Where Fashion and Ethics Overlap

In H&M there is a cotton jumper for €19.99, and in American Apparel there is an almost identical version for €48.99. Which one do you chose? But before you decide, consider this: Whilst the workers for H&M based in Cambodia receive $0.26 per hour, American Apparel, based in Los Angeles, pays workers $11. The CEO of America Apparel calls it, “the fucking industrial revolution” before commenting, “we will end Gap in my time”.

So what’s so bad about Gap and why should we care? Should we really equate the cost of an item of clothing with the quality of life of a textiles worker?

Sadly, the Western fashion market does. The development of the free-market has distorted working standards, and allowed clothes to be manufactured at very low costs whilst being sold at relatively high ones. H&M, for example, gained a $10.4 billion profit in 2013, very little of which made it’s way to the manufacturers in Cambodia. 

I decided to take these questions and ideas to the streets of Utrecht:

The first man I approached was with his wife and young child in the Oudegracht. He admitted that prior to raising a family he hadn’t considered where his clothes were sourced. However, raising a child had put into perspective how important quality of life is. The whole family now buy the majority of their clothes from a German designer and manufacturer.

Similarly, a young woman said that she had not held the sustainability of her clothing as priority until the fur-scandal reached the Netherlands. She had taken part in demonstrations and happily showed me her jeans that were made by Kuyichi, a biological cotton brand.

So, this marks the beginning of an ongoing project – How much do we really know about where our clothes come from? Are we aware of the unethical distribution of wealth by clothing companies, or do we just choose to ignore it for the sake of our own pockets? I look forward to finding this one out.

(photo via pinterest)