Fashion: Ethics, Accessibility, and Exploitation

By Ines

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Think of your favorite piece of clothing. Maybe it’s your favorite because of the color, or the fabric, or the design. Regardless of the reasoning behind it, your favorite piece of clothing is most likely worn quite often. This is amazing! Unfortunately, the current trends in the fashion industry lead to enormous purchases of clothing items that people wear once or twice, and then never again. Not every piece of clothing should be your favorite per se. However, the cycle of following a trend to then refusing to wear the clothes again is extremely harmful. 

When fashion trends come and go at a rapid pace, there are many levels of destruction that occur. This all starts at the foundation of the clothing, which is based on the workers in garment factories. Because of the high demands for products, these factories will exploit the workers and their labor, thus overworking and underpaying them. 

The exploitation does not cease here. These practices exploit the environment as well as the people. The rushed development of the clothes causes factories to use cheap materials that eventually end up in the expanding landfill of the world. To reiterate, the quality of the clothing is so poor that the clothes are not sustainable enough to wear for very long and they get thrown away. As people continue to follow fashion trends, they contribute to this destructive cycle of exploitation and environmental waste. 

While these issues clearly highlight the unethical values of fast fashion, it is also significant to understand why many individuals continue to purchase these items. The influx of social media’s fixations on specific styles cause many to desire to follow the current trends. Unfortunately, not everyone is able to do so in an ethical manner due to sizing or financial issues. 

As a person who has always been very interested in fashion, I have often struggled with the financial aspect of it. Growing up, my family didn’t always have access to ethical brands, which is why a lot of my clothes were either thrifted or purchased from second-hand boutiques. Thrifting is a great way to buy clothes without directly contributing to the companies that exploit others. Additionally, the prices are reasonable and more accessible to low-income communities. When I used to thrift with my family, I couldn’t always dress according to the current styles, but I could still wear clothes that I cared about and kept them for as long as I could. 

Now that I’m older, I have access to a variety of stores that follow modern day trends, unlike a lot of the thrift stores I used to shop at. The only catch is that they are extremely unethical. Brands like H&M, Forever 21, and Shein appeal to those who buy fast fashion pieces while they trend, and throw them away with no remorse because they bought the items for so cheap. It is no wonder that these affordable clothes fall apart very quickly. They are simply not designed for sustainability. 

When I first discovered the abusive history of these corporations, I was disappointed but not shocked. To avoid shopping at similar companies, I thoroughly researched the stores in my area and found a few places where I felt comfortable shopping. This is the first step towards a more ethical and sustainable wardrobe. 

The next piece of advice is cultivating a personal style. Though this may seem irrelevant in the wider picture, it makes a crucial difference in your decisions. In my experience, having an exact style in mind has helped me decide whether or not a trend is worth my money and time. This has morphed the clothes I buy, and prevented me from feeding into another fast-fashion scheme. 
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Overall, the main issue to avoid is buying cheap clothes only to throw them away when they are no longer in style. With that being said, it is extremely difficult to attain an entirely clean record when it comes to ethical clothing, especially because there are so many barriers along the way. As long as you are trying your best and striving towards more sustainable purchases, that exemplifies that you are doing the most you can.