Page 82 - Grasp English C1+ (Student Book)

6 Fashion in Technology

It cannot be denied that technology has changed the past, that would have meant items being sold
every aspect of modern society, from how we shop at highly-discounted prices, causing the business
to how we communicate, and it has even become a owner to lose money. However, nowadays, they can
growing part of the fashion industry. easily auction surplus items on sites such as eBay or
Craigslist.
As technology has increased our awareness of the
wider world and the social issues facing people in Unfortunately, not all the changes technology has
other countries, we now demand more fair-trade brought about have been positive. We are still very
products and are fighting against big clothing much part of a consumer society: we can now order
industries which produce items in sweatshops in anything from the comfort of our sofa and have it
countries such as Bangladesh, India and Indonesia. delivered within 24 hours. This has made many of
Many people are now choosing to shop in ethical us lazy and apathetic to what the industry has to
retailers, where they know they will pay a little more, do to meet our demands. Whilst many people are
but with a clear conscience that their new T-shirt has concerned about the conditions of workers in the
not been produced by an eight-year-old working a Majority World, others are simply happy to put on
fourteen-hour day in appalling conditions. their name-brand or high-street outfits and not worry
about where they came from.
Another aspect of our growing desire for ethical
merchandise comes in the form of vegan-friendly But, just as employees in the manufacturing industry
clothing. Although sheep are not killed to produce became redundant as technology began to do
wool, the vegan philosophy argues that we should their jobs for them, outsourcing the production of
not exploit animals for their materials, in the same clothes to the Majority World has had an impact
way that we should not exploit children to work on employment numbers within the countries
in sweatshops. And now, technology is allowing demanding more supply. At the start of the 21
st
scientists to produce faux leather using yeast cells, century, an estimated six million jobs were lost in
so it might not be long before we are able to produce the US clothes manufacturing industry as work was
more natural, man-made materials to replace wool, outsourced to other countries.
silk and leather.
Who knows what the future holds for the fashion
Thirdly, technology and the Internet have helped industry: Will sweatshops ever become a thing of
many small businesses which often find themselves the past? And how might technology continue to
with surplus clothing at the end of the season. In change the face of fashion?

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