If you are in the apparel industry or involved in labor rights, I am sure you spent the 17 minutes to watch John Oliver share his insights into the Fashion Industry on Last Week Tonight in the most recent episode.
If you have not seen the video - check it out here:
JOHN OLIVER - Sheds a little light on the fashion industry
As a person who has worked inside the industry for years, it is great to see some obvious thoughts be called out in mainstream media. First is the fact that intuitively we are SHOCKED at the price of some clothes - there is no way they could be that cheap. Well, that is because there are reasons that they are that cheap.
Some of modern lower pricing is achieved legitimately without harming the people making the clothes or the environment directly; scale does play a large part into reducing prices. (Still, scale has its own set of problems, which I won't go into in this post.)
But the other question is: what corners were cut to make clothing this cheap? Working conditions, safe working environments, workers rights, and environmental harm.
It doesn't mean that just because an article of clothing is expensive that it is made in the perfect factory under the best conditions. So the point is to ask yourself, "what do I know about this brand and are they committing to high standards from their suppliers and holding themselves and those suppliers to those high standards?"
If all of us asked the question and demanded that respect for human rights was part of our buying criteria, it would change the world. Businesses are lead by their customers. Enough market signals and you get brands to wake up and see what customers are demanding.
So if you are interested in demanding human rights for the people who make your clothes - ask the question to the last company you bought a piece of apparel from. Ask them to tell you in detail what standards they are committing to, and how they are verifying those standards, and even ask them how they are ensuring that the way they practice business does not infringe on those rights.
The company may not have the perfect answer, but you asked the question. And just like our intuitive reaction of shock at how incredibly cheap clothing can be and how it could possibly be made for so little money - you will intuitively know if a brand is committed or not.
If you have not seen the video - check it out here:
JOHN OLIVER - Sheds a little light on the fashion industry
As a person who has worked inside the industry for years, it is great to see some obvious thoughts be called out in mainstream media. First is the fact that intuitively we are SHOCKED at the price of some clothes - there is no way they could be that cheap. Well, that is because there are reasons that they are that cheap.
Some of modern lower pricing is achieved legitimately without harming the people making the clothes or the environment directly; scale does play a large part into reducing prices. (Still, scale has its own set of problems, which I won't go into in this post.)
But the other question is: what corners were cut to make clothing this cheap? Working conditions, safe working environments, workers rights, and environmental harm.
It doesn't mean that just because an article of clothing is expensive that it is made in the perfect factory under the best conditions. So the point is to ask yourself, "what do I know about this brand and are they committing to high standards from their suppliers and holding themselves and those suppliers to those high standards?"
If all of us asked the question and demanded that respect for human rights was part of our buying criteria, it would change the world. Businesses are lead by their customers. Enough market signals and you get brands to wake up and see what customers are demanding.
So if you are interested in demanding human rights for the people who make your clothes - ask the question to the last company you bought a piece of apparel from. Ask them to tell you in detail what standards they are committing to, and how they are verifying those standards, and even ask them how they are ensuring that the way they practice business does not infringe on those rights.
The company may not have the perfect answer, but you asked the question. And just like our intuitive reaction of shock at how incredibly cheap clothing can be and how it could possibly be made for so little money - you will intuitively know if a brand is committed or not.
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