Fashion: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

Fashion personality you can buy is what makes some people look fun and fabulous and what makes most men in their 20s wear variations of a plaid button-down shirt every day. Listen. I've decided I won't even try. I'm going to wear versions of this until I die, that's all, we bought a lot of clothes in this country in 2013. Americans bought an average of 64 items per person and they were able to do that because clothes are incredibly cheap nowadays, as you know if Have you ever turned on your TV in the morning the price of this dress surprised a lot of people in our office $39.99 LC by Lauren Conrad $35 that's our music this is a Norma Kamali dress it's $24 get out, get out, seriously, get out, security , get her out of here there is no way the dress is $24 see yourself you lied to me look for the consumer low prices are fantastic and nowadays those clothes will even look good because

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clothes are cheaper than ever and the cheap clothing is in

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more than ever and this is largely due to the rise of so-called fast fashion retailers that produce stylish and incredibly cheap clothing, such as H&M Zara and Forever 21, the brand that allows Midwestern tweens to dress like 40-something alcoholics attending the funeral of a nightclub owner in Tel Aviv.

The look and a big part of the appeal of all these brands is that there is always something new to buy, just look at H&M's turnover rate. Stores are replenished daily from the streets to the catwalks. The latest trends are tracked and can go from sketch to shelf. In just three

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s we have new clothes arriving in stores almost every day, so if you go to an H&M store today and come back later, you will always find something new; Yeah, someday, maybe you'll find a shirt and the stock is going up. loot maybe the next day you find a shirt sorry for my loot and make me the next day you find a copy of a nylon magazine sprinkled with cocaine in a fitting room something new at H&M always always at those prices they are so competitive that a few years ago they brought out a dress that cost only $4.95.

Think about that, that means you could tape a five dollar bill over your genitals and you'd be wearing a more expensive item of clothing. I went online and a jar of cricket food is $5. A bunch of weird orange cubes that you feed to a bug are worth five cents more than this dress, that dress is only seven cents more than a DVD of the ghosts of Girlfriends Past, a variety of cheap DVD raves and, yes, somehow fast fashion companies are hugely profitable. The president of H&M is the 28th richest person in the world and the co-founder of Zara is the fourth richest person in the world, which means that people who own oil fields are worth less than a guy who makes worn-out jean shorts.

Buying clothes is cheaper and easier. than ever and not just in fast fashion companies, traditional retailers have also lowered their prices, meaning the only way brands make money is through volume and that's why even basic items like Jeans now go through fashion cycles with the lifespan of ephemeral flies, obviously the big trend is skinny jeans, so for spring forget about skinny jeans, it's all about flare jeans now. Jeans are the most important thing for spring. Jonah is wearing the It jean of the season and those are the baggy jeans that he will marry these two trends that have been so controversial. culottes and denim we have denim culottes denim culottes finally an answer to the question: what if an 18th century cabin boy was also Canadian?

As cool as all of these stylish, cheap clothes are at a certain point, it's hard not to look at those prices and wonder, How does a clothing company make money? Although let's be honest, you already know the answer that half of our clothes were made in the United States in 1990, it's remarkable and today 2% 2% of the clothes we wear are made here. That's right, we produce clothing almost exclusively overseas where it is much cheaper and if 98% of your products could be made overseas you should really start changing your name to reflect that fact so American Eagle should become in the swan of Bangladesh and Banana Republic should become a reality.

That's okay, they got ahead of themselves for once and look, I know you think you've heard this story before because, if you remember, in the 1990s, sweatshops were a key point of outrage against companies like GAAP and Nike. And then, of course, most famously, Kathie Lee Gifford said she was shocked to learn that a clothing line named after her was made, at least in part, in sweatshops and by underage workers. . Yes, Kathie Lee's clothing line was caught using child labor, which was surprising. Given how kind she had always treated the little old man who co-hosted her show and the outcry over the sweatshops was not only strong, it got some results.

