The Cost of Fashion
Fashion is everywhere we look. From the pajamas we wear to bed to the dresses we flaunt at formals, from our gym outfits to our crest-bearing sweatshirts (or our Cluck Farkson tees, anyone?). We use clothing to look good, and to feel good about ourselves. We use it to express who we are, to display school spirit or to flaunt our fashion sense. Without clothes, we would not be naked only literally, but also metaphorically: they are our easiest way of expressing who we are. In appearance, there is absolutely nothing wrong with liking to dress up, or with wanting a little variety in our closets. Who doesn’t love to be complimented on their style? If we dig a little deeper into the products we are buying, however, we start seeing that the business of fashion is not as innocent as it may seem.
As college students, we do not necessarily have the budget to shop at high-end clothing stores like Reformation, which offers good-looking ethical clothing assorted with a steep price tag. At SLU specifically, we do not even have many options when it comes to buying clothes locally. We still need to have clothes for the many occasions that college life presents to us and, because of this, a lot of us resort to websites like Shein, FashionNova, Princess Polly and Lulus, to only name a few. We like these websites because they offer affordable, yet super adorable items that can make us get tons of compliments, feel comfy, or feel confident about ourselves.
One thing that all the stores mentioned above have in common is that they are producers of fast fashion. Fast fashion is an approach to fashion that focuses on the creation of cheap garments that can be quickly available to consumers in great quantity. Some bigger names in the industry are H&M, Forever 21 and ASOS. Fast fashion brands use sweatshops to have their products made. These sweatshops are typically located outside of the US, in countries that have less environmental regulations, as well as offer cheaper labor. Bangladesh is one of the countries with the most sweatshops. There, employees can work up to 16 hours a day, usually to be paid the minimum wage, which is now equivalent to 68 American dollars a month. However, workers often get paid well below this, under the poverty line of $1.90 a day. Fast fashion also exploits the environment in various ways to attain its mass production goals. These ways include water pollution (from dyes and chemicals) to the drying up of lakes for cotton agriculture, and air pollution from the tremendous amount of transportation global production and shipping require.
Why Should We Care?
As transnational feminists, there are many reasons why we should care about the issues mentioned in this article. Transnational feminism dictates that women everywhere deserve safety, health, and a proper education. Even though it is argued that fast fashion jobs are an opportunity of empowerment for women (because of the possibility of finding work and of financial independence), many factors make it so that, by buying from fast fashion brands, we are financially encouraging the destructions of these basic human rights.
Women and girls make up 85 to 95% of sweatshop workers. Many sweatshops also operate informally, which means that the work done within them is unregulated and uninsured. Workers’ unions and rights are rarely recognized in the informal sector (for about 200 sweatshops in El Salvador, not one union can be found), which makes workers vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. In such circumstances, they often have to face physical, verbal, and even sexual abuse from their employers. Such an example of abuse is at an Indian factory , where a woman worker was yelled at, pushed off her chair, kicked, and hit on the breasts for not meeting her target of production. In Sri Lanka, women working for GAP suppliers have reported to having experienced sexual harassment from male mechanics, who required “tributes” for the repair of sewing machines, without which women cannot meet their targets.
Organizing against exploitation is not a viable option for sweatshop workers, as attempts to do so usually end up in mass firings. An example of this is a woman called Piya, who worked in a sweatshop in Dhaka. She reports having been fired the day after she went to the police to complain about sexual harassment from her supervisor, even though the authorities refused to listen to her. Quitting a sweatshop job is also impossible for many because, even though working in sweatshops is represented as a choice, for those who are uneducated, there are often no viable alternatives to making money for rent, food and health needs. The combination of these dire conditions strip those who work in sweatshops from their right to safety.
Sweatshops are also deeply tied to low education levels. The work conditions of sweatshop workers, and lack of jobs in many countries, feed into a cycle of poverty. People living below the poverty line cannot necessarily afford to send their kids to school for long, and children from low-income backgrounds often need to leave school to work in order to help alleviate their family’s immediate financial struggles. These kids or teenagers often find a job for a low salary compared to the salary they would have been able attain if they had stayed in school. Consequently, they might not have the means to leave their own kids in school in the future, and the cycle continues.
