Mandy Nolan’s ENTERTAINMENT
WHO MADE YOUR CLOTHES?
SOAPBOX
S E E M O R E O F M A N DY O N E C H O N E T DA I LY W W W. E C H O. N E T. A U /S OA P - B OX
I don’t like to think about who makes my clothes. I am sitting here in my $9 one-shoulder dress I bought online. I was so impressed with the price I bought three. That’s right – I got three frocks for $27 and I didn’t even have to leave the house. The woman who made this dress probably doesn’t even have a house. You couldn’t make a dress like this in Australia for $9. My kids’ daily canteen budget is $10. How can fabric and labour cost $9? It’s actually not possible. If the dress could be sewn in one minute and the fabric were bought at 50c, then perhaps. But even then no Australian worker is going to be putting out 60 frocks an hour.
the same fabric handled by some poor Chinese garment worker squatting beside her overlocker in the kitchen with her baby close by. She gets paid by the piece. There is an enormous pile of nylon oneshoulder dress cutouts in a box in the corner that she pulls out and feeds through her machine.
Part of her wonders why rich western women would only want to wear a dress with one sleeve. She thinks rich women must be stupid. Or perhaps these dresses are for rich onearmed women? This makes her feel more purpose in her work. It’s 1am and she’s been at her machine for 12 hours when she sews my dress‌ you see when I think like that I can’t wear my No, my cheap dress was clearly $9 dress. That sense of ‘I nailed it on eBay with a bargain’ pride made in the Third World. My fat affluent arse now touches just floats out the window and
Live Music
is replaced by ‘I am part of a greedy capitalist economy that forces women and children into unsafe and unregulated work practices’.
This is how places like Walmart make their profit. When you really think about this, it’s hard to buy that $3 t-shirt from Kmart without a sense that your child’s t-shirt was I am the oppressor. Now my $9 frock feels ugly. It feels like probably made by a child. Interestingly it’s not that we murder. Like it was complicit don’t know this. Employment to the death of 117 people conditions for overseas in that Dhaka factory fire in garment workers are well Bangladesh. Caused by an electrical short-circuit, that fire known. We know that children stitch our brand-name runners. started on the ground floor We’re happy to produce and trapped workers for nine floors above. The large amount goods in Indonesia if the profit of fabric meant the fire spread margin is greater, with many of us here more than happy quickly and was hard to to use places like Bali as our contain. The fire burned for sewing room. more than 17 hours before it was extinguished. The building There’s nothing like taking lacked adequate emergency advantage of a third-world exits so the workers basically economy to up your firstwere trapped in the burning world profits. From an factory awaiting their death. economic rationalist point
a particularly bad day at work that she says ‘provoked me to make an overnight decision that would change my life forever. White Walls is about escaping Former pharmacist and now the confinement of my cookiesinger/songwriter Nicole Cross cut white-walled apartment, will be making her way from quitting my job, travelling the Townsville QLD to perform at Mullum Music Festival (Nov 19–22) world and pursuing my lifelong dream of becoming a full-time after winning this year’s Play Mullum Songwriting Competition singer/songwriter. In a past life I spent my days legally with her song White Walls. The distributing prescription drugs theme of this year’s songwriting as a pharmacist. I hung up my competition was One Day Can white coat for good, replaced Change Everything. Nicole it with a guitar strap and other wrote the song White Walls after n • ‘’ T h e
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18–20 Marvell Street Byron 6685 6202
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The northern rivers community will come together on Sunday for a benefit gig to celebrate environmental community legal centre EDO NSW’s 30 years of protecting the environment through law.
The benefit gig at the Hotel Brunswick will feature renowned local acts Bobby Alu and the Palm Royale, Jimmy Willing and the Real Gone Hick-Ups, Ziggy Alberts, and Sara Tindley. There will also be speeches from Aboriginal elder and EDO NSW client Mick Ryan and Byron Shire mayor Simon Richardson, plus the chance to win great raffle prizes. 3–8.30pm. Gold-coin entry.
Earlier this year I met an extraordinary young
woman of just 16 who had been so affected by the fire in Bangladesh that she researched factory conditions at the places where she bought her clothes. Then she stopped buying anything exploitive. She founded a company called Who Made Your Pants? – an ethical underwear company in the UK run by women for women. I was so impressed that someone so young could change her behaviour. I wondered then why someone as informed and as intelligent as I am couldn’t.
Interested in finding out more? The True Cost, a film about who makes your clothes, is being screened at The Secret Garden (121 Jonson St, Byron) on Thursday at 6pm. Nicole Cross will perform a 20-minute set at Mullum Music Festival. Thursday 19 till Sunday 22 November. www.mullummusicfestival. com Festival hotline 6684 6195. Tickets range across $82–240 (adults), $16–60 (children).
Club By
USING MUSIC TO CELEBRATE 30 YEARS OF THE EDO
It seems a bit harsh for those of us wishing to escape the blame, but every time we buy something made with suffering, we have bought into our smug profit-driven first-world superiority. So why do ethical people have a blind spot when it comes to fashion? And why is there so little pressure on the fashion industry to take responsibility?
NICOLE CROSS IS PERFORMING A 20-MINUTE SET AT THE MULLUM MUSIC FESTIVAL, THURSDAY 19–SUNDAY 22 NOVEMBER
THE PHARMACIST WHO WANTED TO PLAY BOBBY ALU & THE PALM ROYALE PLAYING THE HOTEL BRUNSWICK ON SUNDAY, HELPING RAISE FUNDS FOR THE NSW BRANCH OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE OFFICE
of view, it’s hard to look past the profit margins once you have established the Third World makes a great factory. The main thing is to try not to think of those people as actual people. Those children sewing your undies, they aren’t like your children‌ they aren’t special.
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various items of clothing and now spend my days writing songs and sharing them with the world.’ The editorial team of Australia’s highly respected national music magazine Rhythms judges the annual competition. ‘The quality and diversity of this year’s Play Mullum entries was downright astonishing,’ said Martin Jones, judge and Rhythms editor. ‘From electronica to reggae to blues to stoner rock, this year’s finalist entries were all amazingly well recorded and performed and all worthy of winning.’
HEAR IT ON THE VINE AT THE COURT HOUSE EVERY THURSDAY! Having recently been nominated for four NCEIA Dolphin awards and taken away the blues trophy, Deidi Vine is back on the gig horse again, for a regular Thursday night at Mullumbimby’s Court House Hotel with special guests, belting out soul, blues, reggae and pop tunes. Every Thursday except the first one of the month (that’s comedy night!).
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FAT ALBERT
$25!
EARLYBIRD S P E C IA L
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FRI 27TH & SAT 28TH NOVEMBER
COUR 680 1008
CANAPÉS & DRINKS FROM 6.30 PM SHOW STARTS 7.30 PM PURCHASE YOUR TICKETS ONLINE AT BOOKINGS.BANGALOW THEATRE . COM. AU OR BAREBONES ARTSPACE, BANGALOW MUSIC & LYRICS BY LISA LAMBERT & GREG MORRISON
North Coast news daily: www.echonetdaily.net.au
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8.30pm FRIDAY 13 NOVEMBER @thegreenbistrobyronbay thegreenbistrobyronbay.com.au
LQ WKH 3DFLĂ€F 5RRP 2UDQD 5RDG 2FHDQ 6KRUHV ZZZ RFHDQVKRUHVFF FRP DX The Byron Shire Echo November 11, 2015 31