When COVID-19 hit, globally everything STOPPED. We stopped buying, so production stopped making. The garments weren’t needed, because the stores had shut, the warehouses had to close and no more product could be taken in. So what did these companies do? They cancelled orders. The ripple effect which this profound business model practice has taken is devastating and the ones that have been hit that hardest are those in the poorest countries on the planet. We’ve heard numerous stories in the media, however one which struck me the most on the Fashion Roundtable Webinar, was that these consequences have seen girls being trafficked out of these factories in exchange for payments as well as being sold into force marriages, with a devastating suicide by at least one girl we heard of.
