Ethical fashion in a Globalized World: Who Really Pays the Price for What We Wear?

As the world has collectively moved towards being more conscious of the nature of the products we consume, from sourcing, through supply chains, and finally onto consumption, so too has the demand for accountability risen. One domain where this demand has taken a foothold is the fashion industry. A multilayered global industry, the fashion industry and fashion brands have come under scrutiny for a myriad of reasons. Many critics have pointed to the rise in fast fashion, lack of fair wages, and sustainable practices for garment workers during production as significant concerns. In this article, we will explore the state of ethical fashion and highlight the true bearers of cost in what we wear.

What is Fast Fashion?

Fast Fashion has become one of the many buzzwords of the environmentally conscious twenty-first century. As the name implies, it is the business model of replicating recent catwalk trends and high-fashion designs, mass-producing them at a low cost, and bringing them to retail quickly while demand is at its highest. In essence, it involves flooding the market when a certain piece of clothing is considered to be in fashion.

Fast fashion is typically also characterized by quick shipping, meaning delivery can be same-day or only take a few days. As manufacturers work relentlessly to produce as many of the trending items as possible, ethical practices and sustainable production standards are often neglected. Ultimately, as the clothes fall out of favor, fashion houses aim to dispose of their inventory of now-outdated trends. These items, mainly made of non-recycled material, are deposited into landfills, leading to synthetic chemical waste. Then the cycle repeats with whatever items become trending next.

The True Cost of Fashion

Underneath this perpetual cycle of short-term demand and environmental damage through toxic chemicals is the more sinister reality of worker exploitation. For the most part, fashion supply chains begin in Asia, where several local communities work in textile mills. At these textile mills, there have been reports likening the poor labor standards endured by garment workers to modern slavery. These unfair working conditions are magnified by the fact that these workers, mostly women, barely make a living wage for their families.

Here lies the true cost of fashion; behind the veil of allure is the ugliness that makes fast fashion a possibility. It is not just the lack of sustainable materials but the sheer lack of ethical standards and fair trade practices that make the entire enterprise a possibility.

At present, much of the global fashion industry hinges on the maltreatment of workers in order to keep the cost of garment production low. As such, the primary hurdle ethical clothing and ethical fashion must overcome is not environmentally friendly materials or the incorporation of recycled fibers, though these would certainly go a long way in creating sustainable fashion production. The first hurdle to address is the proper treatment of workers in accordance with fairtrade conditions.

Ethical Fashion Today

To combat the damage caused by the fast fashion industry, several conscious efforts have been made. The rise of slow fashion and ethical brands as alternatives to promote an environmentally sustainable business model and an ethical fashion movement. These brands use sustainable fibres such as organic cotton during production as a means of chemical management during production and disposal.

Additionally, the utilization of sustainable practices when it comes to consumption has helped make ethical fashion a more achievable reality. It is a system redesigning the textile industry to eliminate waste by keeping clothes in use longer through reuse, repair, resale, and recycling, moving away from the linear nature that leads to massive environmental degradation.

Conclusion

Ethical fashion can not end with just environmental concerns. Whilst promotion of thrift shopping and buying from ethical fashion brands works to move the needle, more needs to be done with regard to the living conditions of workers. Decent working conditions for laborers have to be incorporated as an agenda of discussion when it comes to conversations about fast fashion.

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