Sexual assaults on garment factory workers "a human rights catastrophe for women"

[SunsetBeetch]

Grim reading.

www.theguardian.com/news/2020/aug/20/fashion-industry-jeans-lesotho-garment-factory-workers-sexual-violence?utm_source=upday&utm_medium=referral

Archived page if you'd prefer not to give The Guardian clicks

archive.vn/88Lau

That is awful.

It is. I'm not sure there is any way to have clothes at the prices we're used to without terrible exploitation of workers or damage to the environment. I'm glad someone is shining a light on this problem.

The solution is not to expect to buy clothing at ridiculously cheap prices. I sew clothing for myself and did for my children. I look at many shop garments and just know I could not make them for the price, so it is obvious that exploitation is going on.

We need to buy fewer, better quality clothes (if we don't have the time, equipment, skills or inclination to make them ourselves) and make them last. It's sometimes hard to know where they're made and under what conditions; even knowing they're made in the EU or the UK is no guarantee people haven't been exploited. But the onus is on us at least to enquire.

I once got told on here by a pompous poster that she, unlike me, thought about why she selected her clothes. This was in the context of the tedious "performing feminity" discussions.

It was ironic because I give considerable thought to what I buy. The vast majority of my clothes are made in the EU and the UK. I check this before I buy. I appreciate there have been recent scandals in the Midlands but those were clothing lines I would never buy anyway. I have never owned trainers. My shoes are mostly from a manufacturer in Spain with a few from Italy.

I rarely buy from the high street and prefer independent manufacturers. This doesn't come cheap. During lock-down I've bought 5 dresses, partly to cheer myself up and partly to support these manufacturers. Prices range from £150 to £650. These dresses are quirky and beautifully made- they are not in fashion so they won't go out of fashion. They will last for as long as I still fit into them.

This is how I've bought clothes for decades. I have 2 items of clothing which are over 30 year's old and many which are 10-15 year's old.

I appreciate this isn't for everyone but it might be borne in mind when posters proclaim "oh I hate dresses, I only wear jeans, t- shirts, trainers". My dresses are made ethically- your cheap jeans and t- shirts more than likely are not.

Thanks for posting. Credit where it's due to the Guardian, it's a very good piece.

I agree that the way we consume fashion in the west isn't sustainable without horrific exploitation. I tend not to buy from the lowest cost places like Primark but there's no guarantee higher priced clothing is any more ethical - Levi products, mentioned in the article, aren't cheap for example.

I also understand why many families in this country would struggle without stores like Primark because we do have our own people living below the poverty line (poverty being relative to where you live in the world of course).

The exploitation of labour is bad enough without the added sexual abuse of female workers so it's good that pre Covid they were getting somewhere with tackling that aspect. I hope the gains they made aren't now completely lost.

Clothing companies absolutely have a responsibility to ensure they don't turn a blind eye to all this.

there's no guarantee higher priced clothing is any more ethical - Levi products, mentioned in the article, aren't cheap for example.

That is true. Here is a handy website where you can so how different clothing brands are doing when it comes to sustainability and living wages:
directory.goodonyou.eco/

There's no guarantee higher priced clothing is any more ethical - Levi products, mentioned in the article, aren't cheap for example.

True. All kinds of companies used the Dhaka garment factory, which collapsed in 2013, but so many people only talked about "cheap clothing" and Primark.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Dhaka_garment_factory_collapse#:~:text=The%20factories%20manufactured%20apparel%20for,Matalan%2C%20Primark%2C%20and%20Walmart.

For what it's worth, Primark at least held up their hands and paid out compensation straight away after Rana Plaza. And yes I imagine they were advised to do so by their PR and legal teams but there still were more prestigious brands - Benetton and Mango spring to mind - who ducked and dived to avoid liability.

I don't think you can have confidence that any high street brand is ethically produced. They use such extended supply chains that I very much doubt many of them could even tell you where any specific garment is made, which is also very convenient as it means that, when they do get caught out, they can throw up their hands in horror and truthfully say they didn't know.

