Dispatches: Fashion's Dirty Secret

Peek inside the average woman's wardrobe and it will be packed full of trendy high street clothes emulating the latest catwalk fashion - all bought at just a fraction of the price. My wardrobe is no different. A pair of £7 skinny jeans, t-shirts that cost no more than a few quid and a favourite dress which I grabbed for just under a tenner. High street fashion is in its heyday because now we can all have the latest designer trends at bargain prices.

But what's the real cost? Dispatches has discovered that fashion has a dirty secret - there's a hidden cost to cheap clothes and it's a human one.

We are Earthlings...

"Ignorance, the root and stem of all evil," Plato

A friend posted this on Facebook last night and I ended up watching the whole thing. Its a little slow paced(and a tad New-Age/American for my liking) but I highly recommend it.

The section on Fashion(particularly around that of the leather industry in India) begins just after 46:00. The whole documentary however, in all it unpleasantness, illustrates just how ignorant we are - and want to be - about the impact our actions have.

German philosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer, is famous for his writings on the acceptance of inconvenient truths in society:

"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."

If you take the example of cigarettes, this can be seen to be quite true. First people laughed at the idea that smoking could cause cancer etc. When hard evidence started to emerge society rejected the information and continued to smoke. Only recently have we come to terms with the truth.

I think we're in stage 2 with regards to animals, meat and the ecological/health impact our eating/clothing habits are making.

World Vegan Week '10 starts monday...just sayin' ;)

First Tragedy, Then Farce

"First Tragedy, Then Farce" by fantastic contemporary philosopher Slavoy Zizek.

An important, if slightly grueling, introduction to the ethics of CSR.