Boycotting- is it the answer?

So, I recently got my Dimbleby hat on and hosted a Question Time style talk on ethical fashion. Everything from the corporate accountability to design work was discussed. However, what really stood out for me was that most people in the room thought that the only way to be ethical is by boycotting multinational brands.

As multinational brands have made mistakes in the past and yes there is still a long way to go. It’s like Mallen Baker was saying in his recent article, Nike is always associated with sweatshop labour, but maybe we should stop associating Nike with ‘sweatshops’ now. I do think Nike takes a lot of flak for what happened in the 90’s. Since then they have made improvements and are constantly thinking of ways to be greener and more ethical. Yet when the subject of ethical fashion comes up people always concentrate on the negative things about Nike. And instantly think they need to boycott large companies like Nike, Primark etc.

Large companies DO need to take more responsibility for their supply chains and should be held accountable for their actions. But they need to be recognised for the positive changes they make too.

To support ethical fashion I don’t think you have to boycott brands. I think we need to start looking at our buying habits. Demand now exceeds production by 30%. This means garment workers work three times as hard to make what we want, and this is still not enough. This result's in tight deadlines, no room for mistakes and a greater emphasis on making clothes with no consideration as to HOW and WHO makes our clothes.

But don’t forget boycotting also results in workers losing jobs, jobs they so desperately depend on.

So what do you think?

Can you be ethical without boycotting? Is boycotting the answer?

What is ethical fashion?

You know you’ve made it in fashion when you are featured at the French Fashion Week. Ethical fashion made a big impression on fashion lovers as it was represented by 100’s of ethical fashion labels.

For the past seven years ethical fashion has been getting bigger and bigger. “Mintel estimates that despite the recession the ethical fashion market has more than quadrupled in the last five years, to around £175 million in the UK alone.”

Many of the clothes on the show are made from sustainable fabrics, including loose-knit scarves and jumpers made from nettle, pineapple and super-soft banana fibres.

While its great sustainability is now being taken seriously and designers are thinking of new materials to use, there is no mention of how the garments were made. Many insiders confess that no garment is ever completely ethical especially with big brands.

The trend for ethical fashion is growing... But what kind of ethics? The kind where clothes are made from fruits yet still put together by children? Where working hours are still impossible with pay packets still low?

There is still no worldwide standard as to what comes under ethical.

What do you think ethical should mean? Clothes made from exotic fibres, that are sustainable or clothes made by adults, not children, being paid a living wage?

What should ethical fashion be?

Photo by:Nic Mcphee on Flickr and Creative Commons

What do you value?

If you saw your relative being harassed in the workplace, would you come to his or her defence?

I hope you’re nodding your head to say yes. If your answer is a yes that means you care for and value your family. Value is how important something or someone is to you.

In one of the Naitika workshops we ask people to list what they value the most. Most of the time family, friends, education and humanity come out on top. And where did we put possessions? Right at the bottom.

What we do then is ask the young people to list what they value when they go shopping. This list has slightly different results. Price is almost always at the top followed by fit and brand. At the bottom of the list are fair-trade, country of origin and quality. Why is this? Especially when workers are still beaten and paid poorly for the sake of our clothes?

One of the young people in a group we worked with recently compared her lists and said “All the humane things are at the top such as family and friends but in the second list those same things are at the bottom and everything is switched round.” Another participant said “we like to think we put other people first but we don’t.”

The amount of clothes we buy here in the UK has a direct affect on the conditions and amount of hours workers are forced to work. For the first time ever demand is higher than production. Workers are under extreme pressure to deliver on numbers and produce as many clothes as possible for us to wear for 6 months and then throw away.

We need to reflect on our values and use those when we go shopping. We need to Demand better quality clothes and for them to carry a fair-trade label and not a £2 tag! We can show humanity we care by holding onto our clothes for longer. Staying away from clothes of poor quality can help reduce the enormous amount of clothes sitting in landfills.

What are your values? Are they the same when you are buying clothes?

"Eco-Fashion Tale" - 'The Empress' new clothes..'

Recent fairy tales for children have included Toy Story, Finding Nemo and Up. None of these films would be classified as traditional Cinderella fairy tale types of stories. But they are fairy tales none the less. They all deal with adult themes but in a fun, playful way.

Could Toy Story be encouraging young people to appreciate the toys they already have, and not disregard them when new toys come along?

Should there be a “Clothes Story”? they may not come alive when your out of the room but the journey they have been on is just as important and how you treat your clothes after a while can effect our own world.

Dimitra Giannopoulou has created a fairy tale about fast fashion for teenagers. She believes this is the strongest way to engage and get the message across to young people. I guess it is better that they know about the issues sooner rather than later.



British actress Gabrielle Anwar said in an interview with EcoStilleto that she

“Used to watch a cartoon show on the BBC about these little creatures called the Wombles who went around picking up trash and recycling it in their underground warren. There was an enchanting quality to recycling, so I aspired to be Womble-like.”

