A couple of years ago, I made the decision to quit fast fashion.
I care about the environment, but I harbour a sense of hopelessness about the resolution of our climate crisis, a feeling I think many of us share. What really pushed me to this decision was the working conditions and low pay of the people (largely women and girls in Asia) who make the world’s garments.
The biggest shock when I made the change was how many people, especially Gen Z, are completely apathetic to how their clothes are the product of exploitation at best, and modern slavery at worst.
The most extreme form of this apathy I’ve encountered has been jokes about child slavery. Scrolling on TikTok, I started seeing memes being made about Chinese children trying to escape Shein factories, about messages being left on clothing labels from workers pleading for help, and creators jokingly complimenting child sweatshop workers on their workmanship whilst filming fast fashion hauls. These kinds of jokes sickened me, especially since the vast majority of us contribute to the pain and suffering that these jokes made light of.
Many justify their contribution to the injustices caused by consumption of fast fashion with the phrase: “There is no ethical consumption under capitalism.” To me, this reeks of denial. Whilst I won’t claim that there currently exists a means of procuring clothing (or any good, for that matter) which is completely sin-less, there are significantly more ethical ways of buying clothes than fast fashion.
Another comment that often forms part of the pro-fast-fashion rhetoric is “Poor people deserve to have cute clothes”. Whilst I can understand the reasoning here, the fast fashion boom is clearly not being propelled solely by people buying small amounts of clothing from brands like Shein out of necessity. Some also argue that people who can’t afford to spend much on clothing deserve to have new items of clothing that aren’t second-hand. In my experience, there is always an abundance of high-quality, low-cost items available in second-hand stores and online which are just as good as buying new. But it’s also important to remember that there is a vast population of workers propelling the fast fashion industry by making the clothing (there is no automated process for sewing your clothes) who are being paid far less than minimum wage. These workers lack rights beyond not being able to wear “cute clothes”. Fast fashion workers tend to lack safe working conditions (as seen by the 2013 Rana factory collapse), work unreasonable hours and lack any worker’s rights.
Ultimately, every individual knows whether they can personally go without funding fast fashion. I am fortunate that I rarely need to fund an industry that forces tens of millions of people to endure what most would class as constituting modern slavery. It is reassuring to see that many are actively reducing their consumption of fast fashion and opting to buy second-hand, but I believe we can all do more to decrease our fashion consumption and that taking light of the suffering our purchasing choices create needs to end in order to achieve this. These seemingly harmless jokes dehumanise the people (again, where the fashion industry is concerned, largely women and children in the global South) that make our clothes and prevent progress towards a brighter future for these people.
If making more sustainable and ethical choices when it comes to clothing is something you’re interested in, Warwick Clothes Circuit is a great society to get involved in to start your journey with conscious fashion.