Ethical consumerism in the
fashion industry
Heidi and Seek and ethical fashion
Heidi and Seek aims to counter the disposable nature of today’s fashion
industry. Many fashion labels rely on exploited workers to bear the cost of the
low prices offered to customers. Heidi and Seek stands for fairness. We strive
for eco-friendliness in every aspect of our business, without sacrificing good
design.
How does Heidi and Seek walk the talk?
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Each Heidi and Seek garment is made from salvaged or
unwanted fabrics. We handpick materials from opportunity
shops (where the proceeds go to many good causes) and
Revival in Fitzroy, an outlet that sells fabric overruns
discarded from factory manufacturing.
Each item is handmade in Melbourne by Heidi and Seek
creator, Hayley Lau.
We use repurposed paper, used packaging and recycled
promotional materials. We advertise online when printed
material is not necessary.
We will continue to endeavour to find ways to increase our
ethical practices.
Introduction
There are two major things wrong with today’s throwaway culture: the
devastating impact on the environment and the neglected rights of exploited
workers. In Australia, the textile, clothing and footwear industry has a huge
annual turnover of $9 billion1. Up to hundreds of thousands of people are
involved in manufacturing the goods locally and overseas2. The frequent
clothing trends mean that manufacturers produce lots of waste and consume
many resources to keep up with the high demand.
1
My Future Textile Clothing and Footwear Industry Information
http://www.myfuture.edu.au/services/default.asp?FunctionID=5104&IndustryGroupID=70
2
Ethical Clothing Trades Council Of Victoria, 12 Month Report, 2004
http://www.business.vic.gov.au/busvicwr/_assets/main/lib60052/ethicalclothingtradescouncilreport.pdf
Fair fashion
Many retailers stock their shelves with garments made by workers who
receive substandard pay and conditions. Factories in low-wage countries that
don’t meet worker’s rights laws are referred to as sweatshops. But they aren’t
the only culprits. Workers in the garment industry in Australia are taken
advantage of as well.
Exploitation in our own backyard
Outworkers, machinists that
make garments in their homes
in Australia, account for 40% of
total employment in the textile,
clothing and footwear
industry3. They are usually
migrant women. Often
outworkers’ conditions are
worse than factory workers’.
Outworkers can be paid as little
Figure 1 An outworker sewing in her own home
as $2.50 per hour4. Many work
entire days, 7 days a week, during peak times. Other weeks they may have no
work. Their employers may demand that they meet unrealistic deadlines or
else lose their job. Sometimes workers
must enlist the help of friends, family, and
“If you want the job, you try
even their children to finish on time. They
more hard. You can’t sleep,
can suffer work-related injuries without
you work all day. You can’t
compensation. Their home may become
do anything for your
hazardous due to their work environment.
children.”
Why on earth is this still happening in Australia?
Supply chains for fashion labels can involve so many different companies
that the labels can deflect responsibility. The industry isn’t policed well
enough. It’s also important to note that if we buy less, they’ll make less. If
we become conscious consumers, they will employ conscious practices.
3
Productivity Commission 2003, Review of TCF assistance, Report No 26, Canberra, viewed 14 May
2008, http://www.pc.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/26822/tcf.pdf
4
Diviney, E & Lillywhite, S 2007, Ethical Threads: Corporate social responsibility in the garment
industry, Fitzroy, Victoria, viewed 16 May,
http://www.nosweatshoplabel.com/_media/Diviney&Lillywhite_ethical_threads.pdf
Environmentally-friendly fashion
Clothing made from both synthetic and natural fabrics and dyes takes their
toll on the environment. Factories emit greenhouse gases in the manufacture
of synthetic fabrics, and natural fibres like cotton use lots of water and
pesticides.
Synthetic poison
Most synthetic fabrics are manufactured
using toxic chemicals that pollute
waterways and the atmosphere. They pose
health risks to the people who produce
them and they are non-biodegrade. When
they are disposed of, they pollute the soil
with chemicals.
The problem with cotton
Vast amounts of water and pesticides are
Figure 2 Disposable fashion ends up
used for clothes production – especially
in a landfill
cotton. The average pesticides used on
cotton are some of the most toxic there is5. They contaminate local water and
damage the health of those working on cotton farms. Even organic cotton is
damaging to the environment because although it is grown without
pesticides, it still requires lots of water.
This sucks, but what am I meant to do?
I can’t afford expensive sweat shop free clothes.
Consider how often you buy clothes and whether you get good wear out of
all of them. Some people are in dire need of more clothing but simply can’t
spare the extra money to buy even basic clothing. But others choose to buy
cheap and buy often, rather than buying fewer covetable items that will last
longer and be worn more.
Try to avoid garments that are so trendy that they will date in six months.
Otherwise, learn to do minor alterations to update your existing clothes, or
take them to a dressmaker. You can find a list of tutorials and suggestions for
updating your wardrobe without buying new things here. Check opportunity
shops and eBay for a unique bargain.
5
Organic Cotton: Production and Marketing Trends in the U.S. and Globally
http://www.sustainablecotton.org/html/resources/articles03.html
Shopping ethically will mean giving up being stylish.
