Fast Fashion Frenzy | The High Cost of Cheap Fashion by edudrift

PUBLIC SPEAKING & DEBATE | JUNIOR CLASS

FAST FASHION FRENZY THE HIGH COST OF CHEAP FASHION

CLASS INTRODUCTION

Welcoming Remarks Welcome back to class, everyone! If this is your first class, we’re very excited to meet you! Before moving on to our lesson, let’s all introduce ourselves. Tell us your:

Name

Age

Favourite subject in school

Fantastic! Now that we all know each other, we are ready to embark on an exciting journey of learning. Along the way, you will discover new ideas, practice thinking on your feet, build your confidence when speaking in front of an audience, and develop your critical thinking skills.

Expectations

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Thrilling activities awaits The activities will keep you on the edge of your seat!

Give awesome speeches! We'll have a chance to speak up and get helpful feedback!

Active participation I'll call on your wacky ideas to make this class extra special.

HOUSE RULES FOR EVERYONE

Reminder: Class Rules Now that we all know each other, let’s make this class into a proper classroom! Here are some rules that we will all follow together:

Before Class 1. Make sure that you’ve eaten breakfast/lunch and have gone to the bathroom 2. Join the Zoom call a few minutes before class starts so we can get started right away!

At the Start of Class 1. Turn your camera on so we can see your lovely smile! 2. Let your coach know if you need to leave class early

During Class 1. Keep your camera on unless you are preparing during an activity 2. Put your hand up if you want to say something 3. Do not leave your computer during class - if you need to go to the bathroom, put your hand up and ask your coach before you go 4. Immediately unmute yourself and reply when you are called on

DEBATE & PUBLIC SPEAKING

CLASS ROADM PART ONE

PART

YOUR WARDROBE Warm Up Activity

Why Do Peop and Buying WHAT IS ‘FAST FASHION’? The Fashion Industry What Is ‘Fast Fashion’? Fast Fashion and the Environment Fast Fashion and Garment Manufacturing

Manufacturer

How Can Fa

SPEECH BUILDING BLOCKS

Policies Th Con

Activity

SYMBOL

Key takeaway

Question

Spe

MAP

T TWO

PART THREE

ple Keep Making g Fast Fashion? BUILDING YOUR OWN SPEECH

r and Consumer

Activity

We Stop Fast ashion?

RECAP

hat Affect the nsumer

OBJECTIVES:

eaking Activity

Quiz

Dictionary

CLASS OVERVIEW

Overview By the end of today’s class, you’ll learn:

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FAST FASHION FRENZY

Learning Facts: Wasteful Fashion Public Speaking Skills: Speech Practice

Debating Skills

DEBATE & PUBLIC SPEAKING

PART ONE:

WHAT

YOUR WARDROBE Warm Up Activity

Why Do Peop and Buying

WHAT IS ‘FAST FASHION’? The Fashion Industry What Is ‘Fast Fashion’? Fast Fashion and the Environment Fast Fashion and Garment Manufacturing

SPEECH BUILDING BLOCKS Activity

Manufacturer

How Can Fa

Policies Th Con

IS FAST FASHION?

ple Keep Making g Fast Fashion?

r and Consumer

We Stop Fast ashion?

hat Affect the nsumer

BUILDING YOUR OWN SPEECH Activity

RECAP

CLASS OVERVIEW

Warm Up Activity: Your Wardrobe

Here are three different settings that you need to dress for. Tell the class what you would wear for each one, and why. When deciding what you would wear, consider things like: 1. 2. 3.

The weather or the climate Functionality - does your outfit have any special features like X-ray glasses? Your personal taste - what do you like to wear?

Time

3 mins: Prep

Example:

Deep Sea Diving "If I were to go deep sea diving, I’d wear a full body wetsuit and a hat to keep my head warm. It would have a light attached so I could see the bottom of the ocean in the dark, as well as flippers to help me swim. It would be bright orange because that’s my favorite color!" MODULE BY

FAST FASHION FRENZY

Settings: A Fighting Crime Like a Superhero

A Exploring in the Jungle

B Attending a Fancy Dress Up Ball

FAST FASHION FRENZY

PART ONE: WHAT IS FAST FASHION

The Fashion Industry

The fashion industry is the third biggest manufacturing industry in the world Fashion takes third place after the automotive (car and transport) and technology industries.

