who made your clothes?
Our clothes need to be looked at beyond its obvious appearance, writes Aznim Ruhana Md Yusup
NOT long after Beyonce released her athletic clothing line Ivy Park to much fanfare and excitement, headlines appeared on how the garments were manufactured in so-called sweatshops in Sri Lanka.
According to UK tabloid The Sun, factory workers earned 44 pence (RM2.50) an hour making the mesh tops and elastic leggings. The low wages run contrary to the singer’s message on female strength and empowerment, the paper added.
The brand, created in collaboration between Beyonce and British fast fashion chain Topshop, responded by saying that it has a “rigorous ethical trading programme”.
In 2014, actress Emma Watson faced similar accusations from Mail On
Sunday over her This Is What A Feminist Looks Like T-shirt, produced in Mauritius by workers earning 62 pence an hour. In the UK, the T-shirt retails for £45.
(In comparison, Malaysia’s minimum wage is RM4.33 an hour in the peninsula and RM3.85 in Sabah, Sarawak and Labuan.)
Sadly, the narrative does not seem to be about the workers themselves, but rather the British newspapers using the workers’ plight and working conditions to shame the celebrities involved.
But it does highlight the way most of our garments are produced nowadays, which is anonymously and in low-income countries, by workers — most likely women — who may never be able to afford the clothes they make.
INSIDE OUT
Ending the anonymity is one of the goals of Fashion Revolution, a movement that started in the aftermath of the Rana Plaza collapse on 24 April 2013 that killed 1,134 people and injured more than 2,500.
The eight-storey building in Dhaka, Bangladesh was never meant for industrial use, but had thousands of workers making clothes for Western brands. Garment manufacturing is big business in Bangladesh and the building owner ignored the danger signs.
“Fashion Revolution Day (April 24) is a way for us to start a conversation with each other and our closets, and remember that every time you buy something, you are having an impact on people around the world and on our planet,” says Laura Francois, the movement’s assistant coordinator for Malaysia.
Francois is wearing her top inside out, “to show the label which shows where the clothing is made,” she explains. “That’s just the tip of the iceberg; we don’t know the human face behind the things we wear and there is a face behind every stitch, button and zipper.”
Over the next five years, Fashion Revolution is focusing on transparency, and it wants consumers to start asking brands, “Who made my clothes?”.
A lot of brands, it seems, don’t have the answer.
“Lack of transparency costs lives,” it says on its website. “It’s impossible for companies to make sure human rights are respected and that environmental practices are sound without knowing where their products are made.
“Transparency means companies know who makes their clothes, at least where they are stitched as a first step, and to communicate this to their customers, shareholders and staff.”
TRUE COST
This year is the first time that Malaysia marked Fashion Revolution Day and it’s interesting to note that while we have become too expensive for large-scale fast fashion manufacturing, we are surrounded by countries that offer such opportuni--
ties cheaply.
One of the scenes from the documentary, The True Cost, that Francois showed was the deadly protests by garment workers in Cambodia who demanded a minimum wage increase.
“The Cambodian government, like other developing countries, is desperate for the business that multinational retailers bring,” narrates filmmaker Andrew Morgan.
“Because of the constant threat that these brands will re-locate production to other low-cost countries, the government holds down wages, routinely avoiding enforcement of local labour laws.
“But because the major brands do not officially employ the workers or own any of the factories they produce in, they’re able to profit hugely while remaining free of responsibility from the effects of low wages, factory disasters and the ongoing violent treatment of workers.”
DOWN TO US
It all begs the question, what can the average consumer do? Perhaps the answer lies in shopping closer to home.
“Support the local guys,” says Amy Blair, founder and CEO of the Batik Boutique, a Kuala Lumpur-based company which specialises in batik accessories and clothing made by underprivileged women.
“Malaysians are very creative and
the industry will grow the more we get behind it. We don’t have to buy foreign brands, and as you can see from The True Cost, they’re not doing anything good.”
That said, The True Cost is not meant to make you feel guilty, says Sasibai Kimis, the country coordinator for Fashion Revolution. “It’s for you and us to be aware and to be an informed consumer so you can make the right decision.”
Sasibai started Earth Heir three years ago; the company focuses on ethicallymade artisanal products from the region. Earth Heir also gives 10 per cent of everything it makes to two organisations helping trafficking survivors.
“As a consumer, I try to buy natural, biodegradable materials,” says Sasibai. “When I shop, I ask for silk, cotton or something natural. Oftentimes in fast fashion brands, it’s nylon or polyester because that’s what’s cheap. It was harder when I wanted to buy hiking clothes because everything is in polyester.”
For Nukleus CEO Cheng Woi Tan, understanding the true nature of the clothing industry changed his business for good. The company makes underwear and basic tops using eco-friendly material such as organic cotton.
“I went to the cotton fields in India and spoke to the farmers (on issues such as seed monopoly and pesticides). While it’s very hard to build a brand, it’s a lot harder to build an ethical brand but we’ve made the promise to do so.
“We’re not very expensive, but there’s an additional value to our products when you consider the health, environmental and social aspects. We’re talking about responsible consumption. If consumers are aware of the issues, it would make our jobs as ethical producers so much easier.”
“We don’t know the human face behind the things we wear and there is a face behind
every stitch, button and zipper.”
Laura Francois