You may not know it if you saw me walking down the street, but I do have some interest in fashion and design. I follow a few style blogs, and browse images on Pinterest while sitting on the couch in my sweats.
I’ve noticed that clothing from places like H&M, Target, Forever 21, and Old Navy, four of the biggest “fast fashion” giants, are shared with just as much frequency and enthusiasm as more expensive designer pieces. Wearing cheap clothes with chic pride is en vogue, and those of us even on modest budgets are generally able to keep up with the latest fashion trends. Historically, clothing has never been cheaper, or consumed on such a mass scale. In fact, the average American buys 64 articles of clothing each year, and that only accounts for about three percent of our annual household income.1
Five Dollars Costs More Than We Think
What we don't always consider is that someone else is paying the price for our bottom dollar. The consumer cost of a five-dollar shirt is just the beginning of the equation. That doesn’t take into account the humanitarian cost of supporting sweatshop labor, or the environmental price of polyester and the massive levels of pesticides and insecticides used to treat conventionally grown cotton. Many of these garments will then complete their cycle of life in the landfill. Of course, we can donate the shirt when we’re done wearing it, but unless it’s in near-perfect condition, the thrift shop will likely send the top to be baled up and auctioned off to the highest bidder along with the rest of our cheap clothes. Some of those items will be recycled, and some will be shipped overseas, outfitting families in worn-out clothing and undercutting local textile production.2 Our “charity” can have an economic cost to employment opportunities in developing countries. Five dollars costs a lot more than we might think.
The April 24th garment factory collapse in Bangladesh is only one of the most recent tragedy on the watch of the clothing industry. And when I say clothing industry, I am including companies that outsource for the cheapest production, the factory owners that keep employees in inhumane working conditions, and us, the consumers who provide the demand for ever-cheaper clothing. We are all part of an unsustainable, unjust system. If we continue to produce and consume clothing at the current rate…well, to put it simply, we can't.
James 1:27 says, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and keep oneself from being polluted by the world." This verse is often quoted, and today, right here, with this very issue, we have a chance to live out those words. Orphans, widows, and other vulnerable members of society are making our clothes in sweatshops for poverty-level wages. And we're fueling this injustice by purchasing cheap t-shirts, jeans, and dresses to meet our worldly desires for acceptance, attention, and status, far above and beyond the most basic tasks of covering nakedness and providing warmth.
What's in Our Closets?
I don't have the answer to this problem, though I know it may include imposing a livable wage in the countries that make our clothes, enforcing stricter factory standards, and implementing more sustainable design and manufacturing practices. It also requires that we take a good, long look at our own closets. Unless we change our own shopping habits, designers, manufacturers, and distributors have little incentive to go against the status quo. We can’t solve it all in one day, but we can start right now.
Let me be clear: I don't think we need to run around in burlap sacks, though that would be a very sustainable, economical choice. Getting dressed is a social activity, a creative outlet, and a message we project to the people around us. While my relationship with my wardrobe can be distorted into something sinful and superficial, I can also chose to reframe my clothing choices. My second-hand blazer can help fund a local charity. My fair trade, eco-friendly t-shirt can support families halfway around the world. A necklace I gifted my friend for her birthday can promote a small designer who creates cool jewelry out of discarded items. We can support fair business practices and sustainable production without sacrificing personal style or aesthetics. And I'm talking to women and men - nothing hotter than a guy or gal who supports sustainable style, amiright?
Overwhelmed? I am, too. Tune in tomorrow for some practical next steps to consider, and I hope you’ll chime in with some of your own suggestions and experiences!
1. Elizabeth Cline’s Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion. (See pages 5, 12.)↩
2. I recently interviewed several large, local organizations on this topic for a graduate research paper, and was shocked to learn how much of our donated clothing is immediately discarded to be recycled or sent overseas; estimates of rejected donations range from 50-80% from my interviews and other academic works. I won’t cite my own work here, but can point you to this scholarly article by Dr. Brooks, or these two less formal sources as a starting point for your own research (here and here).↩
Jane Marie Ford was a part of InterVarsity during her undergraduate years studying Community and Regional Development at UC Davis. She was fortunate to spend two of those summers in Kolkata, India with the Global Urban Trek. It was in India that she really started to see the tangible, international impact of her daily choices. Jane Marie recently transplanted from Northern California to the Pacific Northwest to pursue her Masters in Public Administration and Nonprofit Management. When she’s not staring at textbooks, Jane Marie is happiest drinking coffee, being outside, or experimenting in the kitchen.
Image Credit: Zelda Go Wild ©2006, Flickr
