The Repurposing Life

UNIQLO

This is a Japanese brand which offers casual clothing. They operate in Japan and other international markets. It’s been embroiled in a number of controversies in recent years. In 2015, several labor rights violations were reported from one of their suppliers in China. In 2016, it was alleged that Uniqlo still expected staff to work excessive overtime for low pay and in dangerous conditions. It was purported to have a culture of bullying and harassment.

Stradivarius

This Spanish brand sells women’s clothing in over 900 stores. It was developed back in 1994, but in 1999 they were taken over by the Inditex Group. They are a company which has been plagued by accusations of poor working conditions and unfair wages.

Topshop

Originally known as Top Shop, this multinational fashion brand sells clothes, footwear, cosmetics and accessories. There are 500 Topshop outlets in the world, including 300 in the UK. It’s part of Arcadia Group Ltd. which also owns other high street clothing retailers including Dorothy Perkins, Evans, Wallis, Burton and out–of–town retailer Outfit. Time and time again they’ve prioritized profit over people, with the unfair treatment of their workforce.

Primark

Known as Penney’s in the Republic of Ireland, Primark is an Irish fashion retailer with headquarters in Dublin. They sell clothes for all age groups, including infants and toddlers. Unlike some of the other fast fashion stores, they also sell housewares. Stores operate across over 350 countries around the world. In June 2014, labels on items bought from a store in Swansea were found stitched with SOS messages. Primark denied any wrongdoing and branded these messages a hoax. In an unrelated incident, but in the same month, of the same year, a customer from Ireland found an SOS note from a Chinese prison alleging prisoners were overworked and forced to work for 15 hours a day.

Rip Curl

This retailer designs and makes surfing sportswear. They’re also a major athletic sponsor. They have shops worldwide, including 61 in Australia & New Zealand, 29 in North America and 55 in Europe. Their workshop is in North Korea where they’ve been accused of modern–day slavery.

Victoria’s Secret

An American designer, creator and marketer of lingerie, women’s clothing and beauty items. This is the biggest retailer of lingerie in the U.S. Too many reasons to avoid shopping there to list here. But they include formaldehyde lawsuits, child labor, allegations of transgender phobia, sexual harassment of their models, and so on…

Urban Outfitters

Targeted at young adults, UO offers clothing, footwear, beauty products, active wear & equipment, housewares and music including vinyl and cassettes. Their staff aren’t paid a living wage (they’ve even been caught asking staff to work for free on weekends). They also use a lot of synthetic fabrics.

GUESS

As well as fashion for men and women, GUESS also sells accessories including jewelry, watches and fragrances. Back in the 1980s, the brand’s image was damaged after it made headlines due to allegations of sweatshop labor. And in the early nineties, GUESS was revealed to have failed to pay their staff the minimum wage. Instead of facing court proceedings, it chose to settle for $500k as back pay. In 2009, the brand was sued for $221 million by Gucci for trademark infringement. In the end, they settled the lawsuit for $4.7 million.

GAP

This is an American worldwide retailer for clothing and accessories. Their headquarters are in San Francisco, California. They have over 3,500 stores worldwide, with around 2,400 in the U.S. alone. They’ve had more than their fair share of labor controversies. In the past they’ve hit the headlines for not paying their staff overtime, subjecting employees to forced abortion and unsafe working conditions. During May 2006, employees of one of GAP’s suppliers revealed they had been working over 100 hours per week and hadn’t been paid for six months. Some staff even accused management of sexual misconduct. By May 2018, GAP had ended their business relationship with the Western Factory, a supplier in Irbid, Jordan.

Fashion Nova

This company is based in the heart of downtown Los Angeles. They have five retail locations in Southern California. In 2018, they were the #1 most searched–for fashion brand on Google. Much of their success comes down to their strong social media presence on platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Sure, the clothes are be cheap; but remember, you get what you pay for.

Boohoo

This is an online–only retailer, aimed at customers aged between 16 and 30. They offer a range of products including their own–brand garments. There are over 36,000 products offered at any given time. In 2018, they were named and shamed in Parliament for selling £5 dresses of such poor quality, charity shops wouldn’t even be willing to resell them. They were also criticized for encouraging the UK”s “throwaway” clothes culture.

Pretty Little Thing

Owned by Boohoo Group based in the UK, this fashion brand targets women ages 14–24. Their main headquarters are in Manchester, UK, but they have offices in London and Los Angeles too. In early 2019, they were accused of removing labels from cheaper brand clothing and re–selling under their own brand—for double the price.

New Look

This is one of the original UK fast fashion brands. They first opened in 1969 as a single fashion store. Nowadays, they’re a global chain with 895 stores around the world. In 2018, the brand had some financial difficulties, so they said they would be cutting their prices. But to do so, they must have also cut corners. Plus, they still use animal products like leather, down and exotic animal fur.

