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The Cyprus Dossier
Fashioning Identity by
— Eleni Christou
[Eng]
CYD °04 www.cyprusdossier.com
Fashioning Identity
Eleni Christou
One of the most visible ways we demonstrate and express our identity is through what we wear. Fashion and clothing choices are a way for us to differentiate ourselves, an avenue of creative expression, to signify our belonging to a particular group or subculture — our engagement, or our indifference. Clothing consumption is no longer solely based on its use value, but what it projects to the world about the wearer. Outside of work, many of us lack the time and capacity to indulge our interests, cultivate new ones, produce our own goods and define ourselves by our capabilities. 1
Such traditional avenues for creating identity and individuality have been replaced by a compulsion to consume; to reflect ourselves through what we buy. A consumer identity, however, is at the ransom of corporations, providing a surplus of readymade goods to suit all price levels and tastes. 2 A strategy that may resemble benevolence, but not without ethical implications.
THE READYMADE IDENTITY The philosophy of ‘Fast Fashion’ emphasises the importance of refurbishing our ‘looks’ on a weekly rather than seasonal basis. Fast Fashion brands are pioneers of the readymade identity, accelerating their clothing design and manufacturing process to meet the rapidly changing trends defined by ‘taste makers’ around the world. The popularity of weekly fashion magazines, sponsored blogs, social networking, viral marketing and, of course, brand websites, increases the pace of fashion change and consumption. Fast Fashion’s design and production model seeks to transform ‘high fashion’ style into common trend, convincing consumers that what is demonstrated on the catwalks actually represents popular fashion. European Fashion brands are world leaders in the industry.
The key players are household names: Zara, Topshop, H&M. Exercising high sensitivity to the desires of the consumer, these brands respond and react to every single modification in popular trend. For example, H&M, launching fashion that was effectively disposable, cut its lead time from design to rail to just three weeks. 3
Shrinking the period in which clothes are designed, produced and couriered to the retail store, known formerly as ‘quick response’, Fast Fashion offers consumers a readymade identity on a weekly basis. Spanish fashion monopoliser Zara takes this industrial nimbleness one step further, by manufacturing small quantities of each style, ensuring that their collections are considered ‘exclusive’, perpetuating an anxiety in consumers that they may ‘miss out’. Fashion cycles are increasingly straying from the traditional four season framework, creating a generation of consumers purchasing to replace, rather than to compliment their existing collection at an ever-increasing pace.
THE FASHION ARMY The multibillion dollar fashion industry is sustained by an estimated 250,000 garment export factories worldwide, which employ approximately 40 million garment workers. 4 This army of staff cover the vital point of the production process where clothes are actually made — the crucial element that makes the nature of these clothes both fast and cheap. However, these workers are subject to low pay, long hours, verbal and physical abuse, and unsanitary working conditions. Fast Fashion’s creative outsourcing methods also extend to the employment of ‘home workers’. 5 Nameless middlemen and a complex production line, constructed carefully to preserve anonymity, hide the faces and talents of these people and their link to fashion empires. Although these workers possess the unique skills to produce intricate and detailed clothing, they will likely never afford the price tags. The talents of these employees are unidentifiable in the pristine retail stores and ad campaigns where their clothes are flaunted as objects of desire. Both the brand and the consumer are culpable for ensuring these lifestyles, linked by chains of production and consumption. Keeping the fantasy of fashion alive, the sweatshops churning and the home workers employed is the concept
of ‘planned obsolescence’. Planned obsolescence is the practice of designing and producing goods to have a limited lifespan yet require regular replacement. Minor and major amendments are made to designs at increasing frequencies, ensuring their time as ‘cool’ is limited, marking indelibly if a piece was purchased during an earlier fashion cycle. Retailers, including H&M, Topshop and Zara, sell garments that are expected to be used less than ten times, at very competitive price points, further contributing to the phenomenon of disposing of garments that have not been worn to their full potential. 6 Although mass production keeps the supply of goods flowing into the marketplace, it also reduces the amount of income workers receive. The decreasing wages lead to a shortfall of demand. So the capitalist (the Fast Fashion brand) is left with an excess of unsold goods, having deprived the working class of the revenue needed to buy them — the result is a crisis of generalised overproduction. 7 So, what happens to these unsold goods? Furthermore, what happens to our clothes once they have passed their proverbial ‘use by’ date or are no longer considered fashionable?
THE DEATH AND REBIRTH OF OUR CLOTHING The impact of fast fashion and its disposable philosophy is layered and complex. Due to the nature of Fast Fashion textiles, much of what is discarded is synthetic and hard to recycle and reuse, thus significantly contributing to landfill. The impact on charity stores and textile recycling organisations is another extensive journey. Donations are larger and more frequent, but their quality is decreasing. Charity stores struggle to sell excess stock and compete with the low prices of Fast Fashion brands. Wardrobe turnaround is so rapid that donations are often a season old and unworn when they enter charity stores. 8 In addition, fashion chains often sell (or sometimes donate) their surplus clothing. This process may appear a gesture of goodwill, but it’s also an exercise in shifting the burden of disposing unsold stock. The real fate of our clothing, whether donated direct to a charity or through a textile recycling collection, is at the mercy of a grading process. For example, in Australia, 9 clothing donations are thoroughly checked and divided into 3 categories: A, B and C grade. A grade donations are garments that are in good condition or valuable, and suitable for resale in store. B and C grade are considered old or soiled. These garments