BLUE JEANS, ECONOMICS AND PHILOSOPHY
Jeans are one of the most popular items of clothing in the world today. This article describes some of the economic story behind their appearance in our wardrobes. That economic story reveals some problems associated with their production and with the clothing industry generally. Finally, the relevance of the study and practice of philosophy in solving those problems is briefly considered.
From their humble origins as the quintessential American workwear to their present status among the most ubiquitous of garments, jeans are worn every day around the world by women and men, old and young, rich and poor. Two separate sources suggest that on average in the US and the UK, men and women own around six pairs per person. Another source reports that approximately 1 billion pairs of jeans are produced each year; jeans are big business!
Jeans first made their appearance in Italy but became particularly popular with American working men in the mid nineteenth century. Their popularity attracted the attention of two American entrepreneurs based in San Francisco, Levi Strauss and Jacob Davies. In 1873, they patented the modern, mass-produced prototype with two pockets in front and one on the back with copper rivets to strengthen those areas liable to wear and tear such as pocket corners.
In the 1950s and 1960s jeans became more than utilitarian workwear. They represented a casual and subversive mode of dress for women as well as men and were made fashionable by screen icons like Marlon Brando, James Dean and Marilyn Monroe. Towards the end of the twentieth century, jeans began to lose their subversive qualities in most of Europe and the Americas and became something closer to a default wardrobe item. But, as they grew in popularity, jeans became part of the fashion industry, catering for people’s wants rather than their needs. This is reflected in the number of jean styles which are now available; baggy, boot-cut, boyfriend, carpenter, classic, cowboy, drainpipe, flared, hipster, low-rise, relaxed, skinny, straight.
Today, the company that Levi Strauss founded still designs jeans in San Francisco. A product developer, also in San Francisco, picks up the ideas and works out the details. They make prototypes, fit the jeans to mannequins and models, communicate the final design to manufacturers around the world, and liaise with merchandisers so the product will go on sale in the appropriate place for Levi’s brand. The same sort of activity takes place with other companies in London, Paris, New York and Milan.
What all these activities have in common is a location in the global North; this is skilled, technical, metropolitan work, undertaken at trade fairs and in design studios. All the labour processes associated with this type of work are relatively well-paid and this stands in stark contrast to the low-skilled, poorly paid and sometimes dangerous production work in the global South.
The basic material from which is jeans are made is cotton. The cotton is woven in such a way that the weft passes under two or more warp threads; the result is known as denim. Blue denim results from the warp threads being dyed with indigo while the weft thread is left white. Cotton is grown around the world from Ukraine in the north to Australia in the south. After food crops, cotton is the world’s most cultivated plant and covers around 2.5 per cent of global agricultural land, yet accounts for 24 per cent of insecticides and 11 per cent of pesticides which in some cases, can have disastrous impacts on agricultural environments and workers’ well-being. In general, cotton growing provides a poorly paid livelihood in many of the countries where it is grown and can be accompanied by serious exploitation of workers. Some limited attempts have been made to address concerns in middle and low-income countries via accreditation schemes for clean, green and Fairtrade cotton.
Cotton requires large volumes of water. As a result, the UN estimates that one pair of jeans accounts for 7,500 litres of water consumption. By contrast a kilo of rice requires 3,500 and a kilo of wheat 1,500. Much cotton is grown in water-scarce environments; our demand for new jeans and other cotton clothing is part of a broader pattern of trade which involves the growing consumption of other water-thirsty goods such as coffee, beef and leather.
Recently, there has been an increasing use of synthetic petroleum-based fibres such as elastane in conjunction with the cotton. Jeans made from this blend stretch more easily but elastane is not bio-degradable so their disposal leads to environmental problems.
Subdivision of labour is a hallmark of production systems in today’s factories producing jeans. The trousers will pass through many hands as workers are allocated specific tasks; patterns are drawn and the two legs will be cut by different operators; each seam is sewn by someone dedicated to that job; one worker may rivet the right pocket, while their partner takes care of the left. Sewing machines form long lines across huge warehouse-like workspaces. Once jeans have been sewn, they can then be cleaned and laundered to produce a particular type of finish, such as fraying or bleaching, or workers can grind, sandblast and scrape jeans to give them’ lived-in-looks’; such processes, if not strictly supervised, can also lead to unhealthy and dangerous working conditions.
The economic life of a pair of jeans does not necessarily end when the current owner stops wearing them. Those that don’t end up in landfill, and around 80% of clothing does, may well find their way into the second-hand market, mainly through charities. Jeans in this market usually end up in the poorer countries of Africa and Asia and although widely seen as a useful contribution to addressing the clothing needs of the poor, one side-effect can be a negative impact on indigenous clothing producers.
As noted earlier, jeans are now an important part of the global clothing industry. It is estimated that this industry accounts for around 10 per cent of global carbon emissions. This is set to increase since more clothes are being bought than ever – the average consumer apparently buys 60% more clothing than they did 15 years ago. Globally, around 56 million tonnes of clothing are bought each year, and on current trends this is expected to rise to 93 million tonnes by 2030 and 160 million tonnes by 2050. Even if these are over-estimates, there is a clear need to reduce the amount of clothing produced. But production is a response to demand. The demand for jeans is based firstly on basic need, such as the requirement of hard-wearing work trousers and secondly on the desire to own lots of things in the belief that owning them will make us happier.
One of the guiding principles for living a responsible life is to look after our surroundings and leave things better than we found them. The environmental impact of jeans indicates that there is a clear need to cut down our expenditure on things that we want but don’t need. But this is often easier said than done and good resolutions often do not translate into action. Fortunately, the study and practice of philosophy can help us in this respect as it not only encourages us to question why we act the way we do but can provide us with the strength to change those actions if necessary.