farmdoc's blog post number 80

Last weekend in Melbourne I read a Sunday Age article titled “Shop ‘Til We Drop” which contained some pretty amazing statistics: Each year Australian women buy on average 56 garments, and men 29 garments. For those aged under 30 these figures double. In 2007 Australians spent A$10.4b on clothing; and this figure is projected to rise by 3% annually over the next five years despite increasing petrol prices and interest rates. These figures astounded me. Though I have always been a shabby dresser – my clothes are generally utilitarian, fairly neat, and mostly cleanish – I can understand people wanting to look nice. Better than nice, even. But for the life of me I can’t comprehend the rationale of fashion – which my dictionary defines as consumer goods (especially clothing) in the current mode. Having dabbled in statistics I know that the mode is the most frequent value of a variable. So to be fashionable does something have to be the most frequent? I think not, however much the fashion industry would wish it so. Even if fashion is good for the economy, in this world where resource use is nowhere near sustainable, it’s environmental madness. Its costs far outweighs its benefits. The Sunday Age article’s sub-headline was ‘So many clothes, so many sales, so much waste’. Absolutely. But will it make a significant difference? Of course not.