Walking in Rare Air - A review of Stitched Up By Tansy E. Hoskins

Stitched Up - Tansy E. Hoskins

Recently I had the privileged to read Stitched Up by Tansy E. Hoskins, she is a writer, journalist and activist. She writes for the Guardian and Business of Fashion with a much-needed refreshing opinion about fashion. Stitched up is by no means a comfortable read, chilling in places, it challenges the reader by exploring, the damage that the entire fashion industry is inflicting on our society. How it manages to operate without critique and the many exploitative dimensions that are above censure are revealed. This book will change the way you view fashion forever.  

Tansy’s summary of why fashion media do not criticise sets the tone of the book. 

"Another reason why fashion media brands do not criticise is because they have a vested interested in maintaining the myth and glitz of the fashion industry. If they do damage with criticism they would be damaging themselves. To expose the emperor as naked would be to reveal the fashion media at the same time. Instead, all parts of the fashion industry must perpetuate the myth that the industry is the sole source of beautiful clothing. Rather than just being the victim of advertisers, the fashion media is complicit and integral myth-maker." 

It's no wonder its easy to ignore that the majority of magazines airbrush their models to create a perfect image which is entirely fake! That cheap clothes are acceptable, that retailers deliver new collections on a weekly basis enticing us to buy buy buy. That a size zero is perfectly attainable. And that some factories exploit their workers, in some cases responsible for deaths. And yet the majority of us carry on consuming without much thought. The media are not the only guilty party, we are all complicit in the merry go around that is fashion. None of the above are sustainable. 

A defining point in the book is where Tansy says:

"Not working in fashion has blessed me with the freedom to write without worrying about future job prospects - a serious issue in an industry so devoid of criticism". 

This statement resonates because it is exactly why the industry is where it is now. Few speak out, not questioning the excess or the poor conditions and tragic deaths of people who make our clothes, because they are reliant on the industry for their livelihoods. The fashion business is a multi-faceted machine with huge complex supply chains, many of which may be ethically and morally focused. But is that enough reassurance when price is so low in many sectors. I worked in fast fashion for seventeen years with a great conflict of interest. My various jobs, although I did not know why at the time, felt like a big contradiction. I was part of the problem not the solution. I accepted the way things were because I was reliant on my salary to live. I felt trapped without a voice, because unlike Tansy my voice and actions were reliant on future job prospects. The constant pressure year on year from retailers to push prices of the garments I supplied down was like a game. Why do retailers think they have the power to believe price can always be cheaper? Has anyone from a retailer worked in a factory and performed a time and motion study? A study which works out how long it takes to make a garment, thus determining the ultimate cost? I doubt very much. Who in the end has to pay for that lower price and increased margin that the retailer so dearly craves? The person at the end of the chain takes the biggest hit, corners are cut, disasters are therefore inevitable. 

In January 2011 I walked away from supplying fast fashion and set up Style Industries London where I deliver bespoke trend reports, blog and deliver fashion forecasting masterclasses at the London College of Fashion. The consequence of my lifestyle choice is I gave up a regular salary and now my work is sporadic. I overhauled my fashion consumption, buying better not more of but I face restrictions with cost and style.  Ironically my career choice is not financially sustainable! The upside is I live more authentically. Above all I want to know where the clothes I wear come from and at the same time earn a regular income so I am researching launching a sustainable fashion brand because I am not satisfied with lack of transparency and fashion I want to wear. 

Interestingly Tansy questions sustainable fashion stating:

 “A central dilemma for ethical fashion is how to prioritise all the issues thrown up by the industry”.

Tansy goes on to say. “The unhelpful solution proffered by ethical fashion books is for consumers to try an ‘ethical calculus’ to figure out which issues matter most. This inability to provide a decent answer stems from not wanting to name capitalism as the cause of the problem.”

Tansy claims the capitalist system is at the route of the problem, this being the central theme throughout the book.

Early on she states:

 "I write about fashion from an anti-capitalist perspective because for me there is no way of separating the issues in this book".

Tansy is walking in rare air with this view. It challenges the very core of what we as a society know and believe in. Her view is overwhelming at times and difficult for an individual like me, wanting to make a difference in the sustainable sector believe I can? Tansy did offer a glimmer of hope saying: 

“The founder of a sustainable fashion label did provide a sensible answer from a design point of view: ‘When approaching sustainability concentrate your efforts on the area where you can make the biggest difference.’

Can I make a difference? I plan to support UK businesses by designing and producing a capsule collection in the UK twice yearly. This is a capitalist business model and according to Tansy’s viewpoint, I would be feeding the problem by operating in a capitalist environment. So what is the answer? Well honestly I don’t have one. What I do know is I would like to change how we consume by offering a trend driven fashion product that consumers will want to wear for multiple seasons moving away from as Tansy quotes:

"The unfulfilled nature of modern society means that a lot of shopping gets done, and a lot of commodities fruitlessly consumed. Schor has called this ‘the materiality paradox’.

And as Tansy states:

"If everyone bought only the clothes they needed it would spell disaster for corporations, so instead 'false needs' are created to keep me and everyone else shopping".  If I create a bespoke fashion brand that is fully transparent and sustainable, the rest of the fashion machine will continue to bombard the consumer with a ‘false need’. Could I create a brand with a ‘real’ need and make any difference? 

To complicate matters further, Sandy Black author of The Sustainable Fashion Handbook asks the question, "can fashion ever really be sustainable, or is the very term sustainable fashion an oxymoron"?

It begs the question how can I create an authentic career in fashion when all roads appear to lead to the inauthentic?

Tansy advocates working as a collective.

“Genuine collective ownership of all the world’s resources would sever the link between appearance and the ability to work. It would end the obligation to keep up with fashion. Severing the link between commerce and fashion and beauty would end the constant messages that women must diet, get cosmetic surgery, buy clothes and feel bad about themselves. Freed from capitalism’s alienation people would once again see themselves as part of nature and not separate from it.”  

Tansy also says:

“Capitalism should be regarded as a failed system. It cannot provide the people of this world with adequate food, shelter, clothing, health care or education. Its impact on the planet is devastating and may well lead to planetary catastrophe unless we act”.

While Tansy’s arguments are compelling, pointing out with great expertise and research what is wrong with our capitalist system I don’t know what the first steps are to attempt the change. Perhaps when more people realise there are choices and in fact we are all connected, and that the law of attraction dictates we attract what we put out in this world, maybe then, we will participate in change and be part of a solution. Although the people that rely on the big money to keep rolling in will have to shift their ideals and there in lies the challenge.

Despite the possibility of being frozen into doing nothing, I am determined to hope and dream that I can create an authentic fashion contribution to the world. I may have to walk in rare air and most certainly with conscience and responsibility. We all have a choice and my choice is to work with purpose and belief that I can be the change I wish to see in the world of fashion.