Kathie Lee even testified before Congress, we are now morally obligated to ask each of us. What can we do to protect labor rights in factories around the world and here in the United States? Since it was my own negligence that forced us to ask this important moral question, I say to everyone, you're welcome, now let's start the day with drinking, come on. What's wrong with them? It's 9:00 a.m. m. Greetings, good morning, but surprisingly, and I know it's hard to hear this. Kathy Lee didn't solve everything. In fact, there has been a worrying pattern of behavior in the clothing industry over the past 20 years.

Just look. At Gap, the country's number one supplier of polo shirts for frat boys to throw up in the '90s, were criticized for labor abuses at a factory that made their clothes in El Salvador, in response they agreed to start an independent monitoring program that It's certainly pretty good for Besides everyone else, they had that funny advert where idiots in ill-fitting khakis were swing dancing, so we forgot about it until five years later when the BBC visited a factory that made clothes Gap in Cambodia and they told us there were some kids here making clothes for the gap this is Teeter's son she is 12 she told the factory she is 18 this is an opportunity eater she is 14 she also lied to get the job the monitors never questioned either of them oh come on that's no excuse if a kid managed to get into a bar using a Pinkberry punch card as a fake ID it's the bar's fault oh it says here your middle name is a complement free, cool middle name, have fun there, in response, breach revoked that factory's approval and improved their age verification requirements, which sounded nice.

Well, also, it was the year 2000 and they had that advertising campaign that dressed idiots in pastel colors, it made the man bold, so we forgot about it all again until 7 years later when a British newspaper visited a workshop in India, according to a published report on these children. 10 to 13 year olds worked as virtual slaves sewing embroidered shirts for Gap Kids. Okay, stop making kids make clothes for Gap. It's bad enough that they make clothes for Gap Kids. In some ways it's worse. Make a beautiful shirt that is exactly your size. We will send it. the world will be used once and thrown away now make a thousand more for me in response GAAP said it didn't know its clothes were in that workshop and demanded its supplier make significant improvements in its oversight of subcontractors and everyone felt better, especially because it was 2007 and Gap had just had that mind-blowingly cool vacation in your neighborhood.

Campaign with common He fell on Gap day in the neighborhood. I saw peace in the streets when I look. I know we're talking about child labor, but that may be the saddest thing I've felt so far was that in 2010 a fire broke out in a factory in Bangladesh producing Gap clothing, killing 29 workers after that company launched a fire and building safety plan, which was great because it didn't mean anything alarming about the presence of breaches in Bangladesh. This would happen again until 2013, when Al Jazeera discovered this: there is no fire extinguisher or fire escape, it's just a shack in someone's backyard.

How many years have you been working here? Luckily, the paper says Old Navy Old Navy is owned by Gap Inc, yeah, I guess At this point, it looks like sweatshops aren't one of those '90s problems we got rid of, like Donnie Wahlberg, they're rather one of those '90s problems we still deal with, like Mark Wahlberg, now Gap says those Old Navy jeans were sold rejects. without their knowledge and I never ended up in their stores. Look, every brand in the industry has problems. The gap is by no means the worst and if you ask about the gap like we did, they will point out that they have made real improvements and tried as hard as they did.

We can fix all this, but let's think that this means that a company that tries its best has been frequently linked to labor violations in multiple countries for two decades and when you weigh all this it seems to be the only situation in which the gap could claim to be unequivocally helpful to people is when someone shits their pants right outside one of your stores. I never thought I'd say this, but thank goodness Gap is here to help you, you guys are angels and one of the biggest problems with holding many brands accountable is that denial seems to be built into the supply chain.

Look at Walmart, they insist their suppliers meet high safety standards, but CPS visited a factory in Bangladesh making clothing for Walmart and found otherwise. Chief Masa del hoc Chowdhury of Mondi Apparel showed us an evacuation. Map marking the location of 13 fire extinguishers, but almost all of them were missing. If they're not there, then it's not a map, it's an aspirational poster for fire safety, but if that factory doesn't meet Walmart's safety standards, how were your clothes there? Managers told us that Walmart had not approved the factory for production, but they still had an order for one million Walmart boxers outsourced to another factory.

