Fashion Dose #5

Welcome to fashion dose #5, it's time for a weekly injection again. This week's injection should not be painful as there's nothing much to be injected. Let's start with Beyoncé Knowles.

We all know Beyoncé is almost an equal term to Feminist, who does not only show strong message of feminism in her songs, and also her athleisure collection-- Ivy Park in collaboration with Philip Green, who also owns Topshop. In Ivy Park's video, Beyoncé has emphasised that this is named as Ivy PARK because the park is a place she goes whenever she wants to fight through something, set her goals and accomplish them (besides the obvious fact that Ivy is the name of her beloved daughter), and she wants you to find your own park through the collection.

After over a month the launching of Ivy Park, it has been accused of exploiting instead of empowering the women, because her collection is said to be manufactured in Sri Lanka-- which has the LOWEST paid among other countries like China, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Cambodia, India, Vietnam, Philippines and Malaysia (roughly $225 per month). Although $66 is above the minimum wage as set by the Sri Lanka government, but it is still an amount that is 'struggle-to-survive', after working 60 hours for a week with no sick pay and a mere $6.19 per day. As Beyoncé has not acknowledged anything, the fact that whether she has knowingly manufactured her collection in the sweatshop or not remains unknown.

Ivy Park is of course not the first brand that has been accused of such unethical practice. Nike, H&M, Topshop, Zara, Uniqlo, Mango, Forever 21, Forever New, Mark and Spencer-- all have been reported that labors' rights have been severely exploited. Not only their wages only reach a bare minimum, but their working places do not comply with safety regulations too. Before we point our finger towards the retailer, remember that the other four fingers point towards ourselves. Of course it seems unacceptable to me that Beyoncé who is the designer behind Ivy Park, does not personally know that her collections were being manufactured and made by exploited women. But to me this doesn't seem to be the major problem of all, the question that actually matters is:

Do We Really Care?

Do Customers Really Care If The Clothes Are Made By Exploited Women?

If we care, we should have found ourselves doing one or more of the below:

i. Stop buying too many cheap clothes from fashion retailers;

ii. Wear a garment until it is threadbare so we restrict ourselves from buying too many clothes made by exploited labors

(Eg. as practiced by famous 'Love x Style x Life' book author Garance Dore);

iii. Buy and sell secondhand clothes

(Eg. buy/sell at www.pazine.com and Rihanna has been one of the most stylish person on earth to shop for secondhand clothes); or

iv. Do anything to protest against the unethical act by fashion retailers

(Eg. Topshop protestors went to street to make their voice heard about giving a real living wage for cleaners at Topshop just on this 14th of May).

All these are done so to ensure that rules are followed and the women earn a reasonable pay. More importantly, to let the retailers know that to produce too many clothes that are cheap resulting from exploiting the labor are not profitable anymore. Instead, they should focus on various ways to reduce cost WITHOUT exploiting the labors while producing quality clothes, but not cheap clothes in terms of material, physical and functionality. After all, this is the famous production management philosophy by the Japanese-- focus on reducing cost without compromising the quality, hence their international reputation on quality and cheap items (i.e. Toyota and Honda). But do we hear they exploit their workers like many fashion retailers do? No.

Nevertheless, the decisions are always up to us whether to make a change, or to remain naive. Retailers respond to customers' needs. If we do not demand anything, obviously they will not change. Or do human simply motivated by the idea of consumerism and egoism? Perhaps the next dose of fashion can kickstart this discussion.

Photo: Kids on the runway during India Kids Fashion Week in 2015.

Source: www.hindustantimes.com

The next emerging economy after China-- India is said to have a big market for children's clothing because the middle-class parents are spending so much money to buy branded clothes for their kids. Some parents even put 20% of their monthly salary aside just to help their kids live the dream they want when they were small, by buying anything that their children request to own and feel 'sorry' to their children if they say no when they can afford buying it. Asia countries are famous for face or 'mianzi' practice in our daily lives, but does this contribute to the practice of consumerism and materialism? Does this actually contribute to our happiness? Do you feel happier (for a long period of time) when you buy and possess more? Do you actually care when your behaviour affects others (and your next generation)? No matter what it is, Zara, H&M, and even Disney are already planning to reap the advantage of this arising trend in India by opening many stores in India.

Photo: Yohji Yamamoto and his famous quote.

Source: www.azquotes.com

Before I end, I'd like to share with you a great article about Yohji Yamamoto by Imran Amed from BusinessOfFashion.com: "Inside Yohji Yamamoto's Fashion Philosophy". From this article, you'd know:

1. History on how Yohji Yamamoto started his fashion career;

2. He turned to drinking and gambling after many times failing to persuade the magazines to feature his designs;

3. Why his designs are not colourful;

4. How he managed to get noticed in the fashion industry by staying true to himself despite media asked him to go back to Japan;

5. How he got up after filing for bankruptcy in 2009;

6. His advice for the young designers.

It's a great read, especially if you're feeling like giving up whatever you're doing right now!

That's it for Fashion Dose #5! I hope you enjoy! Have a great week ahead!

#FashionDose #Fashion