Fash Bash

 “The Anti-Capitalist Book of Fashion” by Tansy Hoskins, 2022

This is an update of Hoskins' previous 2014 book “Stitched Up: The Anti-Capitalist Book of Fashion.” It is motivated by the devastating April 2013 building collapse of the Rana Plaza clothing factory in Bangladesh, which killed 1,134 workers. Like any good Marxist, Hoskins takes a holistic approach, looking at the world ecology of fashion production under capital. It includes updated information on oligopoly in the textile and clothing sector; the damage against labor caused by the pandemic; internet & magazine propaganda; the flaws of 'ethical consumerism'; present labor conditions, including for models; fashion's built-in waste, ecological damage and pollution; the torture of animals - even crocodiles - and the psychological ramifications of fashion, especially for women.

Hoskins believes that clothing can be freed from the profit cycle and made more creative, longer lasting and less toxic as a social good, not a destructive and privatized money-pit. She does not think, as the socialist caricature goes, that everyone should wear identical, shapeless or worn clothing like a civilian army or Mao suit. Socialism is not the same as a military barracks, as the transgender model Andreja Pejić might have put it in her foreword to this book. Hoskins points out that high-end fashion produces more carbon per item than fast fashion, so she includes both luxury brands and 'High” Street (which in London means mainstream retailers...) in her analysis. Perfume and lipstick are actually the highest-profit and largest-selling items for Chanel, Prada, etc. - spreading their brands to the hoi polloi. Hoskins is a journalist and activist who has been involved in organizing protests in Britain against the fashion industry with XR, a model's union and anti-war / anti-nuke organizations. She seems to be close to the British SWP.

Hoskins does not discuss Youtube, Instagram, Tik Tok and U.S. competition reality shows like Making the Cut, Project Runway and Next in Fashion in her survey of fashion promotion. She is based in the U.K. which might explain the latter. She also does not mention Brexit.

LABOR CONDITIONS

Some of the richest people in the world own fashion brands.  Bernard Arnault, chair of LVMH, is now the richest person in the world.  LVMH owns Vuitton, Dior and Moet-Chandon, Fendi, Givenchy, Mark Jacobs, Stella McCartney, Birkenstock and others.  Clothing is not a minor issue, it is the 4th largest industry in the world, valued at $2.5T in 2021, encompassing 60 million workers.  This might omit the number of peasants and farmers that contribute. Hoskins doesn't divide the world into a simple global north / global south dyad, as there are now poorer workers in the former and middle and upper classes in the latter. Again, class raises its ugly head in the context of imperialism. 

Class also comes out in the selection of thin, white models; on the exclusive covers of fashion magazines; in the celebration of high-end fashion houses with fascist pasts: Chanel, Boss, Balenciaga, Vuitton, Dior; in the over-the-top prices; in the snobbism of looking down on the great unstylish and the great unwashed. Even limiting criticism of fashion to 'fast fashion' is classicist, since many blue-collar workers are forced to buy cheap clothes.

The book excoriates capitalist fashion in many contexts, using quotes by Marx and others. For me and people who are already socialist, it gets a bit tiring. But then Hoskins is one of the few or perhaps only Marxists who looks at clothing.

Clothing factories can pick up and move easily, which they do frequently, leaving workers in the lurch.  Many still use home-based piece work to provide product.  Without local and international government political power brands would not be able to solicit protection for their profits. Hoskins tracks how the safety pledges after Bangladesh's Rana Plaza collapse actually led to lower wages and more repression against unionists. In 2012 a fire at Ali Enterprises in Karachi, Pakistan killed twice as many as Triangle Shirtwaist, 259 people. Ali had just been certified by high-end quality auditors. In Myanmar the military junta is the perfect accompaniment to union busting, black lists, killings, violence, rape and firings of textile workers. Uzbekistan uses forced and child labor to harvest cotton – a water-hungry crop that has destroyed the Aral Sea. In Indonesia and Haiti, governments dropped enforcement of a minimum wage, which helped clothing firms. China contains many viscose factories that threaten workers' health and the environment. Countries like Guatemala and Cambodia are not far behind.

