Facta #2

Shift and Delivery
Because of luck, environmental concerns, lack of space or
simple lack of available funds, many interesting initiatives
compete with traditional trade in garments. Various looks
on fashion and clothing found in these transfer forms
possibilities for dialogue. For many, the use of clothes also
establishes a relationship of mere necessity with the basic
user. For others, it expands to spaces of cultural expression,
social statement, aesthetic treatment. The emergence
of thrift stores, second-hand clothes stores, rente of
clothing and meetings promoted between acquaintances
to exchange pieces have moved the fashion market in a
healthy, sustainable and affordable way.
Destruction (or Self-Destruction)
Short on sale:
Costs Limits (minimum production of 300 pieces):
• Fabric . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . R$ 10
• Hand labor (separation, cutting, sewing) . . . . . . . R$ 8
• Benefits. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .R$ 4
• Trimmings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . R$ 3
• Shipping + others + faction profit . . . . . . . . . . . . R$ 7
Total per unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . R$ 32
Final sales price. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . R$ 128
The example above shows an actual hint in sales planning of
a 'fast' Brazilian brand. The cotton used here may have a bit
closed pot and therefore deform irregularly when washing;
the seamstress is perhaps from another Latin American
country and to pay her debts with illegal immigration
keeps her labor cost under $ 4/hour for the employer and
is being charged a well above the ordinary rate (doing the
math, she will never reach the minimum wage working
the normal 45h/week), among other possible irregularities
in production. Quality, therefore, ensures that even if the
design of the object exceeds one semester, its physical
integraty won’t.
The fast-fashion (and still many other ways in fashion,
seeking maximum profit above any other value) eliminates
most of the work in construction and/or selection of
a collection by the consumer. Establishing cost limits
for fabrics, trims and manpower to be used in a piece,
with well defined strata within each row, the fashion
that is fastest growing in the world right now saves its
consumers from selection to destruction. With defined
values unquestionably low, H&M, Zara, Forever21,
C&A, Primark, and many others, ensure the durability
of its products will not exceed more than the six
months of a season, being auto wrecking, in visual and
functional aspects.
The constant struggle for lower cost and higher profit
already so established in the productive universe of
fashion makes customers stop questioning the reason for
a short 'quick' cost R$ 128 and consider 'stealing' another
production chain that prioritizes sustainability processes,
product durability and quality of life of the professionals
involved, which does not find ways to make its 'mark less'
competitive with major brands.
In addition to planned obsolescence in functions (such
as serious changes in size after the first wash, pockets
with open seams in the earliest uses, lost buttons, among
others), the obsolescence of style is central in developing a
fashion product.
Self-Regulation
Terrible realization, this precariousness in quality
combined with an expertise design of obsolescence ends
up making fashion to self-regulate itself to some extent.
If we kept the current produced volume in units, replacing
raw materials by using quality fabrics and workmanship
that takes the necessary time to perform well all stages
of closing a piece, we could generate a big problem. The
most well done plots may take longer to degenerate and all
drawers would become small to hold an entire collection
that, although being used for years, would endure. This
is of course a ridiculously absurd scenario. However,
strict control on production would result in expensive
parts, durable, less likely to variations in trends, reduced
consumption, more compact cabinets, and a much more
valuable and interesting horizon of stylistic productions,
both for the production and the consumption chains.
What fashion seems to give us today is a collection
of objects that participate in a movement of trends of
a season. The selection criteria and methods used for
pricing prioritize quantity over quality, higher profits, less
durability.
To collect is quite different than collecting.
1 A collection is considered a success by marketing analysis when the sells
in full price are bigger than 60% of the total amount produced.
2 Shoe or sandal with a small opening in front, leaving visible ('peep' in
English can be translated as 'partial') only part of the toes.
3 Term used to describe attractive young women, usually popular icons.
Not strangely, the term also refers in some way, in a tough translation,
the idea of an object-girl.
* FEAR, FASHION AND SELFDESTRUCTION * 95