The True Cost. 2015. USA. Directed by Andrew Morgan. 92 min.
As consumers demand more and more clothing choices with lower price points, manufacturing increasingly turns to so-called fast fashion, providing a never-ending selection of cheaply made, disposable items. While this drives down consumer cost, it also drives down profit margins for factory owners, who then offer the most minuscule wages to their workers. Most of these clothes are now manufactured in China, Bangladesh, or Cambodia, where workers are paid shockingly low wages. The environment is also impacted, as factories in these countries are rarely compliant with rules for the disposal of toxic chemicals, and the clothes themselves clog the world’s landfills.