Learn what’s behind fast fashion garments and reflect over their social and environmental consequences. Behind the scenes of runway shows, monthly seasons, famous brands, the madness of purchasing anything on sale or the constant need to wear new clothes, there is a reality that cannot be ignored. Considering that each of us is a direct accomplice in this situation and how the textile industry works, it is necessary that we learn about the dark side we almost never choose to see.
Buy Now: The Shopping Conspiracy
The British documentary exposes the hidden tactics and secret strategies used by brands to keep consumers in an endless cycle of purchases, relying on precious testimonials from former workers at large retail companies.
When Amy wins the coveted Vogue Young Designer of the Year award, Amy decides to use the prize money to create a sustainable collection and transform her entire business, becoming a forerunner of much larger social change.
The true story behind the iconic American brand Brandy Melville is aimed at young women. Available on the HBO streaming channel.
This documentary explores the reign of American fashion brand Abercrombie & Fitch in the 90s/2000s and how it thrives on exclusion, racism and its immoral values. Available on Netflix streaming channel.
From the creators of the award-winning films Cowspiracy and What The Health, SLAY takes a unique perspective on the fur trade in the fashion industry and what needs to change by bringing together a range of celebrities, experts and activists to expose unethical practices in the industry. Available on activist channel WaterBear.
Willow and Claude
Willow and Claude is a short film that follows Collective Fashion Justice founding director Emma Hakansson on her quest for a fully ethical knitwear supply chain.
A new series that explores the issues of the unsustainable fashion industry, seeking to challenge the industry as we know it and give viewers a glimpse into a more circular fashion future they never knew was possible. Available on WaterBear
It has become fashionable for clothing brands to promote their green credentials by advertising eco-labels that are supposedly made to strict environmental standards. However, the reality behind them is not quite like that. Another great documentary from German channel DW.
A Desert Dumping Ground
9-episode documentary about the disposal of fast fashion clothing in the Atacama Desert. Available in English, Spanish, Arabic, German and Hindi. Produced by DW Documentary.
Documentary directed by Gilles Bovon and Edouard Perrin goes behind the scenes of fast fashion, covering topics such as working conditions, wages, chemicals used in the manufacture of pieces, among others.
Documentary directed, produced and edited by Jenny Rygalska highlighting the damage caused by the fast fashion industry, but also presenting solutions for a more sustainable future in this industry.
The film highlights the injustice and humiliation suffered by garment workers in Dhaka and focuses on a group of women who fight back and face even more hardships through their courageous stand.
The True Cost
This documentary became a classic for being one of the pioneers on the subject. Directed by Andrew Morgan, the film revolves around fashion as it relates to consumer pressure to buy cheap clothes, as well as the low wages of those who make them. It is an analysis of the consequences that this level of consumption brings to people and the planet. The True Cost emphasizes the social and environmental price the world pays because of the textile industry. The protagonists tell us about their lives and daily struggles as modern slaves in a system that forces them to work non-stop at lower prices.
Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret
The documentary Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret, produced by actor Leonardo Di Caprio, reveals that the most significant cause of most harmful impacts on the environment is livestock farming, bringing extremely serious numbers related to this industry. The film makes a deep reflection on humanity; trying to demonstrate that no type of livestock production can be sustainable and its conclusion is that the future of the planet depends on a radical change in people’s habits; both food and the obsessive consumption of leather bags in the fashion industry.
This must-see documentary follows the aftermath of the 2013 Rana Plaza factory collapse through the eyes of a grieving grandmother and her two young grandchildren.
Udita
Life, death, oppression and resistance – 5 Years with the women of Bangladesh’s sweatshops and their fight for a better life. ‘UDITA’ weaves together characters from acclaimed documentaries, ‘The Machinists’ [2010] and ‘Tears in the Fabric’ [2014] with new faces and scenes, filmed in 2015 with the women at the front line of the struggle. Both documentaries are available below.
The Machinists
The personal stories of three female garment workers and the boss of a fledgling trade union in Dhaka, Bangladesh intersect to portray the human cost of western high street fashion.
River Blue
RiverBlue chronicles an unprecedented around-the-world river adventure, led by renowned paddler and conservationist, Mark Angelo, who ends up uncovering and documenting the dark side of the global fashion industry.
From the western Indian district of Kutch to the northern city of Panipat, garment recyclers turn huge balls of Western clothes into yarn.
Traceable
A documentary by Jennifer K. Sharpe that discusses the inconsistencies in the fast fashion industry and our growing disconnection and lack of care regarding where and how our clothes are made. This documentary forms part of the documentation of the tragedy in Bangladesh of 2013.
Les Costures de la Pell
Depicts the daily battle women working in garment production endure to obtain dignified working conditions and human rights. This documentary by Célia Vila and Enric Escofet, who travelled to India to witness and record the devastating reality these women must suffer through.
Thread
After filming the documentary “From Elegance to Earthworms”, which explores the growing tendency of eco-consciousness in New York City, director Michelle Vey became more aware of the unimaginable contaminating impact of the of the fashion industry and how detached it is from its consumers. This propagated the union of ethical and sustainable fashion pioneers and experts from around the world to develop this documentary. This brings us closer to the great environmental impact that massive cotton cultivation proposes as well as the health issues it brings to both the people that cultivate it and the people that wear it.
Sweatshop: Deadly Fashion
A five-episode Norwegian documentary in which the most prominent fashion bloggers in the country visit the locations where their favorite garment brands are manufactured and experience, first hand, the lives of the textile workers in the factories
Slowing Down Fast Fashion
Alex James, bass player in the band Blur turned film director, is the protagonist of this documentary. Through interviews and surveys, James offers the spectator a holistic view of fashion through an industrial, social and environmental viewpoint in the hopes that the film incites people to ask the origin of their clothes and open their eyes to what they are purchasing with a focus on the materials in which they are manufactured with.
The Next Black
Directed by David Dworsky and Victor Kohler, this documentary shows us the advances made in technology and science towards ethical and sustainable fashion. It explores clothes production, how we interact with garments and how we care for them. The narrative goes beyond apparel and displays the true relationship between fashion and how technology and innovation is helping transform it. This is not a documentary about what’s happening today or next season but what is upon us, the future of fashion.
Unreveal
When we get rid of clothing that we no longer want, normally it ends up returning to places in the East where the mountains of garbage are so huge that they occupy entire towns. This documentary is about the women that work in a recycling plant in India and the path our clothes take after we discard them. Only 14 minutes long, director Meghna Gupta displays many of our behaviors in this respect.
The Century of the Self
The Century of the Self is a British television documentary series focusing on the work of Sigmund Freud, Anna Freud, and Edward Bernays, who influenced the way companies and governments have applied, dealt with, and controlled people. This interesting documentary asks deeper questions about the roots of modern consumer methods, representative democracy and commodification and their implications. It also questions the modern way we see ourselves, such as the attitudes we take towards fashion and superficiality.
(cover photo @AdrienOlichon)