Modest Materialist May 2015

Garment Industry Report

FAST

FASHION

VICTIMS

By Marlen Hernandez

Not only has fast-fashion sped up the fashion cycle and introduced multiple lines per brand a year, it has also aected the environment and society in more ways than are imaginable.

Garment Industry Report

Fast-fashion doesn’t

start with workers at a garment factory, it ends with them…

I

t starts with a woman going shopping on a first-world budget.

With the price of everything else rising, the pressure for retailers to keep affordable prices is more competitive than ever. The modern woman can purchase the latest fashions for a portion of a high-end price. According to The Bureau of Labor of Statistics, Americans in 2013 spent only about 3% of their spending money on clothes compared to 10.4% back in 1960. Fast-fashion peeked its way into the fashion industry in the early 1990s, and has been growing exponentially. Fast-fashion giants like Forever 21, H&M and Zara are opening more stores every year, making trendy and disposable fashion readily available everywhere they can. Not only has fast-fashion sped up the fashion cycle and introduced multiple lines per brand a year, but it has also affected the environment and society in more ways than are imaginable.

The World Bank states that textile dyes contributes to 1/5 of the planet’s water pollution, while the Council for Textile Recycling estimated about 25 billion pounds of clothing waste in our landfills a year. Most of the textiles being dumped are made from cheap man-made materials that are non-degradable. These environmental effects are only a few topics from a complex round of ethical issues associated with the fashion industry.

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Garment sourcing is mostly outsourced to Asia. Once Third World countries develop, global brands seek cheaper labor in poorer countries. Currently, Bangladesh is the world’s second largest garment supplier.

The millions of poor Bangladeshi people who work in more than 3,400 garment factories, work for close to nothing, but they would still rather work, since their alternatives leave them worse off; hence the cheap labor provided by outsourcing to Bangladesh. 80% of the Bangladeshi garment workers are women. The garment industry contributes a significant 75% to the Bangladeshi economy and has given the women the opportunity for economic independence. However, they are forced to work 12-16 hour workdays in poor and dangerous conditions, their worker’s rights violated everyday and receive below a living wage—which is what keeps prices

low for first-world fashion enthusiasts.

Fast fashion retailers, pressed with the velocity of trend turnover, originally enforced by themselves, are in turn dangerously affecting the supply chain. It no longer takes months from the inception of a fashion sketch to the hands of consumers; it takes a few weeks. Factory owners in Bangladesh get to pressure workers to work faster and overtime hours, which have always been complained about by workers, and are not being paid fairly or at all. Workers theoretically have the right to unionize, but factory owners and managers harass and threaten the workers to abandon their idea of a union. Many union organizers have been killed, discouraging further action from others.

It no longer takes months from the inception of a fashion sketch to the hands of consumers; it takes a few weeks.

Workers health and safety needs are routinely neglected. Many people have been exhausted and fainted but have been forced to get back on the job immediately without being afforded medical attention. The neglect doesn’t stop there. The multiple-story buildings in which these factories employ thousands of garment workers are illegally built, exposing them to danger.

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Garment Industry Report

workers were physically beaten and forced to go back to work. Threatened that they would be fired and not receive their wages, people were more afraid to lose that than their life, so they went back into the building only for it to collapse an hour later. Many were stuck under the rubble surrounded by dead bodies, and the only way to rescue them was to cut off an arm or leg. Some bodies were never recovered from the debris, and many that were, were either decapitated, in pieces, or severely destroyed and unidentifiable.

Reuters/Andrew Biraj

A garment factory in Bangladesh

Garment factory disasters are not unfamiliar at all to the fashion industry. One of the major garment factory disasters includes the fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in Manhattan back in 1911. The owners had locked the doors to possible exits, because it was their way of controlling workers and afraid they would take unauthorized breaks. The fire killed 146 workers either through fire, inhalation or jumping to their deaths out of the building. Recently, in November of 2012, a fire broke out at the Tazreen Fashion Factory in Ashulia, Bangladesh, killing over 117 people due to inadequate emergency exits. The Tazreen Fashion factory fire is Bangladesh’s deadliest fire, from among the fires that every other day break-out in the nation’s garment factories.

Collapses are also common catastrophes, such as the Spectrum garment factory in Savar, Bangladesh, in 2005, that left 64 people dead and over 74 injured. “They need structural engineers and perform concrete cylinder tests…” said Adele Beppu, a doctoral candidate attending the University of Hawaii School of Architecture. Concrete cylinder tests help verify N I N E

the mixture proportions for a certain strength in concrete and the time it takes before it can be put into service.

On April 25th, 2015, Nepal suffered a major earthquake, causing major destruction and killing over 5,500 people throughout southern Asia. Due to the vulnerability of Bangladesh’s buildings, the aftershocks of the earthquake managed to tilt a six-story garment factory in Bangshal, Bangladesh. Fortunately, nobody was injured. Can this be said in the future when an earthquake actually hits in Bangladesh?

