Tseëlon Abstract

Efrat Tseëlon – University of Leeds
The Challenge of Ethical Fashion

Ethical fashion, fair trade, and other grass root movements are among the most human faces of globalization, which has done more than anything to erode the sense of community and solidarity.  The desire to improve the human rights record of fashion-producing plants in the developing world that supplies the Western world’s demand for fashion variety is a noble mission.  However it is not enough.

The fashion world is in denial of the real unethical aspects of fashion, using the trend towards “ethical fashion” as a kind of a “conscience tax” or a “conscience laundering” tool, as a diversion and distraction from the industry and the system’s more cynical face. While a debate on the ethics of fashion is a welcome addition to the landscape of perspectives looking at this form of social activity, concern about employment rights in countries to which production has been outsourced masks a whole range of unethical issues connected to fashion closer to home. A partial list includes the rights of migrant textile workers in Europe,  the environmental damage inflicted by certain ethical solutions,  the toxic aspects of the fashion and beauty industry, animal welfare, and the images and role models it presents to the consuming eye, especially the vulnerable eye of teenagers, who are its most loyal followers.

Two fundamental features of fashion are:
1. The reliance on obsolescence
2. The fetishisation of emotions, desires and values into material objects.
Both look incompatible with the ethical mission.

The paper will examine them and their compatibility with the ethical agenda.