The shockingly high cost of cheap fashion

I was finally able to finish reading Overdressed: the shockingly high cost of cheap fashion by Elizabeth L. Cline.

My slow progress partly due to the depressing information and knowing I had in my small way contributed by buying cheap clothes.

We all know about the horrendous conditions in which some workers in some developing countries work, and about the disasters from fires and factory collapses. And reading the details presented in this book is not easy.

Others things that I hadn’t considered or known:

Polyester is a form of plastic! All our clothes with this in the fabric may last longer (and plastic may be cheap to produce) but it is still plastic. Luckily I don’t buy much with polyester in it as it irritates my skin and polyester is hot so not suited to the warm weather of Sydney, unless you like to sweat.

In clothing with mixed fibres, the fibres cannot be separated so the plastic cannot be recycled.

In the US, 20% of donated clothing gets sold in charity shops, the rest goes to the rag trade. Some of this gets compressed into cubes and shipped to African countries. Even there, some of the clothing cannot be used, or isn’t wanted. So the US has shipped its garbage problem off-shore. Buy more than you need or can even wear; feel good donating it; whinge when your cast-offs are not going to a local shivering, homeless poor person; but really let someone else bear the cost of disposing of it.

While we may see the Made in China label as an indication of poor quality, the quality of items produced there is variable. In fact, China has the skilled workers and infrastructure (eg constant electricity and roads) that other countries don’t have. So clothes with more detail are made in China. Whereas other countries, such as Bangladesh, Cambodia and Vietnam, make the simpler things such as T-shirts.

So does Cline give us any good news?

Yes! Let me share:

Cline wants to restore value, appreciation and craftsmanship to clothing. So…. Buy the best clothing you can afford. Buy fewer items. Buy with greater thought. Buy what suits you, not just to have the latest trend. Care for you clothes. Make good use of them.

All this not just to stop the race to the bottom, ie to have an oversupply of cheap crap, but to return value to clothing, to appreciate good design and good manufacture/sewing. So have a story for your clothes beyond, “This only cost me $20.”

Cline gives details of manufacturers who are returning to the US and ethical suppliers (and we have similar in Australia). Unfortunately some machinery has been sold or moved to develing countries, eg knitting machines (and I have previously moaned about the loss of quality in this department). But if you patronise these stores and producers, you will encourage their growth.

Clothing companies have enjoyed decades of cheap foreign labour and the resulting profits. And the benefits for us? More clothes than we can wear, poor quality, and loss of skill to sew, mend or alter our own clothes. Cline estimates that overseas workers are only earning 1% of the retail cost of clothes. So their wages could increase without an increase in the cost of clothing. Of course, that would mean companies need to take a hit in their profit margin. I think we all agree that this is unlikely to happen. So join Cline in decreasing your patronage of cheap, discount clothing stores by at least 50%. The resulting decrease in sales will send a bigger message than reading blogs or books or sending letters to retailers.