Everything myself and my children wear is either second hand or hand made, but its hard. Sourcing stuff from second hand shops or ebay takes time and it's hit or miss if it'll fit or be suitable quality. Sewing stuff myself takes even longer and the fabric is expensive. This isn't realistic for most people. And I think there's still a stigma around used clothes, though its less than it used to be. My children are only 4 and 2 so they don't care what they wear as long as it's comfy for play. I specifically buy neutral clothes so that everything can be passed down. I imagine it'll be a different story as they get older though. And I was also wondering the other day where the fabric I make things from gets made. The truth is that buying ethically is hard work and expensive. It takes patience and research to find suppliers that are in your price range and meet your ethics. It's the same with buying food. If you want to avoid the supermarkets then your food bill is going to go up. But the alternative comes at a cost of human life. I don't know what the solution is though. I appreciate Dido's point that spending £600 on an ethically made dress is a more meaningful feminist action that wearing jeans some poor woman was raped to make (though I don't think it has to be an either or, surely ethically made non feminine clothes exist?) But most people don't have hundreds of quid for clothes. I'm just rambling now, but this article has been on my mind for days :(

I agree it's hard work and expensive in terms of time, money or both. I try and buy mostly second hand and I really enjoy the hunt, but then I have no caring responsibilities at the moment - I couldn't have done it a few years ago. If you're on a low income and have little free time then you're stuck in a spiral of buying shit that's always wearing out.

Ethically made clothes where one can trace the provenance exist but one has to make the effort. They will probably be more expensive and probably catering to a niche market. The clothes in the links below are likely to be "love it" or " wouldn't be seen dead in it" so even setting price aside they aren't mainstream.

I don't know if there are makers of non- feminine, ethical clothes as it's not something I've looked for. The link to the jeans site was posted on MN. They are made in the UK and although they are jeans aren't mainstream either. They are considerably more expensive than supermarket/ high street jeans but on a par with Levis.

palava.co/

molke.co.uk/

(Molke has been mentioned on here before. The prices are ok but personally I think their stuff is hideous)

www.edinaronay.com/#/

www.eribe.com/

www.and-daughter.com/

www.theemperorsoldclothes.co.uk/

www.unibu.co.uk/

www.freddiesofpinewood.co.uk/product-category/ladies/ladies-jeans/

Another source for me is a shop which sells work by new fashion school graduates.

Ethical knitwear, coats and jackets are easy enough to find. There are loads of Scottish, Yorkshire, Welsh and Irish producers but the prices obviously reflect the quality and good working conditions.

Thanks for the link, Champagne! And like Grab that, I wonder about the fabric I buy. I can't bluddy weave and dye it too! 😳 I always ask where it comes in from, but...🤷🏼‍♀️

Long supply chains and endless subcontracting make things hard to trace and impossible to judge ethically.

I love to make new garments from upcycled old ones - maybe that's the only guilt-free way?

Thanks for the links Dido

For a more utilitarian style, Community Clothing are worth checking out. All made in the UK, particularly Blackburn and thereabouts, utilising 'down time' in local factories. Patrick 'Sewing Bee' Grant is behind it (and as far as I know he's still involved). My last pair of jeans were from there. Not cheapie cheap but what I would call a fair price and certainly competitive with Levi.

I really don't think the onus should be on the consumer to research the supply chain of everything they buy and figure out whether or not it is ethical. It's not practical to do this for everything we buy. And it's not just clothes, the way much of our food is produced is awful too. People getting paid pennies for backbreaking labour in the blazing sun so we can eat some nice green beans with our Christmas dinner.

It shouldn't be up to customers to decide how moral or generous they're feeling that day. We should have strict regulation around this stuff and companies that fall foul of it should be heavily penalised.

For a more utilitarian style,Community Clothingare worth checking out. All made in the UK

There are some very wearable dresses there. Thanks.