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Fighting the Unjust Nature of the Fashion Industry

  • Writer: angeliitrissha
    angeliitrissha
  • Oct 10, 2018
  • 3 min read

An article I wrote for a project I did in university, which was to create an online magazine educating the public on the issue of unethical fashion.


Child labour, underpaid labour, horrific working conditions. These are the three phrases most commonly used to describe sweatshops in the fashion industry, the past few decades. It is easy to remove ourselves from such issues in the world and say “It’s not my problem,” or “It’s not my fault.” These assumptions however, cannot be further from the truth. The biggest supporters of the unethical fashion companies are in fact, their consumers. Without the support of the customers’ purchase of their affordable clothing, these companies would not be profitable. What does this mean? It doesn’t mean that the entire blame is on the consumers. But it does imply that consumers have a huge responsibility in terms of choosing the more ethical companies to purchase their clothes from, rather than just going for the lowest prices possible.


It is important for the fashion industry to do their part in working towards more environmentally sustainable goals, along with providing workers with fair wages and humane working conditions. It is equally important for them to attract customers by using these strategies of complying with justice to put themselves in a good light.


Advertising their companies with slogans and logos that indicate their support for the environment has become increasingly popular in the fashion industry. A good example is Cotton On, which has an ‘Ethics’ link on its site that explains its support for ethical fashion and releases annual reports on its sustainable and ethical efforts. Such factors are appealing to customers, but these measures can only be successful if consumers too, make a conscious effort to shop more at stores that have a clear support for the environment, along with treating their workers fairly.


The International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates that the number of children involved in child labour of an unfavourable nature, reaches 170 million. Despite the percentage of child labour having decreased by 30% from 2002 to 2012, 11% of the world’s population of children still have to sacrifice their education to work. The helplessness of these children are being taken advantage of globally, especially since there are hardly any unions to aid them in fighting for their rights to fair wages and better working conditions.


Although measures to tackle child labour are implemented, the complexity of the supply chain makes it difficult to track it down. This is attributed to the sub-contracts major companies have with less recognized factories often in rural areas, whereby families in poverty send their children to work instead of school for horribly low wages out of desperation.


So how then, are we supposed to find out which fashion companies to support? Recently, a movement called Not For Sale has been tracking down the supply chains of fashion companies and grading them, depending on their ethical standard. Unfortunately, very few of these companies received a grade A. Some of the most ethical ones include Inditex and Timberland, while the worst few include Lacoste and Skechers. In order to consider the ethical rating of the fashion company and brand you’re supporting, all you have to do is look up its rating on this site http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-20/australian-fashion-report3a-how-do-your-favourite-retailers-ra/7342040. With the help and encouragement of consumers, the less ethical companies are less likely to engage in child labour and unfair working conditions and wages. Therefore, let us do our part in shopping only at the stores that have at least a grade C+ and above!

 
 
 

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