83% of today’s consumers are more mindful about the products they buy and its impact on the environment. Even 20% feel ready to pay more for an ethical product. Slow-fashion is finally slowly replacing fast fashion!
You might be part of those people. Or perhaps you don’t feel like paying more. For you, it should be normal to have everything ethical: people paid normal wages, a recyclable packaging, sustainable materials. When you think about it, if everyone buys it, it might be right… Well No It Is Not.
(You can also be of those who don’t care about sustainability, in that case, have a good day! bye…)!
In this article, we will talk about slow-fashion and what is the real price of a T-shirt!
Overconsumption, globalisation and competition made our shopping today cheaper than ever despite the harm it causes to others. We all should know by now that trends do not matter, cheap clothing should not be sold, and people should not die for your clothes.
Assumptions we need to change:
Here are some assumptions you need to change about yourself:
- Stop buying cheap clothing because you made one Insta picture with it and cant reuse it. Don’t give me the “I am a fashionista I need new content all the time”! Girl, if you are a “fashionista” show me how I can use a dress in 5 different ways and reuse it!
- Stop thinking that because you have a lot of clothes or can buy it, it makes you look better or “richer” in any way! Instead of buying 10 cheap dresses that will lose their colour and break, buy one nice that fit you and impress. Also, if you buy one new dress at £10 every weekend: you can save £520 and buy some nice dresses!
- Make trends something from you! More you buy from a new trend the more companies will try harder and quicker each time. So buy only if you like it, if it fits you.
Fast fashion and cheap clothing should be something that we stop buying. However we, as the customer, found ourselves played by company with greenwashing! They make us believe they care about the environment when they don’t. Adding to that fake advertisement, companies that do care about the environment but decide to overprice their products.
How are we supposed to find the truth and actual product price?
Top 4 influences for a sustainable pricing:
Country of origin: you should always lookout for the country of origin of the material and making of the products. Most of the products that we know today are manufactured in India, Bangladesh or China. According to Wikipedia, in Bangladesh, the minimum wage for a Bangladesh worker has raised to $95 per month. However large fast fashion companies are known to pay a wage of £25 per month which is not enough for them to live. According to studies done by the MFO, garments workers work 60 hours per week to try to earn some extra money to help them with medical care and proper food and water.
Shipping: shipping is quite expensive depending on the country where it comes from. If you look at it from the beginning, the material needs to be shipped to the manufacturing country. Then the shipping of the manufactured products to the warehouse. Also, you can add the packaging being send from somewhere to the warehouse. All of this needs to be taken into account
Marketing and taxes: because you would not know about the brand without some good branding and this cost quite a lot.
Profit: on all of this you need to think that every stage the t-shirt goes through the company takes a profit (for reinvesting in the company growth, investors and more). The material producer will make a profit, the manufacturer will make a profit, the brand will make a profit.
So lets review some of the well known brands and their pricing:
- H&M: £3.99
- Missguided: £5
- Nuin Fashion: £28
- Saint and Sofia: £30
Slow-fashion: Breakdown of sustainable pricing
Here is a $15 tee shirt and its breakdown
No, you should not pay your tee shirt £3!! Make your research as the price can vary so much depending on the fabric, work, design.
Also one addition to this article: all of this production as an impact on the environment so always prefer second-hand products!