I see that Walmart sent it to an approved factory and that factory sent it to an unapproved factory without Walmart's knowledge, it's just a crazy random accident, one in a million, that's only happened a few times in the

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few years. Walmart says its clothing suppliers in Bangladesh were doing business with the factory without its knowledge; one of its suppliers outsourced some of it. of the tessarin order without his permission, the order was placed in a troubled factory without his knowledge, he had no idea production had occurred there and this is not the first time Walmart has been caught unaware, no, not is and they are losing the right to They act surprised, they are like the characters in The Hangover movies, it is not an accident, the third time, guys, it is a pattern of reckless behavior that needs to be addressed and look, since the 90s, this has worried us sporadically, including two years ago this

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. after Rana Plaza building collapse five days after deadly building collapse in Bangladesh rescuers continue to pull survivors from rubble new footage overnight shows dramatic rescue some using their bare hands to free those still At least 360 people are trapped, hundreds more have died.

The building collapse ended up killing more than 1,100 people. Everyone was justifiably horrified and that report aired on The Today Show, so you know everyone there heard it, then we found out that brands like Joe Fresh and The Children's Place had been made in Rana. Plaza and we were horrified again and yet we were so blinded by the low prices that just a few months later The Today Show was doing this. This adorable sequined bag is from the place for kids. I found it for less than $10. Wow, I want to spend a lot of money. because you are going to spill something on it.

I found this one that is a silk polyester blend from Joe. Cool touch. 119 dollars. Come out, come out, feel the studio and think about what you're doing because one of the women coos. On top of that cool $19 Joe blouse is Kathie Lee Gifford and if you can forget the human cost of surprisingly cheap clothing, then that's not it in that case, it's actually surprising that your brain is basically pickled in Chardonnay right now , but it doesn't give you much. I hope everyone else is looking, this is going to keep happening as long as we let it, so we need to show the clothing brands not only that we care, but why they should, so we have a little surprise for the leaders of some of these companies . talking specifically about Joe Fresh's Gap's Walmart hmm bosses and The Children's Place.

I bought lunch for all of you, which will show up at your office tomorrow. Now it's a revelationcomplete. I don't know exactly how this meal was made. I told someone. who could have told someone else to get the most food possible for the cheapest price and they did, now I have strict policies. I told them not to spit in that food or rub their balls in that food and me. I've trusted them to deliver on that, so I want you to look at the suspiciously cheap food arriving at your desks tomorrow. I don't want King to eat her, and if you're thinking right, I can't do that.

You know where it came from? What would happen if someone rubbed their balls? So I don't know what to tell you other than now. Do you understand the importance of supply chain management? But why am I telling you about your lunch when I can show you the presentation? the spring collection of your lunch tomorrow first, please welcome. Dave is wearing an old navy shirt and shorts based on his outfit's total cost of 23 78 and he is carrying the terribly cheap tray of sushi that will arrive at your office tomorrow. Thanks Dave, let's move on. at Walmart Christian is modeling a long summer dress available for under $15 and a piper that we got for just $75 each, which is so close to being free that it's literally nauseating to move on to Joe Joe Joe Joe Joe Fresco and it's often Combining a sweatshirt and casual pants that costs less than $40, how is it so cheap?

It's a mystery much like the contents of that gigantic pile of cheap dumplings you'll eat tomorrow. Thanks Austin, let's move on to our H&M collection, we match hailey sub $20 jeans and blouse with shrimp and salmon base 3 for 5 that will actually arrive at their Stockholm offices tomorrow. I guess he'll smell it before he walks into the room and finally, thank you, thank you, finally, welcome to Children's Place and say hello to Elliot. Wearing an adorable white summer dress that costs less than $15 and up, what is he doing? That would be your lunch. A selection of very cheap roast chickens, just to reiterate, I have no idea where they came from or what may have happened to them along the way. way, but Elliot probably wants you to eat them, doesn't he?

Elliot exactly 8:8 of each, this cart of mysterious chickens that