5 themes
Here we have compiled a list of some of the core problems with the fashion industry. Unfortunately, there is so much wrong with this industry that this is not by far an exhaustive list. In case you want to learn more, we are compiling a list of resources here: (link dropping soon). We are of course always happy to receive any additional sources/information that you have to share!
Exploitation
(Neo-)Colonialism
The fashion industry is based on an institutional form of racism inherited from the colonial past, forming a neo-colonial present. Colonial ways of thinking and practices continue in the highly exploitative way the industry operates today, viewing people's labor and the earth's raw materials as nothing more than an unlimited resource for infinite growth. Most of these "resources" come from countries that have already suffered, and continue to suffer, from the effects of colonial violence. These practices disproportionately affect Indigenous communities and people from the Global South.
Forced Labor
Forced labor is still a common practice in today's garment industry. Over a million Turkic Uyghurs are detained in concentration camps, prisons, and subjected to systematic forced labor in China. These people, native to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region are oppressed, exploited and face genocide by the Chinese government. 1 in 5 cotton garments in the global clothing market is linked to Uyghur forced labor. Extremely low-paid or unpaid forced labor is used in all layers of the supply chain. More than 40 million people in the world work under forms of modern slavery, the majority of them women. Child labor is also a common practice. Despite the difficulty in finding information about this practice - because it's not something brands want us to know about - we also know that prisoners in e.g. the US are being used to make clothes. A famous example is Victoria's Secret, whose lingerie in the 1990s was produced by imprisoned people in Leath Correctional Facility in Greenwood for 10 cents per hour. Unmasking this forced labor is essential to our work - it fuels our rage against the toxic fashion industry.
Dangerous work environments
Clothing manufacturing has mainly been moved to parts of the world that have been destabilized. These parts of the world often have poor labor regulations which, in turn, lead to human rights violations. Dangerous workplaces, poverty wages, child labour, gender discrimination, and union busting are common practices. Fast fashion uses long chains of subcontractors, leading to lack of transparency and accountability. In 2013, the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Dhaka, Bangladesh caused over 1,100 deaths and exposed the fatal consequences of dangerous working conditions and lack of accountability. These human rights violations happen in Europe as well, where factories exploit undocumented people and others who find themselves in very difficult and unstable situations. Brands abuse these situations for their own profit.
Low Wages
98% of garment workers are not paid a living wage. Sometimes people are not paid at all. For example, by having to go through an unpaid trial period before receiving their poverty wage, if they are not laid off before that point. Another exploitative factory scheme is to set unachievable quota and pay workers accordingly, forcing them to work inhumanely long shifts without breaks. Meanwhile, fashion brands make millions to billions of profit every year.
2. climate crisis
Massive polluter
The fashion industry is one of the most pollutive industries in the world and emits more CO2 than aviation and maritime shipping combined. Enormous amounts of energy are needed for the extraction of raw materials, production, and transportation, the energy produced primarily with fossil fuels.
Fossil fashion
Right now 69% of the new-produced garments are made with synthetic fibers. Polyester and Acrylic are the most common. Synthetic fibers are plastics, which means they are made from fossil fuels. This makes recycling clothing very hard, specifically due to the use of mixes of synthetic and natural materials that can not be separated again. Even so, fashion brands are very keen on overstating their recycling efforts as part of their marketing campaigns.
Rising sea levels
One example of the effects of climate change that are already being felt is sea level rise. Sea level rise threatens coastal communities around the world - including areas where many garment workers live, like in the case of Pakistan or Bangladesh - and could lead to the displacement of tens of hundreds to millions of people. In this case like for most climate change impacts, the most affected would be the least responsible for the crisis. Some low-lying islands are already being lost or made uninhabitable as marine floodings salinize freshwater sources.
3. ECOcide
Microplastics
The clothing industry is one of the biggest sources of microplastics. 35% of plastics in the oceans are a result of the fashion system. Synthetic clothing releases microfibers when washed or tumble-dried. Most of them are not retained by wastewater treatment plants and find their way into the oceans and rivers. Microplastics are harmful to the environment and all life, both because of the chemicals they transport, and because they can become vectors of toxic contaminants. They are eaten by small organisms and make their way through the food chain, up to our own plates. Microplastics have been found everywhere, from arctic ice to human placentas.
