
BUDGET clothing store Primark has announced plans to open another branch in Madrid next month – the chain's 61st retail outlet in Spain.
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'Fashion' is not always synonymous with 'glamour', of course. Minimum-wage shop-workers, tailors and seamstresses in the third world who barely survive on the pittance they get for 16-hour days in dangerous conditions. But it can be, and magazines, online or in paper format, and social media influencers either telling us what we should be wearing or simply giving us ideas about how to present our personality visually to the world (or just to ourselves, at home) mean buying clothes is far more than just what we do because it's illegal and embarrassing to go naked, or to stay warm.
In a way, every time we pop into a shop, try something on and take it to the counter, or fill in an online order form or handwritten mail-order catalogue slip, we're helping keep the wheels of a massive slice of the world's economy continue to move; and lockdown earlier this year, which saw clothing retailers among those forced to down tools, thrust this sharply into the spotlight.
Yet how, and where, we shop for clothes dictates to what extent we're helping the fashion industry become the social engineer and lifeline it should be, and how far we're keeping our planet protected from over-plundering and premature death.
Spanish fashion is one of the world's most sorely underrated. When you think of catwalk glamour, and the countries involved, which ones come to mind? Cities such as Rome, Paris, London, Milan, New York – but rarely Ourense, Toledo, or even Madrid or Barcelona. Despite some of Spain's top designer gear being among the most affordable and easy to find, the most original, and of the highest quality.
It's also joining those designers and chains altering their practices in light of new scientific knowledge and ethical awareness in a bid to appease the public's rising demand for sustainability and kindness.
Kind to animals
Values are changing. Once upon a time, and not so very long ago, owning a mink coat or an ermine muff was a status symbol and a sign of taste and style; but wearing one in the last 35 years or so could put your safety in the street at risk, and certainly lose you friends for having blood on your hands. In the last 10 or 15 years, even manufacturing them would see your company boycotted and end up as potentially the greatest loss-making decision you ever took.
Even leather and suede are starting to make more and more consumers feel uncomfortable, although stringent international laws in place help appease these concerns for many.
In Europe and much of the rest of the western world, it is illegal to kill animals purely for their skin. One famous lamb's and sheep's leather clothing company in Turkey answered customers' legitimate concerns by explaining that it only uses the by-product from the meat market, which would otherwise go to waste, as it was against the law to do otherwise, and that its chinchilla-fur collars and cuffs were made from trimming the coats of live animals, who are never killed except for humane reasons. The same is true of belts, coats and handbags made from goat and rabbit in Spain; they are merely leftovers from the meat trade.
And if this still leaves vegetarians and animal-lovers feeling a bit funny, there's still a way to dress in genuine leather products without its pricking your conscience: Buy cow's leather goods made in India and Nepal. This animal is sacred in the Hindu religion, so followers of every other religion cannot get beef in either country, as their protection is enshrined in law. This means there's no meat, so there's no by-product, and cows cannot be killed. Cow's-leather bags, shoes and belts are made exclusively from the hide of animals who have died from natural causes, such as old age.
Close to home means lower emissions (like Spanish shoes)
Then there's the human element. If you're worried about how the creators of your clothes may be treated in the third world and don't want to run the risk, many Spanish fashion chains sell goods manufactured in neighbouring Portugal, which already has a huge textile industry, and also in Turkey and Morocco, where they can guarantee employment practices protect the workers from exploitation. One of these is budget chain Mango, founded in Catalunya (third picture), which also uses textile workers in these three countries because they are close by, cutting emissions which long-distance transport would generate.
Ditto shoes. Tourists and new expats in Spain, browsing the weekly market, have often reported being surprised at the incredibly-low prices for genuine leather and suede shoes on stalls; these unbranded items are quite likely to have been made in the very same factories as the nation's top designer labels. And you'll probably find that if you buy a designer pair elsewhere in the world, it'll have been made in Spain – the élite brand Alan Pinkus, native to Australia, has its shoes manufactured on Spanish soil.
Spain has a long shoe-making tradition, dating back to the days of hobnails and hand-stitching (and the latter still applies, in some cases). Its main hubs are in the towns of Elche, Elda and Petrer in the southern Alicante province, and in Mallorca and Menorca. Top brands coming out of the first three include Magrit (second picture), Belén Doñate, Sara Navarro, Carmen Poveda, Rebeca Sanver – all of which range from around €150 to €350 a pair; from the Balearics, hot labels include Looky, Lodi, Pons Quintana, Fluxà, Jaime Mascaró (and his daughter, Úrsula Mascaró); Manolo Blahnik is originally from the Canary Islands. More home-grown brands include Unisa, Paco García, Hispanitas, Som·mits, and Pedro Miralles; if it's quality and élite names you're after, it's very hard to find any of these for less than €60 or €70 other than in the sales, and very easy to find them at around €200. And it's very common, when you buy a pair of shoes, to find the handbag to match in the same shop.
