In 201,3 an eight story garment factory collapsed. Roughly 1,000 people died and 2,500 were injured. This event took place in Bangladesh; the building was known as Rana Plaza. This brought the world’s attention to the exploitation of cheap labor in third world countries, and exposed the brands who were utilizing it.

One of these brands that took a huge hit and experienced a PR nightmare after Rana Plaza was the beloved Hennes & Mauritz, otherwise known as H&M. H&M is a multinational retail store that functions in the world of fast fashion. They sell adapted fashion trends for affordable prices, making it a reliable brick and mortar location for modern necessities.

After being informed about H&M’s unfair production process, I decided to boycott it. For about a year, I made a mental oath that I wouldn’t purchase merchandise from their company. However, recent news has reported H&M’s attempt on reworking their business model. They’re accepting customer’s old clothing and reusing it to create new merchandising. This production process is known as upcycling. They have recently teamed up with the London College of Fashion to try and brainstorm innovative ways to upcycle various fabrics.

This is a positive first step in making fast fashion a more sustainable industry. It will be interesting to see how far H&M pushes their sustainable intentions, and to see what other fast fashion companies hop on the bandwagon.