So What, Who Cares (vol 1, issue 24) How "radical transparency" is now a luxury good
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For reasons that pass beyond my understanding, Lucky magazine has begun showing up in my mailbox. In the most recent issue, there's a throwaway blurb about the Everlane brand and the writer notes that the company's transparency in its manufacturing process is a real brand asset. This idea is explored at more length in the Los Angeles Times:
[Luxury market researcher and founder of Unity Marketing] Pam Danziger said, "[W]hat I admire about Everlane is that they've done such a great job in terms of telling their story. It's one of a number of companies that are making it real."
The notion of radical transparency -- hey, wouldn't it be awesome to know who's making your clothes and what the cost breakdown is? -- is being positioned as a luxury status symbol and an antidote to fast fashion.
Worth noting: This notion of transparency is closely associated with a fairly specific type of luxurious minimalism: Emerson Fry touts its made-in-the-USA cred and its "modern clean, versatile, long-wearing pieces" and AYR (which says its online-only presence is an important step in streamlining the production chain) has brand director Maggie Winter directly coming out against mass retail models with "We want to slow down fast fashion and focus on the pieces that really last."
So what? Be prepared to hear the origin stories from mass-market brands as they scramble to meet two goals: Uncoupling their brand from the trending-downmarket connotations of fast fashion and grabbing some luxury patina. (Gap is trying this with its Dress Normal campaign.) Fortunately, we live in an age where brand stories can be easily fact-checked, as this riveting piece on Madewell's history shows.
Who cares? You know how the last decade or so has seen a long national dialogue on how we're all what we eat and food is an ethical choice? Brace yourself for a decade of people examining clothing and retail choices in the same way.
This didn't happen when American Apparel broke onto the retail scene -- mostly because it was kind of hard to focus on how the clothing was being produced when there were so many other types of obvious worker exploitation going on -- but it is fair to say that American Apparel educated a generation of consumers on the notion that consumers deserve to know how their clothes are being made.
From there, it's just a quick leap to projecting whatever ethics you want and launching a debate on the relationship between a nation's closet and the state of its conscience.
BONUS! Recommended Old-School Reads: In Teri Agins' prescient The End of Fashion: How Marketing Changed the Clothing Business Forever and Dana Thomas's Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster, you can see the rots of these ideas because old-school luxury has always been focused on flawless craftsmanship and transparency as a synonym for insider access.
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Speaking of transparency in the chain of production, have you considered the lives of the people who are serving you coffee or handing a donut across the counter?
Maria Fernandes worked three different jobs at three different Dunkin' Donuts franchises. She napped in her car between her jobs, engine running so she could start awake and head to the next shift. And one night, that running engine killed her. Reported the New York Times:
In a statement, Michelle King, a spokeswoman for Dunkin’ Brands, said that Ms. Fernandes’s managers described her as a “model” employee. (Ms. King said she could not say how much Ms. Fernandes earned or describe the specific hours she worked, saying that only the three franchisees that directly employed Ms. Fernandes had that information. Ms. King declined to provide contact information for those franchisees.)
The daughter of immigrants, unable to afford the tuition for cosmetology school, Fernandes worked so many jobs because she made about $8.25 an hour at each of her part-time gigs.
So what? There's a reason fast food workers have begun striking for better wages: The way some folks conceive of the jobs ("they're for kids or part-time workers") and the reality of what they are (the only employment available in some areas) are wildly divergent. The people who make sure you get fries with that would like to be able to afford a meal for themselves.
Who cares? You will recall that it was a fast food worker who got arrested for wanting her child to get some fresh air. A recent policy report from the Dept of Health and Human Services points out:
The United States has seen dramatic growth in recent decades in the participation of mothers in the labor force, particularly in full-time employment. Increasing numbers of children are growing up in mother-only households or households in which both parents work. Almost half of children are being raised in households in which all parents work full-time, about twice the rate of 1968. This is particularly true for lower-income families.
And it found that lower-income family have the least access to all types of work-family supports. Wages are only the beginning; things like regular childcare, flexible hours (that do not screw workers) and paid sick leave are good for lower-income families, they add to a business's bottom line and they benefit public health because workers with communicable diseases are not dragging their sick selves to Dunkin Donuts to serve you a Boston Creme donut with a side of flu.
The drumbeat is beginning to pick up for work-life policies that are not linked to white-collar jobs. This is another cultural and political battle that is just starting. Prepare for it to factor big in the '16 election year.
BONUS! Recommended Old-School Read: It's well over a decade old, but Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation stands up as the Great Transparency Tool for the fast-food industry.
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Your pop-culture tidbit for the day: My better half is now covering Shark Tank for Previously.TV. I have been laughing over "Philip Seymour's Hofbrau" for days now.
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