Is Cotton On Fast Fashion
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Time flies faster every year. It doesn’t matter if you’re living life big or small, whether you’re having fun or not but it is up to certain trends in the world that make it enjoyable. However, these trends have a very rapid way of changing. One moment those small black bags are high in fashion and the next, having those bags means that you’re at the bottom of the chain.
To keep up with these ever-changing fashion trends, some fashion brands have opted to mass-produce products at a low price with cheap materials. This is also known as fast fashion. Often these collections are based on styles presented on fashion shows and runways or worn by celebrities.
Cotton On is an Australian fashion retail company founded by Nigel Austin in 1988 with its first store being opened in 1991 in Geelong, Australia. This brand sources its materials from several locations such as Bangladesh, China, Australia, India, and more. It is known for its clothing, fashion, and stationery brands. Cotton On made its international debut in 2006 with its first store opening in New Zealand at Queensgate Shopping Centre, Lower Hutt.
This brand dates its origins back to Nigel Austin’s first denim jacket sale in 1988. After this production proved to be useful and popular, more brands from the Cotton On Group emerged. They include Cotton on Kids whose specialty is manufacturing and selling children’s clothing, baby clothing, swimwear, and more. In 2007, Cotton on Body was launched which included underwear and sleepwear. Overall, the Cotton on Group has 8 brands; Cotton On Kids, Cotton On Body, Factorie (which focuses on kids in college), Typo (offers a variety of decorations, lighting, and more), Rubi (aimed at women's footwear), Supre, Ceres and Cotton On Foundation.
The brand offers casual contemporary-styled clothing which attracts a lot of attention from the customers which has contributed to the fact that Cotton On has over 1500 stores in 18 countries. According to the Cotton on Manifesto, the company is “focused on building an ethical, sustainable, and profitable business and ensuring we have a positive impact on our people, the community, the planet, and all those we connect with”.
Sustainability Rating: 4/10
Category: Clothing, Shoes, Accessories
For: Women, Men, Kids
Products: Shirts, Jackets, Boots
Style: Casual, Contemporary
Quality: Low
Prices: -
Size: -
Fabrics: Polyester, Organic Cotton, Spandex, Viscose, Elastane, Linen, Leather, Nylon
100% Organic: No
100% Vegan: No
Ethical and Fair: No
Recycling: No
Manufacturing Countries: Not Transparent Enough
Certifications: Not Transparent Enough
Sustainability is a factor by which many fashion brands are judged today, especially if they are fast fashion. People want to know that the brands they are buying from are making their products using eco-friendly materials that will not contribute to the ever-increasing climate decline in the past decades. Fast fashion being a huge participant in the rise of global warming, people have been demanding transparency from their beloved brands.
Despite how colorful and friendly most fast fashion brands may look, all of them hide a dark secret behind the scenes. The limitless exploitation of natural resources and poor people in developing countries is a huge crime against humanity. Not only are people made to work in terrible conditions to gain a measly pay but the very Earth is being robbed every day to produce cheap and low-quality items that end up in landfills in a few weeks.
Cotton On believes that fashion is made to be loved and to spread good in the world and the first step to show its love and goodness to the world is by taking the necessary steps towards sustainability. The brand has big goals many of which will take time to complete but it is proud of the progress that it has made thus far. Cotton On has been keeping an eye on all ways that positive changes can be implemented in the company because it recognizes that the change starts with the brand itself.
It has big plans underway that it hopes will bring lasting changes not just for this generation but for the upcoming ones as well. One of the brand’s top priorities is going net zero. It wants to rethink how it operates the entire business including all processes and the supply chain so the brand can be carbon-neutral as soon as possible. It may have to set ridiculously high goals to meet this goal but the brand claims to be ready for any challenge.
2030 seems to be a big year for the brand as it is hoping to completely switch to 100% renewable energy by then. This will not only reduce the emission of greenhouse gases as no fossil fuels will be used but is also an excellent way to make use of the endless supply of renewable energy on the planet. It also hopes to become carbon-neutral in all operations by 2030.
It is already underway in the process of closing the loop and adopting the slogan of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. It is reevaluating all of its products in a way that new products can have a longer life and waste can be diverted from landfills. It is also working on using recycled plastic in products and packaging and making its packaging 100% recyclable and reusable.
However, despite such efforts, Cotton On is a fast fashion brand seeing that it practices the typical fast fashion business model. Cotton On is quite cheap and mass-produces most of the items according to recent trends. It also has factories in developing countries where violation of human rights is the norm. No matter how sustainable a fast fashion brand tries to be, the core of the brand remains an unethical and unsustainable one.
It has received an environmental rating of “Not Good Enough” from the GoodOnYou directory for the insufficient use of organic material and the lack of information published regarding its sustainability policies and goals. It was rated B in the 2021 Ethical Fashion Report by Baptist Aid Australia for the same reason.
While it is an ACT initiative participant and has signed the “Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh”, it has not been paying a livable wage to its workers as reported in a study conducted by Oxfam Australia.
This information highlights that Cotton On is taking some steps to incorporate sustainability in all operations but it still has a long way to go to be called a sustainable brand. The first step may be to stop mass-producing items in developing countries. Sustainability begins at the very core of the supply chain.
About the Cotton On Group – How can we help you?
4 Things You Should Know About Australian Retailer Cotton On | EDITED
How Ethical Is Cotton On? - Good On You
Sustainability - Cotton on Group
Doing Good | Sustainability Goals (cottonon.com)
Cotton On - Sustainability Rating - Good On You
Is Cotton On Ethical, Sustainable, or Fast Fashion? (yoursustainableguide.com)