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On Primark.
Fashion is a false emancipation that is disastrous for the global working class. It is the working class that are held captive in sweatshops, have their unions smashed, and their homes flooded or turned to dust by climate change.
Fashion is a false emancipation that is disastrous for the global working class. It is the working class that are held captive in sweatshops, have their unions smashed, and their homes flooded or turned to dust by climate change.
It is the working class that end up wearing poor quality clothes that easily wear out and are quickly scorned as unfashionable. It is the working class that are forced by low wages and the homogenisation of high streets into shopping or working in shops like Primark.
It is also the working class that are driven to anxiety and a sense of inadequacy for not being able to keep up with fashion. See feminist academic Sandra Lee Bartky on the double shame borne by some – the shame of poverty coupled with the shame of being unable to keep up.
Nor is fashion just psychological burdens: The ability to conform to accepted standards of dress & appearance is critical for social mobility. This was vital to understand in the 2008 financial crash (Vogue: "It's okay to be redundant, but not to look redundant.") And is again.
So while fashion is not pro-working class, it MUST be critiqued as a product of corporations drive for profit NOT as the fault of the working classes.
To live on earth everyone’s shopping habits must change – note that I am NOT talking about ‘fast-fashion.’
To live on earth everyone’s shopping habits must change – note that I am NOT talking about ‘fast-fashion.’
Post lock-down, customers spent US$2.7 million in the Hermes's flagship store in Guangzhou - believed to be the highest ever daily takings for a luxury boutique in China.
Where are the photos, posts, and hand-wringing for luxury stores opening?
Where are the photos, posts, and hand-wringing for luxury stores opening?
There is no truth in the assertion that shopping for expensive clothes is better, or that wealthy 'good' shoppers have smaller carbon footprints.
Rich people create more carbon *driving their car* than an entire household of poorer people do in 8 months.
Rich people create more carbon *driving their car* than an entire household of poorer people do in 8 months.
BUT even if everyone on the planet reduced the emissions from their lifestyles right down, it still would not solve climate change. For that you need to deal with the corporations who make more emissions than the rest of us put together. It's not an individual issue.
The past thirty years have seen a meteoric rise in corporate power, a rise which has been matched by two interlinked issues:
A) A massive lack of corporate regulation
B) The dominance of an ideology that states that *actually consumers are in charge* - ‘consumer is king’ etc.
A) A massive lack of corporate regulation
B) The dominance of an ideology that states that *actually consumers are in charge* - ‘consumer is king’ etc.
It is no coincidence that we have been steered into this, but 'Consumer is king' is neoliberal nonsense that belongs in the dustbin of history.
There is no democracy in fashion nor any way to shop/not shop ourselves out of exploitation.
There is no democracy in fashion nor any way to shop/not shop ourselves out of exploitation.
Neoliberalism teaches us that empowerment comes from acting individually rather than collectively, and that we should trust in the system and shop, rather than fight, our way to a new world.
This is why people are still trapped in sweatshops and the world is on fire.
This is why people are still trapped in sweatshops and the world is on fire.
There are major corporate powers to be investigated, interrupted, and dismantled.
The people in those Primark queues - no matter what brings them there - are not your enemy.
The people in those Primark queues - no matter what brings them there - are not your enemy.
No one has ever summed up the fashion maelstrom more eloquently than @PotentOfficial. Recommend you watch this:
And for more, here's a piece I wrote on how 'fashion' is just an excuse for the rich to exploit the poor: https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2014/05/fashion-just-excuse-rich-exploit-poor
'People in Primark are not your enemy'
- Thread is now written up and extended as an OP-ED for @FashionRoundTab: https://www.fashionroundtable.co.uk/news/2020/6/16/op-ed-tansy-hoskins-on-why-people-in-primark-are-not-your-enemy
- Thread is now written up and extended as an OP-ED for @FashionRoundTab: https://www.fashionroundtable.co.uk/news/2020/6/16/op-ed-tansy-hoskins-on-why-people-in-primark-are-not-your-enemy
