On a warm Sunday afternoon I sit down with my mum, tea in hand, to discuss the changes in the fashion industry across just one generation. We talk about the media's role in sustainability, the onset of fast fashion, and the challenges involved with growing up in a quiet country town in rural NSW. If I've taken one thing from this conversation it's that perhaps the lessons learned from a frugal upbringing before the time of the internet might just be essential to shaping a sustainable fashion future. Tell me a little bit about the clothing shops you had in Grenfell growing up.
Well we only had one and it was called Roberta’s Salon. Roberta's had clothing more suited to the age bracket of 30’s, 40’s and 50’s. Back then, it was really hard to find clothes for the young kids, you know, young and trendy. At the time, no one knew what the fashion was in Sydney, because nothing was online. We would just follow the trend of the dress patterns which were for sale in the material shop next door. And so, you'd go in there and you'd have a choice of Style, Simplicity, Butterick, and Vogue, and those patterns came out of America. That was the closest to “fashion” that we got, really. You’d buy the fabric, go home, and make it. Were all your clothes homemade? Pretty much. Very few were bought. We all just learnt to sew as a matter of course, because it was necessary. Back in those days it was much cheaper make your own clothes than to buy them. Unlike now, everything was made in Australia and it was expensive to manufacture. But it was good quality stuff. Bearing in mind too, in the little town of Grenfell, you actually had to travel somewhere to buy clothes off the rack. Growing up, you could tell the kids who'd been lucky enough to go to Canberra or Sydney because they came back with these beautiful clothes that we had never seen before, because you couldn't see them online. It was a bit of a mystery when people would come back to the country with fashion items. We’d say: “Oh my God, is that what's happening in Sydney?” When it came time to grow out of your clothes, very few of them went to the Salvo’s like we do now. Instead, they just went to the next child and it was expected that you'd either alter it slightly it to fit that child or, if not, it would go to a cousin. But the idea of sending a bag of used clothes the op shop just didn't ever exist. Unlike now, by the time a lot of clothes got there they were very recycled. Now whenever I go into an Op Shop, there’s so much which is still brand new, they’ve still got the labels on. Which types of fabrics were most commonly used? Wool was important for winter because of its properties. It was such a good fabric as it was beautifully manufactured but still quite expensive. There were also lots of cottons, which were really important out there. Because they were more expensive, you knew that once you had it, that was it, you had it for a long time. Now, it's actually cheaper to buy something in a shop than to go and buy the pattern and make it yourself. Today you’d be looking at sometimes $40 for the just the pattern. By the time you bought the cotton or the fabric, just to make a shirt, it might cost you $100. Or instead you could go to Cotton On and get one for under $10. It’s crazy. So do you think growing with a frugal lifestyle has influenced your clothing and shopping choices now? Well, I guess despite everything I am still a victim of bargains. You know what it’s like, no matter how much I don’t need something, the sale price tag always gets me. But in general, I tend to buy more high quality items, more expensive, and have them for longer. Some of the clothes I wear to work, I've been wearing for 15 years. Every now and then I’ll wear something I haven’t worn for a couple of years and someone will compliment me and think it’s beautiful. Ask me where it’s from. But I’m definitely still a victim of fast fashion and landfill, which I should be more aware of. Although I must admit, listening to you talk about it more often has made me so much more aware, and I think as a result I’m noticing the media attention around it a lot more too. That’s interesting though, it’s almost as though the media is both encouraging us to buy fast fashion but also making us feel guilty about the consequences of that. Yeah, that's right. I’ve noticed it so much more lately, especially since The War on Waste. But the media have also become quite influential too. For example, Vogue magazine now has their own editor that is paid purely to oversee sustainable clothing. And whatever that really means I’m not sure, but in general there seems to be far greater attention paid. With all that in mind, what do you see as the biggest issue facing the fashion industry today? I think one of the greatest issues now is with online shopping, and the fact that media has given us that opportunity. There's so much to choose from and it's so cheap, while people’s disposable incomes are so huge. Now you can just go on, see some shoes you like and get three different coloured pairs just in case you’re not sure which ones you’ll want. After that you can just throw the others out or put them back on eBay for five bucks. People just don't care anymore, it’s incredible. And then there’s the added issue of the chemicals which come with cheap quality fabric. Not only is it more uncomfortable to wear, but they’re leaching straight out into the water of your washing machine and ultimately ending up back in the land. It’s becoming a very debatable topic. It’s an ironic thing the media; they’re used so widely to advertise and sell an excessive amount of products, but at the same time used as a tool to show the damage that’s incurred as a result.
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AuthorFourth year Communications and Media student with a passion for sustainability and an addiction to op-shopping. ArchivesCategories |