FEATURE
Our passion for hy is ‘stuff’ so cheap? It’s become so normal that we’re probably used to it by now, but sometimes you need to say the words out loud, “These jeans are $10. This kids t-shirt is $3.50.” It seems unbelievable.
CHANGING ECONOMICS The times have definitely a-changed. A woman I know (a child of the 70s) remembers shopping with her mother as a teenager. “We’d often go and ohhh and ahhh over all the expensive clothing.” If I expressed interest in something, my mother would inspect it (as a keen sewer) and declare “I could make that for half the price!.” Now, when we shop, she’ll pick something up and declare “You couldn’t make it for that.” Quality notwithstanding of course. If it seems that clothing is cheaper than ever, that’s because it is. The NSW Parliamentary Research Service investigated relative price movements by CPI expenditure group between 2004-2014. Reporting on their findings in the November 2014 report “Rising cost of living: myth or reality?”, they found that the cost of clothing and footwear has decreased while all other groups increased. But what does this mean? As clothing becomes cheaper, the apparel business becomes all about the numbers. It’s a volume game. Low quality and high volume. It’s known as ‘fast fashion.’ Or landfill fashion, with the cheap prices and low quality of some items earning the nickname of ‘McFashion’. And it seems many of us have a passion for McFashion. It can be oh so tempting.
THE ‘EVOLUTION’ OF THE FASHION INDUSTRY Shannon Whitehead, founder of Factory45, an accelerator program that takes sustainable apparel companies from idea to launch, talks about the modern fashion industry in her August 2014 article “5 Truths the Fast 4 I THE VILLAGE OBSERVER I N0. 248 I FEBRUARY 2016
Fashion Industry Doesn’t Want You to Know”. According to Whitehead, there was a time when there were two fashion seasons – spring/ summer and fall/winter. Since 2014, the fashion industry operates in “micro-seasons”. And there are 52 of them each year. So consumers are no longer ‘out of fashion’ as seasons change twice a year, they’re out of fashion each week. And the only way to stay on trend is by accessing the revolving door of fast fashion – buy more, every week. Exhausting. The world now consumes a staggering 80 billion pieces of clothing each year. This is up 400% from two decades ago. McFashion is cheap and low quality. So not only is the garment ‘off trend’ from one week to the next, it’s unlikely to last from one week to the next. The simple fact is that much fast fashion doesn't survive more than a few washings. And as a consumer, what’s the point in looking after something when you can just toss it and buy a new one. We don’t buy items with a view to last now. Our relationship with clothing has changed.
ENOUGH ALREADY! Many of us, realising our wardrobes can no longer comfortably hold their contents, commit to de-cluttering. This can be a welcome process. And while some things are immediately thrown into the bin, there’s usually a lot that is donated to charity. This also gives the declutterer a feeling of do-gooder’s euphoria. But what do charities do with the donations? The National Association of Charitable Recycling Organisations (NACRO) offers some insight. Of the post consumer waste recovered by charities: l6 0% consists of items of clothing that can be re-worn or reused, l 1 5% can be torn into industrial wiper cloths, and l2 5% is unusable and sent to landfill However, the decline in clothing quality impacts these figures. The percentage of items that can be re-worn or reused is shrinking. And the landfill grows.