Models face health dangers at work – anorexia when forced into size 0s; klieg lights that burn corneas; hair dyes that make hair fall out; toxic makeup; sexual assault. Young women make up the majority of textile workers and models, so sexism is profitable, not just a nasty opinion.

SOLUTIONS?

Hoskins favors indigenous fashion, which might be a way of saying actually sustainable, long lasting, locally produced / sourced and perhaps hand-made. She questions whether protest dressing is rebellion: zoot suits, punk, Afros, hippie dress, men with long hair, black bloc style, indigenous dress, red kerchiefs, camouflage, keffiyehs, hijabs etc. Regarding hijabs, she wrote before the massive anti-hijab revolt in Iran, so only considers hijabs as a 'cultural' defense to 'the West.' She concludes a style is subversive if it spreads and holds political meaning as part of a movement - but it can also be easily co-opted by fashion houses, and has been. Hoskins says attempts at reform on clothing are on 4 fronts: 1) consumers; 2) government-led reform; 3) the mostly verbal efforts of corporations; 4) international labor action.

#1 – Consumer change. Ethical fashion has grown, but is still a very small segment of the market, at $6.3B. And no matter how many sustainable labels are slapped on clothes, none of these labels are regulated and it's become another marketing tool. Even Stella McCarthy is stumped. Linguistically processes are sustainable, not a pair of jeans. Though ethical consumerism has risen as a market, actual textile conditions have gotten worse - because capital is still in charge. She thinks individualist consumerism alone cannot change society in a significant way, as it is only a means to an end, not the end in itself. She sees it as one of three methods to use.

#2 – Political change: It is only possible by united, organized action around: free-trade agreements, corporate and wage laws, land and union rights, taxation and war (she does not mention war...), migration and environmental issues. When this doesn't work...

#3 – System change. As anyone following politics and economics knows – regulations, law, enforcement, taxes and bourgeois political parties are all fungible as the monied, powerful and entrenched structural forces of capital exert pressure to get their way in the fashion industry and every other. They can pass, ignore, whittle down or end any law, by fair means and foul, by money, by an election, a Supreme Court ruling, regulatory capture, an authoritarian ruler, a fascist mob or a military coup. This is why Marxists fight for reforms and transitional demands, but as steps towards a social overturn, as 'Frankenstein' will not otherwise die. Hoskins does not directly call for socialism, but “a new, equitable way of living” - whatever that is.

Britain supports voluntary corporate social responsibility schemes (CSR) re the textile and clothing industry, leaving it up to capital. Hoskins points out that even in Leicester, England, multiple immigrant sweat shops still operate, able to skirt U.K. law in multiple ways. She maintains that class struggle labor organizations in the textile sector world-wide have the best record of protecting workers and the earth – not bourgeois politicians. But even labor protections can be rolled back under capital.

Concluding, Hoskins thinks dress in a revolutionary, post-capitalist future will: 1) democratize the design and production of clothing; 2) socialize the 'profits' and ownership; 3) degrow production and consumption; 4) de-carbonize energy and materials; 5) use automation, robots and job rotation to shorten hours; 6) harmonize production, nature and the future; 7) be as local as possible; 8) perhaps have a universal 'pause in production'; 9) promote waste-picking, repair, recycling and reuse; 10) be culturally open and culturally sensitive (I paraphrase). 11) end classism in clothing. 12) be internationalist. 

If you have not read her earlier book Stitched Up, this valuable book will contribute to a left understanding and activism around the massive fashion industry. If you have, it still adds to your knowledge, as 60% of the information is new.

P.S.  Guardian on Rana Plaza anniversary:  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/24/10-years-on-bangladesh-rana-plaza-disaster-safety-garment-workers-rights-pay

Prior blog reviews on this subject, use blog search box, upper left, to investigate our 16 year archive, using these terms: “Stitched Up: The Anti-Capitalist Book of Fashion” (Hoskins); “Fashionopolis – the Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes,” “Shopping World,” “Worn – A Peoples History of Clothing,” “Inconspicuous Consumption,” “Cottage Core.”

And I bought it at May Day Books!

Red Frog

April 3, 2023