It’s that time of year again. The aisles are full, shelves are stocked, and queues are stretching out the door. Christmas time, or prime time for consumerism as it could also be known. Whilst Christians take time out to celebrate the birth of their Lord Jesus Christ, others simply try not to wince as they look at their diminishing bank balance.
Why has the season of comfort and joy become a source of stress for so many? Whilst finding the perfect Christmas gift for our loved ones is a source of great stress for us in the West, Christmas may signify something very different for garment factory workers in the Global South. Thoughts of piling up orders, overtime, overproduction, and underpayment spring to mind in order to meet our Christmas needs. This is not written to merely insight guilt. After all, who doesn’t love receiving thoughtful gifts and spending time with friends and family? In recent years however, I’ve been giving more and more thought to where my clothes come from. Who made them and what were they paid?
I’ve been closely following the #payup and #whomademyclothes campaigns. According to sources like Apparel Action Tracker many fast fashion brands have not paid their workers for orders they cancelled over lockdown. Therefore, they worked for free. This can be construed as modern-day slavery. At Christmas, we may feel that we desperately need that new Christmas jumper or party dress, or perhaps lounge wear is more appropriate for our current time. However, I think it’s vital to question how our consumer choices are impacting others. Do we need more stuff this Christmas? If, over lockdown, so many of us emptied our closets of clothes and things we no longer needed or used, do we really need to replace these with more of the same?
I wanted to respond to the temptation that Christmas brings to “buy, buy, buy” in a new way this year. Myself and a group of friends from my Church St Michael le Belfrey in York are part of a group called Belfrey Social Justice and we participate in Dressember. Every year hundreds don a dress or a tie every day for the month of December and get others to sponsor us to raise money for anti-human trafficking charities such as the International Justice Mission. These charities are actively working to see an end to human trafficking in our lifetime. As fast fashion is one of the main contributors to the modern-day slavery industry, it felt like a really simple way to respond. We actively encouraged participants not to buy new dresses and ties. Instead, we borrowed each other’s and then found ourselves asking why we didn’t do that all the time. It’s a lot cheaper than buying new ones!
We have also been reflecting on Sarah Lazarovic’s Buyerarchy of Needs. I fully maintain that this needs to be a societal shift and large-scale companies need to be held accountable and change their ways of overproduction, fast fashion, and modern-day slavery in their supply chain. However, as the consumer, I think we have a role to play too. If we believe our own Christmas customs are feeding these industries, then we need to look inward and see where we also could change our Christmas habits.
Image by Sarah Lazarovic
Here are my top tips for a fast fashion free and generally more ethical Christmas:
Don’t buy what you don’t need.
Avoid joke presents that will likely end up in landfill.
Don’t buy from any of the companies that have yet to #payup for their cancelled orders. See the Apparel Action Tracker.
If you want to gift something special, consider edible gifts and experiences.
If you are limited by time or other factors and need to buy things, consider supporting small local businesses and BME owned businesses.
Support the #Dressember campaign!
If in doubt, consult the Buyerarchy of Needs!
Rachel Sterling