It’s pretty rare that I watch a documentary that causes as sharp of a paradigm shift as this one did. It’s similar to those documentaries showing gruesome scenes of animal slaughter to convince people to go vegetarian/vegan, but with clothes instead of cows.
The True Cost is about the environmental and societal impacts of the clothes production process today. We’ve all heard about this on the news or the radio – the sweatshops working children for 12 hours a day, factories that collapse and kill hundreds of people. But it all seems so distant and far away that it’s easy to just brush it off and continue life as normal.
As a teenager, the rise of fast fashion stores like Forever 21 and H&M was a godsend. Don’t be mistaken, I’ve never been a fashionista and I kind of (really) hate clothes shopping. However, the ability to purchase an outfit that you could feel and look good in for $20 total was amazing. Back then, I didn’t even think twice about why it was so cheap.
John Oliver has a good bit about the problems with fast fashion, and he actually goes into a few of the reasons these problems remain persistent. First, he notes how easily the general public forgets about these injustices; the news about poor factory conditions has been repeated for the past several years and we haven’t really done much about it.
In 2012, a fire in a clothing factory in Bangladesh killed over a hundred people. Five months later, another building collapsed and killed over 1,000 people. This was five years ago, and while awareness is spreading, I would argue that most people in the US haven’t changed their shopping habits.
There a several reasons it’s actually really difficult to make consumer-driven changes.
Lack of Transparency
I did some more research on this topic and it turns out that it’s really, really difficult to tell where the clothes you buy at most stores are made. In fact, the companies themselves sometimes can’t even tell. They will contract with a certain factory in another country, and that factory will contract work out to other, cheaper factories, and it can be almost impossible to prevent this from happening. If you’ve been to a developing country, then you understand that their laws are often not followed, if they even exist.
It’s not socially acceptable to wear frumpy clothes
This may be an unpopular opinion, but I think the high value our society places on wearing fashionable clothes is a major culprit in promoting clothing waste. I may be biased because I’ve never been interested in fashion and it’s honestly always seemed rather frivolous and petty to me.
The very existence of shows like “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” and “What Not to Wear” demonstrates how much wearing the right clothes can affect others’ perception and opinion of you. Look into any thrift store and you will see mountains of perfectly functional clothing that unfortunately has mostly fallen out of style, and therefore become unwearable by American standards. If you want to look professional, well put together, and feel confident in what you’re wearing, it’s going to take a lot of searching through clothes racks to get that outfit from a thrift store.
So, what can we actually do about it?
The conclusion drawn in the documentary is, of course, to just buy incredibly expensive albeit ethically made clothing. Personally, I think a better answer is a massive shift in our culture such that used/older clothing is considered socially acceptable. Neither one of those things is likely to actually happen.
Really, the best we can do is buy used as much as possible and to actually wear our clothes as long as possible. Price of clothing is not necessarily indicative of the quality, which doesn’t make it easier. Sometimes a Target or Old Navy purchase will outlive a Lululemon purchase. Either way, the longer you can make your clothing last the better.
For myself, I’ve started to buy more clothes at outdoor companies such as Patagonia, North Face, and Columbia. I’m super lazy when it comes to washing and taking care of my clothes and comfort is key. Clothes made for outdoor activities like hiking are incredibly comfortable and durable. I know people like to snark at the athleisure trend, but I’m all about embracing it full-on. I just don’t see the point of dressing fancy in uncomfortable clothes.
Does anyone else feel like the pressure to be fashionable is causing undue stress on the environment and ourselves or is it just me?
This picture is from 2011 and I still wear that shirt!