Tech won't save fashion

Clothing is quite simple, really. So is paying your workers.

Nov 10, 2023

“There is one innovation which doesn’t require technology that we haven’t tried: treating each other as equals.”

I have always loved this quote from my old boss and mending hero Orsola de Castro, because its simplicity reminds me of how much time we all spend intellectualising sustainable fashion, when at its root, basic human decency is the key to unlocking a better system. Unfortunately, kindness and compassion can’t be monetised by our big tech feudal overlords, while virtual outfits in the metaverse, handbags with matching NFTs, AI-powered commerce and automated manufacturing, biomaterial hacking and ugly digital dresses certainly can.

Every time I see a headline gushing over these ‘innovations’ in the fashion press, usually being invested in by luxury brands under the guise of ‘sustainability’, it boils my blood to know that these very same brands claim that decarbonising supply chains, or you know, paying living wages to garment workers, is too expensive, resource-intensive or technically complicated. While hunting for the next shiny new thing to grab hold of for short-term profits and positive PR, brands are enabled to avoid changing anything fundamental about the exploitative, polluting and wasteful business models which pump out physical - not digital - products at an exponentially growing rate.

Behind the buzz that new tech generates, there is the simple fact that our clothing is made by human hands and made with materials from the earth. Fashion has an inherent connection to the land and to the people, plants and animals that depend on it, no matter how much Patagonia gilet-wearing Silicon Valley tech bros want us to transcend our disgusting bodies on our disgusting planet to live in the cloud, or on Mars. At the end of the day, we need to clothe ourselves. And apart from a few very niche circumstances, that clothing is made from fabric and sewed together with thread.

As Muchaneta Ten Napel says in this episode of the Conscious Chatter podcast: “If we are planting these great ideas in bad soil and expecting it to flourish, well, of course we’re going to fail.” If we don’t fix the flaws inherent in the fashion system - which could be naively summarised as: too many fossil fuels, too few human rights - everything else will fail to provide any meaningful solution. Of course, this problem with techno-capitalism is not unique to the fashion industry, but the lack of critical media literacy in the fashion press towards tech creates a uniquely effective distraction and delay tactic towards real systemic change.

One of my favourite pastimes is ranting about tech billionaires, and as a result my favourite podcast at the moment is Tech Won’t Save Us from Paris Marx, which dives into the deep-rooted issues with the tech industry, from ‘AI is taking over!’ scare tactics to crypto currency money laundering scandals and everything in between. Recently, they put out a mini-series about Elon Musk which presented a fascinating story about how we create heroes out of villains, and also a cautionary tale for the fashion industry’s search for a silver bullet solution to the climate crisis which will allow them to skirt incoming legislation and still create shareholder value. There was a great quote in this episode that Musk ‘only wants the world to be saved if he can do the saving’. This made me think of how sustainability improvements in the fashion industry are led by suppliers, but brands would rather leave them to it while they take the credit for small circularity pilot projects with no calculable climate impact instead.

This week, garment workers in Bangladesh received the news that their fight for an increased minimum wage of 209 USD per month in the RMG (ready-made garment) sector was met with a measly offer of 114 USD. This will not lift the most vulnerable workers out of abject poverty. How can we look at a fashion industry where people are shot dead just for asking for a pay rise, and spend valuable column inches praising billionaire fashion executives for incremental investments in shiny tech add-ons?

I’ll leave you with a snippet from an article in The Interline, ostensibly a publication that promotes the intersection of fashion and technology, but which vitally considers ‘How Many Casualties Is Clothing Worth?’ as the only question that really matters for our industry. Ben Hanson writes:

“Safety is a luxury that’s continually being denied to the people on the other side of these questions – the ones who keep the cogs of fashion turning, and, in this case, the network of direct and indirect suppliers who support them. Because for all our talk about microfactories and circularity and robotics and molecular engineering for materials, the majority of the product fashion moves is still made in regions where human effort is sold at dramatically cheaper rates than it is in the markets where those products are actually sold. That, after all, is where a good amount of margin comes from.”

In light of the horrific violence and oppression happening in Palestine and the urgent need for a ceasefire, I have signed the anti-sweatshop activists against apartheid statement. You can read the text below and find out more on this website.

As trade unionists, activists and campaigners who raise our voices against injustice, racism, and the legacy of colonisation in the garment industry, we will not stand by in silence and watch the ongoing brutality of settler colonialism unfold. This is an issue of land rights and self-determination.

Israel’s continued colonisation of Palestine has been achieved through apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and genocide.

WHY IS THIS A FASHION INDUSTRY ISSUE?

Exploitation in the garment industry is deeply ingrained in racist business models that rely on underpaid labour in the Global South.

This sustains the harsh legacy of colonialism, as this continued extraction of wealth under capitalism depends on subordinating non-white communities.

The exploitative practices of the garment industry in Palestine illustrate the stark reality for workers under Israel’s occupation.

Israeli garment manufacturers outsource production to Gaza, where equally skilled workers are paid significantly less than their counterparts in Israel.

Israeli manufacturers take advantage of the high unemployment rate in Gaza, forcing workers to accept any wage or working condition.

Here we see how race is intrinsically linked to capitalism in the garment industry and how this operates via colonialism. Israeli companies profit by driving down the wages of the Palestinian people, perpetuating their subjugation.

The once thriving Palestinian textile sector has been severely hit by challenges arising from the ongoing occupation.

Among other obstacles, checkpoints in all territories delay deliveries and the current siege in Gaza limits access to essential resources such as electricity and materials.

As a result, factory owners are forced to make tough choices, including reducing wages, in order to survive. Brands profit from the continued colonisation of Palestine by:

Sourcing from manufacturers with factories on stolen and illegally occupied land,
Operating their own stores on stolen and illegally occupied land,
Through sponsorship deals that legitimise the continued building of illegal settlements on Palestinian land (see BDS Movement page on PUMA for more).

We follow the calls for international solidarity issued by Palestinians from Gaza and beyond and call for:

An immediate ceasefire and end to the attacks on Gaza
The urgent restoration of all essential supplies and humanitarian aid
An end to Israel’s evacuation orders for hospitals in Gaza
The siege on Gaza to be lifted
An end to the continued western export of arms, military technology and economic support for Israel
An end to the illegal occupation of Palestine.

In response to Palestinian trade unions’ call for international action against companies complicit in implementing Israel’s brutal and illegal siege, we commit:

to expose and take action against fashion brands profiting from Israel’s occupation of Palestine;
to pass motions and take action against the manufacture, transportation and handling of garments used by Israel in its occupation of Palestine, e.g. military, police, prison officer uniforms.

Find out more

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