“Change has to be subtle. When a woman alters her look too much from season to season, she becomes a fashion victim.” This is, according to Terry Agins’ ‘The end of fashion’, a statement by Georgio Armani . Pitiable as fashion addicted women may be, there are more victims of the fashion industry.
According to a 2012 documentary, every hour one cotton former in India commits suicide. Other estimates suggest that the wave of so-called GM genocide in India means that suicides occur every 30 minutes. The cotton farmers are desperate because they cannot pay back the loans that have been forced on them by seed companies. Crop yields tend to be lower than promised, which makes it impossible for farmers to return the 7% interest rates.
Casualties also occur in other clothing production countries. For example, in Uzbekistan, every year almost 2 million children are forced to pick cotton during harvest season. Child labor is not uncommon in other parts of the world either. Dutch research centre SOMO has repeatedly shown that garments for several US and European brands and retailers are being produced by young girls in the South Indian region of Tamil Nadu under exploitative working conditions.
And then there are of course animal victims. In Defence of Animals claims that 50 million animals are killed for fur on a yearly basis. Animal lovers will also be sad to hear about the many stories about mulesing. And did you know about illegal leather production in India, where cows (yes, those animals considered holy in that very same country) are skinned alive?
Knowing all this, it’s laudable that Puma has made tentative steps to diminish the use of leather in its sneaker collections. This could turn out to contribute to the welfare of people in the lothing production industry as well. Because not only animals suffer in current shoe production practices. The hazardous chemicals that are widely used to tan leather also negatively affect workers’ health and lives. I wonder if Mr. Armani is aware of the thousands of animals and people that are the true victims of the global fashion industry?