- Designers: Fashion designers enjoy creativity and artistic expression, yet sometimes their work is more art than practical clothing. Should they be designing fashion for people or displaying their work in an art gallery? Are they preoccupied with creativity? Do they comply too easily with destructive industry standards? Are they obsessed with making money? They're under pressure to perform, but are they seeking to benefit the average person or are they seeking to benefit themselves?
- The People Who Make Fashion Products: Most fashion products (clothes, shoes, sunglasses etc.) are made in underdeveloped or developing countries, where workers are subjected to substandard working conditions, earning meager wages for a long day's work. Far from glamorous.
- Models: A handful of models reach supermodel status and enjoy fame and wealth, but most models don't become supermodels, and the modeling business is notorious for the way it mistreats its models:
- There's the unhealthy and unrealistic standard to be thin, forcing models to harm themselves, becoming bulimic or anorexic etc.
- Modeling firms can charge up to thousands of dollars for classes and other related expenses, which often don't pay off.
- Sometimes vulnerable models are exploited for sex, where work is promised in exchange for sexual favours.
- Then there's the constant rejection and criticism that models face when they audition for work. They're expected to have thick skins, but it must be a tough thing to go through.
- For the average model, modeling is far from glamorous.
- Marketing: TV ads, magazine ads, billboards, catalogs etc., use aggressive marketing practices that influence us in a negative and destructive way. They tell us that if we buy their products, we'll be better than others, more important than others. Not only that, they set unhealthy and unrealistic standards for impressionable young people to aspire to: To be thin, rich, pretentious and materialistic. Far from wholesome.
- Retailers: People who work in retail stores may earn minimum wage, sometimes they get commissions, sometimes they get employee discounts. They work long hours, on their feet, folding, stacking and sorting clothes all day long. Far from glamorous.
- Consumers: Each step along the supply chain, prices go up because everybody wants to make money. By the time goods and services reach consumers, the prices are over-inflated. Yet most of us live paycheck to paycheck, with little disposable cash.
- While a few people can afford luxury goods, it's almost a crime to spend $10,000 on a handbag. A handbag! While down the street, a homeless person begs for change. It doesn't make any sense. I spent about $3 on a handbag at a second hand store and it works perfectly.
- Then of course there's the pressure to keep up with fashion trends and new season offerings. The pressure to keep current and fashionable is expensive and exhausting.
- Under the influence of aggressive marketing practices, we buy things we don't need, expensive brand names that don't improve our lives. Yet we continue to buy, which is why debt, including credit card debt has become a huge problem because people are spending beyond their means. We're left feeling empty and broke. Far from glamorous.
So where exactly is the glamour and decadence in the fashion industry? While only a few enjoy the spoils, most of us realize that it's all an illusion, it's all smoke and mirrors, a web of lies and deception, there's nothing there. It's a house of cards built on empty promises, fleeting pleasures and expectations that are never fulfilled. For most of us, the truth is far from glamorous.
The fashion industry isn't known for its charity, it's known for its elitist attitude where being better than others is the goal. It's not. We're all equal.
In everything we do, we should seek to benefit others instead of ourselves.
The fashion industry isn't known for its charity, it's known for its elitist attitude where being better than others is the goal. It's not. We're all equal.
In everything we do, we should seek to benefit others instead of ourselves.
Copyright © 2014, Carter Kagume. All Rights Reserved.