Worker protection comes at a price
Buying clothes and accessories made close to home, as a guarantee of reduced emissions and ethical employment practices at source, is increasingly in demand, although another school of thought is that boycotting goods made in more 'typical' countries like Bangladesh, India, México and China could backfire in social terms: Many communities are only able to eat because of jobs in the textile industry, and in nations where gender equality remains generations away, it is often one of the only professions deemed 'suitable for women' – in theory, purchasing clothing made in the developing world is a way of contributing to its females being financially independent, a factor their mere safety may depend upon.
All this came to light after the Rana Plaza tragedy – the famous factory collapse in Bangladesh, when 1,134 workers perished in the rubble the eight storeys were reduced to, and 2,000 more were injured, meaning only around 20% came away unscathed.
Lessons were learned, and those brands that continue to be manufactured in countries gripped by poverty and inequality are now under more social pressure to keep a closer watch on workers' conditions; to some extent, EU trading laws help to filter out products made by exploited employees, but are unable to go far enough and can only really control what happens within member States or in specific industries and countries where trade deals are in place.
One way to protect primary and secondary workers when clothes-shopping is to look at the price. We all love a bargain, although as any fashion designer knows, a low price can often be a huge marketing mistake, more so than in any other industry: Big prices mean big names, and big names mean style and status, so they are more likely to attract customers. If you haven't heard of the brand, generally, looking at the price will tell you how much clout it has; if its goods are significantly more costly than in the average low-end high-street store, you can probably be confident it's a key designer. And this is even the case among those with far less money to spend on their clothing and accessories: They trawl the sales, or auction sites like eBay, paying high-street prices but getting goods that started out life being far more expensive, rather than going direct to the high street and shelling out the same money.
Most people have at least one friend who gets teased for 'only wearing labels', or for spending a fortune on clothes when they 'could get something exactly the same from a market stall for 5% of the price'. But consider this: If a top costs €5, or a pair of jeans costs €10, the retailer and the designer have to make a profit of some description, as well as paying shop staff, overheads and transport workers, and buying the raw material. How much is left over for the seamstresses and tailors who made it? And how long did they take to make it? It's not hard to work out what they must be getting paid per hour.
But it doesn't mean cheap garments are entirely off the ethical menu. Many brands include a 'basics' section – such as plain-coloured tops in unoriginal but practical designs – which cost considerably less than the 'main' ranges (you can pick up one like this at Zara for €5.95 or Massimo Dutti for €9.95, whilst their 'seasonal design' tops come in at around €20 to €40, for example). These are probably loss-making, and their prices attract customers who may then be tempted to buy other goods in store which do, in fact, make a profit. The same goes for the sales, where some prices may not cover costs, but bring buyers through the door, or at least recoup some of the initial outlay and reduce losses.
Whether you buy more or less, pay more and keep it longer
Human nature dictates that the more financial effort we make in a purchase, the more we'll look after what we bought. Two or three generations ago, people did not buy clothing nearly as often, but when they did, it was good-quality, tailor-made stuff, and they kept it forever (you might even have inherited some from your parents or grandparents and, even if it's no longer fashionable, might surprise you at its excellent condition).
Heather Knight, from the movement Fashion Revolution, says: “Society consumes 400% more clothes and throws it away in half the time than it did 20 years ago.”
Although Spanish consumers tend to use Cáritas clothes banks to discard their unwanted wardrobe items, and in expat belts, charity shops, it is still estimated that up to 95% of no-longer-used garments end up in landfill.
Spanish environmental charity Ecologists in Action says this tendency, referred to as 'fast fashion', is harming the planet: Plastics and chemicals are used in clothing manufacturing; the former takes up to 3,000 years to break down and the latter are toxic to the atmosphere, and even human skin and endocrine systems.
And the United Nations warns that the fashion industry is the second-most polluting on earth and that its use of natural resources is extremely high; research by Madrid Polytechnic has revealed that manufacturing just one pair of jeans uses between 2,130 and 3,078 litres of water.
The good news is that designers and producers themselves are taking all this on board. Big fashion houses like Gucci, Ralph Lauren, Yves Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, and the Spanish label Balenciaga (founder Cristóbal Balenciaga was born in the Basque Country and lived for many years in Jávea, Alicante province) have cut their annual collections from five to two, to encourage customers to wear items more often; the idea being, not necessarily to buy less, but for items to stay in fashion for much longer and for customers to make a real financial effort to buy as much as possible of good quality and style, so that nothing is ever worn too often, can be worn for years and still be trendy, does not wear out as quickly, and remains in wardrobes or on people and out of landfill sites for as long as possible.
Planet-friendly materials and processes
A quick search for 'vegan fashion' throws up a fistful of creators selling clothing made from biodegradable material, which breaks down fast or is even compostable, but this means you cannot get attached to your clothes, as they won't last; it also forces you to buy more, and even biodegradable material sometimes has to pillage natural resources, so it could be these good intentions will wind up exacerbating the problem.