Over 1 items of made

That’s clothin

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FAST FASHION FRENZY

Different countries consume fashion at different rates The average US citizen buys one clothing item a week, whereas the average person in Egypt purchases two items per year. The average clothing item in Norway costs US$28.26, and the average clothing item in India costs US$7.00.

100 BILLION f clothing are e each year

s 12.7 items of ng per person

FAST FASHION FRENZY

PART ONE: WHAT IS FAST FASHION

The Fashion Industry Old Times The fashion industry means everything involved with the designing, making, and selling of clothes across the world. Hundreds of years ago, every item of clothing had to be made by hand. Fibers were harvested by hand, prepared, and made into cloth, and every stitch was sewn by a person.

Harvesting plant materials

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Wearing into fabric

Cutting with scissors

Sewing by hand

Worn as an outfit

FAST FASHION FRENZY

Fashion is one of the world’s leading industries, selling billions of garments a year. Over time, it’s become easier to make garments more quickly and cheaply.

Modern Times Now, fashion technology has advanced significantly. Fabrics are woven by automated machines, and garment workers use industrial sewing machines to make things faster to put together. Lots of our clothes are now made out of non-natural fibers, like polyester.

Machines spinning polyester yarn

Knitting into fabric

Cutting fabric with machine blade

Sewing by machine

Worn as an outfit

FAST FASHION FRENZY

PART ONE: WHAT IS FAST FASHION

What Is ‘Fast Fashion’? Fast fashion is a new term that describes the increasing trend towards cheap clothing that’s quick to make. It’s called ‘fast’ because it relies on copying fashion trends on the fashion runway and making them as quickly as possible at very high quantities. These clothes are often ready for sale in stores in just a few weeks.

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FAST FASHION FRENZY

When a large amount of something is manufactured, this is called mass production. The more items you produce, the less it costs to make each item. That’s why companies that make 100 of the same sweaters can sell them for $20 each, but a fashion designer who makes only 5 will have to sell them for $100 each.

Fast Fashion The increasing amount of mass-produced, cheap clothing that copies the latest trends.

FAST FASHION FRENZY

PART ONE: WHAT IS FAST FASHION

Fast Fashion and the Environment Learning Facts Whenever you produce something, you can help or harm the environment. For example, let’s say you have two factories making paper. A

Factory A goes to the nearest forest, and chops down all the trees. They chop them up in the factory, grind them to make pulp, and then add bleach and other chemicals to make the paper bright white. The chemicals go down the drain and get dumped into the nearby river.

What happens to the environment around Factory A? Because all of the trees are chopped down, the birds have nowhere to live, so they fly away or are killed by predators. Because birds aren’t flying around anymore, they’re not spreading around the seeds that they eat, so none of the smaller plants grow either. None of the herbivores have plants to eat and starve, and none of the carnivores have herbivores to eat and starve as well. The chemicals escape into the water and kill all of the fish. Because the water is toxic, families can no longer go to the river to play or swim.

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FAST FASHION FRENZY

Factory B goes to the nearby forest and cuts down only one-quarter of the trees. After they cut them down, they plant saplings to replace them. Once the saplings have grown taller, they cut down the next quarter of the forest and replace them with saplings too. They keep doing this with enough time between each quarter to make sure there are always mature trees left over. They then chop them up and leave the pulp out in the sun to make it go white. If they need to use some chemicals, they store the chemical waste in bins and send it to another factory to be broken down safely.

What happens to the environment around factory B? There are enough trees in the forest for birds to stay living there, so they carry around seeds that encourage undergrowth and keep other animals alive By avoiding using lots of harmful chemicals, they keep the nearby river clean so the fish can thrive and people can go swimming there. By treating any chemicals they do use, they minimise the risks of pollution in future Because the cars don’t use fossil fuels, they emit less exhaust that can pollute the air and contribute towards climate change and global warming.

