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What's
it worth?
Elaine
Thompson is quite right to point out high street enthusiasm
for all things handmade appears to be gaining ground.
In the case of fashion, beading and embroidery is
the trend that just won't die. Season after season
we see beautiful, embellished clothes and within weeks
high street stores are piled high with garments and
accessories which faithfully follow the trend. A glance
at a price tag confirms that these romantic confections
come at a staggeringly small cost. We react with delight
and surprise. How long are we as consumers prepared
to feign ignorance of the origin and methods of production
of the goods we are offered at prices clearly less
than their intrinsic value? It is impossible to reconcile
these prices with the idea that a piece worked with
time and care should provide the maker with fair recompense.
Embroiderers in particular should be concerned by
this devaluation of their skills. Why does the thought
of paying what something is worth seem so abhorrent
to the western mind? Companies do not willingly sell
at a loss. If prices are astonishingly low and the
quality still high then methods of production are
the obvious area on which to economise. The reality
of those savings is the ruthless exploitation of labour
sources in troubled and underdeveloped countries -
in more direct terms the use of slave labour. This
picture from The Guardian confirmed thoughts
which occurred during a high street shopping expedition;
I wonder where the cloth Minto Kumar embroidered without
sleep for 21 hours a day was destined? I wonder if
it was made up into one of the garments hanging in
my wardrobe? Or yours? In today's climate we let the
desire to gain 'something for nothing' obscure the
fact that costs may be hidden but never eliminated.
If you think you've got a bargain then someone else
has paid. How terrible if that price was their childhood.
Mary Chambers
Image credit: arko data/reuters ©popperfoto ltd
Ed: This is obviously a large problem to which there is no easy solution, but that does not negate our responsibility within the textile community to do something, and perhaps the first thing would be to establish some kind of fairtrade label for embroidery. This would indicate to consumers that the work had been produced under internationally agreed standards. Currently there are more than 100 food products covered by the scheme. Why not include textiles? See www.cleanclothes.org