Fashion was once split into four different seasons. They came at four distinct times during the year, split into Spring/Summer, Fall/Winter, Resort, and Pre-Fall. With brands such as Zara, H&M, and even more recently, Fashion Nova, dominating the industry, fashion seasons have diminished as hundreds of new products are made available each and every day.
Today, fast-fashion brands do not design their clothing to last. These clothes become artifacts of consumerism; one day they might become an important part of the fossil record. Archeologists may one day dig through landfills, taken over by nature as the earth heals itself, only discover evidence of Zara and H&M. The whole of the fashion biosphere—production methods, labor practices, environmental impacts—can be traced back to one thing: the horrific history of the garment industry.
When looking at the textile and fashion industry, it is important to recognize that this industry has always held a place in one of the darkest corners of the world economy—our history being no exception. Textiles and fashion were crucial to the development of a globalized capitalist system through the Industrial Revolution. Today, the abuses of that industry are built on a long history of slave labor. This is the historic labor that took place in the Southern part of the United States, which supplied factories in England, where horrific child labor took place. And in the United States, factory fires took lives of immigrants during the turn of the 20th century.
While it is easy to recognize the history of the industry, it’s important to voice that this is still happening today. Garment workers are victims of wage theft, gross neglect, and exploitation in places like Bangladesh, China, Vietnam, India and even here at home, in places like Los Angeles. Fashion thrives and depends on the victimization of the powerless and on keeping them in that position.
In 2013, an explosion caused by gross neglect on management’s part, killed 1,100 people and injured another 2,500 in Bangladesh at the Rana Plaza factory. Media coverage was widespread. It would seem that facing an event like this would diminish fashion spending. The same year, Americans spent over $340 billion on fashion, much of it produced in Bangladesh.
Modern slave labor does not look like it did historically. In fact, a new report by the Global Slavery Index suggests that the fashion supply chain funnels and demands more money than any other industry (besides tech) towards modern slavery. The report states that $127.7 billion worth of garments at risk of including slave labor in their supply chain are imported annually by a group of nations accountable for over 80 percent of world trade, which includes the United States.
The truth is, over eighty million pieces of clothing are sold annually across the globe. During the mid-1960s, over 95 percent of America’s clothing was made domestically. Today, that number is nearly impossible to find in stores — 97 percent of America’s clothing is made abroad. Today, the industry is the second most polluting industry on Earth, second to only oil and a $2.5 trillion sector.
Executive producer of The True Cost, a documentary film which focuses on fashion’s sustainability, commented on what got her to take on the issue. “We are sold this myth that to buy a dress for under $10 is democratic—but it’s democratic for who?” She goes on to state, “Fast fashion depletes the Earth’s resources and uses slave labor all over the world. Eventually the resources will deplete, the profit margins will shrink, and there will be revolutions in the streets”.
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