The deadliest garment factory collapse however, in Bangladesh and in the entire world, was the collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory on April 24th, 2013 in the Savar County of Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital. The collapse killed over 1,100 and injured over 2,000 people.

Rana Plaza was an eight-story building, which only had a permit for five. There were warning signs weeks before the collapse, when workers complained about cracks on the walls, and the authorities made everyone evacuate the building the day before. The next morning, frightened

The collapse resulted in angry protests from workers around the world demanding better working conditions, living wages and the freedom to unionize. “Our survival is dependent on the brands and the government hearing our voices” stated a protestor following the Rana Plaza collapse. A numerous amount of factories at risk of a collapse were closed temporarily immediately after.

PA

Rana Plaza garment factory collapse on April 24th, 2013 in Savar, Bangladesh

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Garment Industry Report

REUTERS/Andrew Bira

photo.sf.co.ua

Final Embrace by Taslima Akhter

Society blamed the higher corporations for sourcing irresponsibly. The multi-national companies don’t negotiate directly with the factories, but through contractors and their subcontractors. Attention however has been called for the multi-national companies to take responsibility and ethically source their garments. While workers are risking their lives in poor working conditions and earning poverty wages, the big brands in Western and European countries are profiting billions of dollars out of those garments made from Bangladeshi workers.

Labli, 25, was rescued from under the rubble, 48 hours after the Rana Plaza collapse, but had to get her leg amputated

Kevin Frayer/AP

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Trade unions an organizations have spoken out introducing efforts to protect worker’s rights and have the victims and their families compensated properly. The International Labour Organization established the Rana Plaza Donors Trust Fund, which uses donated funds to “be used exclusively to cover payments to Rana Plaza victims and their families”. On May 15th, 2013, The Accord on Fire and Building Safety was signed by “over 190 apparel companies from over 20 countries in Europe, North America, Asia and Australia; two global trade unions, IndustriALL and UNI Global; and eight Bangladeshi trade unions. Clean Clothes Campaign, Worker Rights Consortium, International Labour Rights Forum and maquila Solidarity Network are NGO witnesses to the agreement.” The Accord is a 5-year agreement that binds companies to help inspect and remediate garment factories to ensure worker safety and improve fire and building safety as well as worker empowerment to encourage them to report and refuse an unsafe working environment.

But there are still many companies who have not yet signed on, including brand giants such as Walmart and Gap Inc. They opted to be part of the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety along with 24 other American retailers. The Alliance works similarly as The Accord in implementing safety and structural integrity standards, but does not financially obligate companies to pay for restoration costs, only through loans.

Infographic: The Accord for Fire and Building Safety, for Bangladeshi garment factories bangladeshaccord.org

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Garment Industry Report

Some structural and safety improvement has occurred since 2013, and money has been donated, but two years after the tragedy, companies are still $8 million short of the $40 million compensation estimated to alleviate the victims and their families. On April 23rd, 2015 the Rana Plaza victims and their families “…filed a negligence and wrongful death civil lawsuit against Wal-Mart, J.C. Penney and Children’s Place and the government of Bangladesh…” Kristi Ellis reported for Women’s Wear Daily.

Fast fashion definitely has thousands of victims, but they are not the girls you see on the internet on the “street style gallery,” they are the workers who risk and have lost their lives producing cheap articles of clothing. There are many who will live in destitution and physical pain caused by their injuries, as well as permanent difficulty, due to the loss of their limbs. In most households, the monetary income came from the garment industry, but many will live too traumatized to go back to work in a garment factory. In

that respect, there are many more fashion victims that shouldn’t be forgotten like the involuntary workers, sexually harassed women, children who are kept working as slaves and the ones who work exposed to harsh deadly materials and chemicals.

The death toll continues with the death of protestors by the police force or by factory owner’s gansters.

There is much that needs and can be done to respect and acknowledge what goes on in the other side of the industry that helps fuel the fashion beast. Protesting action, donations and becoming active on the strong social platform that is the social media, with hashtags like #payup for the Rana Plaza victims whom have not yet been compensated by the brands that sourced from them, can be used to bring awareness. There is also #whomademyclothes, on Fashion Revolution Day, taking place on April 24th (the day Rana Plaza collapsed) with people posting pictures showing the tags of their clothes and asking the companies “Who made my clothes?”

This movement seeks out companies to reach accountability, transparency and release information about their sourcing.