Missguided

Based in the UK, a multi–channel brand which sells women’s clothes aged 16–35, to suit all shapes and sizes, including tall, petite and plus size. Recently, they’ve launched a menswear brand, Mennace. In 2017, it was found that the brand had illegally used fur from cats, raccoons, dogs and rabbits in the production of shoes. And in 2019, they made headlines for selling a £1 bikini while “celebrating ten years of empowering women.” All while women working in their factories were paid less than £1 per day.

Peacocks

This brand is now part of the Edinburgh Woollen Mill Group. They have over 400 Peacocks shops in the UK and more than 200 stores located in Europe. When they first opened, they sold home goods and essential clothing. These days, they’ve re–branded as a “value fashion” store. Avoid them for the usual reasons, poor quality clothing and low paid staff. And for a more unusual reason, in 2018 they sold an inflatable perfect woman described as “sexy” and “nag–free.”

Mango

This brand offers women’s, men’s and children’s clothing collections. Their biggest market is in Spain, but the highest number of Mango stores is in Istanbul, Turkey. In 2013, the Rana Plaza clothing manufacturing complex in Bangladesh collapsed. It employed about 5,000 people. The collapse killed over 1,000 people and injured over 2,400. About 29 brands manufactured products from those factories, but only 9 attended meetings for the compensation of the victims. Mango was not one of them.

Oysho

This Spanish clothing retailer specializes in housewares and women’s underwear. Their headquarters are in Catalonia and they have 650 stores around the world–190 of which are in Spain. Avoid them for their low quality, cheap garments made by staff working in questionable environments.

Massimo Dutti

Although it sounds Italian, this is a Spanish company. Originally, they sold men’s clothing, but they now sell women’s and children’s clothes, as well plus a range of perfumes. They have 781 stores across 75 different countries. They’re owned by Inditex Group (the biggest fast fashion group in the world) and they sell cheap, low quality clothing that only serves to fuel “disposable” consumerism.

H&M

This name stands for Hennes & Mauritz. This is a Swedish multinational retail company which sells fashion products for adults and children. With over 3,500 stores in 57 countries, it is the second biggest global clothing retailer. But, their staff receive low wages–and the company has also been accused of copyright infringement and reproducing photos of models from high–end brands without permission.

Zara

This Spanish clothing retailer offers fast fashion products for adults and children, including clothing, shoes, accessories, and swimwear, perfume and beauty products. In 2017, they offered 20 clothing collections, with around 12,000 designs sold each year. Rumor has it that Zara’s lead time from design–to production–to store front is only one week. The industry average is six months. Zara has over 2,000 stores in almost 100 different countries. You should avoid them as they’ve been accused of subjecting workers in Brazil to slave–like working conditions.

Adidas

Adidas was founded in Germany. They design and make footwear, clothes and accessories. They’re the biggest manufacturer of sportswear in Europe and are second only to Nike when it comes to international manufacturers. As for labor conditions and sustainability, they don’t fare too badly. But they still produce a large quantity of fashion garments–and most of them are not made using sustainable materials. Furthermore, they still use animal products like wool, down and leather in the creation of their products.

ASOS

This brand name is an acronym of “as seen on screen.” They are a British online–only retailer selling fashion products and cosmetics. They sell more than 850 brands plus their own brand items. They ship products to 196 countries and have a popular mobile shopping app. They found themselves under scrutiny in 2019 after posting an image on social media depicting one of their models wearing a dress held together with bulldog clips. Many of their followers said doing things like this would have a negative impact on their youngest demographic battling body image issues and questioned why they didn’t just find a model to fit the dress or find a dress to fit the model.

Hot Topic

This retail chain sells clothes and accessories influenced by popular culture. Primarily, their products are aimed at people who are interested in gaming and rock music. They’ve sponsored a number of music events such as Ozzfest, Sounds of the Underground and the Taste of Chaos tour. But, they just offer more of the same–poor quality garments which don’t last.

Shein

This online retailer offers clothing, beauty products and accessories for men, women and kids. They also offer a plus size range. But, like many other companies, they take images from high–end fashion retailers. Then they try to reproduce these items as cheaply as possible. But what you end up receiving rarely looks anything like the picture you saw on the website. Needless to say, they’ve found themselves in a lot of trouble for copyright infringement and reproducing photos of influencers and celebrities without permission. Oh, and they don’t give much away about their impact on animals or the environment.

Nasty Gal

This online retailer sells women’s clothing, shoes and accessories. Once again, they don’t tell consumers much about the impact their operations have on the planet, animals and humans.