Yes, Mango is a fast fashion brand.
Founded by Spanish-Jewish brothers and businessmen Isak and Nahman Andic (worth over £1 billion), Mango is a popular fashion retailer with worldwide stores and a website selling to countries around the world.
The business generates an annual revenue of over £2.34 billion.
In 2013, Mango was identified as one of the retailers associated with the Rana Plaza factory collapse. The brand later refused to engage in talks on how to compensate the families of the 1,134 garment workers who died, while similar fast fashion brands Matalan, Monsoon, and Primark still provided some form of compensation.
In terms of sustainability, Mango mainly focuses on materials, estimating that across their entire line of 18,000 products, 44% uses sustainable materials. Mango also has a “sustainable” collection called Committed, which at best is frumpy, and at worst is greenwashing.
I always think a materials-fist approach reveals business’ true understanding of sustainability; ignoring the humanity of the people who work for them while adopting better materials to appease customers and shareholders.
The same can be said for their glossy, clearly-edited-for-the-public version of their Code of Conduct. Within this, they skim over key areas such as what they consider child labour (this varies from brand to brand, with some permitting child workers aged 14+), so I hope they use more stringent versions of this when working with their factory partners.
In late 2022, Mango was found to be sourcing polyester from a manufacturer using Russian oil, despite having suspended sales to the country in protest of the illegal war on Ukraine.
In 2024, Mango declared it would ‘adapt’ their designs as climate change ‘makes fashion less seasonal’, without saying anything on how they are actively fuelling climate change themselves and whether they plan to reduce their own impact.
Transparency Rating: 22/100
Sustainability Rating: 2/5
This snippet is part of a larger guide to UK fast fashion brands, which goes into more detail about the issues with fast fashion, why it will never be sustainable, and how to make your wardrobe more sustainable.
Data for this review is taken from the brand’s website, corporate website, and Wikipedia. The Transparency Rating is from Fashion Transparency Index 2020. The Sustainability Rating is from Good On You.