THE INDICTMENT:
The reports coming out of the global fashion supply chain paints an ugly picture that is so different from the glamour of the fashion runway shows, the glossy magazines, personalized online shopping experiences and well-designed physical stores. What takes place in faraway lands, farms and factories is disheartening to say the least.
It is widely touted that the fashion industry is the second leading source of global pollution. Pollution of land, water and air through excessive use of chemicals, fertilizers and pesticides. Overuse of land is also an issue where crops that produce different fibers are grown without a break. Animals which are farmed for fur are mostly reared in poor conditions that would totally break the heart of any animal rights activist.
Perhaps the most disheartening atrocity that takes place within the fashion supply chain is the mistreatment of the workers. In order to meet production targets, some factories force workers to spend between 12 and 17 hours on the factory floor. This coupled with poor pay and poor safety measures, has led to health challenges, injuries and other social problems.
Zoe De Bussierre of the DW news outlet did an investigative documentary that shone a much-needed spotlight on the luxury fashion supply chain. The documentary titled “Luxury: Behind the mirror of high-end fashion,” dug deep to find out where the top luxury fashion brands get their leather and fur from. To summarize the findings documented, the glamour packaged and marketed by fashion brands is built on abuse, lies, pain and hypocrisy, all powered by greed.
PROFITS
The business world has significantly changed in the past one hundred years. The advancement in technology means that we have machines that can produce in a month what used to be produced in a year just a century ago. Except for the Covid pandemic, the machines in apparel factories roared twenty-four hours a day. Some of the biggest fast fashion brands release new collections each week.
These are sold cheaply to ensure the most sales. The downside is a wasteful consumer culture where people buy not out of need, but just to be in on the latest fashion fad or trend. The statistics are damning with quite a large number of buyers who use clothing items less than ten times before discarding off and others that never wear the items they buy at all.
The business structure of the largest fashion brands offers a clue as to why the fashion industry is on a destructive trajectory. These companies are not owned by fashion designers but rather conglomerates that are focused on one business metric above all others – shareholders return on investment. Business performance is measured year on year and outperforming the previous year’s sales value and volume is the goal and drive. Bigger profits mean better stock share price which in turn translate into greater investment returns for the shareholders.
This greed for greater profits comes at a cost, a negative cost to the environment and workers in the supply chain. All the policy statements put forth by these big brands about sustainability and workers’ rights can at best be described as mere public relations. As long as fast fashion is a thing, the problems of the industry will never be solved. As long as the luxury brands source for raw materials from poorly oversighted factories and farms, the issues plaguing the industry will persist.
Greed is one of the principles that govern the world system and therefore to expect the world to solve the problem of greed is like expecting to grow a herd of sheep when the wolf is the shepherd. It is impossible for the world to rid itself of greed because greed, like lust, is never satisfied. Higher sales volume, greater profits, better stock price, increased company valuation, necessitates more of the bad practices, not less.
The circular economy for recycling unwanted clothes is not a solution either. The clothes dumped in developing countries to find a second life end up in poorly managed landfills, burnt or thrown into the sea. Liz Ricketts, the founder of “Dead White Man’s Clothes”, a non-profit organization operating in Accra’s Kantamanto market has written an open letter to the fashion industry highlighting the dark, painful and sickening outcome of the fast fashion industry’s end of the line.
The truth is that most of what ends up in Kantamanto is donated simply because fast-fashion requires turn over, not attachment. Fast fashion isn’t made to be loved, to be kept, to be cared for… The secondhand trade is the outlet necessary for the firsthand trade to exist. – Liz Ricketts
Photo courtesy: Kaela Kay
THE SOLUTION
All of creation is waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. It’s only the sons of God who have the antidot for greed which broadly is communicated and experienced as the love of God. This love which has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit does not look at the consumer as a money minting machine to exploit. Neither does it look at the worker as a tool or machine to expend for the least cost and squeeze out the maximum output.
The love of God compels us to look at the entire value chain as a whole that works to fulfill the purposes of God for each part in the chain – environment, worker and consumer. God gave man the earth to tend it and keep it, to subdue its resources, replenish and have dominion. God gave gifts and talents, unique callings and purpose to each and every person, to enjoy their labour and profit out of it, not to be exploited and abused but to be fruitful and fulfilled. Dressing is not a competition to show off or amass things but for simply expressing our unique identity as we are involved in our daily activities as we work to fulfill God’s divine purpose for each one of us.
This mindset is what we’re called to restore in men. As the ones who God has called into the fashion industry, we must ask ourselves, what has God called us to reconcile. What does the ministry of reconciliation look like in what God has called you to do? We can’t operate with the same mindset as the world, their principles can’t work in the Kingdom.
God is the most successful fashion designer and it’s time we learn from Him and adopt His fashion design and business principles that will enable us to get His kind of results. It’s time for a Kingdom Fashion Revolution. This is how we shall disciple and baptize the world according to Matthew 28:18-20. This is how we arise and shine in the midst of a dark and clueless world. It starts with love, the love of God. How would you interpret 1Corinthians chapter 13 in relation to your fashion business?
