Stand Up To The Insidious Tactics Of Our Fast And Fetid Fashion Industry. Understanding their game will give you power…
after which you can crawl out of the consumerism mess they lured you into
This is a piece I have to write while the ink of my sadness and disillusionment, is still wet.
Yes, I’m still struggling with the ugly realities of the fetid fast fashion industry as portrayed by 4 Corners, here in Australia last night.
I have long offloaded the urge to keep up with fashion. It’s not an age thing. It is entirely to do with my fear of the harm we are doing to our planet, and with my intention to leave the tiniest carbon footprint possible, for future generations.
And that doesn’t mean I go around dressed like a dag! I certainly do not!
I like things to be color coordinated, and of good quality, and to be of classic style. It’s how I have mostly dressed. I like to have special pieces for when I go out to dinner, or the theater. And I need exercise clothes.
But apart from a few opp shop finds of late, I have bought very little in the last year plus, possibly thanks to Covid, but I feel I would have got there in the end, trading traditional shopping, for Opp shopping.
This totally horrifies my husband, by the way! Does this translate to, his being happy to add to landfill? Not really. He’s not a shopper, and each winter still brings out his Arran sweater that I bought him twenty years ago, an old friend that is still like new!
For both of us, shopping malls, all designed exactly the same, and selling the same shitty clothes, just don’t appeal. So apart from renewing socks and undies, he’s happy in his same old same old.
Interesting that when we were moving house he was happy to take all his business clothes to Vinnie’s, all cleaned and hanging on hangers, a veritable ‘find’ for those addicted to the search.
But shopping there? No no!
I take far more TO the Opp shops than I ever find, and I only venture to those that charge a bit more, (quite a bit more), for that’s where many too-wealthy people drop off their amazing caches of unused clothes, labels attached!
Why am I committed to this?
It happened by chance. The more I delved into environmental issues, the more I wanted to backpedal and be happy with less.
Besides we have a problem. A global problem. We may not necessarily see it, smell it, or appreciate the immensity of it, but it’s there, and it’s growing at an exponential rate. It scares me, to be honest!
‘Our obsession with constantly updating our wardrobes is causing major environmental problems.
‘A staggering 6,000 kilograms of clothing and textiles is going to landfill every 10 minutes in Australia. All because our wardrobes can’t keep up with the rate at which we’re buying new clothes.
‘Australians are the world’s second largest consumer of textiles, buying an average of 27 kilograms of new clothing and textiles every year — twice the global average.
‘Through clever marketing, the fashion industry has us believing our clothes are almost constantly out of fashion.
‘Where there were once two fashion seasons (summer/spring and winter/autumn) there are now a mind-boggling 52 “micro seasons”.’
Wow! Fifty-two micro seasons, and nobody thought to tell ME!
Also, the statistic that Australians buy twenty-seven kilograms of new clothes every year, is seriously skewed, because my family doesn’t in any way fit with those parameters, and neither do most of my friends. Almost all of us bypass shops these days!
And it doesn’t fit the minimalist, retired at thirty-five Charlie Brown.
The thing is, deep down most people who indulge in the oh-so-affordable-must-have fashion, know. They know they are captive in the advertising ploys of the fashion and advertising industry that convert luxuries into necessities, needs into wants, and cares into care-not-a fig(s).
It’s a hunger game!
In so many ways, those in the fashion industry have created a hunger for more and more, a hunger that is never truly fed, and leaves all who are captive in their game, unhappy and wanting.
Their marketing ploys are as stylish as their clothes, their scruples not so!
In the program that I watched last night, I learned that an ‘entrepreneur’ (as he was referred to), had set up a sweat shop in Leicester, England. A young reporter, posing as a migrant looking for work, managed to get inside the factory.
She found that the conditions were appalling…mid-winter, with no heating, and working long, long hours, for three pounds an hour, the first two weeks, working for free, just to ensure the applicant was suitable!
Of course! What great business nous!
That is not entrepreneurship! That is evil, abusive usage of human labor, working people, who are already poor, and without options, to the bone.
This is the 21st century! I hope this man is sprung. I pray that he, and others like him, are closed down.
The success of these industries is knowing where to find their market. HINT: It’s not advertising on ABC where 4 Corners plays! There are no ads on ABC. Facebook and Instagram are two front runners where they freely advertise, and assure anyone who is willing, to believe that this new jacket, or whatever, is ‘the thing’!
Since the fashion industry became a ‘THING”, and people have been swallowed up with desire for the latest and most trendy, that same industry has been at the forefront of our secret wishes, like a puppy dog wanting to please, it is there, panting, tail wagging, and willing to do anything to get your dollar!
I always wonder about these money-grabbing monsters.
Do they have children?
Or grandchildren?
Do they care?
And if so, which planet are they going to send their children to when this one can no longer host humans?
At this point allow me to quote the Native American Indian proverb.
‘Only when the last tree has died, and the last river has been poisoned, and the last fish been caught, only then will we realize that we cannot eat money.’
The fashion industry is a dog-eat-dog business , where copying the styles of other designers, with sufficient variations to suggest you are not copying, and selling at a cheaper price, sells.
It’s forever calling out another designer for cheating!
Oh really!
If anyone is cheating it’s this industry, hell bent on making mega bucks, while we the consumers, buy, sometimes wear, but often don’t, clothes that yesterday were rejoiced over, and today handed to landfill.
‘The world of fashion has always traded on the desire of shoppers for the latest thing. Whether it’s a new-season coat or a dress in an on-trend colour, the industry has been underpinned by consumers continuing to buy ever more clothing‘.’
That’s true. Desire has always been at the forefront, but now we have to put that same desire into something so much more worthy, desire to breathe life into a sickly planet.
How much DESIRE do you have? You see, it’s up to all of us. The only way we can ever turn this insidious practice around, is by saying no!
There are alternatives.
We have to think outside that proverbial box!
Some quotes for you to mull over.
I’ve been a shopping addict since forever. I love to change my outfits around. When you see something, you must have it immediately, as fast as possible. Fashion influencer
Known as “fast fashion” this affordable but disposable approach to clothing has created billion dollar empires, but there is a cost.
Fast fashion isn’t free. Someone, somewhere, is paying. Lucy Siegle
Trust no multinational brand. Listen to garment workers instead. Aja Barber
We only have two choices: do nothing or do something. Tony Kirwan
And this is the one I would choose to shout from every mountain top.
“If I had a dollar for every time somebody asked me, ‘Tell me what I should buy’, I say ‘Nothing! Nothing! You have way too much stuff already’.” Political economist