I was reading the March edition of "Elle" in my GP surgery this morning. Reading is the wrong word - flipping through is more accurate. To be honest I was quite shocked because I thought the majority of the clothes were simply ridiculous. Not only that, ridiculously expensive. Page after page of "The Emperors new Clothes" (Hans Christian Anderson). Quite literally, because many of the garments left nothing to the imagination.
It made me wonder whether designers actually like women at all. Why would they want to make women look like this if they did? So many of the clothes aren't just impractical & expensive, in my opinion they are ludicrous. I actually feel that the women who wear these clothes are being exploited.
What are clothes for? Who are clothes for? Are they for the women who wear them or are they for men? Are women being conned in the way the fairy tale depicts? Are the designers & the women who wear their clothes disconnected from reality?
Clothes can be both beautiful & functional, but we have to change our attitudes to fashion. "Fast fashion" & "Designer Fashion" is no longer acceptable. The designers & manufacturers have to change. But so do we. We have to demand better & stop the exploitation of people & natural resources & the pollution that goes alongside the fashion industry.
The fashion industry generates huge amounts of money. The revenue of the global clothing market was calculated to amount to 1.53 trillion U.S. dollars in 2022, a slight decrease on the previous year. The environmental impact of the fashion industry is appalling. https://www.celticandco.com/celtic/fast-fashion/
The Climate Emergency is a stark reality. The last few years have shown that extreme weather is no longer a rarity. We have to wake up & understand that we each, individually, have to change what we do & how we do it. It won't be easy. We will have to make very difficult adjustments. Fashion is only a part of this.
We have to stop being self absorbed & think of the bigger picture. There is no Plan B or Planet B.
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