Sustainable Fashion and Self Expression
by Drew Haller
Symbolism, Self-Expression and Identity
We express ourselves through a set of symbols. The clothes we put on our backs everyday, in a never-ending morning ritual, represent the people we choose to emulate. Through certain colours, patterns, and accessories we can display our backgrounds, preferences and personalities. Our dress codes are codified. Clothing is a basic need when presenting yourself into society. But it is also a reflection of ourselves, and our social identities.
Behaviour theorists refer to clothing as an ‘artefact of extended self’. Each possession in your wardrobe signifies a sense of cultural belonging as well as a personal style. Our possessions are a mode to organize ourselves within our subcultures, while still displaying uniqueness. Traditional garments signify cultural affiliations, age or ethnicity. Contrastingly, modern garments are customized for individual self-expression in the context of heterogeneous spaces. Fashion allows us to visualize and interpret pop-culture symbols and iconography. In this sense, we define fashion and it defines us. Not only is it cultural, it’s political too. Fashion is often used as a political symbol, a representation of resistance. Feminist movements reclaimed trousers and burned their bras. Black panther activists work black leather and berets. Gay pride movements used the art of drag to reform our conceptions of gender through clothing. In their ideal forms, trends amalgamate the symbolic with the pragmatic, denoting social progressions of thoughts, attitudes and norms, through wearable fabric.
Contemporary fashion is an art form that seeks to encapsulate our social currents into styles. It does so using image or aesthetic as a signifier. Onlookers translate your clothing to discern who you are. Recognizing this, we have learnt to personalize our outfits according to the gaze we want to appeal to. Branding, advertising and marketing schemes then capitalize on this, to sell us things. Every occasion calls for a designated form of dress. Business casual, black-tie, cocktail, street-style, couture, vintage, traditional, classic, futuristic; the fast fashion industry aims to provide for each of these images.
The Influence of Foreign Trade in Fashion and Culture
To fulfill each individual’s aspirations, the fast fashion industry tirelessly produces for each occasion. And our global economy enables and rewards quick, extensive production. The WTO has general standards that facilitate the liberalization of economies to improve developmental capacity, encourage economic growth and create employment opportunities. Hypothetically, when a developing country opens their trade policies, they expose themselves to a larger network of customers, suppliers and manufacturers, thereby increasing their profits. Civilians generally champion the resultant access they receive to broad trade. We explore foreign products with curiosity, and embrace the sheer variety of global shopping-centers.
In fact, foreign trade is a central variable encouraging travel and globalization. It is also inextricably linked to the growth of the fashion industry. Renaissance men and women sought broader horizons, unseen treasures, and exotic culture. When Europeans arrived in Africa’s Southern Tip, settlers and natives traded raw resources, crop insights and local knowledge for glass beads, buttons and imported fabric. 15th Century colonial imports have since merged with traditional South African Fashion today. For example, Ankara fabric, — also known as kanga, futa, lappa, capalana or pagne — is an iconic, vibrant cloth used in West African countries like Ghana and Tanzania. However, it was originally manufactured by the Dutch, also known as Dutch Wax.
Another example is Shweshwe. Originally known as ‘indigo cloth’, Europeans imported it from India and Benegal, then transported it through Southern Africa. In the 1840s, French missionaries gifted it to King Moshoeshoe, who popularized it amongst Sotho and Zulu inhabitants. It is supposedly named Shweshwe after the King Moshoeshoe. When German missionaries shared the fabric in 1858 with the Xhosa people, they adopted it into their traditional clothing too. Today, it is a contemporary marker in post-apartheid South African style, which reclaims tradition and history through blended Afro-Urban aesthetics.
During those times, Europeans had greater technology for mass-manufacturing. But today the fabric can be produced locally, and holds an inherently African history. So long as we refrain from appropriating cultural dress without recognition, we can appreciate the value that global trade has had in contributing to interrelated designs. Resultantly, there are so many recurring motifs which appear in the fashion industry. Each product aims to serve a certain style, while still allowing international buyers the opportunity to interact with another society.
