Ethical Fashion: Moral Ideology and a Sustainable Lifestyle in Modern Society
The way we see the world around us is not inherent; it is shaped by the ideas, values, and feelings that form our ideologies. These ideologies are responsible for shaping how we experience society and the world we live in. Fashion, as an expression of culture, plays a significant role in these ideologies, providing a lens through which we view ourselves and our social hierarchies. It is also a tool that controls what is and isn’t accepted in society, and conveys authority and power. However, at the end of the day, fashion is clothing that is a tool in ideology.
Fashion emulates power when any elite social class uses it to show they are better than other lower-income. It helps uphold structures that bestow others prestige that the majority can’t ever reach or afford. But once the masses have gained access, mainly done through fast fashion trends (and microtrends), the elite social class moves on. This exclusionary practice leaves everyone else behind and re-continues a cycle of exclusivity and aloofness to the masses. Fashion also has the power to emulate power because it is an art form, one which can illustrate symbolic meaning beyond the material reality of the garment. It has the ability to convey something other than what it is, and transport tangible reality like the material itself to something beyond itself, transcending to mythology.
The dark side of fashion: how capitalism and mainstream media perpetuate exploitation and inequality in the industry
Fast fashion wouldn’t have survived without its commodification, which wouldn’t have been possible without capitalism. Fashion has become something to make, sell and buy to make the incredibly rich more wealthy. It has kept the industry rooted in extractive practices that perpetuate its colonial roots and continues to exploit millions of vulnerable workers. We must consider what fashion really is, and what it would mean for the industry to be ethical. This exploration requires understanding what morals, the concept of right and wrong, brands and consumers are upholding. At the moment, this is murky for consumers given the truth on how clothing is produced is cloaked in murky supply chains and brand executives profit-centered perspectives.
Fashion media has also subvertly shaped society's idea on fashion. And its ownership also lies in the hands of a few companies, perpetuating a mainstream notion of ideas, culture and information. And even if there are choices and options in products, it is a controlled illusion by a handful of the richest, white men of the world. This makes it, by no surprise, that you won’t find a counter-narrative moral ideology in mainstream fashion magazines. In other words, popular, mainstream fashion magazines won’t address social and environmental issues present in the industry. This is because magazines rely on advertisers to make a profit since they are sold at far less than the cost of their production and ads help make up the difference. It makes mass media, like magazines, a secure route for companies to gain access to a targeted audience they believe will buy their products. And to continue making money, popular fashion magazines will not lead people towards systemic and structural change, but instead, will sell products and make you buy the latest trend.
Fashion Journalism in Fast Fashion
The mark of mass media cannot be dismissed as its one major part of how we understand and see ourselves in the fashion industry. This is undoubtedly a moment where we live in a marketed society, filled with ads and products in every corner of our lives. The lack of responsibility in fashion journalism highlights its failure to address our current climate breakdown and its impact on society. Instead, it focuses primarily on consumption and creates a sense of insecurity that compels people to buy more. Complacency and myth-making are prevalent among editors and journalists who do not have lived experiences, do not care enough or do not have enough power to report on the issues affecting the industry. This perpetuates a culture of consumerism deeply rooted in social dynamics, inequality, and competition.
Fashion journalism needs to move beyond consumption and start addressing the truth. It can play a crucial role in de-mystifying the fashion industry's impact on the world. It would illustrate the material reality and the real value of using clothing over symbolic values. The truth would also illustrate how we aren’t materialistic enough in the sense that we haven't recognized products dependence on nature and labor. It can even be said that clothing has a physical, material reality independent of thought. By addressing where clothes materials were grown, produced, woven and sewn holds the possibility of making society valuing the labor, nature and social connections over symbolic material possessions and competition.
Material Worth in Modern Society
People have been raised to buy brands from mainstream stores in major retail stores and malls. Brands are a normal part of our everyday life that comes with a major cost, not only to our personal bank accounts, to the planet's well-being and other people, but to our intrinsic worth. People are judged by their material worth to validate whether they should be accepted and be seen as normal.
Just as factory outlet malls foreground the material basis of retail, they also emphasize the materiality of the consumer’s activity as well. As “destination” retail environments, outlet malls problematize the whole notion of consump- tion as distraction and instead invite analysis of consumption as labor. To put it simply, outlet shopping requires an investment of time, deliberation, and energy far beyond what is acknowledged in classical Marxist frameworks that describe consumption as a passive, private activity or in postmodernist paradigms that emphasize the ludic possibilities of consumption. (Conroy 1998, 72).
Essentially, the primary forces that drive consumption are social forces, dynamics of inequality and social competition, and the role of goods in giving status. This is deeply tied to alienation, where under capitalism, people are locked under a mindset of having is more important than being. We value things only when we directly possess them rather than borrowing, sharing and turning to alternative ways of consuming goods. We turn to material goods to feel secure, to feel happy and to feel cool. We don’t look for ourselves, or nature or harmonious ways of being unless it's in our own self-interest.
Ethical Fashion’s Mainstream Narrative
Anti-sweatshop activism emerged in the early 1990’s by middle and upper class white women after numerous journalistic sweatshop exposés. The mainstream narrative in the U.S anti-sweatshop discourse formed into buying ethically-made clothing to support worker rights. This placed a large focus on buying better and for consumers to purchase differently to demonstrate they care about and help secure rights for garment workers. Although this framework seems logical at first glance, it overlooked intricate power dynamics that have shaped how we see ethical fashion, even to this day. The narrative essentially relied on a binary view of power to justify wealthy Americans being freed from accountability by buying into ethical fashion as a way to address issues in the fashion industry. However, this had led the blame onto the economically disadvantaged in the U.S. This narrative obviously plays into the privilege of wealthy consumers, demonizes the poor and blames them for issues they did not make, and does not address worker right violations directly.
