Fair fashion: not always the solution?

In all honesty: the switch to a green wardrobe isn't that easy-peasy either. BE GREEN editor-in-chief Alexandra Zykunov and sustainability expert Anna Schunck in a very open conversation about consumption, clothes and Corona.

Alexandra Zykunov

Alex: Tell me, do you still enjoy strolling?

Anna: Yes. I've become a really good window shopper.

Alex: You haven't bought conventional parts since 2015. How does that fit together?

Anna: Now I am so much less concerned with fashion that strolling around is something special again – even without buying anything. I'm just watching. Just as inspiration.

Alex: Well, two years ago I stopped shopping at the big chains and since then I've somehow lost touch with fashion.

Anna: How do you mean?

Alex: I used to combine a lot in my head, rummaged in online shops, and was happy when I got hold of something on sale. I still remember the happiness of having new clothes on, the new look, you feel good and cool. I already totally know why I am. But this feeling of happiness is hardly there now. And I miss that.

Anna: Probably because of the change. It's awesome when you consider that it's still common to buy 60 new items of clothing a year. I mean, I used to go shopping for cheap shopping during my lunch break! That shapes everything, and now it's withdrawal. But it's getting better. I don't see the move away from fast fashion as a sacrifice. I just didn't want to let the industry fool me anymore.

Alex: In what way?

Anna: You say you are missing the endorphins when you buy it. For me it is a great feeling of happiness to have seen through that we have all been made dependent on an exploitative, capitalist system. A system that tells us, "Hey, buy this block heel, you'll look great and be more confident" and then a week later, "Um, the block heel isn't cool anymore, but you're lucky, we have exactly the same shoe Kitten Heels, THAT will really help you ". I get angry! You have to recode your grief, Alex: Don't grieve for the block heel. Enjoy being independent of the block heel and the sick industry behind it.

Alex: Yes, of course, but at the same time fashion has a lot to do with self-confidence. You present yourself, you express yourself. I know that here, too, it is the industry that has convinced me that I should reward or cheer myself up with a new blouse. But these tricks worked really well for me.

Anna: But you question them! Recoding is not far away. What have you found difficult in the last two years?

Alex: If you boycott all the big chains so completely overnight, you have to give up all your style, everything you've built up since you were a teenager – as if you were tasteless again. You have to break up with all of your stores and brands, give up part of your identity and start all over again.

Anna: You may.

Alex: Yeah okay, I can. Now don't be so overly correct: When was the last time you bought something conventional?

Anna: The day before yesterday. A black bra.

Alex: Ha!

Anna: And you?

Alex: Last month. A blue and white striped dress with a cutout at the back that was shown to me as sustainable in the online shop. I actually knew that that couldn't be the case with the label. But I believed it on purpose. My second meltdown in the last two years. That is also hypocritical of us. Or?

Anna: Under no circumstance! We didn't promise our fashion heart to just any devil. We have set ourselves something very personal because we want to change something consistently. For me, that also means creating a framework in which I can hold out for a long time. Cheers to Cheat Day!

Alex: I'm not allowed to do that, back doors are death for me. I really need all or nothing. How often do you cheat like that?

Anna: Very rarely, when it feels like there is no other way. In total, I have bought a maximum of three fast fashion items in the last five years. Average citizens would already have up to 300 parts! And I just don't feel like having a guilty conscience. I then consciously enjoy my failures.

Alex: Would you say that your cheat days basically help you keep going?

Anna: Definitely! Above all, however, I am convinced that "less is more" is a very important key to success, even on a large scale. I think we all have to learn to do without.

Alex: But I find this request difficult again. We cannot ask less privileged people: "Hey, we screwed it up for all of us, so you can only buy secondhand now!"

Anna: Absolutely! That is why it is precisely those with the privilege that are responsible for acting.

Alex: But even here it annoys me that people keep saying: the receipt is the ballot paper. The consumers decide, blah blah! Why am I the one who has to worry about all these things? Why do I always have to pay attention to where what comes from, what footprint a pair of jeans has, research a wolf, whether the seal is correct, and then think about whether I need the part, do I want it, but actually I am not allowed to or maybe I am? That is also a huge stress of ambivalence that is going on there. Environmental psychologists say that this stress also prevents us from switching to eco, precisely because it is so incredibly exhausting for the brain. Why don't they say up there: "There is no longer a new collection of 30 pants for 3.99 every third day."?