An example of cultural overlap in fashion could be the kaftan. In Central and Western Africa, Kaftans are worn by men and women. Swahili men wear long white kaftans or kanzu’s. In Mali, women wear bold kaftans with adorned headscarves, calling them m’boubous. In Gambia, kaftans are tie-dyed. In Nigeria, the Agbada is a traditional Yoruban version of this. Across continents, you will also find that traditional Russian fashion produced its own version of a kaftan for men, generally shorter and tighter, with multiple buttons, tassels and sometimes embroidery. In India, these styles could also remind you of the salwar kameez suit that men wear. Although these styles may have similarities in their forms, they are all uniquely indicative of particular ethnic groups and events, each with a customized flair. Today, when you think of a kaftan, you could be reminded of any beach bum under the sun, sporting their resort-wear without any idea of its cultural origins. And that is precisely what mass-produced retailers do, they dilute local styles for broader commercial purposes.
Consumerism & Fast Fashion
Clothing is a product of the referential trends that consolidate our hybrid cultures. As people migrate between continents, fashion adapts according to new environments’ demands and supplies. These pieces are like devices that allow us to explore eras or landscapes. So we keep experimenting with more styles. Yet, the appeal of these possessions lose their essence when they are produced with short-term durability and profit motives in mind. Our culture is based on consumerism. We are generally quite focused on our possessions and the act of ‘purchasing’. The market has developed enough to produce these objects at such a speed that we do not even participate in its creation, or pay too much for it either. Thus, we are quite disconnected from the value of the materials that we yield and discard so apathetically. And unfortunately, the wonderful cultural phenomenon of clothing now tends to signal materialism, hyper-consumption and unsustainable production.
Fast fashion allows us to pay pennies for items that have fatal effects on our environments. The free market does not take account for these negative externalities or social costs, it just continues to encourage, create and supply for our endless demand. The growing middle class’ consumer habits also initiate larger production scales. Civilians spend approximately 10% of their earnings on clothing, only to wear less than half of it. The fickle seasonality of fashion trends mean that our wardrobes lack ubiquity. And sadly, the reality is that the more low-cost clothing we buy, the less value it has, and the more damage we do to the environment and to society. Quantity is surpassing quality. And we’re facing the devastating effects of excess.
Unethical Production & Pollution
Emblematic forms of self-expression become problematic when our possessions surpass need. The Fashion Industry is worth $3 trillion, approximately R43 trillion. Globally, textile consumption is surpassing 100 million tonnes. In South Africa, 2017, the CTFL industry consumed around 130 085 tonnes of fibre. It accounts for approximately 1% of the national GDP, according to the CSRI. The clothing and textile industry is one of the highest sources of pollution and waste just after oil. Its energy-intensive machinery, like industrial cutting and sewing machines, use high levels of water and let off outrageous amounts of greenhouse gas emissions. Two thirds of textiles consumed are synthetic, taking decades to decay. Common fibres such as nylon, acrylic, polyester, and polypropylene contribute substantially to carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. And whenever we produce new textiles from scratch, each kg of raw material contributes about 15kg of carbon emissions each. Even simply dyeing clothing uses extensive petrochemicals which pollute water systems and reduce biodiversity.
In South Africa, these impacts are even more unethical when you consider how strained the country’s amenities already are. Cape Town is one of the country’s main locations for high-end fashion production and design. But it has experienced a severe water crisis in the near past, and clothing manufacturing only poses further risks of drought. Nationwide, energy levels have survived on crisis-control measures like intermittent load shedding. Mass-production fast fashion centres in the Eastern Cape and KZN contribute to these shortages too. We have to consider how our habits realistically contribute to the pollution of our home. If we look past clothing’s essential and cultural value, what existential threat does it pose?
Around $460 Billion worth of clothes are thrown away annually. But throwing something away doesn’t equate to its immediate dissipation. These items still float in our environments. But waste is a luxury we cannot afford anymore. Waste diversion to landfills is costly, and it doesn’t completely remove all pollutants. A large portion of textiles end up being wasted in cutting processes, only to be burned or dumped in overloaded landfills. Pollution also disproportionately affects POCs living in urban peripheries and poverty-stricken areas, where public facilities are not well-funded and landfill dumps are concentrated nearby. And unfortunately, waste workers lack incentive or stimulus to curb this at a regular rate. They face social stigma, they lack stable union protection and generally receive meager, insecure wages that do not cover the costs of harmful exposure to chemical pollution. In this sense, fast fashion is also a matter of social justice. There are textile recycling projects such as Rewoven, who aim to encourage job creation on the other side of fashion, while focusing on ethical working conditions. However, these kinds of small businesses require far more investment and upliftment.
