When we think of the world’s wealthiest men, most of us picture oil tycoons, hedge-fund managers, and tech whizzes, but according to a new article from Quartz, hawking dirt-cheap, disposable fashion is an equally efficient path to riches.
In 2015, Forbes ranked Tadashi Yanai as Japan’s top earner. As the founder of Fast Retailing Co., a fashion conglomerate that gets 80% of profits from its wholly-owned subsidiary, Uniqlo, Yani’s net worth comes in at a cool $17 billion. Meanwhile, H&M chairman, Stefan Perrson, is the wealthiest person in Sweden with a net worth of $20 billion.
And then there’s Amancio Ortega. In a league of his own, the founder of Zara’s parent company, Inditex, is the richest person in Europe and second richest in the world (right behind Bill Gates), with a fortune valued at $75 billion.
The article applauds fast fashion’s ability to harness the impulse culture created by recent advances in technology and social media, concluding that the industry is a “pitch-perfect reaction to the times.” What the article doesn’t emphasize, however, is that these fortunes were amassed through cheap, abusive labor and devastating environmental practices.
You can read more about fast fashion’s billionaire CEOs at Quartz. And for a more in-depth look at the ruinous social and environmental impacts of fast fashion, check out the book Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion by Elizabeth L. Cline.
