COFFECON SEASON 3: EPISODE 4
Everyone definitely has that experience of t-shirts shrinking after just one wash, or your favourite dress getting torn because of the bad quality of its fabric. Compared to the 90s, where clothes were made to last, the quality of apparels has been diminishing as the years pass. In this era of fast fashion, when trends tend to change after every few months, this is bound to happen. In an economy where the disposable income of people is continually increasing, producers of apparels will ensure that people keep spending. One way of doing this is by producing low quality clothes. Whereas in the 90s, long-lasting clothes were the “jam”, as spending money on clothes was still a luxury, even in urban India.
This indicates that we are now headed towards a market failure of sorts. We can’t say that it is a case of absolute market failure as these patterns keep on repeating themselves. Producers and suppliers keep their supply chains quite diverse. It’s based on income and individual preferences, and with the technology available these days it’s quite easy for producers and suppliers to adapt to their peripheral environments.
But again, there is no such thing as a free lunch. This industry thrives, albeit at the cost of environmental degradation, child labour, minimum wages and other similar concerns. Follow Alana (Agamjyot Kaur)(FY) and Meera’s (Mrunmayee Mainkar)(FY) conversation about the same, as the two teenagers from the present day and the 90s respectively share their clothing and trend experiences. The video contains voiceovers by Arya Utgi(SY) and Apoorva Joshi(SY).