Alright, so it happened! John Oliver is talking about fashion! Or rather the creepy Yeti of an industry behind it. After watching this video I have to front load and say: I was formerly unaware, but now am ashamed of some of my aloof posts. I thought I was cool for not purchasing Nike…
If you just laugh along to some of the jokes that he tells, you
can miss a couple of details that are rather alarming. But if you look
carefully you'll see a couple of compounding / snowballing patterns that I'd
like to point out. It must be difficult to point out some of the nuanced
details while trying to also cover of breadth of knowledge on the topic.
So here are the downward rolling snowballs that I saw:
1. We're
putting ourselves into a low-price trap. (We can't say it only hurts those making the clothing, honestly.) We outsource so that the item will be
less expensive, which means we will have fewer jobs in whichever country ours may
be, which means our next items will need to be more inexpensive. I don't care
to see how far downhill that snowball will roll. Although I imagine it would and
somewhere along the lines of: "This 1 dollar bill would be more expensive
than that dress, if only we could afford the scotch tape!" (Don’t believe
me? Check this mess out!!)
2. Subcontracting is don't-be-mad code for "We outsourced
these outsourced items", and with that comes human rights abuses that no
one is directly accountable for. Hey Walmart, you sent your work to someone
else, and then lost track of where they were? Really? Because at least one Old Navy
subcontractor has figured out how to keep track his workers (unethical though
tying children together indeed is). What could possibly be next for the people
who get mixed up with the subcontractors’ subcontractors? I can't bring myself
to make something light about how things could get any worse. But maybe next
time a manager looses track of a subcontractor, they should be tied together
until some answers are produced... But I'll leave it at that; this snowball is
too cold to handle.
3. Lastly, the dazzle and dodge techniques used by these
companies are rivaled only by Richard Genre's character in Chicago. Each
glittering snowflake of lovely garments, the joy of shopping and cool
advertisements are all compacting together to blind us. Each time it comes up
in the media, I think it's going to be handled, and then it's not. As soon as
we turn 3/4 away from the problem, companies seem to try even harder to make
buying clothing into a moral mine field. It's like we can't take our eyes off
of them!
"So what are we supposed to do about this, Marla?" is
the question my sister asks me each time I make her watch an episode of Last
Week Tonight, and hope you're thinking the same thing. I say "We can't
take our eyes off them!" Keep an eye on fashion companies/suppliers. They
have shown us that they're willing to not so much bend morals distastefully, as
do obscene back-flip after obscene back-flip in order to get our money. So can
we make an effort to use our money to... encourage… (read force) these acrobats to stand upright, and be ready to keep in
step with the march of progress.
If we take that laser-focused critical eye and point it at the
business practices of a fashion company, rather than merely at the details of
the garment, the above patterns won’t have a snowball’s chance.
Below are some resources my sister has collected along the way
in order to
help her become a more thoughtful shopper. Thanks so much for
collaborating with me, Sis!
Thank you to Elizabeth S., The Notepasser, for her list of 7
Ethical Fashion Resources: http://thenotepasser.com/blog/2013/9/13/ethical-fashion-resources
Cheer on these NYC-based underdogs as they push back against
those that would push them out of business. They’ll point out who to shop with,
Where you can get the hook-up if you’re a designer, and even who to bother if
you want to contact elected officials!: http://savethegarmentcenter.org/about/
Sara Laughed has a list of ethical brands both in the US and
abroad, which creates plus sized clothing for women: http://saralaughed.com/index.php/ethical-fashion-plus-sized-ethical-clothing/
Busy Mommy must have been very busy listing 150 companies that
are sustainable, fair trade, or have charitable donations built into the
budget. Not just clothes: Coffee, soap, futbols, hats!: http://busy-mommy.com/2014/12/150-social-good-companies-with-fair-trade-buy-one-give-one-products-or-who-donate-a-portion-of-proceeds.html
I’m not sure how Good Guides works, but you can type in clothing
brands and other items and get a rating based on how healthy the item is, the
environmental impact and it’s effect on society. You can also get the app for
your mobile devices. http://www.goodguide.com/
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| There's also this handy flowsheet! |