The incessant practice of trend shopping in the First World has brought on many positive opportunities. In return, many more and some irremediable; societal, environmental, political, and economical issues have come in hand. Fast fashion did not come about in a day and it will not dissipate in the near future, but there must be a something that can be done to change its direction. The fast fashion train is moving too fast, and it is dragging innocent people along for a nasty ride. It shouldn’t be that way. It does not mean to boycott or nurture a distaste for fashion, but as consumers, it is our responsibility to educate ourselves about the supply chain of the garments that clothe us everyday. Our shopping practices indirectly affects millions of people’s lives. Our direct actions have the power to help them.

orphansplace.com

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Only in San Francisco

High and Wild

in San Francisco Marlen Hernadez

It looked a bit hazy when people started hunting for their lunch on the streets of San Francisco, but it wasn’t from a foggy morning. It was from cigarette smoke, only they didn’t look or smell like cigarettes.

The date was April 20th, but most refer to it as 4-20. Back in 1971, a group of youngsters from San Rafael, California, heard that there was an abandoned cannabis crop, for which they searched the area near their high school’s Statue of Louis Pasteur—their meeting point at 4:20pm. Their search was to no avail, but they coined the term 4-20 and launched a counterculture that celebrates cannabis smoking on April 20th at 4:20pm.

420 is observed in multiple parts of the world, but the largest congregation takes place at Hippie Hill in San Francisco’s Golden Gate park.

Hippies grew fond of smoking pot there, a subculture that moved to the Haight-Ashbury district back in the day. A free-spirited community from all over the Bay Area flocked over to Hippie Hill on Monday to set encampment and putting something in their pipe and smoking

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it—most of it illegal in the rest of the country. Rap battles scattered the park among the dancing and napping sea of people. Fire performers and hula-hoopers couldn’t have been missed through the massive crowds either.

Donations of any kind were also being accepted by a group of youngsters holding a burlap sack. Masseuses were also literally on hand, to provide their services. Hippie Hill is near stores, bars and restaurants in the Haight-Ashbury District, so great profits were made on the eventful Monday.

Despite the counter-cultural atmosphere, fashion was a huge presence, too. Colorful patterned outfits, top hats, corsets, clunky boots, flower crowns, braids, homemade accessories and layers and layers of loose clothing clothed the hippies, hipsters, steampunks and bohemians in attendance.

There was an overwhelming entrepreneurial spirit thriving at the park as well. Locals set up their stands selling cannabis merchandise such as necklaces, t-shirts and most popular, socks. The unauthorized trade also included edible candy, tamales, pot brownies, drinks, hotdogs, and of course plenty of munchies.

420 was celebrated by the free-spirited and the open-minded. The Hippie Hill was monitored by the San Francisco Police Department and Fire Department, and documented by NBC Bay Area.

It was just another convivial day in San Francisco.

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Only in San Francisco

420

HIPPIE HILL GOLDEN G AT E PA R K

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Photo Credit: Marlen Hernandez N I N E

Only in San Francisco

The Weird Zone Marlen Hernandez

Do you celebrate how weird you are? You wouldn’t be alone if you do. Thousands of residents from the Bay Area have been celebrating their weirdness for the past 16 years with a huge block party. The block party shuts down Howard Street and 2nd Street in the heart of San Francisco. It’s called The How Weird Street Faire.

parents and all kinds of individuals together to celebrate art, dance, peace, and technology and of course their oddest self. Art installations decorated the streets, the sky and ten electronic music stages produced

by Symbiosis, Temple Nightclub and many more. There were also art

The 16th Annual How Weird Street Faire took place on a seasonally warm and cloudless Sunday on April 26th. There was an hour-long wait for the menagerie to enter the faire, which stretched down 2nd, Mission, and around the corner of New Montgomery Street. The sound of electronic music thumping and evident excitement of people droving to the faire, in their expressively “weird” outfits, put a state of wonder among the unaware San Franciscans in the area. Even furry friends made it in their funky pet-friendly outfits, but this wasn’t Coachella nor Burning Man…it was better.

galleries from local artists, aerialists from Skyhigh Odditoirum AiReal Alchemists, and belly dancers from San Francisco’s Underground Nomads.

The Weird Street Faire brought artists, businesspeople, techies,

It was National Dance Week, so a variety of dancers took the stage in-

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cluding Bollywood dancers and an impromptu dance mob integrating the audience. A hula-hoop station welcomed anybody and everybody to just grab one and hula-hoop away. There was dancing, drinking, eating, body painting, and peculiar arts and crafts vending such as Whacky Whistles. Smoking pipes, psychedelic t-shirts, embroidered blankets, beaded necklaces, and colorful brocade tops were also among the products sold from the local vendors.

The midday ravers slowly made their way out of the event area at around eight in the evening, only to anticipate next year’s affair. People nonchalantly passed by a van that offered cats tarot readings. San Francisco has not lost its eccentric culture— it is still a a strange, friendly and curious place with so much to explore among the community. Tourists seeking an exceptional time should plan their trip around the Weird Street Faire. And not forget to bring their wackiest outfit, because this is the place to wear it to.

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Weird Street Faire

Photo Credit: Marlen Hernandez N I N E

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