Starving little gray cells? I have just the treat for you:
This week has been very exciting over at The Fashion Law. They’ve been running a series of posts “dedicated to exploring the state of influencer marketing” and it’s oh-so-disgusting-but-breathtaking! Here: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.
And from new to old – Of aristocratic, blue blood and old money style tells you exactly that: why Prince Charles will always look the part and the Kardashians will never be classy… My favorite take-away, no surprises, is “old is good, old is better than new”.
And now a food-for-thought that annoyed me – and it’s not a write-up, but a happily finished crowdfunding – this stuff (in Spanish)! So this guy – a BA in marketing student – has just charmed the pants off all the Catalan media claiming that he is launching *the first* sustainable fashion app and people gave him 23k to do that. While there are several nice aspects to his dealings: (a) raising the issue in general, (b) moving the focus towards physical shops instead of (as per usual) ignoring the thousands of miles our ethical packages fly after being purchased, and (c) local production as the locus of being labeled “ethical”. However, these are the sources of my annoyance: (a) claiming that this will be “the first sustainable fashion app in Spain” would have been enough to make it true… but no! he had to consistently stick to “the first” (see Good On You for a counterfactual), (b) the whole endeavor ignores anything before the last assembling, no word about materials, supply chains, etc. (c) no reliance on international certification, instead it’s “we’ll check ourselves”, trust in the brands and “maybe we’ll make our own certification system”. Gosh! The only question left is if starting as if from 0 is true or feigned ignorance…
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What annoys you the most in the ethical fashion sub-scene? The prices, the snobbery, or just how easily one can claim herself to be an expert? (I know, I know very well… my case exactly!) What kind of ethical fashion crowdfunding would you happily give your money to?
There’s been around for some time now in ethical fashion / zero waste / eco and whole foods this trend according to which we equal “our purchase” = “votes”. This annoys me a great lot.
Ok, see, I agree and try to support as much as possible local product, ethical things whatsoever, and such (difficult, though, due to my meager budget). But PLEASE could we stop putting all the blame in the consumers? I do believe that we have a choice to make, but only if it is possible or suitable for us; placing all the guilt in the consumer is unfair to people with less resources (economical or otherwise). Again, I do not claim that we as consumers cannot do anything (we could start by not consuming, alas!), but this shifts the focus from the system to the user; and thus makes it even more difficult to acknowledge how deeply rooted is our problem.
Here are my two cents! (Just to say that I agree w/ you regarding this topic of the “first ethical fashion app”. Come on, yo, could you not be at least HONEST and not lie flagrantly about your genius idea? Brrr).
Hi, Jud! You are right, the ‘vote with your €’ logic does not look at the point that this puts us very far from the one person = one vote logic. And it’s still very unclear if the wave of new demands coming to matter in the marketplace (amount of waste, fair trade, etc.) are just creating a niche market for those that can buy out from the conventional production and hence cleanse their guilt throwing their money at the problem, or is it actually moving the mass production towards a more sustainable model.
Also, the same as with energy conservation, the focus on consumers has two sinister benefits in favor of keeping things largely the same: (1) gives the consumers the illusion that we have the tools to deal with the issue (while our individual grain of sand is so very small), and (2) takes the focus away from the industry-wide practices and policy-making level. Providers give as ritualistic means to show our best intentions while the business continues as usual.