If Factory A uses big trucks to send paper out 1. How does that affect the environment? 2. What can Factory B do to avoid those harmful effects?

FAST FASHION FRENZY

PART ONE: WHAT IS FAST FASHION

The same thing applies to the fashion industry. When we use natural fibres like cotton to make clothes, these can be treated with pesticides and use up a lot of water. We also use chemicals to dye and treat fabrics. Clothes that don’t sell (or ones we get bored of) go into the landfill, where they might take hundreds of years to break down.

Did you know that the fashion industry creates 92 million tonnes of waste each year? The average American throws away 37kg of clothing annually - that’s the weight of an average 11-year-old!

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FAST FASHION FRENZY

Ways that the fashion industry can harm the environment: 1. Wastage of resources 2. Non-biodegradable materials 3. Pollution

The fashion industry causes major harm to the environment by encouraging high levels of consumption, and the use of non-natural materials.

FAST FASHION FRENZY

PART ONE: WHAT IS FAST FASHION

Fast Fashion and Garment Manufacturing Learning Facts Lots of different people contribute to the making of a garment. Often, garment manufacturers only get paid 3% of the final price of a garment you buy in-store. That means if you buy a dress for $50, the garment worker only makes $1.50 of that $50. If that worker is based in Thailand. If the cost of living in Thailand is $550 a month, they have to make 12 whole dresses a day to earn enough.

If you buy a fast fashion dress for $10, the worker only earns $0.30 per dress. That means they’d have to make 61 dresses a day to survive. If they need to pay for their family as well, they would have to make 220 dresses a day. There’s also another group of people who lose out in fast fashion: artists and designers. People put a lot of hard work into creating garments, only to have a fast fashion company copy their design without paying and sell it to thousands of people for a much lower price. People own their ideas, and this is called intellectual property; they should be paid if someone else wants to make money off of them.

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FAST FASHION FRENZY

How is the fast fashion industry bad for garment workers?

Unfair Pay

The time, skill, and effort of the workers are not fairly compensated by the employer.

Unsafe working conditions

Workers are often placed in settings that pose dangers to their wellbeing, places that are accident-prone.

No worker’s rights

Workers can be fired easily, so they cannot speak out and get things like paid holidays or healthcare

The fast fashion industry takes advantage of garment workers, who often live below the poverty line in unsafe conditions. The industry also steals ideas from artists and designers.

FAST FASHION FRENZY

Activity: Speech Building Blocks

You are going to deliver a speech using speech building blocks about the harms of the fast fashion industry. You can choose whether your speech will be about harm to the environment or harm to workers.

/ Harms to the environment

Harms to workers

Remember that our speech building blocks are: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Introduction: your introduction should feature background, urgency, or relevance Rebuttal (we will skip this one for this exercise, as you don’t have any speeches to rebut!) Reason 1 Reason 2 Conclusion

We will also add in an ‘extra for experts’ block, where you can add your very own ideas to your speech if you want to.

Time

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10 mins: Prep | 1-2 mins: Speak

The fast fashion industry creates huge harms for (pick one)

The Environment

Block 1: Introduction

Workers

I believe this is because: (choose one of the following types of introduction) Background: explain what fast fashion is

Urgency: explain how the harms are really bad

Relevance: explain how fast fashion is relevant to our lives

Block 3: Reason 1

My first reason is why fast fashion is harmful is about… (pick one)

Pollution

Unfair pay

Explain why your reason is good or bad.

My first reason is why fast fashion is harmful is about… (pick one)

Block 4: Reason 2

Non-biodegradable materials

Unsafe working conditions Explain why your reason is good or bad.

Optional Extra: Reason 3

Block 5: Conclusion

Give another reason why you think fast fashion is bad.

When you think about (insert your two reasons), fast fashion is really bad for (pick one)

The Environment

Fashion Workers

FAST FASHION FRENZY

PART ONE: WHAT IS FAST FASHION

Harms to the environment

Harms to workers

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FAST FASHION FRENZY

Feedback Time! Great work. Let’s learn about how we can become even better at using our speech building blocks!