For this reason, fashion labels almost everywhere along the price range are now seeking to use more sustainable materials.
It's been a decade now since Swedish low-cost chain H&M – hugely popular and easy to find everywhere in Spain - launched its Conscious Collection, which uses organic cotton and recycled polyester.
Spain's most international brand, the budget chain Zara – part of the Inditex empire whose founder, Ourense-born Amancio Ortega, continues to be the country's richest resident – is, along with H&M, one of those which provides an unwanted clothing drop-off point in its branches nationwide. The shreds of fabric are then recycled and turned back into next season's collections.
Zara (fourth picture) works with the charity Canopy, along with other textile companies, ensuring ancient forests are protected when manufacturing fibres such as rayon and viscose – none of its garments contain fibres made from these forests, or from woodlands under threat of extinction, as from this year. Firms working with Canopy have also pledged not to use chemicals that harm the environment or human or animal health.
Other Inditex brands, Zara's 'younger sister', Bershka, and budget streetwear chain Pull&Bear have signed up to the Join Life scheme, setting itself sustainability aims for the years 2020, 2023 and 2025 that include environmentally-efficient shops (reduced emissions, energy efficiency, eliminating plastic packaging or using entirely recycled plastic, recycled paper only for bags, zero waste, 100% sustainable fabric and production processes).
Back to celebrity endorsement, Spanish national team goalkeeper Iker Casillas' wife Sara Carbonero is now almost more famous than her ex-Real Madrid husband, due to her prolonged absence from her TV sports reporting job during her – fortunately, successful – battle with ovarian cancer; and her name is enough to sell clothing. But what really helps her fashion label, SlowLove, to shift, is its philosophy and approach: Fabrics no longer in use and offcuts, and organic-only cotton are used, as well as lyocell, a synthetic fibre created from cellulose (typically from the eucalyptus tree) which is completely biodegradable, no insecticides, pesticides or chemical fertilisers are used, and water consumption is kept to a minimum, with recycled, purified water employed as much as possible – the type not suitable for drinking or cooking, but perfectly safe for agriculture and golf courses. Packaging is 100% recycled paper. And it's surprisingly affordable, too: Sara recently posed on Instagram in her elegant black Travis dress (shown in picture five), 80% of which is made from recycled polyester and which carries the Global Recycled Standard (GRS) certificate, and which retailed at full price at €45, now reduced to €18 for clearance. You can find her pieces online or at Cortefiel stores nationwide.
Just as Spain's branches of Ikea are now selling Valencia designer Inma Bermúdez's Musselbomma range, made entirely out of plastic waste 'fished' from the sea, the Spanish fashion label Ecoalf (first picture) is working with the HAP Foundation on the Upcycling the Oceans project, which pays fishermen for the rubbish they clear up and recycles it to make into textile fibre.
How to be a sustainable fashionista
In fact, just by sorting your household rubbish, you can help make the clothing and other industries more planet-friendly: One of Spain's main recycling firms, Ecoembes, says 40 plastic drinks bottles dropped off in the 'yellow bin' can be turned into a fleecy thermal jacket.
Generally, you can tell whether what you buy is kind to the planet, people and animals by checking what it is made from, reading up on whether toxic materials have been used, whether its packaging is made from recycled material or is biodegradable, whether it is involved in Fair Trade, or checking its corporate social responsibility practices.
Spend as much as you can afford on quality and durability and less often, and treat them with the care a hefty expense demands; pack your wardrobe full so you're rarely seen in the same outfit more than two or three times a year (there's no shame in that, but it means items will last far longer) or follow a mixture of these apparently contradictory strategies.
When discarding garments, decide first if you really have to. If it's a space issue, you might be able to solve this another way and still keep your clothes. If it's just that the items no longer fit or you've gone off them, someone else is bound to treasure them. If they're designer or a known (even cheap) high-street brand, try selling them on eBay (be honest about any defects you can't repair first; people will still buy imperfect stuff and work on or live with it, or consider auctioning it for charity to increase chances of a sale) or, if you live in a cosmopolitan area where there are plenty of them, see if a charity shop will take it. Some sell quality gear and good brands on commission, so you'll earn a few euros as well as helping their cause.
At worst, donate it to a local homeless shelter, Red Cross, women's or men's shelter, or pop it in a clothing bank, but never in a bin. Even if it's ripped or stained, someone will be able to use the fabric. Or you could machine-dye it a different colour, stick or sew patches, ribbons, buttons, zips or sequins on it, stuff cushions with it, or just use it to sleep in or to wear when decorating, gardening or cleaning.
Basically, keep your clothes out of landfill, and you'll already be contributing to healthier planet.
All photographs from brand names' official websites
BUDGET clothing store Primark has announced plans to open another branch in Madrid next month – the chain's 61st retail outlet in Spain.
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