Fast fashion can also compromise health. Dyeing accounts from 17 to 20% of all water pollution. The presence of chemical in waters near textile and clothes factories make it extremely dangerous. Many people depend on rivers and water bodies to fish, irrigate land, wash themselves, clean their clothes and dishes or even drink. If the water that is depended on is polluted, this can have direct effects on health. Such effects comprise cancer, hair fall, scabs, rashes and contamination. The Citarum River in Indonesia is a good example of a polluted water body. 2,000 factories surround it, 200 of which are textile and clothing factories. Its lead levels are 1,000 times the US Environmental Protection Agency drinking water standards. The river is in fact so toxic that it is colored purple in parts. Yet, millions depend on this body of water on a daily basis. Iim Halimah, one of these people, is a mother of three who suffers from chronic bronchitis. To get better, a doctor advised her not to drink from the Citarum. Yet, she does not have another option. Many more women live near bodies of water that have been polluted by the fashion industry and have no choice but to use this water to get by. If they or their children fall ill, they do not necessarily have access to medical treatment due to poverty. Moving away from polluted water bodies or areas is not an option either, as this also requires too much financially.
Another way in which the fast fashion industry endangers health is through the harsh conditions imposed on sweatshop workers. The buildings in which sweatshops are located often are too warm, unsafe, badly lighted, unsanitary, and full of harmful chemical fumes. Lighting issues can cause workers to force their eyes too much to be able to see their work. This can cause many eyesight problems. Other workers experience pain from the long work hours and tedious tasks they are asked to perform. Workers report cases of tuberculosis, silicosis, ulcers and other serious health issues, as well as mental health problems such as depression and anxiety, all caused by their work environment. In rare cases, such as the case of Meas Sreyleak, a Cambodian factory worker, the physical toll of work can lead to death. When faced with health issues from their work, many fast fashion workers cannot go seek medical support, which is too expensive for the salaries use to survive. This feeds into a cycle of health issue and physical pain which must be stopped in order to ensure women and children’s wellbeing.
Watch this short video on Rana Plaza (2013 sweatshop collapse), an event that exemplified the dangers faced by those who work in sweathsops.
The following video talks about the Citarum River, which was the most polluted river in the world, and of the effects that its pollution has on the lives and health of those living near it. Beneath it is a link to a article of Andrea Carruba, who went to the Citarum river to investigate the conditions surrounding it.
rotten-river-life-on-one-of-the-worlds-most-polluted-waterways-photo-essay
What Can We Do?
With the knowledge above, it is difficult to go on buying from fast fashion brands. In order to minimize our impact on those who make our garments, a few options are available.
We are not here to ask you to burn or stop wearing all of the clothes that you own. These clothes have already been bought, so make sure that they are getting all the wear that they deserve. This can be done by spot-treating stains on clothing to avoid over-washing, sticking your clothes in the freezer instead of washing them (Yes, you can totally do that! Plus, it feels great to put on cold clothes in the summer), cleaning your clothes following manufacturer’s instructions, using a delicates bag to prevent underwear and clothes with thin straps from ripping in the machine, reduce the amount of detergent you use, use drying racks instead of a drier, and mend clothes with minor holes or defects.
When you are done wearing your clothes or wish to get rid of them, you can give them to a friend who wants them, up cycle them (with COVID19, a lot of youtubers have started doing this in their free time, and have great tutorials on the matter), turn them into cleaning rags, or donate them to local organizations, if they are still in a good state.
When buying new clothing, beware of misleading information. A lot of fashion brands claim that they are engaged in protecting people, animals and the environment. This is not always true. High prices do not mean that the clothes were made ethically, either. To know about a brands’ actions to reduce pollution and labor exploitation, look at how detailled their information on the matter is on their website. The more, the better. You can also use Good on You, a website that has a tool to look up how sustainable clothing companies are. The site can save a lot of research to those wishing to know where the clothes they are buying actually comes from.
For cheaper clothes, thrift stores are a great place to look. Investing in a sewing machine can be useful to make your own clothes or adjust ill-fitting ones. Buying clothes that are of higher quality, even though they are more expensive, can also be a good investment as they will withstand time and use better, and thus reduce the amount of new pieces you will have to buy in the long run.