Anna: The fact that politics simply shifts the subject on to individual purchasing behavior is a huge problem. Of course, demand determines supply – but it cannot alone bring about change. We cannot make change alone! It simply has to become more expensive for companies if they do not operate sustainably. Fair labels need subsidies, and polluters must be taxed heavily. I find it impossible that Germany and Europe have so far avoided their responsibility in this way.

Alex: Why is that?

Anna: That also has something to do with nationalism: every government, for better or for worse, is only interested in its own stuff, in other words its own country. Everything that happens beyond that is irrelevant in the election campaign and is therefore pursued with less pressure.

Alex: After all, the supply chain law is coming.

Anna: Yes, but even here the government has been fighting over the key points for months: Are there only fines or lawsuits in the event of violations? Does it only affect my subcontractors or also

all suppliers? And the lobby is pouring fuel on the fire: Germany will be disadvantaged if other countries do not join in. We have a role model function!

Alex: How are workers in the global textile industry now with the pandemic?

Anna: From January to June, sales in stationary fashion retail fell by around 35 percent compared to the previous year. And while the textile industry here received state support with reduced shop rents or short-time work, even after the lockdown, for example in Bangladesh, most seamstresses are still only paid 65 percent of the local minimum wage. Union meetings, when they exist, are systematically shut down under the pretext of the crisis. Until November there will be little to do in many textile exporting countries until the orders for the Christmas and winter seasons come in. There is a massive shortage of money, even where there is work, wages are cut. And the blame for the exploitation is not Corona, but the years of systematic price dumping by brands and chains.

Alex: Does that mean the fashion industry won't change anything after Corona?

Anna: Not really in the manufacturing countries at first. Ironically, the fast fashion system is very sluggish. Collective learning or a faster transition to slow are utopian in my opinion.

Alex: Why is there no wake-up call?

Anna: Because not only we consumers have got used to up to 24 collections a year – also the retail trade with its annual balance sheets, the cultivation of raw materials and the factories in the production countries would have to slow down from the speed of the hour.

Alex: Why is Germany lagging so behind with countermeasures?

Anna: Because we are very wealthy, we want to become even more wealthy and there is a very powerful lobby behind this wish. But I'm also cautiously optimistic that something will change in terms of attention. Clubs and brands do important activist work. And it is still unclear whether the big catch-up will really come after the lockdown – and not a reflection on more durable goods: Small eco labels have been making more sales since Corona!

Alex: Still, my question remains: Can we still have fun with clothes?

Anna: Clear! But first I have to be smart about it: A textile professor once told me that the lack of appreciation for our clothes is reflected in the fact that we always call them "clothes". So: Of course we can still enjoy clothes! And I just think that it's good for each of us to be with ourselves. Don't look so much at sustainability rules, but at yourself! Only you know how much renunciation works for you, where you are missing something and how you can find your fashion joy again – and if you need, sometimes with back doors.

Alex: I mean, I already know why I'm doing this. And I know it's whining for privileges: "Mimimi, I don't enjoy fashion anymore", while women on the other side of the world are bleeding. But I don't think it helps to try to gloss over renunciation.

Anna: Yes and no. Surrender is nice. He just has a bad reputation. Recode it is! For real. Nevertheless, it always seems a bit constructed to say "Hey, looking for what you want now for weeks, it's really fun" or "Enjoy your pants until they're worn out". That is precisely why we have to talk about the difficulties and failures.

Alex: And it actually helps when I can say: Aha, the two ecotants there aren't doing everything 100 percent right either. Then my 50 percent are not bad either.

More ecological concessions?

In our brandnew podcast "Brigitte BE GREEN – Sustainable without mincing words" Alex Zykunov talks less to her guests about what they have already switched to eco, but about what they are currently failing to do. Simple, honest and without a raised index finger. So that we can all do better in the end. Are you listening? On Audio Now and wherever there are podcasts.

Would you like to read more about the topic and exchange ideas with other women? Then take a look in the "General Forum" of the BRIGITTE Community past!

In BE GREEN, BRIGITTE's new sustainability magazine, you can read the exclusive interview with Greenfluencer Marie Nasemann: "I don't want to fuel the fashion madness anymore."

© Brigitte

BRIGITTE BE GREEN 02/2020