Toxic Chemicals
Toxic chemicals that are used in the production of fabrics end up in groundwater, drinking water, soils, and sediments. Reports show that there are higher levels of coronary heart disease, birth defects, skin conditions, and cancer, not just in textile workers but also in people who live near e.g. viscose factories. The chemical used in Viscose production is called Carbon Disulfide, an acutely toxic (deadly) chemical that kills all life in surrounding river systems. Due to the waste's disposal after the viscose production, the soil nutrients are depleted, restricting plant growth, resulting in crop failure and the risk of famine for local populations.
Excessive water use
One of the most used materials in garments, cotton, requires huge amounts of water to produce - totaling more than any other crop. It takes around 2700 liters of water to produce one t-shirt, and the freshwater that is used for this purpose often gets polluted or evaporates in the process. Especially the dyeing of fabrics is very polluting to water. Countries/regions accounting for the highest amounts of global cotton production - such as India, Pakistan, China, the United States, and Turkey - face shortages of water needed for people's daily lives and the health of ecosystems.
4. Overconsumption
Waste piling up
Buying clothes generates a huge amount of waste. Each second, the equivalent of a truckload of clothing is landfilled or burned. 100 billion new garments are produced yearly. As collections change frequently and prices are lowered, we’re consuming an increased amount of clothing and keeping them for a shorter time. 30% of the clothes that are produced are never worn and end up directly in a landfill or incinerator.
Resource depletion
To produce all those clothes, a huge amount of resources is necessary. Shifting from synthetic to natural fabrics is not sufficient to diminish the environmental impacts of fashion. Overexploitation of natural resources to make fabric is also damaging and unethical. For example, consider the water issues related to cotton production discussed earlier, the known environmental devastation caused by growing monocultures in general, or the animal abuse linked to the use of materials like wool, leather and fur.
Taking over our spaces
Multinational fashion chains dominate our cityscapes, often taking up massive space inside our inner metropolitan areas. This takes away potential housing opportunities and places for local communities in the midst of a major housing crisis. Cities lose their uniqueness as the same brands are represented in the main streets of major cities, only being welcoming towards “consumers” and taking up the space that belongs to residents.
5. Industry lies
Unrealistic imagery
The fashion industry exploits our insecurities and the rampant ableism, sexism, and racism of our society to make us buy more. Lots of brands insist on using models with a normative thin body type and fashion magazines convey unattainable ideals of beauty through photoshop-presented-as-real-life, causing eating disorders and mental health issues. Even when brands seem to become more inclusive, this inclusivity remains very surface-level, and models often still face daily racism and body shaming. The fashion industry tricks us into believing that beauty can only exist within very narrow confines and that we can only be beautiful by living up to the trend of the day - whether relating to clothing or even body types.
Greenwashing
In the face of increasing public awareness about climate change, fashion brands lie to the public through greenwashing schemes. Chains pretend that they use more sustainable practices than they really do for the sole reason to make you buy more. This actively misleads consumers and gives people the false feeling that they bought something ethical and sustainable when in reality, this is not the case at all.
Image-washing
Brands appropriate the progressive values of social movements (e.g. anti-racist, feminist, or queer movements) in order to create a better reputation for themselves. They want young and engaged people to keep buying their products. This is a facade, as their only goal is to capitalize on the popularity of certain movements. For example, what does it mean to sell a shirt that reads "feminist", when that same shirt is made by an overworked, underpaid, made sick, or sexually abused woman out of one's sight? This form of image-washing usually doesn't mean that a company will actually change their real-life business practices in relation to human rights or climate justice.
We are more than consumers
In today's consumer society, people are primarily seen as consumers. Consuming more doesn’t make us happier. The industry needs the consumer to be unable to make the products sold to them. Knowledge about processes of making is not widely available, leading to a distance to the production processes and devaluation of garment creation and garments themselves. We have seen practices of making and repairing decline due to the industrialization of fashion. Always wanting to sell more, fashion brands use built-in obsolescence in their products: they make them precisely so that they break, rip or tear after a certain amount of washing or wearing. By learning to care for our clothes and to find ways to make them ourselves we break free from the consumerist paradigm and become makers and menders - active participants and decision makers, repairing fashion one stitch at a time.