Moving beyond the mainstream idea that we can buy ourselves into ethical fashion is a critical and necessary step forward. Structural change is needed to address the issues present in the fashion industry and how capitalism and global relations create its current conditions. Focusing on ethical fashion consumption as the primary solution to fast fashion would only maintain current systems of explotation and oppression. Worker rights are effectively addressed head on through worker right policies and advocacy efforts. We need to move beyond consumerism to make meaningful solutions possible in the fashion industry. It is also important to note that fast fashion clothing nor its consumers is not the problem of the industry, it is the brands making decisions to cheapen the condition of their products, the power dynamics between trade relations with different countries, and poverty (not only in the U.S, but globally).
Racism, Privilege and Dirty Justifications in Ethical Fashion
Ethical fashion is a route in ensuring we are participating in a sustainable and good form of fashion. However, middle-class consumer groups in anti-sweatshop discourses started to focus on their own protection rather than workers themselves. Early campaigns shaped garment workers in sweatshops as contaminated and were dangerous for affluent white women. This may be due to a large portion of garment workers to be a mix of poor, white workers and migrants from other countries. Middle-class consumers' class position meant the privilege of consumption and the home as a suitable place for wealthy, white women. Anti-sweatshop campaigns turned into gender and race implication of “the home” as the highest levels of the social hierarchy. For example, the Consumers League of New York claimed that sweatshops were a "menace to the home”. This referenced back to the homes of white, middle-class consumers who might purchase infected clothing.
The fight against sweatshops also embraced the notion that garments produced in sweatshops were infectious and posed a threat to middle-class buyers, particularly wealthy white women. Ethical fashion consumers, consisting of high-status individuals, regarded the unhygienic and unsanitary conditions highlighted in media reports as possible sources of contagious illnesses, such as cholera, tuberculosis, scarlet fever, and smallpox, that could spread through clothing. As a result, they backed regulations that mandated the inclusion of a tag on garments manufactured under humane and sanitary circumstances, as assessed by themselves. In other words, early ethical fashion campaigns were primarily focused on the concerns of affluent white customers, rather than those of the labor force. The privilege of consumerism in the U.S (and global) anti-sweatshop discourse is still present, despite the first campaigns being long past. The influence and persistence of wealthy, white consumers still influence and shape current mainstream narratives on ethical fashion.
Criticism of Ethical Fashion: Money and Democratic Marketplaces
We must criticize the origins of ethical fashion since it emerged from the biased interest of privileged, white consumers in the United States. This is important for tactics related to ethical fashion, which include boycotting or embargoing a product or brand as a political action. It means that ethical fashion activists need to have access to money and sites from which to buy the boycotted or embargoed product. This “dollar vote” ideology suggests that we vote in a democratic marketplace with every dollar and assumes that consumers determine the direction of production processes and business activities. This ideology also assumes that individuals operate within the market and presumes that all people have equal access to income without any economic restraint. This is also consistent with the economic theory advocated by Milton Friedman, which regards consumers as rational and autonomous agents of transformation, who are not coerced into purchasing anything and have the liberty to select.
However, since this ideology proposes that since every dollar equates to one vote, those with more money possess greater influence over the market. Additionally, for this system to fulfill its democratic pledge, it must assume that all decisions are made without any external restrictions. In other words, the concept of "choice" is detached from the social, political, and economic limitations that exist in modern-day society.
The discourse in the US against sweatshops presents consumers' practices as the main determinant of the existence of sweatshops reproduces the idea that consumers are always "free to choose" and "free to go elsewhere," while portraying corporations as the primary targets in the fight against sweatshops, rather than governments or financial institutions. And, unfortunately, ethical fashion conversations place consumers actions at the forefront of solutions which pushes a concept that consumers have the freedom and responsibility to choose ethical fashion through their consumer choices. This is a mistake when fashion brands, financial institutions and governments are responsible for combating issues in the fashion industry.
The concept that individuals' consumer choices, rather than societal structures like global production systems, are the cause of inequitable systems is central to ethical consumerism. This perspective may make ethical consumerism easier to comprehend, as it suggests that if consumers have control over production, then making better purchasing decisions can solve the negative impacts of global capitalism. However, it villanizes poor consumers as the bad consumers because they are not “choosing” to buy into ethical fashion. This makes it seem like they don’t care and make their choices immoral, despite having to buy low-priced commodities in an attempt to survive their current conditions. Ethical fashion's current framework is a dangerous one because it assumes that economic status reflects one's failure to obtain or maintain waged labor, manage finances, or conform to the norms of a capitalist system. As a result, poverty is equated with immorality. Yet, poor consumers are often at the forefront of sustainable alternatives like mending, reusing and recycling what they have out of necessity and low access to resources.
Overall, the fashion industry is not just clothing, but also about the ideologies and values that shape our perception of society and the world we live in. While fashion can be a means of expression and convey authority and power, it comes from exploitation and inequality. Fast fashion is rooted in capitalism, continuously perpetuating its colonial roots and exploiting millions of vulnerable workers. And sources, like mainstream fashion media, perpetuates a culture of consumerism deeply rooted in social dynamics, inequality, and competition, while fashion journalism needs to move beyond consumption and address the truth about the industry's impact on the world. Ultimately, we must rethink our intrinsic (and material) worth and move away from a mindset where having is more important than being, and value nature, labor, and social connections over material possessions and competition.