There are an increasing number of retailers embracing the ethical fashion
movement, including Heidi and Seek. Many sell online so it doesn’t matter if
you live far from major cities. As awareness grows, so will the selection. The
options are endless if you learn to sew or know someone who can make
something for you. Alternatively, you could also buy second-hand vintage
clothes. Many fashion-forward celebrities wear vintage clothing because it can
be extremely well made and unusual.
This top I bought says it’s eco-friendly so I’m doing what I can to help.
The only way to know if a label is acting ethically, or is just jumping on the
sustainability bandwagon, is to educate yourself. Read the label to see why it
claims to be eco-friendly and check whether it is also sweatshop free. Make
sure it satisfies your ethical concerns. Is it made from organic cotton but is
made in China? If it was made in Australia, what if the workers who made it
were exploited?
How do I know if something is an ethical purchase?
Buying recycled or second-hand clothing is best because no new resources
need to be consumed to make the fabric. You are also reducing the overall
amount of waste. New clothing is more difficult to judge. Usually ethically
made clothing is more expensive, so that each person involved in the
production and sale is paid fairly.
You can be fairly certain that clothes handmade from scratch listed on the
international website Etsy (www.etsy.com) and the Australian Madeit
(www.madeit.com.au) have not been made in bad conditions. However, if
new materials are used, they may not be environmentally friendly. Watch out
for screen-printed items, because unfairly treated workers may have sewn the
garment, which the seller then bought cheaply and added the print design.
You can ask the seller where they bought the garment.
There are some retailers that exclusively sell
sweatshop-free garments and others that sell
clothing made from organic cotton, hemp,
and other sustainable fabrics. A ‘No Sweat
Shop’ label accompanies clothing by
companies that have verified that all their
garments produced in Australia have been
made with the workers receiving minimum
award rates. However, this label is not yet
widely accepted.
Figure 3 This label is present on
verified sweatshop free clothing
Analysis
Heidi and Seek is a real venture that I plan to launch in future. In writing
‘Ethical consumerism in the fashion industry’ I endeavoured be clear, concise
informative and inspiring. “The position paper describes the organization’s
position and its rationale for that position,” states Tucker, Derelian & Rouner
(1997, p. 79). In my paper, I have included Heidi and Seek’s position on the
negative environmental impact and the unfair treatment of garment workers,
explanations and statistics to support this view and suggestions on how the
reader can improve the situation.
Sustainability is a hot topic. According to Wilcox (2001 p.43), noting whether
an issue is a current media concern can be beneficial. Writing about a current
topic, such as sustainability, gains more attention than those that are less
prominent. In my paper, I have grouped the environmental issues with the
problem of exploited workers. This will notify readers that being eco-friendly
alone does not address the full picture.
Following the advice of Nesom and Carell (2001, p. 179), I began the paper
with a short description about Heidi and Seek’s values, which immediately
informs the reader of my stance and what they can expect from reading
further. I backed up my position by stating the practices Heidi and Seek
undertakes that adhere to my values, which makes my perspective more
credible.
I have designed this position paper for customer consumption on the Heidi
and Seek website. Consequently, within the text on the last page, I have
included an interactive link to a page that I will set up with additional
relevant information, but that, if included, would have made the position
paper too lengthy. When publishing the paper on the web, I will break the
major headings into different web pages, collecting them on the main
‘Position’ page as a list of links. This will enable the reader to go directly to
the part that interests them. It will also prevent them from reading one long
web page, which can become tedious and can make the reader lose focus and
get distracted.
Search engines may also enable people to find the webpage when they search
for any of the ethical issues discussed in the document. In this way the paper
is also a marketing tool. I had to summarise very broad issues and persuade
the reader to empathise with the environment and those affected.
My target audience is conscientious, contemporary young women. Those that
are likely to read this paper will be interested in learning about the ethical
issues behind Heidi and Seek. Including credible sources as footnotes lends
an extra degree of weight to the paper.
The paper has a Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level of 11.5. The audience will likely
have at least a high school certificate of completion, and so will be able to
understand the paper. I have kept the paragraphs relatively short, and used
the clearest language possible, as advised by Foster (2005). I also kept the tone
chatty for ease of reading and to make the reader feel that they were not being
preached to, but being informed in an engaging way.
My aim is that the reader gains respect for the business and its values.
Hopefully, this will mean that they empathise with the situations and take on
the business’s ethical values as their own.
References
Foster, J 2005 Effective Writing Skills for Public Relations (Third Edition), Kogan
Page Limited, London, UK.
Newsom, D & Carell, B 2001 Public Relations Writing: Form and Style (Sixth
Edition). Wadsworth/Thomson, Belmont, CA.
Tucker, K, Derelian, D & Rouner, D 1997 Public Relations Writing: An IssueDriven Behavioural Approach (Third Edition), Prentice Hall: Upper Saddle
River, NJ.
Wilcox, D 2001 Public Relations Writing and Media Techniques (Fourth Edition),
Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers Inc., New York.