fashion and waste

It has been said that fashion is a uniquely Western idea. According to historians it originated sometime in the 14th century, although there were distinct changes in dress happening well before that time. The Romans had their fashions, and so did others that lived prior to the 14th century, but the changes were rather slow and occurred over several generations. These changes appear to have been driven by societal changes and other events. Clearly those fashions are not equivalent to modern fashion. In modern fashion, the idea is to throw out perfectly good items and replace them by similar items that look slightly different, either in color, or in length or in cut or in a combination of all these. Fashion is not just limited to clothing and the most apparent historical record of fashion exists in building styles.

In the Middle Ages, buildings as well as clothing were strongly influenced by fashion and the richer cities would often tear down town halls, churches, and cathedrals and build new ones in the latest style. Less well to do cities had to stick to tearing down the bell tower and adding a new one or modifying another smaller part in the latest fashion. The poor ones whose fortunes had shifted, were forced to keep their old churches to the delight of historians and tourists alike. Cities that ran out of money often had buildings under construction for many centuries and these buildings too are an amalgam of fashions. In such cases, we may find that one or two styles were skipped resulting in some very interesting mixes.

But fashion really expanded its reach in the last couple of centuries. It is now a worldwide phenomenon that affects nearly everything we buy from clothing to computers, to cell phones, to cars. Fashion is a major driver of consumption and it is the best way to promote wasteful spending. How else can you convince sane people to throw away perfectly good items and replace them with new copies that are nearly identical?

Some areas of society have managed to keep away from fashion's onslaught, but they are few and far between. Dress that is less susceptible to fashion is now labeled traditional dress and it is largely reserved for festivities and festivals. We all know about Dutch wooden shoes, Scottish kilts, Andalucian traje corto, and other traditional outfits. These outfits do change over time, but much more slowly. In any case they are not subject to the fashion stranglehold that dictates replacement every season. Traditional outfits are kept until they are beyond use and repair. As such they are exempt.

For all its glamour fashion is an unsustainable and waste producing industry. It has little or no redeeming value and its only purpose seems to be to promote waste. No wonder it has become so deeply entrenched in Western economies. And no wonder we are so eager to export it around the world, where more eager producers and customers can't wait to get their hands on it. Progress it is called. And progress as we all know, means waste. The only goal we are progressing towards seems to be extinction. Fortunately, we will all look good when we finally do go down ! We will go out in style.