NO MORE „AFFORDABLE FASHION”?
The days of „cheap chic” and throwaway
fashion could be numbered, because the cost of clothes is rising at its fastest rate for nearly 15 years.
The „fast fashion” trend, where T-shirts sell for £2 and jeans are priced at less than a fiver in supermarkets, is being battered by big increases in the cost of cotton, labour and transport.
Figures show the cost of clothing jumped 3.7% between July and August – the biggest month-on-month increase since the Office for National Statistics (ONS) started compiling the data in 1997. The biggest price rises were recorded on coats and jackets.
The leap in clothing prices was one of the biggest contributors to a 4.4% increase in the cost of living in August, measured by the consumer prices index (CPI).
Earlier this year, the price of cotton hit its highest level, in real terms, since the American civil war in the 1860s and traders are worried that this year’s crop may be hit by floods in Pakistan and tropical storms across the US cotton belt.
A drought in Texas pushed the cotton price to $2.27 (£1.44) per lb in March, a 175% increase in less than a year. About 50% of the price of producing a pair of jeans is the cost of the cotton. For other clothes, 60% of the shop price is the fabric cost and one third of that is the raw material.
Last month’s increase in prices was not unexpected. Last year, when cotton prices took off, fashion retailers including Next and Debenhams warned that prices would rise this year by up to 10% and Lord Wolfson, the chief executive of Next, predicted that women would stop bulk-buying clothes.
Research conducted at Cambridge University recently found that, as clothing prices have come down, the number of garments bought has soared fourfold. The study found that the average British woman buys half her body weight – 28kg (62lb) – in clothing every year.
Clothing companies are also having to contend with workers in south-east Asia demanding big pay increases.
More on: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/sep/13/rising-cost-of-clothes
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