The Dark Side of Fashion

Yesterday (March 27th, for our late readers), we were invited by the Women’s Philanthropy & Leadership Council of Dominican to screen Andrew Morgan’s iconic The True Cost movie at Dominican University of California. Afterwards, founder and CEO of Dhana Inc, Shamini Dhana, engaged in an intimate and evocative Q&A on the ways in which fashion is shifting from niche to norm, supporting the people and planet. The film’s ability to distill complex social and economic issues within existing business models allowed for an easily digestible conversation on the three major roles responsible for the ramifications imposed on the resources within fashion systems.

Government:

But isn’t government responsible for enforcing laws to prevent environmental and social injustice? Yes, but through globalization which favors the free market (allowing countries to [ideally] trade internationally without government intervention on imports and exports) Western and European businesses are able to outsource production to developing countries where labor is cheap, laws are unenforceable and profits can be maximized by cutting costs. Through interviews with economists like Richard Wolff, the film highlights how capitalism ensures business to satisfy shareholders and not all stakeholders by making profit quarter-after-quarter at the expense of providing safe working conditions, living wages and the exploitation of the environment..

Business:

In a system where economic growth is measured by profit and privately-owned businesses leverage foreign government subsidies whose environmental and labor laws are less enforceable than that of western businesses, brands are situated to capitalize on cheap trade.

Over the last two decades major fashion retailers like Zara, Topshop and Forever 21 have created a way of doing businesses, known as fast fashion, an epidemic of consumption that offers high volume, low priced goods 365 days a year. In order to feed this demand, businesses compete amongst each other to offer everyday low prices, forcing garment factories to produce clothes for a cheaper fee and factory owners to cut corners. In 2013, 1,135 garment workers (mostly women) were killed due structural failure of the Rana Plaza building, lack of safety and pressure from management to continue production regardless of evident instability as means to meet competitive deadlines. In 2013, “three of the four worst tragedies in the history of fashion all happened” yet the “following year…was the industries’ most profitable of all time” (The True Cost). So why didn’t this tragedy reflect profits? Do you remember this tragedy? Did your favorite brands keep you informed? Did you shop any less? 

Consumers:

Globally, we (as in entire humanity) consume roughly 80 billion new pieces of clothing annually. Though in the United States, Americans discard 82 lbs worth of textile waste each year. Currently, the fashion market is a $3 trillion industry and we just can’t get enough of spending money to just throw it away. Is some of this starting to sound scary? Do you feel as though your trust in certain brands has been taken for granted? Are you starting to question if your consumption reflects your core fundamentals? Good, because WE as the consumers have the MOST power. We are the demand that is fueling supply. We are voting with our dollars and saying yes to cost-cutting. We are spending more than we need, to buy things we can’t afford, but can’t say no to a good deal, right? But no more.

Our latest campaign, #WearOurValues is dedicated to empowering YOU as the consumers to make the right decision when shopping to support longer product lifecycles, fewer resource degradation and ethical practices. We understand adoption isn’t easy. Where do you shop? How do you know which brands are unethical? How can you find sustainable brands? Which companies are doing what? We’ve heard your questions, we discussed them yesterday and we are committed to offering you the right tools and insights to simplify your shopping experiences and make lifestyle adoption easier. But we don’t want to stop at just making life easier, we want to create a community of stylists, designers and individuals who are challenging the current world of fashion to reflect their values, meet their unique needs, while putting the people and planet first. We want YOU to share with us the ways in which you dress reflecting your values either that be wearing consignment (shout out to the vintage wave in fashion), upcycling, wearing sustainable textiles like organic cotton, shoping fair trade certified or whatever it may be, we want to highlight you.

If this sounds like you (and even if it doesn’t), visit our website here, take our brief survey helping us better understand you, and sign up to stay in the know on what’s coming for #WearOurValues and how you can become an advocate committed to cleaning up the dirty industry we wear.

Yesterday was the first day of our journey towards creating inclusion, demanding transparency and shifting niche to norm. Within the triangle of responsibility, we are putting the consumers first compelling brands and government to follow suit.

GET INFORMED by watching The True Cost on Netflix now.

QUESTION if the brands you shop with reflect your values by taking our survey here.

CATALYZE change, sign up to become an advocate, share with your friends and be part of the impact. It only takes one person to create a ripple effect.

As we get closer to our launch date, we will share updates on what to expect from #WearOurValues.

Image of ‘Garment Worker’ and The True Cost logo Credit - https://truecostmovie.com/