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Episode details

World Service,03 Jul 2019,17 mins

Fast fashion: The ugly side of looking good

Business Daily

Available for over a year

The hunger for quick short-lived clothes is bringing garment sweatshops back to the UK and harming the environment. Katie Prescott travels to Leicester, the British city whose garment factories claimed to "clothe the world" a century ago, where unregulated factories are making a comeback, paying immigrant workers less than the minimum wage to turn around clothing designs as quickly as possible. Meanwhile Manuela Saragosa speaks to author and journalist Lucy Siegle about how the trend towards the ever faster turnover in consumers' wardrobes is leading to shoddier synthetic fibres that only last a handful of wears. (Photo: Woman sitting on a throne of discarded clothes. Credit: Ryan McVay/Getty Images)

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