Click here to download: Efrat+Tseelon+The+Fallacy+of+Ethical+Fashion.pdfPRESENTATION: The Fallacy of Ethical Fashion
Professor Efrat Tseelon
Chair of fashion theory, University of Leeds
Abstract: Fair trade, certification and other initiatives to protect the welfare of people and planet in the fashion production process - are engaged in a noble mission. It is the most human face of globalisation which has otherwise contributed to eroding the sense of community and solidarity. While a debate on the ethics of fashion is a welcomed addition to the fashion landscape, concern about labour rights and environmental sustainability in countries to which production has been outsourced functions as a distraction. Fashion world is in denial of its fundamental incompatibility with ethics, and is exploiting the trend towards “ethical fashion” as a kind of a “conscience laundering” mechanism. At the root of the industry’s “inconvenient truth” lie two inherent paradoxes: that the sustainability of the fashion business relies on obsolescence, and on cheap labour that its marketing relies on reinforcing the status quo. This presentation explores the complicity or indifference to “ethical concerns in fashion”.
This paper was presented in the workshop The Changing Face of Ethical Fashion chaired by Dilys Williams (director, Centre for Sustainable Fashion). The other paper in the workshop was Fashion Futures 2025: Global Scenarios for a sustainable fashion industry by Vicky Murray (senior sustainability adviser, Forum for the Future.
