Essay changes based on feedback

In What Ways Does the fashion industry exploit current social issues for profit?       

Georgia Hamilton

The following text will explore social issues focusing predominantly on today’s society and with a particular focus on cultural appropriation, feminism and body image within the fashion industry, in order to explore the ways in which certain brands/designers exploit these issues with no real interest or care in relation to what they stand for, for profit, and the ways in which they are able to do so. For example, the issue of cultural appropriation will be explored in terms of uncovering whether brands will use certain clothing or hair styles, disrespecting the cultural significance behind them by using them solely for their aesthetic purposes in order to make sales and in result adding to appropriation within society.

The fast fashion high street brand Top Shop are known for quickly keeping up with changing trends, with a recent line of t-shirts available in store and online feature a ‘girlpower’ slogan. Maxine Bérdat’s 2016 TEDx talk focused around the environmental and human rights violated by fast fashion outlets such as Top Shop, Bérdat noted that around 80% of the people working within the apparel industry are women and 98% of them are not receiving a living wage, with 12-year olds posing as 18-year olds in order to maintain their jobs (M.Bérdat, 2016). When this statement is regarding a brand which promotes and appears to represent the power within girls the designs sincerity is weakened and the agenda behind it can be seen as one to profit off of the idea of girl power through exploiting girls and women rather than it actually being an issue close to the brands ethos. In terms of Top Shops ‘fake feminism’ it could be said that they’re creating designs to supply the demand within today’s society of young people wanting to show their political/social beliefs through their clothing, supplying to a primary audience of 18-25 year olds who either aren’t aware or do not care about the conditions in which their clothes are made, however this leads to the debate in whether clothing brands should make their customers aware of how their clothes are made, in order to allow them to make an informed decision.

Of course, exploiting apparel workers is not new, the 'anti-Gap' campaign initiated by the Labour Co-ordinating Committee of the US in 1995 was the result of intense struggle and extensive publicity drawing attention to the child labourers used to produce the cheap but high-quality cotton shirts we have come to associate with The Gap. In the end The Gap signed an agreement guaranteeing the protection of human rights to all its employees along with regular inspection of factories (A. McRobbie, 1997) As McRobbie states, the exploitation was as familiar in 1995 as it is today however it’s as if consumers and those working within the industry are choosing to ignore where their clothes come from, wearing a feminist slogan on their t-shirt as if that’s all they need to do to show they support women, when in fact they’re worsening the issue.

During 2016’s New York Fashion Week, Marc Jacobs sent his (predominantly Caucasian) models down the runway for his Spring 2017 collection in hand-dyed wool dreadlocks. This sparked controversy over whether it was an offensive form of cultural appropriation, or whether it was merely an appreciation for the style. Jacobs released a statement defending his decisions by stating he respects and is inspired by people and how they look, and that he doesn’t see colour or race. Rastafarians consider the locks a sign of their African identity and a religious vow of their separation from what they call Babylon, a historically white-European imperialist structure that has oppressed blacks and other people of colour (Migrations In History) with the cultural significance behind the style, Jacobs’ attempt to justify his decision comes off with more disrespect than anything, using dreadlocks aesthetically as a way enhance his runway looks and therefor profit from them, exploiting the style of the dreadlocks rather than respecting the cultural significance behind them. Speaking first hand to a British model who has recently attended castings for London Fashion Week, she spoke of the lack of diversity she has experienced both first hand and learnt of through other models she knows. She stated that whilst talking to one of her friends (who is a black, female model) she told her that whilst at the castings the casting directors would choose one black person and then the rest Caucasian in order to look diverse. The notion of ensuring a catwalk or photoshoot has one model of an ethnic minority in order to show diversity is not a new thing, in it’s 2008 issue, Italian Vogue featured only black models throughout it’s pages following media criticism of the industry lacking diversity, Mears calls this a ‘conspicuous reaction’ (A.Mears, 2009) implying that the magazine did this very obviously in order to show that they are racially diverse, however the if anything over the top way in which they went about it leads the viewer to question the validity and sincerity of the statement they are trying to project.

Body positivity is a movement which is changing the fashion industry, with a growing number of leading brands using plus size models in their campaigns, of course it can be seen as a good thing as it’s spreading the notion of equality and diversity however theirs also room for doubt when it comes to the intention of brands and whether they’re using the idea of body positivity as a way to sell more clothing with little interest in the actual significance of it.   

High street brand ZARA has faced criticism due to their choice of using images of slim models alongside the slogan ‘love your curves’. The slogan which you would assume to be used alongside images of plus sized models, was poorly used with models no bigger than a size 10, it can be said that ZARA are here trying to exploit the body positivity trend, in their attempt to encourage women to love their curves whilst showing women who are clearly not plus sized and who the statement doesn’t apply to. Tanesha Awasthi, a UK plus sized fashion blogger spoke of her experiences with ZARA following a Spanish teenager Anna Riera launched a petition in order to get ZARA to stock size 18’s in store ‘It is not only denying people the right to be able to shop in the most well-known stores in the world, but it is also saying that large sizes are not normal sizes, are not sizes that can be bought in any clothing shop,’. Awasthi comments on the blog post that her go to clothing within the stores are the outerwear and knit sections due to the fact that outerwear is made slightly oversized to accommodate for layers and the kinit section as knitted garments typically contain stretch. It seems very ironic that a brand which tells it’s customers to love their curves doesn’t accommodate to plus sized figures, and that customers who have curves have to make sure what they’re buying is stretchy in order for it to fit.

