears” with abusive comments, including claims that he asked women in meetings if they were “naughty girls”, and if they “needed their bottoms slapped”. Green has also been persistently exposed for physical intimidation, bribing victims with million-pound payouts for keeping quiet about his nonconsensual sexual advances. Unfortunately, these repeated offences have led to nothing more than a lone misdemeanor charge.

“this overtly sexist culture also permeates beyond the boardroom and the shop floor”

These traumatic experiences were dredged up once more in 2018 when Green demanded a Topshop pop-up event for Scarlett Curtis’ book Feminists Don’t Wear Pink (And Other Lies) be dismantled and cancelled, providing further proof of his misogynistic agenda. This overtly sexist culture also permeates beyond the boardroom and the shop floor. While Arcadia’s brands are not explicitly named, various reports over the years have drawn attention to the epidemic of sexual abuse in garment factories producing clothing for Western fast fashion brands. ActionAid, for example, found that 80% of Bangladeshi garment workers had experienced or witnessed sexual harassment and violence at work, while The Guardian has published several exposés on sexual assault in factories from Jordan to Lesotho.

The countless scandals associated with Arcadia epitomise the systemic injustices of the apparel industry which disproportionately impact women. But the fall of Green’s empire cannot be celebrated as equivalent to the fall of fast fashion. Deloitte are pinning hopes on Topshop as Arcadia’s cash cow, seeking up to £200million from interested bidders such as Marks & Spencer, Next, River Island, Frasers Group, Barney’s parent company Authentic Brands, and the infamously unethical Boohoo Group.

With a failure to effectively embrace digital retail blamed for the long-term depletion of many of Arcadia’s brands, one can only predict the plans of e-commerce titans Boohoo to revolutionise Topshop’s online presence. Boohoo came under fire this summer for their modern slavery conditions, but despite widespread public backlash, the brand has enjoyed a 47% rise in profits in 2020. Such future buyouts are likely to ensure this predictable fast fashion malpractice continues.

“Covid-19 has crystallised the inequities that are so endemic within the fashion industry”

“Covid-19 has crystallised the inequities that are so endemic within the fashion industry,” says Barenblat. “We have seen during this pandemic how brands protect their shareholders and executives at the expense of garment makers. This holds true for brands that enter administration and those who have reported profits this year. The only way forward is to get money in the hands of garment makers as quickly as possible."

Remake are calling on Philip Green to support the women who have kept him profitable for decades. In fact, Green’s $150million superyacht alone could pay off their crippling debt. Barenblat urges all of us to sign the #PayUp petition, which piles the pressure on fashion brands to reimburse factories for cancelled orders and make commitments to living wages, worker safety and regulatory reform.

We can also use social media as a platform for demanding change, using the #PayUp hashtag to draw attention to brands like Topshop who refuse to take responsibility for cancelled orders from the beginning of 2020, let alone the production standstill from this month’s administration news. According to Labour Behind the Label, up to £250million could be owed to suppliers if Arcadia enters full liquidation, unless the company commits to robust wage assurance. “Sir Philip Green should not be welcomed back into polite high society until he does right by workers,” Barenblat reminds us.

“we need to reinvent the system at its core, not simply rebuild what has been lost”

Ultimately, the fast fashion sector will only be transformed when a critical mass of consumers, or more importantly global citizens, reject the status quo. Despite the falsely patriotic messaging of the Conservative government to “shop for Britain'' and “save the British high street” during the pandemic, we need to reinvent the system at its core, not simply rebuild what has been lost.

We can surely mourn for the thousands of people - mostly women - who will lose their jobs and pensions as a result of Green’s incompetent business acumen, without forgetting to mourn for the millions more people - mostly women - who have suffered for decades at his cruel hand. The women who make our clothes are criminally underpaid, overworked, abused and exploited, and until we put their voices at centre stage, we cannot claim to truly care about fashion’s workers.