Boycotting clothing companies altogether is not necessarily advocated by experts, as this can lead to cuts in salaries and lay-offs for the already-exploited workers of sweatshops. Sometimes, we also just do not have the option of buying clothes that do not come from fast-fashion. It is all in our power, however, to demand better from the companies whose clothes we buy, hold them accountable for exploitation, and to push for independent monitoring of working conditions in factories. We can also support human rights and workers’ rights groups by getting informed about their work and either donating, reposting or sharing what they do.
If you want to learn more about the effects of fast fashion and have an hour and a half to spare, watch the following documentary called The True Cost.
Here is a link to the Good On You website, explaining how they rate brands for sustainability
Here are a few more tips to make your clothes last longer
The following link explains how a few organizations are fighting fast fashion in their own way
5-organizations-who-are-in-the-fight-against-fast-fashion
Resources
McMichael, Philip. Development and Social Change: a Global Perspective. SAGE, 2017
Kates, Michael. “The Ethics of Sweatshops and the Limits of Choice.” Business Ethics Quarterly, vol. 25, no. 2, Apr. 2015, pp. 191–212. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1017/beq.2015.9.
Institute, of Medicine, et al. Growing up Global : The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries, edited by Cynthia B. Lloyd, National Academies Press, 2005. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/stlawu/detail.action?docID=3377941.
Morgan, Andrew, Michael Ross, Lucy Siegle, Stella McCartney, Livia Firth, Vandana Shiva, and Duncan Blickenstaff. The True Cost.
2015.Rosen, Ellen Israel. “Free Trade, Neoclassical Economics, and Women Workers in the Global Apparel Industry.” In Making Sweatshops: The Globalization of the U.S. Apparel Industry, 13–26. BERKELEY; LOS ANGELES; LONDON: University of California Press, 2002. Accessed March 8, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt1pp2q5.6.
Green, Nancy L. “Women and Immigrants in the Sweatshop: Categories of Labor Segmentation Revisited.” Comparative Studies in Society and History, vol. 38, no. 3, 1996, pp. 411–433. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/179227. Accessed 8 Mar. 2021.
Kernaghan, Charles. “Fighting against Sweatshop Abuses.” America182 (May 27, 2000): 7–12. http://search.ebscohost.com.stlawu.idm.oclc.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=rfh&AN=CPLI0000335678&site=eds-live&scope=site.
“The Shrinking Aral Sea.” NASA. NASA. Accessed December 16, 2019. https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/1396/the-shrinking-aral-sea.
Klouw, Robert. “Who Makes What You Buy?: The Global Sweatshop Economy.” Church & Society, vol. 91, no. 1, Sept. 2000, pp. 68–73. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=rfh&AN=ATLA0000218960&site=eds-live&scope=site.
Bernhardt, Annette, Ruth Milkman, Nik Theodore et al. “Broken Laws, Unprotected Workers: Violations of Employment and Labor Laws in America’s Cities.” National Employment Law Project, 2009. Web Accessed February 19, 2014
Pulitzercenter. “The Death of the Citarum River: Indonesia’s Most Toxic Waterway.” Pulitzer Center, June 19, 2019. https://pulitzercenter.org/reporting/death-citarum-river-indonesias-most-toxic-waterway.
Hodal, Kate. Abuse Is Daily Reality for Female Garment Workers for Gap and H&M, Says Report. 5 June 2018, www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/jun/05/female-garment-workers-gap-hm-south-asia.“A Sweatshop Worker Tells Her Story.” War on Want, December 16, 2019. https://waronwant.org/media/sweatshop-worker-tells-her-story.
Carruba, Andrea. “Rotten River: Life on One of the World’s Most Polluted Waterways — Photo Essay.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 2 Nov. 2020, www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/nov/02/rotten-river-life-on-one-of-the-worlds-most-polluted-waterways-photo-essay.
Aulakh, Raveena. “I Got Hired at a Bangladesh Sweatshop. Meet My 9-Year-Old Boss.” thestar.com, October 11, 2013. https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2013/10/11/i_got_hired_at_a_bangladesh_sweatshop_meet_my_9yearold_boss.html.
Silliman Bhattacharjee, Shikha et al. Global Labor Justice, 2018, Gender Based Violence in the GAP Garment Supply Chain, globallaborjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/GBV-Gap-May-2018.pdf.
