During the darkest days of the pandemic, fashion activist Aja Barber had a revelation about fast fashion.
“A lot of us were sitting in our houses looking around going, ‘Holy crap, I have a lot of stuff,’ and yet there were weeks where I wore the same two outfits,” Barber tells ABC RN’s Big Ideas.
Beyond having an overflowing wardrobe, Barber began questioning why the price of clothing had decreased while everything else had gone up. The conclusions made her uncomfortable.
“There was always a feeling of, ‘But why are we okay with people in other countries making terrible wages?’ That feeling was always there, and I couldn’t fight it,” she says.
Currently, the average Australian purchases 56 items of clothing each year and sends 23 kilos to landfill. Globally, the garment and textile industry employs approximately 75 million people worldwide. The Clean Clothes Campaign estimates less than 1 percent of what you pay for a typical garment goes to the workers who made it.
Now, Barber, the author of Consumed: The Need for Collective Change, wants to demystify the structural inequality embedded in the global fashion industry and show consumers how they can change that.
‘I Was Part of the Problem’
Barber admits she was part of the problem from a young age.
“When I think about my own path to being a fast-fashion shopper, I was so ripe for the taking because I grew up being made fun of for my clothing,” she says.
In her twenties, Barber set her sights on owning a highly covetable leather Birkin bag, even though she admits she thought the bags were ugly.
“But I wanted one because of what it said about me. I’m a young black woman in a very white world, going into white business places, and I want people to treat me well. That’s why I wanted the bag, not because it was pretty,” she says.
Barber bought the bag, which is just one example of her long-standing relationship with fashion and the belief that it could fix her feelings of inadequacy.
Now she wants to remind everyone of what’s lurking behind our desire to own the next big thing. “Maybe you don’t even need that dress; maybe you need a hug,” she says.
Devaluing the System
Barber says we have grown accustomed to downplaying the scale of the fast-fashion problem to justify buying sweatshop-made clothing.
“In devaluing the system, we’re entirely able to look away from the harm of the system,” Barber says. By framing the issue as trivial, Barber says we’re also devaluing the labor that goes into making garments and the entire labor force propping up the clothing industry.
The 2022 Ethical Fashion Report found that just 10 percent of companies surveyed could evidence paying workers living wages at any of their final-stage factories.
“We have to value it because it is having a deep and profound impact on not just our planet, not just our fellow sisters, but our psyche as well,” Barber says.
Countering Old Excuses
A common argument Barber faces is that cheap clothing is accessible to everyone. Her counterargument is simple: “Is it really accessible when it can only exist if we exploit other women?”
She points out that the target audience for cheap clothing is usually the middle class. “When I try and talk to people with platforms that sell sweatshop clothing, I’m like, ‘So you’re a rich woman, why are you selling sweatshop clothes?’”
Additionally, Barber says we need to change our mindset around ethical shopping. If Australians bought ethically made clothing at the rates they currently buy fast fashion, the cost would likely be prohibitive. But if we reduce the amount we buy and wear those items longer, then ethically made clothing will be cost-effective.
Social Media and Excess Consumption
In 2017, environmental charity Hubbub found that one in six young people didn’t feel they could repeat an outfit once it had been seen on social media.
Barber believes that more needs to be done to educate young people about the labor that goes into tailoring clothes. “When I was growing up, we had home economics, and I think we actually need to bring that back so people know the skills and labor that go into making things,” she says.
She also advocates for pushing back on social stigmas around buying second-hand clothing and wants consumers to slow down and rediscover their individual style. “Fast fashion has gotten us so away from knowing our personal style, knowing what we really like because you’re having a lot of stuff pushed at you,” she says.
Systemic Change and Individual Action
While encouraging people to buy ethically, second-hand, or educating young people are important steps forward, Barber emphasizes that individuals alone can’t fix the problem. “We need legislation; we cannot group hug our way out of this.”
Barber suggests introducing an extended responsibility tax on all fast fashion garments, which would mean companies would have to pay for the end-of-life of every product manufactured. Additionally, imposing financial penalties around non-compliance with Modern Slavery Acts could drive change.
As an individual, Barber says: “If you already have clothing you can wear, then you don’t need new things.” And the next new item of clothing you do buy, “has to be from a company that pays everyone fair wages, that’s it.”
This conversation with Aja Barber was originally recorded by Sydney Opera House Presents as part of the All About Women festival and broadcast on ABC Radio National’s Big Ideas.