The British clothing market: 10 shocking statistics

I have been reading Lucy Siegle’s book  ‘To Die For’ recently, and it contains some shocking statistics that define how much we have become accustomed to buying cheap, mass-produced clothing and accessories in the UK.

Britain has become a nation of shoppers buying worthless ‘fast fashion’ without a thought to where it was produced or by whom. Clothing is now so cheap it is disposed of after only a few wears.

Next time you go to buy an item of clothing or a pair of shoes, consider who made it and how long it will remain in your wardrobe. Enough said, I’ll let the statistics do the talking.

• 80 billion – Number of garments produced annually across the globe

• £23 billion – Amount spent on clothes and shoes in Britain in 1990

• £32.5 billion – Amount spent annually on clothes and shoes in Britain today

• 1.72 million – Amount in tonnes of brand new fashion consumed in the UK every year

• 1.5 million – Amount  in tonnes of  clothing that we throw away in Britain every year

• 4.1 – Average number of  items of clothing a shopper buys in the UK each month

• 10% – Drop in retail prices between 2003 and 2007

• 3 weeks - Time it takes a fast fashion retailer to get a design from concept to store

• 40% – Percentage of British clothes bought at value retailers

• 1 million – Items of clothing sold by Primark Oxford St in its first 10 days of trading