Tuesday, 11 December 2012

The Quotes of Eco-Fashion


Here are a few quotes from my essay, which I have written my opinion on in bold afterwards.

‘We have become a nation of shopaholics. We love the fact that we can now buy armfuls of clothes – several outfits – for the same price we used to pay for a single item’[1] – Tasmin Blanchard


It is something I believe in massively, the world of Primark and other cheap alternative stores is something we all love. We cannot deny we all love a bargain, but do we realise the impact this has on the environment. How many of us recycle clothes? The thing with Primark clothes is that no one really wants them much after, it isn’t something we can sell on or really even give to a charity shop, because we can buy it brand new for the same price anyway! These clothes end up in the bin. 


‘If you’re spending £8 on a jumper, its worth asking, was the person who made it paid a living wage? I know you love the jumper, and I know it was a bargain, but it is no coincidence that the minimum wage for garment workers in Bangladesh halved in real terms during the 1990’s.’ [2] – Tamsin Blanchard


How can we not agree with this, it is unreal how much cheaper we can grab clothes for these days, and how can we think someone gets paid a good amount for making it? There are millions of people working for pennies a day, just so they can make enough money for their families to live. This is not eco fashion, how can it be, we are so caught up in the recession that we really don’t care about the world, or even others around us. Not only are these clothes bad for the environment, being made million of miles away in large factories to be shipped over, they aren’t very ethical. No one is getting paid a fair wage to make them, and they are working in disgraceful conditions, away from their families. Do you still believe we are becoming eco-friendly? I know what I think.


‘Another major issue was the style factor. While a far cry from their hippie hemp-sack origins, the garments, sold under the catchphrases eco fashion and green fashion, had yet to be equated with chic.’[3]


Eco fashion seemed to have been missing the chic look, it is as if designers thought the name carried its own chic so the outfit didn’t need to. That is what I believe this is all about anyway. Green fashion isn’t something we actually care about its just fashionable to be green.



[1] Tamsin Blanchard, Green is the New Black, July 2008,  Page 3, Introduction
[2] Tamsin Blanchard, Green is the New Black, July 2008,  Page 4, Introduction
[3] Eco-Fashion, http://www.vogue.com/voguepedia/Eco_Fashion#cite_note-1

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