FAST FASHION FRENZY

PART TWO:

CHA

YOUR WARDROBE Warm Up Activity

Why Do Peop and Buying

WHAT IS ‘FAST FASHION’? The Fashion Industry What Is ‘Fast Fashion’? Fast Fashion and the Environment Fast Fashion and Garment Manufacturing

SPEECH BUILDING BLOCKS Activity

Manufacturer

How Can Fa

Policies Th Con

ANGING THE FASHION INDUSTRY

ple Keep Making g Fast Fashion?

r and Consumer

We Stop Fast ashion?

hat Affect the nsumer

BUILDING YOUR OWN SPEECH Activity

RECAP

PART TWO: CHANGING THE FASHION INDUSTRY

Why Do People Keep Making and Buying Fast Fashion? Analyzing Incentives So, now we know how harmful fast fashion can be, why do people keep making and buying it? All people are different and care about different things. These things are called incentives - the underlying motivation for doing something (the big WHY).

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FAST FASHION FRENZY

Examples of incentives: Lin goes for a run every morning because he wants to be healthy Charlie studies hard because he wants to get an A on his test. He wants to get an A so he can go to a good university

The motivations for why we choose to do things are called incentives. If we understand why people do things, we can also understand how to change their behaviour

What do you think could be possible incentives for the following choices?

a. Starting a pizza restaurant b. Adopting a stray dog c. Climbing Mt Everest d. Smoking cigarettes

Why do you think people still make and buy fast fashion, even if it’s bad?

FAST FASHION FRENZY

PART TWO: CHANGING THE FASHION INDUSTRY

Manufacturer The person (or company) who makes clothing is called the manufacturer. Most businesses operate under a profit incentive. This means they want to make as much money as possible. To make a profit, you have to keep costs low and revenue (the money you make from sales) high.

In the context of fast fashion, lowering costs

looks like:

Use cheaper materials Pay workers less Make lower-quality garments (fast) Avoiding extra costs e.g. waste disposal In the context of fast fashion, increasing revenue looks like: Make as many as possible Make the end garment cheap Encourage people to buy more

Companies take advantage of workers and hurt the environment because they operate under a profit incentive - the desire to make as much money as possible.

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FAST FASHION FRENZY

Consumer The person who buys and wears clothing is called the consumer. A consumer cares about a lot of things including their needs, their wants, and dreams. Money: Cheaper things Quality: Nicer things Success: Things that make them appear cool and successful Morals: Doing the right thing

How do these incentives interact with fast fashion? Money: Cheaper clothes Quality: Lower quality is acceptable when you don’t re-wear them Success: Appear fashionable and upto-date with the latest trends Morals: people might not know the true costs of fast fashion, or choose to ignore them because they care about themselves more

Consumers are mostly self-interested. Many people choose to ignore the harms of fast fashion because they want lots of cheap clothes that make them look trendy.

FAST FASHION FRENZY

PART TWO: CHANGING THE FASHION INDUSTRY

How Can We Stop Fast Fashion? Analysing Policies and Mechanisms If we want to reduce the harms of fast fashion, we can choose to target the incentives of both manufacturers and consumers. If the manufacturers want to make fast fashion but the consumers don’t want to buy it, then they won’t make any money and will stop. If the consumers want to buy fast fashion but no one is making it, then they will be forced to choose more ethical fashion options.

Policies That Affect the Manufacturer 1. Policy One: Environmental Regulations Environmental regulations mean banning things like dumping waste and destroying ecosystems. Because they would be illegal, most manufacturers wouldn’t want to commit crimes so would be forced to be more responsible

2. Policy Two: Labour Rights Labour rights include things like letting workers join a union so they can team up together to argue for better rights, or creating legal rights like a minimum wage

3. Policy Three: Costing-in Externalities This means making the fashion industry pay for the cost of fixing the problems they cause. For example, you could make clothing manufacturers pay a carbon emissions tax, where they pay extra depending on how much they pollute

Let’s discuss: 1. Which policies do you think will be most effective at changing the incentives of manufacturers? 2. What incentive does each policy target? 3. Are there any ways that people could get around these policies?

