I was out to dinner the other day with friends, and they all noticed I was wearing the same shirt that I had been wearing to nearly all the recent events I had been to. They wanted to know why I insisted on wearing the same shirts over and over again.
The reason I wear the same three shirts is because they were quite expensive purchases and I also feel a little bad as I bought them from an unethical brand. Because of this I try and give my clothes an ethical life by wearing it as much as possible to make sure the worker’s work has not gone in vain. I think it would just be disrespectful to the worker if I was to treat his or her work with disregard.
I figured boycotting brands would mean the workers would lose their jobs. Besides, boycotting is a bit drastic and difficult for me to do as I haven’t been able to find an ethical brand whose designs I like. I think if I just buy less then I won’t be adding to the heavy workload of the garment workers.
I alone cannot improve working conditions or pay. But I can reduce the pressure of the workload on the workers by controlling how much I buy.
The idea of not wearing the same outfit twice is one we should work against. Especially as these days it takes clothes seen on catwalks to be seen on the high street within six weeks. Imagine how many garments the workers must put together in such a short amount of time.
Only about 8 years ago it would be unheard of for clothes seen on catwalks to be on high streets shelves in such a short amount of time! This adds pressure on the production line to deliver faster results. And workers tend to get treated like machines, sewing 60 sleeves to 60 shirts in under a minute.
Instead of buy, buy, buy, we should take what we already have and make it last longer. So even if it was not an ethical purchase you can try and give the product an ethical life!
No comments:
Post a Comment