May 22, 2020

So for a long time now, stores have subscribed to the central theme that "too many clothes are never enough" philosophy of buying clothes. It's a huge business and very successful for the clothing retails stores, therefore the reason it's so prevalent in the clothing retail business.

Honestly do we really need this many clothes?
 

Eventually the rubber band will break. Everything has a finite limit rubber bands, closet space, and the ever-expanding yet constantly searching for cheaper sourcing can not exist as a permanent or even long-term business model.  The employees become empowered or embittered enough to revolt;  the employees leave, leaving no one left in the pipeline to do the work; or the system collapses on it own without anything to support it cause no investment has been made in the infrastructure. 

 

But the business model of cheap fashion stores doesn't always subscribe to long-lasting business practices. Instead this faulty business model works like this: The clothing retailer goes to the manufacturer with several models for the upcoming season with the thinking that last year, the price was 79¢/garment, but this year we need to cut costs and therefore want to pay 75¢/garment. The following order stipulates a similar cut in cost to 70¢/garment and continues on this way. Pretty soon, the manufacturer says no more cut in costs, we must either keep the cost the same or else we must decrease the quality. The manufacturer can not continue to lose money, and must make alterations in the manufacturing. The clothing retailer is okay with cutting quality, and thus starts the downward swirl of the cheap fashion model. Eventually, the quality is so poor, that the value is worthless, and therefore any cost of the product is literally like throwing money out the window.  

 

This is where the fast fashion model has brought us.  

 

That has worked adequately (albeit fragilely) until this year. With the closure due to the COVID-19, the steady conveyor-belt fashion system machine has ground to a halt. Hardly any clothes are sold. Therefore the need for manufacturing a large volume of clothing has decreased dramatically. The retailers do not want to pay for clothes that they have ordered, because they can't sell what they have in their stores now. The manufacturers want to continue orders from the retailer, but also want to be paid, and fell if they sue or balk at new orders, they will lose the business and the retailer will go elsewhere.

 

This is a very thoughtful and well-research article from The Financial Times on this very subject. FT (as it's known in the biz), is a UK publication, so many of the examples are UK based (mostly London), but the statistics are world-wide, and the effect is also world-wide. Because the retailer has created distance between manufacturer and retailer (to distance any slave labor, poor working condition type accusations), the manufacturer is at a severe disadvantage to recoup or suffer remedial solutions to their problems. In other words, the manufacturers for the most part of sh*t out of luck. They know that if they balk or sue, the manufacturers will lose not only the current business they have but also their potential to be blackballed by the whole industry solely for legally getting what they were contracted to receive.  

 

That's a situation these manufacturers, mostly located in third-world countries, have to face. Many of them are shuttered now and have no hope of re-opening due to revenue loss. 

 

For a long time, this "fast-fashion" business model has been stretched to within breaking points. While it's continually pulled and tugged at every point, this model was pre-programed to break.  Not only the product made by this model unsustainable, but the whole business model was unsustainable. The truth is that it's been coming, and it was going to take a significant upheaval in the production system to make it break. That major upheaval is occurring right now.

 

While I would never EVER wish ill upon a country, company or industry that is willing to work itself out of poverty, this "fast fashion" business model is a system that was not set up on firm ground. At its inception, it was fraught with not only moral problems but economic ones as well.  There is literally no recourse for the employees as well as the employers in this system.  Whereas in this country, products are produced at a fair price in a safe environment. Thus, creating a "true" escape from poverty that not only works, but lasts and is, amazingly enough, great for the economy as a whole.    

 

Of course, other countries can and did undercut this model by not paying their employees a living wage in an unsafe working environment, which meant that a lot of manufacturing went overseas. Unfortunately for the beancounters who elevated this business model to the economic standard, the really needy were victims of this system, and it was bound to fail from the beginning. 

 

As President Lincoln so aptly phrased this, the definition of slavery is the stealing of another person's time.  When you do not pay or pay very little for another's time, it's slavery.  And you know what I've said about time as a resource.  None of us - no matter how wealthy or poor you are, you all have the same amount of time per day, per week, per year. You can't go to the National Bank of Time and borrow more time. You can't go to a foundation and borrow time. The only way you can get more time is to steal it from another person.  And time is money.  No one will tell you that more than the owners of companies like Zara, Forever 21 and American Eagle.  They are all profiting on other's stolen time. 

 

The article is a good read and it explains a lot about how this clothing manufacturing system is breaking down before our very eyes. So I recommend reading it.  It's got some graphs and mathmatical stuff that might be a little boring but it is sounding the warning bell that the cheap fashion industry is dying.  Here's a great post on the SewingArtistry Facebook page about that.   What happens after the lockdown, and people want to continue those DIY projects they learned to make their clothing more individual and personal?  What happens if they want to know more?  Even better:  What happens when the fast-fashion clothing retailers can't deliver because the manufacturers that they refused to pay can't start up again or are gone never to return and the DIY-ers where will they turn for their clothes?

As clothing becomes more and more expensive, and it has to once the fast-fashion production collapses (even if it's brought back for one failing last gasp, third-world countries and in particular the manufacturers have learned so much more that they will now want to set up protection mechanisms to prevent from sudden interuption in their production), sewing not only becomes a realistic alternative, but it also garners what it has always been:  a means by which one can express oneself. 

I have always loved this photo of 4 sisters setting up homestead in Nebrask.  Look at the outfits.  Each one has her own style and knowing that they couldn't have purchased these, each one was selected with each one's own preference.  Yes, they were functional, but they were also representative of each one's own style.  And as much as these dresses were functional, they were also expressive of each gal's style and personality. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not only the the advent of more sustainable clothing at a much higher price (click the above  right photo to see the domestically made [under safe and healthy conditions with a living wage paid] vs the fast fashion model on the left) will drive customers to sewing, but those who wish to express themselves individually and customized to their own likes and needs.

This is my hoodie (click the photo for the Instagram post that includes a video), which is not only to my design (I got to fit the hoodie the way I like to be fitted and I have Las Vegas zippers, what's in my pockets stays in my pockets, and I have a double separating-zipper that zips up and down and separates).   This jacket also includes thumb slits in my cuffs that are actually placed where my thumbs are and fit my thumbs.

THIS is where we are headed.  And I'm not gleeful at the demise of this unsustainable, corrupting and dangerous business model.  At the same time I'm relieved that not only will we becoming into a more sustainable business model, but also a new appreciation for the making and creating of clothing.  Garment-making has had such a raw deal the last generation of consumers that due time.    Now this won't happen over night.  It won't happen over a year or so.  But with the demise of these manufacturers and closure of more and more retail stores, these won't come back, and if they do it won't be this same business model.  Some may come back, but they won't last.  It may take 10 years.  This may be that decde that the fashion-manufacturing business really changes and there is a general acknowledgement, appreciation and approval for the garment-maker.  

 

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