Finally I'm surfacing back from my Social Media sabbatical and it feels so good to be back to blogging after the two month long detox. It feels even better knowing that this break was totally worth it for me. I had more time for relationships, to reflect on my lifestyle and not having to take a picture of every happy moment in my life was quite relaxing.
While a lot of new things took shape during my social media break, there are particularly two things that have changed something inside me.
One of which, I'm going to share today in this blogpost. (while you'll will have to wait for another post to hear about the second)
Love shopping, love dressing up, love to read about it....Fashion has always intrigued me in more ways than one! Until recently when I stumbled upon The True Cost - a documentary on Netflix about the Fashion Industry, that literally gave me goosebumps and a brand new perspective on the CLOTHES WE WEAR!!!!
Who makes our clothes?
In what conditions?
At what wage rate?
These are questions I had never asked myself before buying clothes from stores like H&M, Zara or any other. The"true cost" of a garment is not that comes with the tag attached. There is a cost of human life to it and that's exactly what this documentary highlights.
Manufacturing of clothes being outsourced to China, Bangladesh and India because the cost of production is lower in these countries is one thing. But the woman who tailored those clothes had to work under poor factory conditions with a bare minimum wage was really upsetting.
When I set myself up to gather more information on this topic, Google had a plethora of Fashion terms that I had never heard in my life before!
Fast Fashion
versus
Slow and Sustainable Fashion
While its almost embarrassing to admit I did not know fast and slow were words associated with fashion, now that I do, let me break this down for you.
We are rapidly getting engulfed by this constant need to update our wardrobes on a weekly basis with new and affordable clothes that we barely wish to wear again! That's leading to fast fashion where retailers want a quick turn around on garments even if that means compromising on the standards of how its made.
The good news is that there are brands who believe otherwise!
Brands who look at fashion ethically, follow fair trade practices, treat their workers right and maintain transparency in the entire journey of how a cotton crop became a cotton top. Their idea is that consumers prioritize quality over quantity. Invest in clothes that may be a little expensive than fast fashion brands but will have longer sustainability.
In the past few weeks, whenever I've opened my wardrobe, my heart sank looking at the clothes that might have been stitched by the sweat and blood of a women working in what they call a "sweatshop"
I cannot abandon those clothes overnight and will continue to wear them, but I also know that within me a fashion revolution has ignited. And I do look at shopping for clothes in a changed way. Slowly and steadily the only additions to my wardrobe will be those that were made ethically.
I've started compiling a list of brands that make clothes prioritizing not just consumers but their makers too! And it makes me happy that there are so many:) Will share the list soon.
Lets #ShopResponsibly #MakeThatSwitch and #ChooseSlowOverFast
Sharing few Stats from the documentary but please do take time to watch The True Cost.
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