When you look at fashion magazines today you see that there is more emphasis on luxury high priced items that are equated with quality. However, a lot of clothing has a dark side to it. Now not only do the rich have access to the luxury fashions but so do the middle class. The middle class has access to these fashions through credit cards and at the expense of exploiting laborers. I read an article called “MEET THE ECOSTYLISTS” by David Hayes and it focuses on how to stay up with trends while keeping a clean conscience. It goes into the uprising popularity of “green, eco-friendly clothing”. But one might wonder are companies also selling “green” to us? If going green was not going to be profitable in any way for the company I doub’t they’d be doing it. According to “MEET THE ECOSTYLISTS”:
“Ethical fashion is a broad catch all term for clothing and accessories that tick one or all of the following criteria: items from a traceable chain made at a factory that treats it’s workers fairly; uses fabrics created from sustainable sources; is organic and Soil Association approved; uses dyes and finishes that don’t harm the enviromnent and does not create a huge carbon footprint getting to the shop rail.”
In my opinion this definition is very broad. There is something called “greenwashing” and that means when companies advertise themselves to be more green than they really are. If the fashion companies strictly cared for the environment and weren’t trying to make a profit on “go green”, then why do they need to label their products? Its because they are marketing it so that people can feel better about buying their things. It seems like more of a trend because even Wal-Mart is jumping on the “green” bandwagon however according to another article called “Is Wal-Mart going green?” (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9815727/) Wal-Mart refuses to raise wages for labor groups that are below poverty level. This tells us that they aren’t addressing all aspects of going green. So what concerns me is the reason behind why the companies are going green. Fashion has become mostly about following trends and spending money instead of it being creative and individual. In the article it also mentions free alternatives to consuming really expensive “green couture”. Websites such as freecycle.com allow you to exchange items or get them for free. If you ask me this is the most “green” fashion I’ve heard of. However very few people know of it.
testing…. i just left a long response..twice. i think it was deleting itself…. hmm
now it works…. wow!….
so.. i was saying before,
that Yes! the fashion sector has defiantly become financialized..
The Fashion magazines are advertising high-end brands that the middle class cannot afford with real money… but you’re comepletly right… nowadays, with full and free access to credit cards, many more middle-class citizens have been able to purchase luxuries that normally, they would not be able to afford.
similarly, the topic of “going green” interested my very much.
It has become so financialized in a way that the marketing scheme behind it has become nearly INVISIBLE to consumers..
so basically, they were advertising for the “change that never happened.”
literally, it is very costly to go green. First and foremost, someone, somewhere is being exploited at the cost of our luxuries.
Secondly, for example, the same large cotton company is distributing to make these products… (this proves that there was not much change)…. if we were truly going green, we would literally not comply to the same destructive mechanisms that these companies use as a means to produce more in a shorter amount of time. Ratherm we would re-open small cotton farms.
that’s just one of the few comments i tried to leave before… hehe.. sorry…
Great analysis!
Cheers,
gina Jeon