The brain is the most open-minded when young, could childhood be the best time to plant the ethical fashion seeds?

Watch the film and let us know your thoughts...

Confused about what to do?... I am!

Spot the difference

Left: Finisterre Hoodie £90, Right: Topman Hoodie £20

As I started my day today at work, I did the usual: checking emails, reading the news and answering the phone. In between all that, I thought I would take a 5 minute break and see if there were any ethical online shops selling men’s blazers. Well, half an hour later I didn’t find a blazer but I saw this hoodie on Finisterre.

Finisterre were founded in 2002, the UK-based company has always tried to produce high quality athletic gear with the least amount of ecological impact. So they’re an ethical brand. This hoodie retails for £90. Here’s the shocking part. I have seen a similar one in Topman for £20!

They are almost similar in look, except the £90 hoodie on the left has been made with Finisterre’s philosophy of trying to make sustainable clothes to help preserve the world we live in. It is made from organic cotton / merino wool fabric.

And the Topman hoodie on the right is made from 50% polyester and 50% cotton. Polyester is a plastic, and manufacturing polyester burns large amounts of hydrocarbons and a significant amount of CO2 is released into the atmosphere. This is creating the greenhouse effect, and in turn spurs climate change on.

So there’s a dilemma, do I buy the cheaper one or the one, that will not have as much of a negative impact on the environment and is of better quality?

Which would you choose?

Is it a bird? Is it a plane?

No one can pretend they have not heard of the ash cloud that disrupted our air travel, the repurcussions of which are still being felt. If all air flights one day got completely banned what would happen to our clothes? Garment export accounts for 80% of export earnings.

There is 1000 tonnes of Bangladeshi garments sitting at Dhaka airport. Should we be relying on another country for such a large amount of goods? What if air flights were banned forever, where would our clothes come from?

So many of the UK’s manufacturing services are outsourced. In the last ten years we have seen nearly every big company move call centres and factories off shore in an effort to drive down costs. It seems they accounted for every cost except the environmental cost.

Garment factories have been indicated as a good source of development for a poor economy. But in this vulnerable and volatile climate age should we be looking at other methods of development?

What do you think? Should we start making our own clothes here in the UK and let the people in India and Bangladesh make clothes just for the people in their country. It seems unfair that they have to make so many tonnes of clothes which they aren’t even going to wear. Let us hear your opinions.

How to get the spotlight on Ethical clothes?

Whenever I do look for organic or ethically produced products the one thing that holds me back from buying it, is the price.

A pair of jeans that would cost me £30 on the high street cost more just because they are ethically produced. But at the same time I don’t want to buy something that I know has been made at the expense of someone else.

At a recent ‘Fashion Forward’ event hosted by Fashioning an ethical industry, the attendees were asked how to get ethical fashion into the mainstream. In my opinion, the one thing that stops a large majority of people from making thoughtful purchases is the price.

Yet a lot of people thought ethical fashion was in the same league as Prada, Dior and Gucci “If people can pay that much for Gucci, then they can pay that much for an ethical product.”

I ask - who is buying Gucci anyway? Should ethical fashion be compared to luxury brands? Or should ethical fashion start looking at where the majority of clothing purchases are made?

Value retailers (cheap retailers) have doubled in size within the last five years. 40% of clothes are now bought from these retailers in the UK. So if you want people to pay more attention to ethical clothes you should look at where the majority shops and why they shop there. It’s important to know your competition.

People Tree seems to have the right idea. Reasonable prices and fashionable clothes with the added bonus of Emma Watson as the face of the brand. Their clothes could easily be mistaken for something from the TopShop brand.

What do you think?

Let Barbie help you get in touch with your creative side

I am a 22 year old male and I spent my Friday playing with dolls. Yes that’s right dolls, and I loved it!

I attended the Fashioning an ethical industry event in Bristol a few weeks ago and was lucky enough to be a part of Lyla Patel of Traid’s workshop.

We were all handed a doll with a generic, basic black dress. At first I felt a little silly dressing up a doll but there was so much fabric and shiny stuff on the table I had no excuse to not come up with something. The end result was a hit if I do say so myself.

The fascinating part of the activity was seeing everybody else’s individual takes on dressing the doll. Each one was completely different from the last. I was shocked to see how everyone could interpret the same dress in such a unique and different manner. The workshop really brought to life Sheena Mathieken’s uniform project who has been making her dress look completely different everyday for the past 10 months.

This made me wonder, why don’t people customise their clothes a lot more in their day to day lives? Imagine some of the amazing creations we would see in a single day.

The reason people may be afraid of looking different could be down to their fears to look less than ordinary. Nobody wants to look different because we are all trying to fit in with one another and most of us use the excuse of ‘I am just not a creative person’.

But when put in a position like I was with the doll activity you realise how much power you have over your look. And how many dynamic creations you can come up with if you just experiment. It just depends on how much you dare to be different.

Image Credit- Freddycat1 on Flickr at Creative Commons