What is wrong with fashion?
Fashion is a way to express myself. A way to remind myself of who I want to be, or as Orsola de Castro formulated it very nicely “Fashion is our chosen skin.” As an ex-fashion blogger, I truly enjoyed diving into fashion; trying out new outfits, going through the latest fashion news and hunting for the best fashion bargains in the high streets. I lived, and still live, by the motto of Coco Chanel: “Every day is a fashion show and the world is your runway.” However, even though I love fashion with every fibre of my being, I am also starting to become more and more aware of the ugly shadow behind all that beauty.
Fashion VS apparel
The fashion industry was not always an ugly industry though. To understand where it went wrong, we have to start with the basics: We have to understand the difference between the fashion industry and the apparel industry. According to the Britannica Encyclopaedia, the fashion industry produces so-called “high fashion” whereas the apparel industry produces “mass fashion”. In other words, the fashion industry creates clothes for the higher classes, and the apparel industry creates clothes for people like you and me. This differentiation happened somewhere during the industrial revolution. Before the industrial revolution in the early 19th century, people had to make their own clothes. The apparel industry was introduced to make this process more manageable.
The globalisation of the apparel industry
Simultaneously, due to social and cultural changes in the 20th century, less restrictive dress codes were allowed. Fashion designers used this as an opportunity to establish the first fashion houses in Europe. Between the 1950s and the 1960s these designers started to become brands. By the 1980s some of them became so popular, that designers like Ralph Lauren, Bill Blass and Calvin Klein had become celebrities. The apparel industry also developed around this time, becoming more global and moving the production to countries offering inexpensive labor. This, and technologic development in the areas of retail, logistics, manufacturing, and design improved efficiency in the apparel industry. Driven by the pursuit of profitability, many apparel retailers, started to rise. And this, this is where it went wrong.
Who is producing our clothes?
So what is wrong with the fashion industry? Before the 1960s, 95% of the clothes worn by Americans were produced in America. Today, that is solely 3%! The fact that so much of the production is outsourced to cheap labor countries is not only ethically questionable, it is also negatively affecting the environment in various ways:
#1 - Outsourcing the production process to cheap labor countries increased the need for transportation - increasing the emission of chemicals like CO2.
#2 - To produce the clothes, dangerous chemicals (such as Nonylphenol Ethoxylates) are being used, often ending up polluting the groundwater.
Next to that, even though the production is now being outsourced to cheap labour countries the costs of producing clothes have gone up. Oddly enough, the prices of the clothes have undergone deflation, yet the apparel industry is one of the most profitable industries. How that works brings me to the third issue regarding the environment:
#3 - The apparel industry caused mass consumption of fashion, creating an environment in which we need an abundance of clothes and stop valuing each individual item: Today's purchases are tomorrows trash.
All these are complex issues, which deserve to be further explored. Hence, the upcoming blogposts will address these topics. So stay tuned!
Stay fashionable, stay sustainable.
Until next time!
References:
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References:
Fashion industry. (2016). In Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved from: https://www.britannica.com/topic/fashion-industry
Fashion industry history. (n.d.). Retrieved from: http://www.apparelsearch.com/terms/f/fashion_industry_history.html
Greenpeace. (2012). Dirty laundry: reloaded. How big brands are making consumers unwitting accomplices in the toxic water cycle (Research Investigation Report). Retrieved from
Industrial Revolution. (2009). Retrieved from: http://www.history.com/topics/industrial-revolution
Morgan, A. (Director). (2015). The true cost [Video file]. United States: BullFrog Films.
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