Fashion is the quest
to be unique
by doing
what everyone is doing
(NOW)
Tik-tok driven, instant
cheaper cheap
we shein our shame
to shed ourselves
of sweat-shopped clothing.
faster, faster into landfills
forgetting how its cost
is forward paid
by others and ourselves.
Can you smell
the tears of slaves?
Can you feel
the itch of pesticides?
Can you see
the future grave
of your bargain jeans
you bought for fear
of being late?
Today Merril hosts dVerse poetics with the topic of fashion. My choice was to write about the new trend of instant fashion with companies like Shein. You can read a bit more here.
May 28, 2024
Björn Rudbergs writings 
I didn’t know you knew so much about fashion, Björn! I’ve certainly learnt something new from your poem. I have never heard of Shein, and have chosen to stay well clear of Tik-tok and ‘sweat-shopped clothing’. The questions are emotional and evocative.
Shein is a Chinese company that constantly produce new designs, dirt cheap and accessible. All the digital platforms are filled with their clothes.
Thanks for the info. Not my kind of thing.
This is so timely, Björn.
“Tik-tok driven, instant
cheaper cheap
we shein our shame
to shed ourselves
of sweat-shopped clothing.”
At our family gathering on Sunday, my niece was telling us that she was a party where all these women were discussing the cute clothes they got there. Then she finally said something about the child labor, and they dismissed it. Then my sister shared a segment they did on Saturday Night Live!
It also horrible for the environment… imagine we thought H&M was bad and felt shame it was a Swedish company.
Yes, so true.
Maybe they would not dismiss the poison the the clothes. https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/marketplace-fast-fashion-chemicals-1.6193385
I don’t think they’d read anything or care, unfortunately.
Excellent write, Björn – cheap (and not just clothes) is poisoning our planet
Fashion clothes is especially bad in the way they are marketed and sold….
Thanks for the news that shit doth Shein. Landfills are also filling up with all the easy cheap stuff so easily and conveniently delivered by Amazon. A killing fashion …
Amazon is the model but Shein and others have turned it up to yet another level in the way they partner with social networks to sell more and more.
So well written, Björn. To “fail” in fashion is not comparable to how we’re failing posterity with our heedless throwaway cycle of consumption.
A fashion fail is most likely a success in the long run.
Farshion can be merciless i do agree. But thats how it is
much♡love
It is devastating to the everyone…
A very moving poem.
Thank you… I was filled with anger by the cynisim of the companies.
It’s a burning issue.
Yes, the fast fashion industry is ruining the environment and somehow this is not getting enough attention. There’s a bunch of recycled / upcycled clothing options mushrooming in the cities here, but am not sure there are enough takers… everything just ends up in landfills and beaches of “other” countries… an absolute shame.
I really believe that upcycling is the way to go… recycling that only take the raw material is to some extent just greenwashing.
Fashion is media driven. What has always intrigued me is how we often make decisions based on it rather than our own individual tastes. I am also guilty but I do love to go thrift shopping.
We are all guilty more or less, but the way it is being done today has made it even worse.
Yes, I agree, Bjorn.
Shein was banned in India after Chinese incursion in 2020. Sadly, there are many such sweatshops in the Indian subcontinent too. The rise of Tik Tok (which is also banned) and Insta has given rise to demand for cheap throwaway clothes.
There are so much bad happening in the clothes industry, but I have hope it will change at one point…
Yes, hopefully it will…
Good poem, Bjorn, and a point that needs to be shouted loud. The idiocy of fast fashion, and thinking it’s okay, beggars belief. It’s about 30 years since I bought any new clothes, and my second hand clothes have lasted and will last far longer than the cheap Chinese junk that is in the shops now.
Your blog seems to have reverted to normal. The formatting was all over the place on Monday, and I couldn’t leave a comment. Maybe it was only my problem.
Buying quality, mending and change is what took us here… I have bought new clothes, but few and far between…
My blog has not changed so I guess it was at your end.
What people ‘want’ is not going to be an adequate excuse very soon, I hope.
WP is often cranky for me.
I could not agree more with the message in your (beautifully crafted) poem. Temu is another of the Chinese sweatshops foisting cheap clothing on the young folk here.
Indeed Temu is as bad or worse (but I excluded it since it is so much more than fashion)
You’ve written an indictment against all the vain, insatiable consumer driven empty-headed mannequins of the world – men and women.
I think they are far from vain, they are manipulated by the algorithms.
Sadly true, Bjorn.
Yes
A great poem Björn – my grandsons trade in used clothes and if they were made better, many more could be recycled in this way. I have shirts twenty five years old in my wardrobe. I read that Amazon and its ilk often throw away returns because it is too much trouble to repackage them…
I hope more people would try this
First refuse, then reuse, then repurpose and if that does not work recycle.
First stanza wonderful…tik tocks’ cheaper cheap…sounds just like their beeps …and that I particularily liked
Last verse the punch, of course…
Thank you.. if only I could live by it… but even who should know better gets trapped sometimes.
I must say I smiled a lot on your poem… all those contradiction in those beauty icons doing one thing and posing something else.
Brilliant poem and so timely. We really do have too much stuff, clothes especially and this ongoing desire to be with trends and all look the same is to blame. Most of the clothes I buy come from secondhand shops and have done most of my life except for the few odd pieces. I have seen some encouraging reports that some designers are re-designing secondhand designer clothing to keep up with trends which is hopefully a good thing.
we can do much more… and I know for a fact I could do more… but I fear I am more the person who leave my bundles for thrift shops to use.
I could too. You know it was only in recent years that I learned it was such an issue. Clothing being an environmental problem. I also could do much better!
I feel like fast fashion is the result of social media and influencers, being said, society has evolved more into a follower mindset, shifting from trend to trend depending on influencers which causes more damage to the planet. I feel that these days we rely too much on what society dictates as the standard instead of finding the freedom to express oneself. Individualism in fashion is starting to get rare and rare I feel.
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Excellent poem, Bjorn. I love the alliteration.
The anti-China narrative works overtime in MSM. Not saying that there are no instances of dissatisfaction for workers at Shein and Temu but as with many of these narratives they have often been found to be at least misleading and in other cases just downright lies.
I’m with you on the process though. We don’t really need to be manufacturing more of something when what is already available is just getting tossed. One man’s trash etc…
I love that first stanza. 👍
Yes! A damning of sweat and slave companies and those who buy the stuff. Here we have groups who work hard to keep us informed of the dirty side of fashion. Strong stuff.
Your clever wording makes for a powerful piece.
That soo cool, I love that!
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Bloody brilliant! It really annoys me when people say ‘throw out that it’s no longer ‘in’ (says whom?). A lot of these people who blindly follow Tiktok influencers don’t realise they’re being told what to think; the algorhythm giving them stuff that’s popular and that makes money for tiktok. People don’t search their own style, they get told how to dress. People think they’re rebelling, yet they end-up looking the bloody same, like a uniform. Well said.
I love your blog
Cool blog
aaa