Truth about Fashion

Fashion is a concept which not many people know about, and so many misconceptions pop into your mind when you hear that word.

My journey to enlightenment started at the Good Values Club, which is based at Abbey Primary School, Leicester. The Good Values Club is a club that teaches children from the age of five about the five basic human values, which are Truth, Love, Peace, Right Conduct and Non Violence, and how to incorporate these values into our everyday lives. Through the Good Values Club, we came into contact with the Asian Foundation for Philanthropy (AFP), who were running a project called Naitika, which worked with young people to develop projects on Ethical Fashion.

My group consisted of eight young people, aged between 12 and 17, and we wanted to learn more about fashion industry. Each one of us had reasons for wanting to take part in the project and mine was to explore how much the fashion industry is really worth and to learn why the big labels and major fashion companies make so much profit. Turning a simple necessity into a commodity which has been overpriced. From a £20.00 designer top, around 20 pence is given to the garment workers that actually make the top, is this fair? Is this what you would expect from people that consider themselves to be civilised? We care for animals more than we do for people, doesn’t that show something about our true nature?

These garment workers in developing countries are not only being abused by their employees but the corporations that carry out business with them. These workers only get paid 60% of their living wage. Imagine 60% of your dinner plate empty, 60% of your house empty, 60% of your life empty, how would you cope?

So what can you do? Even in the current economical climate we are all keeping our hands in our pockets as inflation increases, the cost of living rockets through the roof but what about the garment workers? Is their cost of living not increasing? We as consumers have the power, we need to pressurise the big businesses to do more, to introduce a fair minimum wage and treat garments workers much better. The big brands could afford to lose 3-5% of their billion dollar profits in order to provide the garment workers with better factories and equipment which meet health and safety standards, to pay them overtime and give them appropriate breaks for their working day.

It is our duty to help the garment workers that work tirelessly day in day out in such bad conditions, so please spare a thought for the garment workers that are making the clothes we wear every day.

Article written by- Hemant Mistry

Image Credit- Blossom Carrasco