Burberry, the British label, revealed that it had been burning — not metaphorically but literally: burning — $37 million of worth of merchandise per year to maintain “brand value.”
It absolutely should be. It's criminal to destroy something that could meet the basic needs of a human being, and at clearly no meaningful material cost to the manufacturer. I have nothing but...
It absolutely should be. It's criminal to destroy something that could meet the basic needs of a human being, and at clearly no meaningful material cost to the manufacturer. I have nothing but disgust for these people.
This was a really interesting read (and compellingly written). Thank you for posting it. I have two questions, both only tangentially related to the article. Is everyone's job...
This was a really interesting read (and compellingly written). Thank you for posting it.
I have two questions, both only tangentially related to the article.
Is everyone's job accelerating/compressing past a point of comfort or even sanity?
I've talked about it here with respect to teaching, the article addresses this in the fashion industry, I see it with friends in other fields. It feels we're a big sponge slowly being squeezed, and we've reached a point of severely diminishing returns. There's an incredible amount of pressure applied to us yet it's only releasing a few drops rather than the full flow it once did. Do more -- and faster! -- can only work for so long until it reaches a breaking point, and I feel like many people I know are ready to break.
What are reasonable prices for clothes?
I feel like I have no idea what actual clothes should cost. The bottom end for clothes is undoubtedly so inexpensive because of terrible labor practices, which makes items artificially cheap through exploitation. Meanwhile, the top end sees brands and designers artificially inflating prices on account of their status alone. In the worst case scenario, they probably combine these two forces, charging premium prestige prices for sweatshop products for maximum profit.
What should an ethically made item of clothing reasonably cost, assuming everyone involved in its design and production are fairly -- but not excessively -- compensated? Also, are there any companies that do this? I'd love to start getting my clothes from better places than the department stores I usually buy from.
For #1; I can say that there's a similar squeeze that's happened in bookkeeping over the last few years. For #2, my wife tried for a short while to make and sell custom clothes in one of the more...
For #1; I can say that there's a similar squeeze that's happened in bookkeeping over the last few years. For #2, my wife tried for a short while to make and sell custom clothes in one of the more expensive area in the US; we calculated that to make a living here a single, simple garment like a blouse would need to cost $200+ to cover fitting + sewing. Here's a great article she recommends.
I did a little investigating and it seems as though this company is a solid benchmark on the clothing side - they aren't pushing the bespoke, handmade, super-premium angle, so you still have the...
I did a little investigating and it seems as though this company is a solid benchmark on the clothing side - they aren't pushing the bespoke, handmade, super-premium angle, so you still have the benefits of efficient production lines and economies of scale, but made with the express goal of paying a living wage to the workers.
Looks like about £22 ($29) for a t-shirt, £49 ($65) for a shirt, £79 ($100) for jeans. On the one hand, that's easily approaching 10x what you might pay for the cheapest of the cheap fast fashion; on the other, it's not couture pricing either. It's within range for most, but it would definitely force many people to adopt a more utilitarian attitude on fashion.
To add to this on the European side, there's a German company doing the same thing, simple, pretty affordable clothing made in a sustainable fashion: https://www.grundstoff.net/ Can recommend.
To add to this on the European side, there's a German company doing the same thing, simple, pretty affordable clothing made in a sustainable fashion: https://www.grundstoff.net/
Yeah this and other articles make me wonder if anyone is actually happy with the way things are. It seems like even C-Suite execs in major corporations feel like they don't get to do anything fun...
I've talked about it here with respect to teaching, the article addresses this in the fashion industry, I see it with friends in other fields.
Yeah this and other articles make me wonder if anyone is actually happy with the way things are. It seems like even C-Suite execs in major corporations feel like they don't get to do anything fun with work anymore. I know partners in big law who hate it. Doctors hate medicine. Congressmen and Senators seem to think they don't even get to do anything meaningful. It's like nobody actually feels like they have any agency anymore. The only people who seem to be content are heads in finance and tech.
I feel like I have no idea what actual clothes should cost
The funny thing about this is that people seem to have some kind of fixed idea about what's adequate to spend on clothes. When clothes were more expensive people spent a lot on a handful of outfits and took really good care of them. As clothes got cheaper, people didn't simply save money on clothes they just started buying more clothes. And social expectations changed with it. Suddenly people feel weird about wearing the same outfits week after week which would have been fine a generation ago. So it's not even like people are at liberty to buck the trend.
We see the same thing with streaming services. People used to spend an average of about $150/month on cable TV. Now that cable is dying, people seem to be settling on about $150/mo on various streaming subscriptions. We get access to more content for the money, arguably, but it seems like we're fixated, as a society, on turning improvements in productivity into more consumption and never into more leisure.
All of that to say, I think it would actually make no impact on peoples' emotional/social well-being if clothes got significantly more expensive. Social norms would adapt to push people towards having fewer--but more durable and better made--articles of clothing and they'd be just as content (if not moreso) with that state of affairs as they are now.
“We’ve done everything to such excess that there is no consumer for all of it,” Jacobs told Vogue. “Everyone is exhausted by it. The designers are exhausted by it. The journalists are exhausted from following it.” He added, “When you’re just told to produce, to produce, to produce, it’s like having a gun to your head and saying, you know, Dance, monkey!”
