In Defense of Fashion

I'm hearing so much, lately, about how the fashion industry is responsible for mental disorders, the economic crisis and the breaking of the planet. Fortunately, it's never been in fashion to believe everything you hear. I wish to declare that fashion is OK, and you can decide whether or not to believe me.

Let's start by recognizing that the fashion industry is a machine that supports what is essentially an arts community; an exclusive group of hard-working designers (and some complete shams, naturally) who draw inspiration from our cultures, our histories, and each other to create utilitarian art works that we can wear, and that they hope we want to wear.

Many leaders of the fashion industry are very, very into green ideals. Just look at the RE:Fashion Awards Show Sebastian wrote about last week, or look at the Tonic Board of Creators — oh hi, Donna Karan! If you Google "green fashion," you get 16,400,000 hits. Many online stores, like ours, donate a hefty percentage of their profits to charity.

The fashion industry wants to save the world just as much as you do. Fashion is not some evil, consumer-hungry beast imposed by human greed onto the planet. Fashion is a natural development in human progress, from the days they were picking out which leaves to wear in Eden and how to tie them on.

A reenaction: Adam: Eve, how did you get those leaves to stay on? Eve: I tied them with some of those reeds over there. (Adam makes total mess of reeds and leaves which at last manages to stay on and cover his private area as well as half his torso, but looks crazy compared to Eve's simple accoutrement.) Eve: Aren't you hot under all those leaves? Adam: How did you get your leaves so neat and simple? Eve: I threaded the reeds through them. They wear out fast so I made a few. They're in the cave. I like the one with the red leaves best, I'm wearing it tomorrow. I can make you one if you want. And thusly, fashion was born. Or something like that.

Now, fashion may be one of the only conscious artistic choices you make every day. Even that guy you know with just two shirts decides which shirt to wear. Sometimes it's a utilitarian decision more than an artistic decision, but either way it becomes an expression of who you are. An artistic expression. I'd go so far as to say that fashion is our most fundamental art, because it was born out of immediate, non-psychological necessity: the necessity to keep warm. Eventually, the necessity to appear more attractive to the opposite sex than that other caveman in that other mammoth wool man-dress developed.

Even in cultures almost completely untouched by the tricksy consumerism fairy, everyone accessorizes. Sometimes the accessories are trophies of a kind, symbols you've been on such and such a hunt, symbols of rank within the political hierarchy, but all the same, they are worn because they make a statement. Human beings like to make statements. It's natural.

I'll go ahead now and make the age-old argument that we ought to blame our own values and our own greed for mental disorders and the financial crisis, not an artistic industry which is doing the best it can to offer us things we want. As for breaking the planet, my top three complaints with the fashion industry would be:

Child labor. You've probably heard lots about this all your life. That's because we want it to stop. Good job world, once you heard this was going on, you boycotted it. Not paying your workers enough, sweatshops, child labor — all this has become very bad press for the fashion industry. Bad press means fewer sales, and that means it's not even financially advantageous. Notably, many designers were horrified to learn about the factories where their clothes were being made over the years. They hadn't visited them and they had smiling people telling them that everything at the factory was great! It was a mistake many made, but many of the same are working to change it. Check out this Women's Wear Daily article from back in 1996 (sorry, you have to sign up for a free trial to read the whole thing, but you can get the gist from the blurb). The creation of waste. Green is in fashion. Organic, biodegradable materials are being used more and more, and some clothing is made from recycled materials. You can help reduce waste (and the money you spend) by investing in good, timeless outfits rather than the kind you'll wear twice and get rid of next season. As for those high fashion dresses the movie stars wear only once? Those go back to the designers after that night for the most part. Otherwise, they are usually kept in very well-preserved collections. Gowns like that are works of art. Are we going to yell at painters for using too much canvas?Animal abuse. Fur. Leather. This is a tricky one. Is killing animals for food abuse? Vegetarians often say yes, meat eaters usually say no. It often comes down to the treatment of the animals before they are killed, "free range" being preferred. Is killing animals for their skins abuse? It may create less pollution and non-biodegradable waste than working with the synthetics and plastics we use to create the other fabrics. And what about possum fur from New Zealand, where the human-introduced possums are tearing up the ecosystem? Here's an article on that I wrote back on Earth Day. Fur farming is behind food farming in terms of reformation, but legislation is being created. You can read about it here.

While the fashion industry is by no means perfect and green and squeaky clean, it is not the devil. Did hard-working artists let their production methods run unchecked for too long? Yes — as did most industries in the last century. The general population of this planet, I think, wants to do better this century than it did last century at being good to our world and all its inhabitants. The fashion industry is very much a part of the movement toward a greener future.