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We’re having an identity crisis. Do you know who pays for it?
Know thyself— inscribed upon the Temple of Apollo and preached by Socrates, this philosophical maxim has long been upheld by humanity. Even today, self-understanding seems to be the ultimate pursuit, the key to living a meaningful life.1 Finding the harmony between your human desire for belonging and your innate hunger for individuality is a complex feat. Although, I’m not sure Socrates anticipated the birth of the internet, a force which has made the daunting mission to “know thyself” all the more complicated.
On the internet, your identity is only a couple scrolls away. And there’s a vast selection to choose from: coastal cowgirl, coquette, dark academia, clean girl, mob wife, office siren, to name a few. They’re called microtrends, and each one comes with a detailed guide of everything you need to do (and own) to faithfully perpetuate the aesthetic. Ribbons lace the hair, shoes, and purses of every coquette girl. Leopard print furs and french tip nails are quintessential mob wife must-haves. They’re like their own religions, except they don’t last thousands of years, more like a couple of months.
Influencers, celebrities, and fashion and cosmetic brands are always pulling us in different directions, and it seems that we just can’t decide who to be. Consumerism lives and breathes through us. It dictates what we buy and who we are. But the identity we decide on dies in the same year it is born, and suddenly, we’re scrambling to find ourselves through the internet again. We’re having a widespread identity crisis, and our individuality is not the only thing paying the consequences.
Fashion is both an art and a tool. Mini skirts in the 60’s united women in the second wave of American feminism. Bell bottom jeans in the 70’s were a mark of the rebellion, a statement against conformity. Fashion is reflective of an individual, of a culture, of humanity. It holds immense beauty and power. How, then, can something so beautiful become so rotten?
It’s 2008 and America is at the center of the global financial crisis. It is the most grave economic downturn since the Great Depression, and anxiety sweeps the nation as Americans are left with looming uncertainty. This is the landscape that recession pop2 was born into, brought to us by its parents: Pitbull, Katy Perry, Bruno Mars, Lady Gaga, and the many other pop icons circa 2000. Recession pop was born for one reason and one reason only: to make us feel good. Katy Perry told the nation that “you and I will be young forever.” Pitbull and Ne-Yo said to “forget about bills and the first of the month. It’s my night, your night, our night, let’s turn it up.” Music became a “feel-good” commodity, and fashion did too.
That brings us to today. News headlines warn about the alarmingly high odds of a US recession. Don’t believe it? Economists and fashion experts alike say to look at what people are wearing.
Summer Fridays lip butter balm, Rhode peptide lip tint, Dior lip oil, Laneige lip sleeping mask. These lip products have graced everyone’s wish lists this year. Some may have even purchased the Rhode phone case with a lip balm holder built into it. There’s an economic theory for why these lip products have gone viral, and it’s called the lipstick index.
The lipstick index theory asserts that if there is a trend indicating an increase of sales in “affordable luxuries,” like lip products, a recession is coming to light.3 They are cheap, “feel-good” products, a quick fix to ease your anxiety during economic uncertainty. This might explain the youth’s obsession with collecting trinkets at Urban Outfitters, or millennials’ love for collecting Stanleys and Sanrio. The increase in “little sweet treat” sales and $8 lattes and boba teas might indicate the same thing. Overconsumption has become a trend in itself because these little luxuries are all we really have. And thanks to fast fashion, clothing has become an affordable luxury, too.
Cheap, accessible, retail therapy. That’s what stores like Shein, Edikted, and Brandy Melville are to us. Economists indicate that stores like these, that offer large discounts and bargains on items that are typically expensive, thrive the most during a recession.4 Our consumption of cheap clothing is then multiplied exponentially by microtrends. Every couple of months, Americans spend their disposable income on new little luxuries, “feel-good” purchases, a brand new wardrobe. We can take on a new identity, we can fill the anxious void of uncertainty with clothes, cosmetics, and trinkets.
But what costs us dollars, costs someone else their life. Meet the people who really pay for our aesthetics.
75 million people. That’s approximately how many factory workers are employed by the fast fashion industry.5 75 million people are subject to what the European Parliament has called “slave labor,” and of those people, less than 2% make enough money to cover basic necessities.6 The top textile manufacturers span across Asia, including China, Bangladesh, Vietnam, India, and Indonesia.7 75 million people work in dangerous and exploitative facilities and are exposed to the horrors of violence, deadly working conditions, poverty, and sexual assault. Our clothing’s origins are unimaginably horrific, a stark contrast to the Brandy Melville or Urban Outfitters we first meet them at. America seems to function under an enduring mantra: It’s better to ignore what you don’t see. This remains true even when it means ignoring human injustice, torture, and death.
1,134 people. That’s how many lives were lost on April 24, 2013, when a fast fashion factory, Rana Plaza, collapsed in Bangladesh.8 Thousands more were injured, and rescuers who had no proper medical training cut off the limbs of victims in order to free them from the rubble.9 Even though factory owners were notified about the concerns regarding the building’s structural integrity, they ordered everyone to work anyway. This incident raised questions regarding the safety of factory working conditions, and after the inspection of 1,106 fast fashion factories, 80,000 issues threatening the safety of employees were discovered.10
Our “cool girl aesthetics" depend on these lives, insinuating that our society values materialism over character. According to us, the only criteria for being cool in America is to own unethically produced clothes and objects. But cool girls don’t turn a blind eye to injustice. No cool girl essential or must-have is worth the exploitation and oppression of real people, even if we’ve never met them. Cool girls stand up for other girls, especially girls who don’t have the voice to stand up for themselves.