Fake feminism within the fashion industry doesn’t just apply to fast fashion high-street brands such as Topshop, high fashion brands have also used feminism as a way to sell their couture. Chanel’s Karl Lagerfeld’s 2014’s finale to Paris fashion week saw some of the world’s highest paid models such as Gisele Bündchen turn the runway in to a faux feminist protest, with the models supporting megaphones and placards depicting slogans such as ‘ladies first’ and ‘history is her story’.

Amy Odell, editor of Cosmopolitan magazine tweeted “awesome feminist statement at Chanel” in response to the show, however not all opinions of the show were positive. Lagerfeld who has previously expressed his opinion that ‘no one wants to see curvy women’ has been accused of jumping on the feminist band wagon in order to sell his designs, a move which appears to be happening all over the fashion world. Ashe raises the argument that men cannot be feminists because they have no experience of gender oppression and therefore cannot generate oppositional forms of gender consciousness and identity (F. Ashe, 2004) if this is to be applied to Lagerfeld’s faux protest the protest can be seen as fake in more ways than just being a creative choice for the fashion show, rather the whole concept behind it and the messages the placards depict could be seen as false as Ashe suggests that men cannot be feminists and in result Lagerfeld is feeding in to the act of faking an interest, passion or even care in relation to social issues, using them as a way to get ‘like- minded’ people to have admiration and want to purchase Chanel.

Social issues informing trends in fashion isn’t exclusive to today’s society however the exploitation of it could be argued to be. During the Vietnam war, the soldiers stationed in Europe and japan wore jeans as a symbol of home, in the 1960’s America’s middle-class college students began wearing them as a way to stand in solidarity with the working class; those most affected by the war draft. (D.Miller,2007)  In this case it’s not the fashion industry exploiting social and political changes in order to sell more clothing, it’s the consumers using clothing as a way to project their social views (similar to today’s society) and the fashion industry profiting off of this. This could be seen as the opposite of what is happening in today’s society, rather than the consumers making up their own opinions on what to wear and what the clothing means, they are being told what to wear and what it stands for.

It can be questioned whether the current surge in young people taking an interest and in some cases, being activists for current social issues such as the Global Justice Now’s youth network who organised a public protest against Marks and Spencer for advertising in the Daily Mail (E.Lewis, 2017), encourages fashion retailers to create products which are designed around these issues in order for them to sell. Regardless of the motive behind them, the trend in using social issues which the retailers and designers have no real interest in, in order to sell clothes is happening. High Street brands are employing women and girls, in sub-standard conditions to make feminist slogan t-shirts, profiting off of the social issues they want people to believe they are fighting for when they are in fact they’re doing the opposite.

The theory of cultural hegemony by founder of the Italian Communist party Antonio Gramsci can be applied to the ways in which the fashion industry and media outlets as a whole are able to exploit social issues for profit, Gramsci notes that 'culture is a politics that doesn't look like politics and is therefore a lot harder to notice, much less resist', when applying this theory in terms of cultural appropriation the fashion industry can be viewed as possessing a power in which exploits cultures for profit, using them as aesthetic tools in order to attract customers, meaning that consumers as a whole aren’t fully aware of what they’re buying, or the cultures they’re appropriating as Gramsci notes it’s ‘a lot harder to notice’ (A.Gramsci 1916-35).

In terms of cultural appropriation, the fashion industry uses the power they hold as an institution as a way to profit off of their customers lack of knowledge, resulting in the problem continuing to escalate. It’s becoming apparent that the industry will continue to keep on exploiting cultures for their aesthetic value as long as the consumers aren’t aware of the origins behind their clothes and accessories. Of course, the industry isn’t going to educate their consumers on how the clothing they’re trying to sell is disrespectful to cultures all across the world, and perhaps even if they are aware they will still choose to support the industry profiting off of it, however this does not mean that there shouldn’t be the opportunity for consumers to be educated on the significance behind what they’re wearing.

As well as the fashion industry profiting off of the growing social awareness within young people, the industry continues to profit off of the exploitation of cultures due to the fact that their customers aren’t aware. There needs to be a system in place which will help consumers become more aware of the ways in which the industry exploit certain social trends or cultures for financial gain, whether this is through media outlets continuing to comment on certain aspects of the industry, through design or from the brands themselves, in order for their to be a change in terms of exploiting social issues or cultural appropriation, there needs to be the opportunity for consumers to be made aware of the ways in which their clothes are made, the ideologies behind the brands who are producing them and the cultural significance behind the clothing and accessories which are being sold in stores, in order to allow consumers to generate their own opinion around what they wear and what brands to support, rather than the institutions holding all of the power.