zaterdag 25 mei 2013

What is wrong with the fashion industry?

Hi everyone!

I have to make a three minutes presentation and the title is Don't get me started on... I am doing it about the fashion industry. Because three minutes isn't enough, I decided to put the whole thing here.

Before I start, let me make one thing clear. I love fashion. Not just the I-love-fashion-and-by-that-I-mean-H&M-way. No. I'm talking about a passion. The thing that help me surviving the world. Okay, that sounds a little dramatic, but you get the point. Most teenage girls' role model is somebody like BeyoncĂ©, Emma Stone or Jennifer Lawrence. Mine is Karl Lagerfeld. So many people think it is just superficial, and it is, but it is also more than that. Fashion is like music, films or books. It may take you away to another world. An intense world, where, once you are in there, you don't want to get out. All your problems disappear. You forget them. Escaping the reality. You become a part of the other reality, more than you realize. I truly love fashion, I think that's clear. But there is also an other side, which is terrible. This side I want to discuss today.

Fur

Some say that people who wear fur are murders and that it should be forbidden. But I disagree. And listen before you freak out. People eat meat. People wear leather. That's absolutely normal. However, when people wear fur, it's outrageous. If you are against fur, you also shouldn't eat meat and wear leather. Otherwise it's kind of hypocrite. When I say this to other persons, I always get the same reaction: 'Yeah, but animals are getting abused for fur and...' Let me stop you there. I'm not going to deny that things like that happen. Do you really think that the process of getting leather or especially meat, are animal friendly? We all know the truth. Battery cages, remember? Everybody knows that chickens are locked up in it, but we still buy chicken. Also, fur and animal abuse doesn't always go together. There are special companies for the fur.

The skinnier the better

The famous size zero. Eat nothing, exercise all day and you are beautiful. For the ultimate effect, throw up and use drugs, because they reduce your appetite. Your looks are everything and NOBODY wants to be fat, because if you are fat, you are ugly. If you are ugly, you are unhappy. You think this isn't true? Watch all the celebrities. They are skinny. And there are no fat girls in the 2013 Maxim hot list. There is still hope. Go do one of this insane workouts and eat maximum 500 calories pro day. Then, you will feel amazing and finally be beautiful. People want to hang out with you and your life in general will be amazing.

This message is secretly hide in all the fashion campaigns, photo shoots and advertorials. You have to be skinny to be happy. NOT TRUE! Your insecurities have nothing to do with how you look. You think that when you are skinnier, your problems will be solved. That's not the case. If you don't believe, try it. At the end you will see that you still are insecure. That it has nothing to do with how much you weight. So instead of trying to make your appearance better, try to make your inner better. Your outer beauty will follow. Because you know what is beautiful? People who are confident about themselves.

You still don't believe me, do you? Well, let me say something else. It is the models' job to look that skinny. 20 minutes jumping rope is just the warming up! Besides that, there is a wonderful thing that is called Photoshop. What I'm trying to say is, that it is impossible to be like those models. So just be your gorgeous self, there are enough others already.

Labour conditions

An whole different problem are the labour conditions. People have to work in terrible circumstances, for example sweatshops. They work very hard for long hours in a dirty room for not enough money. With long hours I mean 15 hours. With not enough money, I mean less than a dollar a day. Children work their too, because they are even cheaper.
A perfect example is the building is Bangladesh. It collapsed and over 1000 persons died. The fashion industry says that they will change it. But it is too late now. The best way to understand it is to see it. Good examples are Blood, sweat and luxuries and China Blue.





Environment
 
Why would I buy a dress for hundred dollar, when I also can buy a dress for one dollar? Because our world is going down because of it. Is that answer good enough?
Fashion isn't helping the environment. Something that is a big problem, is fast fashion. Fast fashion are very cheap clothes, that are inspired on the outfits that you saw on the runway. One difference: fast fashion is ten times cheaper and the quality is ten times worse. There are getting more and more collections, more trends, more thing we need to wear. Because those collections aren't having a long time in between it (a couple months) we buy more and more clothes. The quality of a shirt doesn't have to be good. You will buy another one, after a month. But those clothes don't disappear in a second. It takes a long time before they are faring.
Furthermore, garments are covered in dangerous substances, some can even cause cancer.
The last thing I want to say about this, is that it takes a lot of water to make them. For example, for a simple cotton shirt, you need 2000 litres of water.
Still don't understand why you should the more expensive dress?

Too expensive

Actually, what I just told you is a bit of a lie. There are cases like this, where you pay more for a better quality and labour conditions. Unfortunately, this isn't always the case. Victoria Beckham is the perfect example. A dress costs about 2000 dollar. It takes 70 dollar to make a dress. Who those of you who can count, just realised that there is 1930 dollar left. 1930 is a lot of money for one dress. But Victoria Beckham doesn't sell just one dress. No, she sells lots and lots more. With all that money you can buy a new Hermes bag, go on an exclusive trip, buy an island, travel to Mars, give it to a charity or even better, make you own charity, improve the labour conditions for your employees, make you clothes more eco-friendly or spend more money on campaigns to make girls realise that they don't have to starve themselves. It just depends where your interests are I guess.

I want to end this thing with something positive and that is fashioncartoons.blogspot.com. The site is amazing and it makes me laugh every time I visit it. Check it out!!


X.

PS: If you want to see if you wear 'good' clothes, check out the site rankabrand.com

zondag 10 maart 2013

Reason why I make this blog

Hi everyone!

How are you today? Okay so where do I start... I'm just another girl who thinks she can blog. It will only be a matter of time to see if I am actually a good blogger. So let's continue with the title. That is very simple. Procastinating. Because just like any teenager I will do anything, except the things I need to do. I don't know how often I will post new things and what my subjects will be, but I hope it will be fun.

So this was everything you need to know in a very short way...

Maybe this is the begin of something amazing or the end of another idea, I don't know it yet. But anyway, thank you for your time and attention!

X.