“You whore, your caste people should be kept where the slippers are kept.”11 The Guardian reported that a female tailor at an Indian garment factory described being “grabbed by the hair and punched” as she was told this. Radhika, an employee at H&M’s supply factory in India, described the following encounter to researchers:
“‘You are not meeting your target production.’ He pulled me out of the chair and I fell on the floor. He hit me, including on my breasts. He pulled me up and then pushed me to the floor again [and] kicked me.”
Despite facing harassment and assault, she was unable to leave her job at the factory, telling researchers:
“My husband passed away and I have a physically challenged daughter who cannot work. That is why I need the job. I suffer a lot to earn my livelihood.”12
The majority of fast fashion factory workers are women, and 80% of garment workers are women of color.13 Gender-based violence in fast fashion factories is the grim reality for millions of women who make the clothes we wear now. Approximately 50% of women working in fast fashion factories have been sexually harassed at work but are unable to take legal action to protect themselves.14 The exploitation of female factory workers include verbal and physical abuse, and even sexual assault. Some have asserted that they were not provided maternity leave and were further exterminated due to pregnancy.15 Many women are threatened by the possibility of rape as they leave for home late into the night. Survivors’ Network shared a message from a Bangladeshi factory worker, saying:
“Women can be made to dance like puppets, but men cannot be abused in the same way. The owners do not care if we ask for something, but demands raised by the men must be given some consideration. So they do not employ male workers.”16
Asian women are disproportionately victimized in textile supply chains in countries including Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka, among many others. It is heartbreaking to know that our nation’s overconsumption habits fueled by the power of microtrends perpetuated through media contributes to the abuse, assault, sickness, exploitation, and even death of millions of people who we will never know. Even though we will never come face to face, their lives matter just as much as ours.
And now I ask you, is it still worth it?
Products derived from abusive labor practices surround us everywhere, to the point where it’s almost unavoidable, but we can start small. Find treasures second-hand. Be intentional with everything new you buy. Make trinkets at home. Mend old clothes instead of replacing them.
Know thyself. While I haven’t transcended the human experience and gained ultimate self-consciousness, I can say for certain that I won’t find myself in any microtrend. I won’t find myself in an influencer’s Amazon storefront or a celebrity’s makeup brand. I’m not an “office siren” or a “coastal cowgirl.” I don’t die when the latest trend does; I keep living.
What I do know about myself is that I want to do good. I’m changing all the time. I try my best. There is no “me” to find. There is no aesthetic I will ever completely resonate with. But I’m not an aesthetic. I will change forever; I will build myself for as long as I live. So don’t go looking for something you lost in places you’ve never been. Trace your steps, your history. Stay true to yourself, know thyself.
Allow yourself to be inspired by the world, but never change for it. Allow yourself to discover the beauty it has to offer you, but never sacrifice others for your own gain. Millions of people suffer for America’s little luxuries. Millions of people suffer for our everchanging aesthetics. Billions of dollars spent, millions of lives on the line.
So, what choices will you make? Do you know yourself?
References:
1 Best Kenneth 2018, ‘Know Thyself: The Philosophy of Self-Knowledge,’ UConn Today.
2 Miyashita Nina 2024, ‘What exactly is recession pop?’ Vogue Australia.
3 Mannion Mary 2024, ‘What is the lipstick index?’ JP Morgan Wealth Management.
4 2024, ‘9 Businesses That Thrive in Recessions,’ Investopedia.
5 Helm Mykhail 2024, ‘Beneath the Seams: The Human Toll of Fast Fashion,’ Earth Day.
6 Ross Emma 2021, ‘Fast Fashion Getting Faster: A Look at the Unethical Labor Practices Sustaining a Growing Industry,’ George Washington University Law School International Law and Policy Brief.
7 2024, ‘Top 10 Textile Manufacturing Countries in the World FY 2024 Update’ The Quality Textiles.
8 Simonsen Elaina 2024, ‘The Fast Fashion Epidemic,’ UCLA Sustainability.
9 2013, ‘Bangladesh collapse left many amputees,’ NBC News.
10 Ross Emma 2021, ‘Fast Fashion Getting Faster: A Look at the Unethical Labor Practices Sustaining a Growing Industry,’ George Washington University Law School International Law and Policy Brief.
11 Hodal Kate 2018, ‘Abuse is daily reality for female garment workers for Gap and H&M, says report,’ The Guardian.
12 Rosenbaum Jennifer, Bhattacharjee Shikha Silliman 2018, ‘Big Brands: The Missing Voice in the Fight to End Gender-Based Violence at Work,’ Global Labor Justice.
13 2023, ‘Why Fast Fashion is a Feminist Issue?’ Survivor’s Network.
14 Robertson Megan 2024, ‘It Takes Exploitation to Look This Good: Garment Workers, Modern Fashion, and the Oppression of Women,” Georgetown Law School Gender Journal.
15 Robertson Megan 2024, ‘It Takes Exploitation to Look This Good: Garment Workers, Modern Fashion, and the Oppression of Women,” Georgetown Law School Gender Journal.
16 2023, ‘Why Fast Fashion is a Feminist Issue?’ Survivor’s Network.
