The Truth Behind Our Clothing
A t-shirt, a pair of jeans, a leather bag and some sneakers. Some would say they are just garments, but fashion is about creativity and being yourself, it is the skin we choose. As such, wouldn’t it be good to know the truth behind some of our favorite pieces that we wear every single day?
The documentary called "The True Cost" shows how fast fashion brands hire large numbers of workers for their factories in China (main exporter of clothing), Bangladesh (second-largest exporter) and other "third world countries" where working conditions are often subhuman and highly dangerous. These factories are affected by the pressure of these same brands to produce up to 250 collections a year, which is equivalent to one collection every two days, contrasting with the haute couture brands that only release four collections a year, one for each season.
The mission of these fast fashion brands is to democratize fashion for everyone and follow world trends in this industry. What is the real price of this democratization?
To meet their goal of fast production for global demand, many brands use mostly women and children who work for less than a dollar a day, while the owner of Zara is one of the richest and most powerful men in the world.
From the beginning of the production chain, there is evidence of precariousness and abuse of working conditions. In the primary sector, responsible for supplying the raw materials used to manufacture these high volumes of clothing, the documentary reveals how cotton seeds are genetically modified to grow faster and how farmers use pesticides without any form of protection or masks. The result is terrifying: in a town in India there have been increasing cases of cancer in workers, genetic malformations in children and suicides of farmers burdened by debts contracted with the same companies that sell them the seeds and pesticides.
As part of its detox campaign, Greenpeace says: “Global fast fashion brands are churning out more clothes than the planet can handle. Today’s trends are tomorrow’s trash, with our clothes made cheaply and disposed of quickly. It’s time to redress the balance, challenge the throwaway mentality and invest in quality over quantity”. This campaign proposes to change the paradigms of the fast fashion industry and generate greater commitment from the agents involved.
In the documentary, there are several interviews of people that work in this industry, revealing these brands as exploiters. They show the case of Shima, a 23-year-old worker from Bangladesh, where she tells the reality that she lives daily, working under enormous pressure and mistreatment, for a petty salary that she uses to barely pay for her daughter's school, in the hope that the girl has a better future. Shima appeals to our conscience, begging people to think before buying, since these garments are made with sweat, tears and blood of their workers. These factories are known as "sweatshops", workplaces where manual workers, usually women and children, are employed for extremely low wages and very poor working conditions.
It is very concerning that despite the appalling collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh in 2013 where nearly 1,130 people died and more than 2,500 were injured, there have been no great advances in the awareness of the effects of fast fashion. This accident was avoidable and predictable, however, they ignored the warnings, when employees had already warned about cracks and the vulnerability of the building structure due to the excessive weight. This fatal accident showed that many of these companies do not guarantee the safety of their employees, ethics is relegated to pressure to deliver orders on time.
Zara, H&M and Fashion Nova are examples of fast-fashion brands that can launch a new clothing line within a couple of days or weeks, stimulating unmeasured overconsumption to eager customers who want to purchase the last trend. This comes at a very high cost, due to the environmental impact, unfair labor practices and miserable wages. As Dana Thomas, a veteran fashion journalist and author of Fashionopolis: The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes, states “Zara alone churns out roughly 840 million garments every year for its 6,000 stores worldwide, often at sub-poverty wages for its workers”. These practices are common among these types of companies, which often seek to increase their profits without some degree of commitment to their workers and the environment.
Fashion Revolution is the organization that proposes to ask ourselves “Who made my clothes?” seeking to raise awareness about the people behind a garment and make the fashion industry much cleaner, transparent and slavery-free.
The majority of the public is still unaware of the human and environmental abuses that are an endemic problem throughout the fashion industry and that what they are wearing could have been made from a form of exploitation. We don't want to dress up that story again. We want to see fashion become a force for good.
— Fashion Revolution, White Paper, 2015.
The ONU also highlights the fact that the textile industry is the second most polluting in the world. In the particular case of the "fast fashion" industry, toxic elements have been found in manufacturing processes, such as tanning and dyeing leather, contaminated air, water, and doing irreversible damage to the lungs of the employees who work there. Greenpeace reports warnings of toxic and carcinogenic chemicals in garments of various well-known brands that one would never have suspected. In the same way, the use of polyester, the most common fiber used in our clothes, takes an average of 200 years to decompose.
Disposable clothing is a market strategy that allows these large brands to produce tons of very low-quality clothing with a very short shelf life, based on the concept of "use and throw away". For example in Germany, one million tons of clothing are thrown away each year.
The advertising stimuli we receive daily leads us to irrational consumerism, appealing to our emotions and desires. Many people think that the more clothes they buy, the trendier they can become. This attitude is frivolous and superficial since it does not take into account the process or work behind a garment.
We as consumers also have the responsibility to investigate and make decisions regarding the actions of this industry. Consumers must stop being a blind and passive society, we must develop critical questioning about this type of injustice. Is the dignity of workers worthless compared to our desire to look good and be fashionable? Can we feel satisfied that our clothing comes from highly polluted places where human slavery is the workforce?
The fast fashion industry must be held accountable by improving the working conditions of its employees, using better quality and environmentally friendly materials to become a force of good. What we wear can be decisive to our very own existence, it is worth defending our planet and future generations. Transparency and ethics are key for this to happen.