Liberal Policies Create Tough Competition
Although SA may be resource rich, we lack the textile resources or manufacturing power to compete with players like China or America. South Africa joined the WTO and GATT in 1995. Although it did provide greater access to international fashion, it also increased competition for local producers. Our imports are double the size of our exports. 80% of our clothing arrives from Asian imports. This undermines local producers who cannot manufacture as quickly as ‘first world economies’. It also casts a harmful assumption that sustainability is a luxury. But when you commit to paying hiked prices for fairly produced materials, you’re essentially supporting better consumer principles. Sustainable textiles are difficult to source, timeous to create, and expensive. Independent local brands who use organic cotton, hemp, mohair etc. have to struggle to compete against TNCs that use low-cost labour, unfair dumping, and cheap raw material.
Recently the economy has experienced a 7.3 % contraction as a result of Covid-19, causing a deep recession that has only exacerbated unemployment rates, which were already sitting at 30% in 2020. People are staying inside, rocking their lounge-wear and sweatpants. Hence, they’re less likely to spend on high-end items. Sadly, this reduced consumer spending caused many small businesses to close shop. SA Government counters this by incentivizing investment through the Clothing and Textile Competitiveness Program, Value Chain Alignment Programs, carbon tax and strong tariff protections for domestic industries. But still, many workers face insecurity.
Employment Insecurity & Social Impacts for Garment Workers
The South African clothing and textile industry employs approximately 80 000 formal sector employees, a large portion of which are women. Tis does not account for informal workers. While this has created an invaluable source of employment opportunities, fast fashion is generally known to be exploitative. Most retailers do not enforce strong labour legislation, and have high employee turnovers. Remember FashionNova’s wage backlog? Dropped prices generally indicate cost cuts for the smallest and most vulnerable within the supply chain: the workers. Employment in this sector has been in severe decline since 2009, with a high job loss rate over the last 2 decades. This is especially impacted by trade liberalization, which causes brands to buy fabric from countries like China and India, rather thanlocal producers. But the sustainable methods used by independent brands actually stimulate local economies and create work for South African garment workers, without contributing to expanding piles of waste that harm our nation in the long-term. And even if you cannot afford brand new clothing, thrifting is a financially viable option that reduces wastage.
Social media has provided the perfect platform for the robust growth of e-commerce. Consumer behavior has adapted in favor of small-time businesses who are using the online market to provide more sustainable goods. There are endless thrift pages, second-hand retailers and creative middle men who are insulating the fashion industry with a conscientious attitude. By repairing, reselling and redistributing the long-lost pieces of seasons-past, they can restore the value of clothing. As they say, one man’s trash is another’s treasure. More than that, social media business removes a huge amount of the overhead costs that come with in-store retail. Even South African Fashion Week was fully digital this year, allowing far more people access. Thrifting or renting also allows better transparency that is generally lost from Business-to-client operations. Consumers are informed about everything from sourcing, branding, advertising, pricing, packaging, postage and more. This allows consumers to see the real-time impact of their shopping, with additional respect for the slow process of careful clothing creation and sales.
Movements towards a Circular Economy
Revolutionary focus has been placed on the ethical implications of fashion. Sustainable design forums like Design Indaba and the Cape Town Fashion Council have been discussing the pertinence of inducing a circular economy. It also places particular emphasis on uplifting African brands, African production and cultural representation. In contrast with a linear model, this enforces ‘industrial symbiosis’, where the material input, manufacturing processes, labour and energy can be reused and upcycled in order to maintain value for longer. More than that, it prompts reconsideration of the cultural influence of clothing. How do we reconnect with our possessions? How do we justify self-indulgence? And how do we remain respectful of the people, and resources, behind the production? Our clothes can signify more than our individually-acclaimed identities. It can display a social message, a belief, an awareness. Identity does not come from material, but from the people who make it, share it and wear it. It also reminds us that responsibility for the environment, and for each other, is ultimately ours.
So, the moral of the story is: Buy local. Thrift, resell, repair, upcycle. Encourage sustainability, and don’t fall sway to franchise’s greenwashing schemes. Do your research before you buy ! If you’re looking for local businesses to support, check out the list below.
LOCAL BRANDS WE LOVE :
