Textiles Manufacturing: A Lifeline or a Death Sentence for Locals?
Join Threads of Life as we investigate some of the impacts of both fast fashion and sustainable textiles manufacturing on local communities around the world.
Local manufacturing communities are undoubtedly and fundamentally shaped by their part in the worldwide garment industry. As a brand committed to ethical and sustainable manufacturing, we at Threads of Life think it’s important to look closely at the individual lives and local communities most impacted by this complex system. You in turn also might want to ask yourself:
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What dangers does the worldwide garment industry present to local manufacturing communities?
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How can the textiles industry help local manufacturing communities flourish?
By considering these questions, our hope is that more customers, like yourselves, learn more about where your clothes, tea towels, bags… and many more bits of textiles came from!
What Went Wrong: The Fast Fashion Phenomenon
Perhaps the biggest danger to manufacturing communities is fast fashion. This business model, adopted by many of today’s biggest clothing and textiles brands, mass produces ‘trendy’ items at low quality and low cost to maximise their profit. Fast fashion supply chains often involve ‘sweatshops’; small manufacturing establishments that exploit their often-desperate employees with low wages and unsafe working conditions.
Garment workers in the fast fashion industry largely comprise of women and children desperate to support their families. However, in several manufacturing countries such as Bangladesh, China and India, workers may only be paid half of what a family needs to make ends meet as living costs continue to grow.
Panyu, a neighbourhood found in Guangzhou, southern China, is also known as the ‘Shein village’. One report discovered that a staff member’s basic wage here was less than half of what the Asia Floor Wage Alliance deemed to be a ‘living wage’. While Chinese labour laws cap the average working week at 44 hours, a BBC investigation discovered that Panyu’s workforce sit behind sewing machines for 75 hours a week.
Image lifted from BBC article showing how fabric deliveries keep factories going into the night in Panyu
The rapid growth of the Chinese-founded company, and its profound impact on the fashion industry, is in fact a source of pride for many workers in this region. And yet the jury’s still out on whether fast fashion’s cut-throat business model remains at all interested in the welfare and economic stability of local manufacturing communities.
Even Better If: A Deeper Purpose...
3,331 miles away, in Nepal, Threads of Life’s manufacturer Purnaa began with a vision to empower and champion locals in the Kathmandu area who had been previously exploited. As we read in Purnaa’s latest Impact Report, when human flourishing is at the heart of textiles manufacturing, it brings transformation to communities, dignity to individuals, and hope for the fashion industry. Here are some highlighted stats:
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In 2024, Purnaa determined the living wage in Kathmandu to be Rs 42,600 for a family of four (2 working adults and 2 children). So, Purnaa’s living wage per worker is half of this, at Rs 26,300.
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Since 2017, inflation in Nepal has altogether increased costs by 46%, while Purnaa’s salary growth for their lowest paid workers during the same period has increased by 53%.
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Over the last year, there has been a significant increase in staff who report to have time outside of work to pursue personal interests.
Purnaa’s Impact Report also includes some individual testimonies from their employees, including Juhi and Bidhya.
At Threads of Life, we also recognise that, as the products’ designer, we play a significant role in the sustainable development of manufacturing communities. According to one report, initial design decisions for a product can be responsible for up to 80-90% of the product’s environmental impacts. Threads of Life closely collaborates with Purnaa’s community of craftspeople in the design and manufacturing process. We seek to preserve traditional Nepalese craftsmanship, to minimise products’ environmental impact, and ultimately to support the flourishing of Kathmandu’s local community.
Patcha, another small-scale UK-based fashion brand, began when Chloe, its founder, saw in Kenya the ugly underbelly of the global fast fashion industry. Known by locals as mitumbas, Kenya receives 150-200 tonnes of textile waste – largely plastic fibres - every day to be burnt or discarded in vast dump sites. In Nairobi’s Dandora dump site, the largest of its kind in East Africa, the toxic smoke from the burning plastics often drifts over James Gichuru primary school, increasing the chances of cancer, respiratory issues and damage to reproductive and nervous systems.
As seen on their social media, Patcha is pioneering a Rodeo bags collection made from old cowboy boots and crafted by Nairobi-based designers.
By taking five damaged shirts from landfill to a local tailor in Nairobi, Patcha’s founder, Chloe, kickstarted a circular fashion brand selling beautiful and unique patchwork trousers. As of May 2024, Patcha had sold over 1,000 pairs of trousers and saved over 6,000 damaged shirts from landfill.
And so… there is hope!
Local manufacturing communities can flourish when brands are anchored by a deeper purpose than maximised profits. Patcha’s commitment to colour, quality and originality has helped to revitalise the businesses of local traders and tailors in Nairobi. Threads of Life’s partnership with Purnaa offers our customers eye-opening insight into what a truly flourishing garment industry might look like.
To delve deeper into the twists and turns of the fashion industry, have a look at the links below. To further help the flourishing of local textiles communities, check out the Threads of Life website and invest in a durable, beautiful and unique laptop case!
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