Ethical Fashion

Until my hands got bad I used to make many of my clothes.  I still have a fabric stash that I'll eventually work my way through although these days it's harder work. That said when I went to YouTube following a link on the Donald Trump impeachment hearings I did not expect to find something about sewing or for that matter fashion related.

What happened was the link I had followed was interesting so I had a look at the list of other supposedly related videos that YouTube kindly provides on the side and a couple of videos down I found this video Buying a Knockoff of My Own Dress. In it Bernadette Banner, in the most educated, civilised and lady-like way possible, talks about the mass manufacturers who rip off clothing designers and artists by detailing her own experience.

Describing herself as an historian with an interest in historical clothing, she found a knockoff copy of a very lovely medieaval gown she had made with the seller even using the Instagram image of her wearing the dress on their website. Having bought the knockoff for comparison she then proceeded to point out the poor quality of the copy before going on to rant - her word - about the way so-called fast fashion has led us down a path that is ethically problematic and environmentally irresponsible.

It was interesting that I found this now because recently Facebook - whose algorithms obviously don't have a clue about most of my interests (and I intend to keep it that way by not providing them with any more data than is absolutely essential) - has been sending me ads for a clothing company which makes just this sort of rubbish. Goodness knows why but then they also often send me fashion ads. It’s pretty pointless really because, given my view on clothing shopping - that it is pretty much the last thing I ever want to do - I never even click on them.

But I digress. What this video reminded me of (apart from the blatant theft of intellectual property of a creative person which seems to be a business model for some companies these days) was how pervasive the idea is that clothing should be cheap and pretty much disposable. I was buying a few essentials at a local department store recently and I had to go past the women's clothing section on my way to what I needed. Pisces swerved into it hoping that I might be tempted to buy some much needed clothing. I'm afraid he was disappointed because although there was much 'stuff' at ludicrously low prices - $3 T-shirts for example - the trade off for cheap was poor quality and the knowledge that they were all almost certainly made in sweat shops and I’d prefer not go that route. I’d rather buy fewer clothes that are better quality and will last. I’ll let you into a secret here - I even mend things and that’s something I’m told is rare these days.

The thing is as a society we’ve fallen into a trap of wastefulness with a feeling that everything is cheaply replaceable and Banner goes on to talk about how in the past clothing was meant to last. It was mended and cut up to be repurposed or made over into other garments or for other textile uses like curtains or quilts. Patchwork quilts are a perfect example of careful use of what you had because originally they were not made of new purpose bought, carefully matched fabrics as a hobby for those who like me enjoy creative sewing but were a thrifty way to use up any scraps that could be salvaged from worn clothing or leftover cut offs from making garments. The same applied to children's clothes which were almost always made from older adult garments. It wasn't only the poor who remade clothes either as this link shows.

Coincidentally I came across this link on making do as I was working on this post and it made me think about how being thrifty has become an almost forgotten part of living. I know we're busy but truth be told people - apart from those lucky relatively few who could afford servants to do the work - have always been busy and time poor. I suspect that it's as much to do with availability of so much and the distractions with which we live as much as lack of time. Maybe it's time we tried a new/old way - a way where we carry over the KonMarie idea of only keeping that which sparks joy into what we buy and at the same time learn the pleasure of a less waste filled life.