I can't help but think it's a good thing to have covid pump the brakes on an industry as wasteful as fast fashion and yet with so many jobs and vulnerable people dependant on it in the whole...
I can't help but think it's a good thing to have covid pump the brakes on an industry as wasteful as fast fashion and yet with so many jobs and vulnerable people dependant on it in the whole supply chain its scary how much Americans buying less fashion can impact third world factory workers.
I think fast fashion is actually pretty awful for developing country economies as well. It ends up flooding their markets with unsustainably cheap product, so they have no ability to develop a...
I think fast fashion is actually pretty awful for developing country economies as well. It ends up flooding their markets with unsustainably cheap product, so they have no ability to develop a domestic textile industry because there’s no domestic market. They can only make cheap shit for export under sweatshop conditions. And we here end up paying for 3 or 4 shirts any time we buy one because of the weird JIT inventory stuff they do.
This is astonishing. This should be illegal.
It absolutely should be. It's criminal to destroy something that could meet the basic needs of a human being, and at clearly no meaningful material cost to the manufacturer. I have nothing but disgust for these people.
This was a really interesting read (and compellingly written). Thank you for posting it.
I have two questions, both only tangentially related to the article.
I've talked about it here with respect to teaching, the article addresses this in the fashion industry, I see it with friends in other fields. It feels we're a big sponge slowly being squeezed, and we've reached a point of severely diminishing returns. There's an incredible amount of pressure applied to us yet it's only releasing a few drops rather than the full flow it once did. Do more -- and faster! -- can only work for so long until it reaches a breaking point, and I feel like many people I know are ready to break.
I feel like I have no idea what actual clothes should cost. The bottom end for clothes is undoubtedly so inexpensive because of terrible labor practices, which makes items artificially cheap through exploitation. Meanwhile, the top end sees brands and designers artificially inflating prices on account of their status alone. In the worst case scenario, they probably combine these two forces, charging premium prestige prices for sweatshop products for maximum profit.
What should an ethically made item of clothing reasonably cost, assuming everyone involved in its design and production are fairly -- but not excessively -- compensated? Also, are there any companies that do this? I'd love to start getting my clothes from better places than the department stores I usually buy from.
For #1; I can say that there's a similar squeeze that's happened in bookkeeping over the last few years. For #2, my wife tried for a short while to make and sell custom clothes in one of the more expensive area in the US; we calculated that to make a living here a single, simple garment like a blouse would need to cost $200+ to cover fitting + sewing. Here's a great article she recommends.
That, and the followup article were great reads. A big thank you to your wife for the recommendation!
I did a little investigating and it seems as though this company is a solid benchmark on the clothing side - they aren't pushing the bespoke, handmade, super-premium angle, so you still have the benefits of efficient production lines and economies of scale, but made with the express goal of paying a living wage to the workers.
Looks like about £22 ($29) for a t-shirt, £49 ($65) for a shirt, £79 ($100) for jeans. On the one hand, that's easily approaching 10x what you might pay for the cheapest of the cheap fast fashion; on the other, it's not couture pricing either. It's within range for most, but it would definitely force many people to adopt a more utilitarian attitude on fashion.
To add to this on the European side, there's a German company doing the same thing, simple, pretty affordable clothing made in a sustainable fashion: https://www.grundstoff.net/
Can recommend.
Yeah this and other articles make me wonder if anyone is actually happy with the way things are. It seems like even C-Suite execs in major corporations feel like they don't get to do anything fun with work anymore. I know partners in big law who hate it. Doctors hate medicine. Congressmen and Senators seem to think they don't even get to do anything meaningful. It's like nobody actually feels like they have any agency anymore. The only people who seem to be content are heads in finance and tech.
The funny thing about this is that people seem to have some kind of fixed idea about what's adequate to spend on clothes. When clothes were more expensive people spent a lot on a handful of outfits and took really good care of them. As clothes got cheaper, people didn't simply save money on clothes they just started buying more clothes. And social expectations changed with it. Suddenly people feel weird about wearing the same outfits week after week which would have been fine a generation ago. So it's not even like people are at liberty to buck the trend.
We see the same thing with streaming services. People used to spend an average of about $150/month on cable TV. Now that cable is dying, people seem to be settling on about $150/mo on various streaming subscriptions. We get access to more content for the money, arguably, but it seems like we're fixated, as a society, on turning improvements in productivity into more consumption and never into more leisure.
All of that to say, I think it would actually make no impact on peoples' emotional/social well-being if clothes got significantly more expensive. Social norms would adapt to push people towards having fewer--but more durable and better made--articles of clothing and they'd be just as content (if not moreso) with that state of affairs as they are now.
I can't help but think it's a good thing to have covid pump the brakes on an industry as wasteful as fast fashion and yet with so many jobs and vulnerable people dependant on it in the whole supply chain its scary how much Americans buying less fashion can impact third world factory workers.
I think fast fashion is actually pretty awful for developing country economies as well. It ends up flooding their markets with unsustainably cheap product, so they have no ability to develop a domestic textile industry because there’s no domestic market. They can only make cheap shit for export under sweatshop conditions. And we here end up paying for 3 or 4 shirts any time we buy one because of the weird JIT inventory stuff they do.