The True Cost Was My Intro To Sustainable Fashion. But Does It Still Hold Up?

In 2014 I was a sophomore in high school who had just started working her first job and could finally afford to buy clothes that weren't from ABC Superstore or a hand-me-down from one of the old ladies my mom worked for.

I could finally cosplay as a YouTuber buying pounds of clothes every week or any of the trillion Tumblr aesthetics I was into. Really, I was starting a very unhealthy relationship with spending money and overconsumption. Every two weeks I was making my way downtown, walking fast, faces pass, and I’m broke bound. I thought I looked so cool walking down Broadway with a billion paper shopping bags wearing a wide brim hat from The Gap.  

I could also finally afford a Netflix subscription, and in 2015 I watched the documentary The True Cost (2015) for the first time. The True Cost by Andrew Morgan is a documentary film about the fast fashion industry, the disturbing conditions of garment factories, and the devastating environmental effects that fast fashion has on our planet.

I saw myself in the clips that flashed across my screen. The film uses video of day-to-day shoppers to illustrate greed and bliss in the ignorance of the truth behind each cheaply manufactured article of clothing. I was one of the many people shopping at malls or in busy commercial areas, who were likely not looking deeper into the story behind a garment on a rack. Suddenly, these shopping habits become immoral rituals of consumption.

The film is visually shocking and powerfully persuasive. The True Cost initially inspired me and many others, including our Sustainable Baddie CEO Jazmine Rogers, to change the way we shop for clothing. However, the conversation around fast fashion and the sustainability movement has changed in a million and one ways since 2015. Intersectionality is finally being considered in the conversation around accessible sustainability, governments and businesses around the world are working to meet the UN's Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, and more people are making big and small sustainable changes to their lifestyles. 

Recently, I decided to rewatch the documentary to see how much of it still holds true in today’s fashion climate. I can trace my sustainability journey back to that one moment, watching The True Cost, but would that film be as relevant to my life if I was trying to start shopping sustainably today?

The film’s central message that fast fashion is an exploitative and pollutant industry that denies its workers liveable wages and fundamental human rights still stands. But the film struggles to differentiate those that buy clothing from fast fashion companies out of necessity from those who take advantage of the quick and cheap fast fashion cycle to overconsume.

While the filmmakers definitely call out the unethical practices of corporations and bring awareness to the ways that corporate heads are complicit in the fast fashion industry, they also very much blame the consumer to an equal, if not higher degree. 

The documentary shows clips of Americans Black Friday shopping in a frenzy, everyone trying to get as many deals as they possibly can. Clips of shoppers walking busy streets or YouTubers doing hauls are contrasted with the unethical work conditions of sweatshops, images of people who have died or been seriously injured by factory building collapses, people becoming sick, and local ecosystems destroyed by factory waste and pollution. 

Photo: The True Cost

As I re-watched the film, it was hard to tell if the goal of the film was to make viewers question their shopping habits or to simply just shame anyone who has ever participated in fast fashion. Of course, I know now that there are things that we as consumers can do to slow the production of fast fashion. But the only real alternative the film offers to fast fashion is to instead purchase from sustainable brands. 

The True Cost gives a lot of screen time to ethical fashion companies and movements like Patagonia, People Tree, and The Green Carpet. Sustainable brands are made out to be the antithesis of fast fashion; completely ethical in their production of clothing.

What they don’t mention alongside these ethical alternatives is how inaccessible they are to most people. 

Many people shop fast fashion because those are the only brands that will carry their size, or that they can afford.

Consumers should not be shamed for buying fast fashion if it's all that's accessible to them.

Thankfully, the current Sustainable Fashion movement is organizing to grant garment workers fair wages and emphasizing alternatives to buying new like buying secondhand, limiting the days we shop, and mending our own clothing so it stays with us longer.

To The True Cost’s credit, its popularity and the shock that it caused its viewers forced some of the biggest fast fashion companies to try and defend themselves. Which was not an easy endeavor, to say the least. While still far from perfect, many of these fast fashion companies have set up environmental goals that they aim to reach within the next 10 to 20 years. 

Another thing the film gets right is its commentary on overconsumption. As I was rewatching the film I saw clips of Bethany Mota and other prominent YouTubers of the mid-2010s doing fast fashion hauls. (With 1D posters lining their bedroom walls, might I add, talk about a time stamp.) I, myself, loved watching hauls, and the trend of buying a bunch of clothes at once and filming it has not died down one bit. 

1D may have broken up since then, but people haven’t stopped doing and watching hauls. YouTube hauls have evolved into TikTok hauls. And because the algorithm of TikTok only allows growth if you’re constantly posting, the popularity of fast fashion Shein hauls has exploded. Many of these hauls feature the parasite that is Shein–promoting fast fashion in a way that is probably worse than any of the companies that The True Cost attacked.

I like TikToker Mandy Lee’s description of the microtrend cycle as “singular pieces of clothing rather than genres or aesthetics that reach peak and obsolescence very, very quickly.” Shein allows consumers to buy dupes of these trendy pieces whilst spending a tenth of the cost of the original item. 

If The True Cost had the chance, they would’ve dragged Shein and these TikTok haulers into the ground (as they should!) Even so, it’s more productive to criticize the overconsumption encouraged by the fast fashion industry than to police whether or not individuals are purchasing from sustainable brands. If we focus more on the longevity of our clothing, and whether or not it will follow us through the everlasting journey of finding your personal style, we can learn to stop treating clothing as disposable.

Photo: The True Cost (2015)

The True Cost takes a harsh tone when it comes to telling consumers about the truth behind their shopping habits which can make people who love fashion, or really anyone who wears clothes, feel hopeless and ashamed.

To the creators of The True Cost I say this: when The True Cost was released, fashion was the second most polluting industry in the world. Today, it is the fourth most polluting industry. Still a depressing statistic, but one that proves the fashion industry can improve. 

Sustainability is imperfect. Fashion is imperfect. Humans are imperfect. But in a world full of doom and gloom, fashion is something that brings many, many people joy. Let's not take a poop on people who may not be able to partake in sustainable fashion and lifestyles, but still want to be able to express themselves with the clothes that they wear. Instead of shaming and hating, we can work to be intentional about our consumption and try to help others be intentional as well.

What was your intro to sustainable fashion? Leave a comment below 💬