Ethical Fashion
Hi, I’m Betty and welcome to my blog about ethical fashion!
Approximately 12.6% or 430 million people in the global workforce, which totals 3.4 billion
people, work in the fashion production industry. This figure show that a huge amount of
people rely on the money from their work here to support their families and lives. In recent
years, people have brought to light more and more companies and brands that fail to do
their part and violate their workers’ rights. Oftentimes, these workers work in horrible
conditions with insufficient wages, unable to afford many basic things and are
exploited by dominant companies in the fashion industry. It is also commonly known that
the fashion to be environmentally damaging. In fact, the fashion industry accounts for
10% of all carbon emissions.
Many workers in the fashion production industry are forced to work and are not paid a
living wage, only a minimum wage, with some workers working up to 50 hours overtime
a week just to make ends meet. Their health’s are often severely compromised because
of the chemicals used during production.
It is very important to ensure that you buy ethically sourced clothing because by doing
so, you are improving the welfare of these workers and also tackling issues such as
insufficient wages, poverty, and issues regarding the environment that are,
unfortunately, all too common in the fashion production industry.
Source:
T Maud, C Goldwater, S
Goldwater, M Brooke, M Cope,
A Cawston, Z Mok, C Yao, L
Luan. (5th of September - 11th
of September. [Survey]
Pie chart from my survey
In a recent survey I conducted with a group, we asked the question, “Are you taking any
actions to ensure you are buying sustainable and ethical clothing?” In the same survey
80% of respondents said that they knew what ethical fashion is. This pie chart which
shows the answers to the first question and demonstrates to me that, despite 80% of
people answering they are aware of ethical fashion and, probably, the problems that are
faced in the fashion industry, these respondents choose to ignore them and instead, just
buy the clothes that they think look nice, ignoring where it was made. This also shows us
that ethical fashion is not a top priority for many people when buying clothes and that
often people buy from more reputable brands and consumer choice brands, but
unfortunately, often these are the brands that produce unethical fashion and mass
produce their products.
Quote from the
I generally buy things because, items of clothing because I like them
and they feel nice, the fabric is nice, well made. I don’t tend to buy
fast fashion because I don’t feel like it’s well made or will last that
long.
interview
Source: C, Goldwater.
(5th September). [In
Person].
From an interview one of my group members conducted, this quote was taken. This quote
shows us that when people shop, consumers usually care more about the feel and quality of
the fabric. The second sentence shows us that some consumers are already thinking about
their carbon footprint and the supply chain of their clothes for whatever reasons, which is
already in a step in the direction of improving the fashion industry and making it more
ethical.
Actions that can be taken
Many actions can be taken to ensure that fashion is ethical but also not too expensive. Right
now, the clothes that we are accustomed to buy are, typically, made in extremely
inhumane conditions and is fast fashion, meaning that it is mass produced and
unsustainable because it is bad quality and rips quickly. Ethical and good quality fashion is
typically expensive and hard to come by on a budget. Most of the brands that do offer
ethical fashion at a reasonable price are not particularly well-known and are small
businesses.
In recent years, many big brands are trying to change to be more ethical by including
practices such as a recycling program, being more transparent in their supply chain,
and providing more information about the source of their clothes and their workers’ rights.
While these actions do improve the ethicality of clothing, most of the clothing still remains to
be fast fashion and mass produced, still making it unsustainable and bad for the
environment.
The feel of clothes is important to me, so how it feels, so I
want to know what the fabric is and how to look after it.
And usually when you look at that care label, it tells you
where it’s been made, and usually designed as well.
Quote from the
interview
Source: C, Goldwater.
(5th September). [In
Person].
This quote, taken from a recent interview, shows that many people do care about their
clothes and try to ensure that they last a long time by properly taking care of it. It shows
that people do care about what their clothes are made out of because it can help them to
make sure their clothes are good quality and long-lasting, consequently making them
sustainable for the environment. If everyone does this, checking the care label and taking
care of it accordingly and also checking the materials and quality, it can make clothing
more sustainable, however, it does not guarantee that companies and brands will
improve the working conditions for factory workers’ get better and that they get their
workers rights.
In a recent survey I conducted, I asked the questions, “What actions do you think clothing
companies could do to help solve the problem of unethical fashion?” and “What actions do
you think purchasers could do to help solve the problem of unethical fashion?”.
Some of the responses to the former included “Ensure fairness to employees in the supply
chain. Provide easy to find information about their clothing.” and “Do their due diligence on
their entire supply chain. Where is the material coming from? How are the working
conditions for the clothes makers?”. From these responses, we can see that people
suggest manufacturers to provide more easy-to-access information about their clothing.
This could lead to more ethical fashion, because people could research before buying and
not have to dig around for the information because it can be easily accessed to make sure
that they buy the most ethical and sustainable. The manufacturers will also want to make
sure that they are ethical so that their brand reputation is not ruined and that they will
remain the consumers choice so that they can still make a profit and sell products.
Some of the responses for the latter included “Wear clothes until they are "used" or donate
them. Only buy what is necessary or will be treasured, request information about the items
origin” and “Stop buying from fast fashion brands”. This shows us that people are trying to
buy clothes that are high quality and last a long time to reduce waste and ensure that they
are being sustainable. If everyone does this, this means that less clothes will be thrown
away and reduce the carbon emissions from the fashion industry because there will be a
lower demand for clothes.
How ethical is Converse?
Converse is owned by parent company Nike who are notorious for sweatshops and
inhuman working conditions as well as not giving workers their workers rights.
Converse is primarily manufactured in countries such as Vietnam and Honduras. They do
this because this way they can make a higher profit by not paying workers living wage
because in Vietnam and Honduras, there are no laws guaranteeing workers a living wage.
Workers often work in substandard conditions whilst being underpaid and exposed to
dangerous chemicals. Some of the chemicals that workers are exposed include ammonia.
Long term exposure of ammonia can lead to chronic irritation of the respiratory tract,
chronic cough, asthma and lung fibrosis, due to an excessive amount of exposure to
airborne particles. This means that Converse’s come at the price of the health of the
workers that manufacture them. Since Converse are such good quality and long lasting,
it means that they can last a long time and not have to be thrown out all the time. When the
time comes and they do need to be thrown out, Converse has started some programs to
ensure that they are sustainable and lower their carbon footprint. One of these
programs include making a collection of shoes called, “Converse Renew”. Converse
Renew is a program where factory workers use the old scraps of shoes and repurpose
them and make them into new shoes. This reduces a lot of Converse’s waste because,
during the manufacturing process, Converse wastes a lot of material to make a completely
new pair of shoes, so this is helping Converse to recycle and be sustainable, helping the
planet and reducing carbon emissions.
3) how ethical is 1 item of your own
clothing