The executive producer of new documentary The True Cost calls for consumers and stars to help change the global fashion industry

Coverage of the Cannes film festival is often dominated by talk of who’s wearing what. Yet at this year’s festival, an incendiary new documentary is quietly hoping to prompt a revolution both on and off the red carpet.

The True Cost is a Kickstarter-funded film that examines the fallout from the ever-expanding fashion industry, from the companies that exploit underpaid workers to the pesticides involved in cotton production that affect the environment and health of those around them.

“I think we’re at a point where people are ready,” said director Andrew Morgan of how he hopes the film will affect audiences. “I think we’ve left people ignorant for a long time.” Along with executive producer Livia Firth, the creative director of brand consultancy Eco-Age, he hopes the film will awaken consumers and businesses to the unsustainability of increased production.

“I think the situation today is so messed up that we’re all in it in some way,” said Firth. “We’ve been brainwashed to think that we have to consume at such a fast pace. But as consumers, we need to realise how powerful we are. Every time we buy something, we actually vote, and if the brand still wants a business that is profitable in 15 to 20 years, they have to address the environmental impact and the social injustice. Because it’s only going to get worse.”

Morgan believes that ordinary people can help to change the damage of “fast fashion”. “It’s important to bring it down to people’s level, and that’s what clothing does,” he said. “What if we started by slowing down and not consuming so much stuff, just because it’s there and cheap and available. It’s amazing how that process makes sense financially, it makes sense ethically, it makes sense environmentally.”

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While the film makes some incendiary points about how big brands treat the environment and the people they employ, it’s careful not to place the blame at any specific company’s door. “There’s been a lot of legal involvement in the film,” said Morgan. “My goal was to make a film that was not just a shame-and-blame game about one company. If we make one company look like the villain, then we excuse ourselves from any responsibility.”

Morgan and his team contacted brands to become involved, but were rebuffed. Now, he says, the conversation is starting to change. “We’re eager for them to see it,” he says. “They were not interested when we were making it, and they’re very interested in it now that it’s coming out.” He’s keen, he adds, to help create a constructive conversation.

If we make one company look like the villain, then we excuse ourselves from any responsibility

Firth, who also created the Green Carpet Challenge, which brought sustainable style to A-listers, believes it’s a conversation that should also be taking place in Hollywood. “More and more actresses choose the clothes they wear based on the story behind them,” she said. Firth has worked with Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, Julianne Moore and Cate Blanchett.

Morgan and Firth stress that enjoyment of fashion should not make people feel guilty. If anything, they say, they want people to enjoy clothes more. “When you buy something that you really desire, you care for it in a different way,” said Firth, who was wearing a dress of her mother’s from 1964. “You make an investment, and this is what our wardrobe should be made of: investment pieces that last for ever, not throwaway pieces that we don’t care about.”

Morgan added: “People should love the clothing they wear. Enough of this so-so. Love what you’re wearing and hold on to it”