Fair Trade People: The Fashion Context

A Wall Street Journal Ad by Zady, an ethical online retailer

Last Saturday was like any other weekend for shopping obsessed Singapore. But in other parts of the world, various activities were organised to celebrate World Fair Trade Day, an annual event initiated by the World Fair Trade Organization. Closer to home, a competition was held at Mitra Bali Fair Trade to promote fair trade and better working environment.

This year's theme was 'Fair Trade People' and aimed to celebrate everyone involved in the social movement. So I thought it would be good to take this opportunity to delve deeper as to why I support fair trade and ethical fashion. 

I lived in Australia for close to a decade, initially to study and eventually to work before returning to Singapore at the end of 2010. The Singapore I left and the Singapore I came back to were world's apart. The scenery had changed dramatically, what with Marina Bay Sands and the Downtown Core permanently altering the skyline of the CBD area. 

Orchard Road, Singapore's shopping mecca, had also undergone a drastic transformation with new malls such as ION Orchard and Somerset 313 dotting the swanky, tree-lined streets and older malls, evidently threatened by the new entrants have undergone major facelifts to lure in well-heeled customers.   

Now, what has this got to do with fair trade you say? Along with the dazzling array of designer brands, many fast-fashion retailers including H&M, Forever 21 & Cotton On have also set up shop in Orchard Road. Working in Orchard Road, I often observe white-collar workers leaving the office midday for lunch and returning back with a shopping bag or two. Mindless consumption, that's what it has become. Because the apparels are so affordable these days that shopping is no longer consigned to a weekend workout but rather a lunch pit-stop. I myself, have been guilty on several occasions though luckily not frequent enough to be consumed by it.  

Coming back to fair trade,I used to buy fair trade products for the feel good vibe; knowing that somewhere, someone in the third world is benefiting from my tokenistic purchase. But as I sought to educate myself further on this issue, I was not only saddened by the exploitation within the retail industry but more horrified by the fact that we as consumers are perpetuating the socio-economic divide and environmental degradation solely through our consumption habits and lifestyles. 

You know how most of us complain about how the rich gets richer while the poor gets poorer? How our bosses are overpaid when we do most of the work? You know what? We're equally as guilty. By choosing to buy goods sold by high-street labels with little regards for human rights, we are making a decision to line the pockets of billionaires such as Zara's founder Amancio Ortega Gaona rather than ensure the poor farmers and workers are paid a living wage that enable them to buy nutritious food, pay their children's school fees etc. 

Now, I can fully understand how difficult it can be for consumers fed on a diet of fast-fashion to adjust their mindset and pay more for their apparels. I'm also painfully aware of the fact that there are many whose livelihoods depend on these retailers. My simple suggestion is that we could all strive to be more thoughtful and responsible consumers. Minimise any unnecessary purchases and question the ethics of the products at hand before parting with your money. Think quality not quantity. 

Revisiting Fashion Revolution Day and the incident that triggered this movement - the Rana Plaza collapse in Bangladesh - shed further light on the plight of garment workers. 'The Shirt On Your Back', a moving interactive produced by The Guardian, uses video footage, compelling images and revealing info-graphics to create a powerful, multi-layered narrative on the human cost of the garment industry. A ticker tape runs throughout as a sobering reminder on the paltry wages of these garment workers as compared to the massive revenues made by UK retailers on the back of their labour. I took close to 28 minutes to watch the entire interactive and in that timeframe, Mahmuda (the interactive's protagonist) would have earned 48 pence whereas UK retailers would have made £2060k in sales.

Above is another short documentary featured in the New York Times called 'The Deadly Cost of Fashion'. It seeks to draw the connections between apparel brands sold in New York to the clothing tags found in the rubble of the Rana Plaza collapse. Connections that are all but lost to consumers when they purchase their apparels in well-lit, beautifully designed stores. Companies and brands link to Rana Plaza include Joe Fresh, Benetton and Mango. 

Even a year after the incident, many survivors and victims' families have yet to receive adequate compensations. Not only that, it seems that very little have changed in the working conditions of garment workers as exemplified by the mass fainting in Cambodia and continued instabilities in Bangladeshi factories. 

To show your support, you can sign the Clean Clothes Campaign petition to urge retailers to pay garment workers a living wage. And obviously, buy fair:)