The Zara
workers’ protest shows why fast fashion should worry all of us
Daisy
Buchanan
With
workers for a supplier in Turkey putting notes in clothes complaining over pay,
has sexism prevented us from taking industry exploitation seriously?
Wednesday 8
November 2017 16.50 GMT Last modified on Wednesday 8 November 2017 16.51 GMT
If I search
for #Zara on Instagram, I can see well over 22m posts of people wearing
clothing that was bought from the retailer, everywhere from Dublin to
Dubrovnik, New York to Newport. If you’re reading this in an office, I’d bet
you a tenner that someone, somewhere in the building is wearing a Zara shirt or
jacket. In the UK, Zara has been a high-street fixture since 1998, and has a
growing number of stores. Millions of us have brought the brand into our homes
– and so millions of us should be shocked and infuriated by reports that
factory workers in Istanbul have been hiding notes in the clothes that they
have been producing for one of Zara’s suppliers, pleading for help. One note
apparently read: “I made this item you are going to buy, but I didn’t get paid
for it.” The workers were reportedly left unpaid after their factory shut down
overnight.
As
retailers start to offer credit to their young customers, it’s scarily easy to
spend money we don’t have on clothes
Inditex,
Zara’s parent company, has since promised to reimburse its sub-contractor’s
workers as soon as possible. But the rise in rampant consumerism remains a
worry. The value of the UK fashion industry has jumped to £26bn (up from £21bn
in 2009) and fashion bucks broader growth trends – to put it simply, our
appetite for new shoes and accessories is growing more quickly than our
appetite for food. We know that our love of fast fashion is terrible for the
environment. It was estimated that this spring Britons would send 235m pieces
of clothing to landfill. Consumer debt levels are reaching an all-time high,
and as retailers such as Asos are starting to offer credit options to their
young customers, it’s scarily easy to spend money we don’t have on clothes we
don’t need.
I wonder
whether our failure to address the fast fashion problem is because it affects
more women than men, at every level. Even though research conducted earlier
this year found that British men typically spend more on their clothes than
women, fashion and clothes are routinely dismissed as trivial, feminine
interests. Women are exploited and mocked, disproportionately targeted by
advertisers and then accused of being frivolous and fluffy for spending their
hard-earned money on a shopping trip. That’s just at the consumer end. More
seriously, it’s estimated that, of the 750 million garment workers who are
employed to make our clothes, 80% are women, working in dangerous conditions
and not being paid a living wage, if they’re being paid at all. Globally,
poverty affects women first. More than 70% of the world’s poorest people are
women.
Activists protest in Brussels on the first
anniversary in 2014 of Bangladesh’s Rana Plaza factory collapse. Photograph:
Francois Lenoir/Reuters
In 2013,
Rana Plaza, a building in Bangladesh that housed five garment factories,
collapsed, killing more than 1,100 people and injuring thousands more. At the
time, the tragedy was believed to be a wake-up call, one that would permanently
change the way that the goods we consume are produced. Yet just 17 brands have
signed the Apparel and Footwear Supply Chain Transparency Pledge, and there has
been a spate of fires in garment factories.
It’s too
easy to dismiss the complaints of underpaid workers as a women’s problem. When
we do this, we don’t acknowledge that every one of us is part of the solution,
regardless of gender. I know many men and women who are horrified by the way so
many of our clothes are produced, and are doing their best to consume more
carefully, by introducing no-spend months or ensuring that they only ever buy
second-hand clothes. However, we need a much more effective solution, and
something that can be implemented at a higher level.
A globally
agreed, industry-wide minimum wage and safety standards for all workers is
imperative. It’s important that manufacturers would face serious, punitive
consequences for failing to meet these standards. Ultimately the brands must
take responsibility for making these changes – but even if consumers can’t lead
this revolution, we can agitate for it.
The 2015
ethical consumer report shows that the ethical market in the UK has grown to
£38bn, meaning the it is now worth twice as much as the tobacco market. The
evidence suggests that we care about where our clothes come from, and we don’t
necessarily want them to be produced as cheaply as possible – not when lives
are at stake.
I’m not
sure that the best way to support these workers is to stop shopping altogether.
This action does not address the fact that the fashion industry could
potentially be a positive space for women, and provide opportunities for them
as skilled workers and consumers. It’s vital that we recognise the industry’s
wider value. Paying the predominantly female workers properly might cut into
profit margins, or force us to pay more for our jeans – but it gives workers
the chance to lead happier, safer lives, to live in better conditions and to
educate their children, which is ultimately going to provide an enormous boost
to the global economy.
Analysts at
Euromonitor predict that global demand for menswear will outstrip womenswear by
2020, a clear indicator that this isn’t simply a concern of just one half of
the population. It’s time for every one of us to start taking fashion and its
provenance seriously.
• Daisy
Buchanan is a columnist and features writer covering arts, entertainment and
women’s issues.
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