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FAST FASHION FRENZY

Ban Dumping Waste and Destroying Eco Systems

Let Workers Join a Union

Pay Carbon Emissions Tax

FAST FASHION FRENZY

PART TWO: CHANGING THE FASHION INDUSTRY

Policies That Affect the Consumer

Pay Tax to Buy Fast Fashion Clothing

1. Policy One: Taxing Fast Fashion This means that people would have to pay extra money if they wanted to buy clothing that wasn’t proven to be their responsibility.

Educate People About the Harms It Causes

2. Policy Two: Education This looks like showing the harm that the fashion industry causes to people and the environment, so people will want to buy fast fashion less.

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FAST FASHION FRENZY

Regulate the Media to Limit Fast Fashion Ads

3. Policy Three: Regulating the Media Lots of people are encouraged to buy more clothes because they see them in magazines, in ads, and on influencers on social media. Regulating could involve refusing to let influences post fast fashion outfits, or fining magazines for advertising clothing brands that aren’t proven to be ethical.

Let’s discuss: 1. Which policies do you think will be most effective at changing the incentives of consumers? 2. What incentive does each policy target? 3. Are there any ways that people could get around these policies?

FAST FASHION FRENZY

PART THREE:

YOUR WARDROBE Warm Up Activity

Why Do Peop and Buying

WHAT IS ‘FAST FASHION’? The Fashion Industry What Is ‘Fast Fashion’? Fast Fashion and the Environment Fast Fashion and Garment Manufacturing

SPEECH BUILDING BLOCKS Activity

Manufacturer

How Can Fa

Policies Th Con

WRITING A SPEECH TOGETHER PART THREE

ple Keep Making g Fast Fashion?

r and Consumer

We Stop Fast ashion?

hat Affect the nsumer

BUILDING YOUR OWN SPEECH Activity

RECAP

Writing a Speech Together Activity: Building Our Own Speech!

Usually, when you are in a real debate, no one gives you building blocks to choose from! Instead, you have to come up with all of the ideas yourself. When you work as a team to come up with your points, these become your team’s case. Today, we’re going to practise writing a speech together.

We are going to write a speech on the same topic as last time: why fast fashion is harmful. We are also going to discuss the policies to address fast fashion issues.

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First, let’s create the skeleton for our case using building blocks! Who remembers what they are?

FAST FASHION FRENZY

Activity: Building Our Own Speech!

Introduction Introductions should choose to focus on background, urgency, or relevance.

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Reason 1 Pick your first reason why fast fashion can be harmful

Policy Fix: what policy could help address the first reason why fast fashion is bad?

FAST FASHION FRENZY

Reason 2 Pick your second reason why fast fashion can be harmful

Policy Fix: what policy could help address the first reason why fast fashion is bad?

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Conclusion Summarize why your reasoning proves that fast fashion is harmful

FAST FASHION FRENZY

RECAP

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The global fashion industry makes hundreds of billions of dollars each year and makes billions of garments (many of which go to waste).

Fast fashion refers to the growing trends towards cheap, low-quality clothing that keeps up with the latest trends. It causes harm to both the environment and the people who make it.

Environmental harms: 1. Waste 2. Pollution 3. Non-biodegradable materials

Harms to people: 1. Unfair pay 2. Unsafe working conditions 3. Poor labor rights 4. Intellectual property theft (stealing designs and artwork)

Despite this, people still choose to make and wear fast fashion. To understand why, we have to analyse their incentives: the motivations that encourage people to behave a certain way.

Clothing manufacturers have a profit incentive, so they want to keep costs low and revenue high. This means they cut corners, even if it means hurting others.

Consumers are largely self-interested, meaning they make themselves priority number one. They choose to shop in fast fashion because it is cheap, it makes them look fashionable, and they don't know (or don’t care) about the harm that the industry causes.

To reduce fast fashion, we can implement policies that target incentives of the manufacturer or the consumer.

Manufacturer policies: environmental regulations, labour rights, and costing-in externalities Consumer policies: fast fashion tax, education, regulating the media

FAST FASHION FRENZY

PUBLIC SPEAKING & DEBATE | JUNIOR CLASS

THANK YOU! EXCITED TO SEE YOU ALL NEXT WEEK!