Describe the geography of the global clothing industry. Using
examples, discuss the experiences of places and people in the
Global South of working in the clothing industry. What are
the possible responses to the inequalities present in the
industry?
With the global fashion industry being valued at £2tn (Russon, 2020), it is safe
to say clothing is a highly lucrative sector of the global economy. This essay will
explore the geography of the global clothing industry, focussing on the impacts
inflicted on those at the bottom of the commodity chain within the Global
South.
Over the last twenty years, there has been an increased demand for clothing
within the Global North, this is the result of fast fashion. With the shift from
buying fewer but high-quality clothing items to the constant desire for quick,
cheap, but fashionable clothing, companies have had to adapt to keep up with
the new demand-driven market. Companies are now dictated to by the
consumers and must provide affordable clothing that fit the everchanging
fashion trends and styles (Bhardwaj and Fairhurst, 2010). Not only have
advancements in technologies such as social media encouraged fast fashion
but also socio-economic factors such as increased urbanisation and
employment have resulted in people having more disposable income to spend.
Although fast fashion has shaped global trade, there are other factors that
have allowed this change within the global fashion industry. A major factor is a
change in international laws and agreements regarding global trade. With a
neoliberalism approach being favoured and the ‘Multi Fibre Arrangement’
being abolished in 2004, the restrictions on oversea trading were reduced
meaning companies no longer had to follow the quotas or pay high taxes when
trading (Audet, 2006). This resulted in many fashion brands moving clothing
manufacturing from the Global North to the Global South, in particular
countries within Asia such as China or Bangladesh. This is because Asia has
both the largest population and the highest population density in the world,
making it the prime location for mass production (PRB, 2021). This process is
referred to as the New International Division of Labour as by moving factories
to the Global South developing countries were able to join the world economy.
Producing clothing for the Global North has helped developments by
generating mass employment offering opportunities and income resulting in
, decreased poverty levels, for example in Bangladesh alone ‘ready-made
clothes’ production accounted for four million jobs in 2018 (Syera et al., 2018).
These factories have also provided a place where women can work, offering
them an escape from their ‘traditional’ role and helping them become
independent. Although there have been some benefits to moving factories to
emerging economies, the global fashion industry is responsible for creating and
perpetuating severe inequalities between the Global North and South. Poor
quality of education within developing countries is a very important factor for
why moving clothing manufacturing to the Global South was so successful. By
receiving a lack of education career prospects are severely limited, generating
the perfect candidates for working these low wage and unskilled factory jobs.
Only 25.8% of Bangladesh’s labour force (aged over 15) have any form of
advanced education (UNDP, 2020), and 34.2% of women are illiterate in India
which is almost twice as many as men (CIA, 2020). The introduction of the
clothing factories saw mass migration from rural areas to secure employment,
with the majority being women (Asfar 2001 cited in Ahmed, 2006). This is a
problem as the areas with factories saw a rapid increase in population and
subsequent urbanisation, while rural areas development lagged resulting in
significant inequalities within the country. With Global North companies
striving to meet the demands of the unpredictable fast fashion market, it is
those at the bottom of the commodity chain who ultimately pay the price
(Taplin, 2014).
Furthermore, although the factory owners and managers themselves are
exploited by the companies in the Global North, they then go on to exploit
their workers which keeps the cycle going. With the majority of garment
workers in the Global South being women the inequalities they face within the
fashion industry go hand in hand with patriarchal views and sexism within their
societies. Indian clothing factories are categorised into different levels from the
‘lower floor’ which primarily make the very basic items to the ‘upper floor’
which is associated with making more complicated skilled clothing. In Chennai
and Bangalore most factories are ‘lower floor’ with 90% of the workers being
female, whereas ‘upper floor’ factories are dominated by men. As there is a
constant flow of male migrants wanting to work in the garment industry, it is
almost impossible for women to progress from the ‘lower’ to the ‘upper floor’
(Mezzadri, 2016). A report investigating workers exploitation in Bangalore
discovered one of the ways factories abuse their employees is with time debts
(Jenkins and Blyton, 2016). When the women missed their impossible
production targets or were off sick, they would owe the factory money and
had to continue working in order to pay them back. This is the result of the
