And slowly we wake up...
Perhaps that is the goal of everything that is happening around us right now?
That we should gain perspective on our existence and learn to appreciate what we have, before we want more...
For the last 20 years we have lived in a consumer society like no other... We buy and throw away, without appreciating that someone has made what we throw away... regardless of whether it is mother earth that has produced the banana that has had time to mold, or the piece of clothing that goes to the dump with the price tag still on, that some poor person in Bangladesh has sewn...
How could that happen?
In 1998, a pair of leggings cost SEK 99 at the low-price chains and the average salary for a municipally employed woman was SEK 15,580 according to Statistics Sweden .
In 2018, a pair of leggings cost SEK 49 at the same discount chain and the average salary for a municipally employed woman was SEK 30,300 according to Statistics Sweden.
If you know your math, do you now see that clothes have halved in price, while wages have doubled...
This means that the stores have to sell four times as many garments to get the same profitability as 20 years ago...
Why did this happen?
In 2004, the EU scrapped the import quotas, i.e. everyone was free to import as much as they wanted..
This meant that it became a hunt for the cheapest price...
Because of course we shop more if it's extra cheap??? (No, I would like to answer that question... We wanted to, but we no longer want to... more on that later.)
So all the clothing chains started fighting for the cheapest price, they chased margins and factory owners for pennies and pennies.
And what happened? We got a very skewed idea of what things are worth and we exploited (unknowingly) children, the environment and poor people who made things for us so that we could consume more... and more... and more... At the same time rivers were destroyed and waterways as well as the environment of these countries, as their clothing industry increased exponentially. They also had no environmental regulations or were bribed so that production would continue at the lowest price.
The clothing chains have fought over us consumers that we should buy linen for SEK 30, that we should buy organic dresses for SEK 199, and we have shopped (credulously) without stopping to ask: How can it be so cheap?
But about a year ago something happened... We were fed up... We had shopped to death and discovered that the wardrobe was full, of poor quality at admittedly low prices, but they didn't last..
We stopped consuming at the same rate as before and stocks started to grow.. as well as sales increased, because they didn't stop importing clothes to a population of 30 million (although we were 10 million..).
So what happens now?
The clothing stores and clothing chains are falling like pins, some have managed to hold on to this virus crisis we are in right now and then people blame it... But the fact remains that the shopping party is over... We are tired of shopping poor quality and we are all waking up from our (involuntary) ignorance of WHO made our clothes and at what cost...
Consider now that you've probably seen one or two items of clothing with a low price tag that says: Made in Italy... How has that been possible? Italy has high wages and taxes just like us... Who did it? It has Chinese... Whole families eat, live, sleep and live in the factories in northern Italy... They work for Chinese wages so we can buy cheap clothes that say Made in Italy...
Would you have bought the garment if you had known? No I do not think so...
We are now entering a new era, where our awareness is raised!
Although it feels like we are in the eye of the storm, I can promise that we will rise again, more united and more aware. This storm will wake us up, some abruptly, but it will raise our awareness and questioning.
We don't want to be deceived anymore, we also have time and access to be enlightened and look for information. Question everything (even me!) to create what you believe.
Over the next few months, the chains will be having sales to get rid of as much as possible, so congratulations to those of you who like bargains! But keep in mind: who did it... at what cost...
Our awareness brings sustainable fashion, and we will all appreciate quality over quantity. Maybe we'll even find our way back to our sewing machines and start creating...creating our own fashion 💖
