tFS: One of the things I’m curious about, that you’re sort of touching on: There all these major fashion industry figures, they’re not necessarily connected to sustainable fashion or any kind of ethical fashion movement, but they still will constantly talk about cheap clothing as something problematic. Suzy Menkes is an example this. She’s been quoted saying something along the lines of, “There’s something immoral about a dress that costs as much as a cappuccino.” And she’s absolutely right, but that’s because the process of production is itself immoral. It’s screwing people over. That’s the immoral part. It seems like there could be a symbiotic relationship between these more ethical goals of transparency and also the desire to celebrate and elevate luxury brands and promote high-end design. The mainstream luxury fashion establishment — and so not just designers, but also critics, people who aren’t necessarily so financially bound to one brand’s profits and losses — could push for more ethical production, but I never hear that connection made explicitly, not by anyone at the center.
We’re just in the beginning of the process of having transparency and ethics come into the whole design and manufacturing process because the canary has definitely died inside of the coal mines. And what you’re seeing, also, industry-wide, both in manufacturing and in retailing, is this deep deep change. We’re at a juncture. And it’s not the end of the world, it’s the change of the world. It’s the end of peak oil, yes. It absolutely is the end of peak oil. For sure. So it makes people more conscious and more aware. And that’s why the prices keep rising for even basic things. Inexpensive socks and underwear and stuff, they’re not so inexpensive anymore. This may be part of the answer to the question that you’re asking, which is why these people don’t talk more about it, that have the ability to. Because if they do, they’re going to raise the prices even higher and then the manufacturing and the apparel economy and the supply chain economy will collapse even more. The people who know know and the people who don’t know, don’t want to know.
And in a way… I don’t really read Suzy that often, I think she’s a brilliant writer, I cornered her a couple years ago at a party, and I really started to talk to her… She’s very intelligent and she’s seen a lot, so it’s interesting… I know that she has traveled to some symposiums and some meetings. I think there was one in India that they had this year, it was somewhere. But then they go on this junket, it’s like a booze cruise of sustainability. It’s like, “Oh wow. What a good idea!” But then nothing changes. So my idea of how to make things change is: Do it. Just go and do it.
I made the world’s first organic oxford cotton shirt. It took me two years to get the fabric made; I had to beg a mill to make the fabric. I’m glad that I did that, because that in turn raised the consciousness of this mill. They then got the benefit that they had done this early on, and now they have the experience and the expertise. But to make the commitment takes a different way of looking at things. And also, part of it — it’s the design schools. The schools! They’re not really teaching young design students how to think different. They’re just kind of little training grounds for people to poach talent out of.
It’s unfortunate that … who suffers? It’s the people that produce the clothing, the people that produce the fibers. The consumer. Because the consumer is being taken advantage of. When something costs $2.50 to make and then the wholesaler has to mark it up and then the retailer has to make it up… The standard retail markup now is 2.5x. So if something is $10, it retails at $25. The Wall Street Journal just did a piece about the $1,000 sweater. It was a little 3-minute film and they’re saying now, that the cost of a sweater now is $1,000 — sometimes $2,000! And it’s like, no, it doesn’t have to cost that much! Our industry can still produce a responsible, ethical sweater for $135 which can then retail for $300. We’re actually capable of producing sweaters for much less, if you have the economy of scale. Because the economy of scale, it’s easier to make beautiful things if you’re making lots of them.
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