It's been more than 20 years since we first became anxious about sports shoes made in sweatshops, and yet cheap and fashionable clothing still seems like an unqualified good -- another gift of the globalisation boom years to consumers in developed countries. But as the recent factory fires in Bangladesh have reaffirmed, it's a gift that comes at a terrible cost not only to others but also to the environment. As we deal with guilt and the mountain of waste that 'fast fashion' produces, others deal with Dickensian conditions and subsistence wages, while the carbon footprint of our fluctuating wardrobes continue to expand. Is there a way out of this Faustian bargain that has seen fashion become a destructive force?
Lucy Siegle is a British journalist focusing on the environmental, sustainability and ethics
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