My T-Shirt
If you arrived here from my physical T-Shirt or my patches, welcome!
Figure 7.1: The graphic that I printed on my Primark t-shirt.
Figure 7.2: Me wearing my T-shirt.
Figure 7.3: My Printed T-Shirt
This is an ongoing project, looking into fast fashion commodity chains, with a particular emphasis on a basic t-shirt from Primark. If you are just interested in understanding the t-shirt, please head to the home page for an overview. If you are interested in further complicating your understanding of a t-shirt commodity chain, and your perspective of sustainability, then please take a look at the other pages on this site. I invite you to learn alongside me as I work to become a more conscious and critical consumer.
How to read the T-shirt
The text on the t-shirt is meant to represent the messy entanglements that the t-shirt is enmeshed within. The smooth, white cotton fabric obscures these webs of relationality. By printing this text (within a QR code) onto the t-shirt, I begin a project of unearthing and exposing. This then becomes a practice of re-earthing the t-shirt, of refuting the modern myth "in which humans are triumphantly free of material dependence on the planet" (Ghosh, 2021 :19), to show that the t-shirt is something profoundly earthly in its materiality and in its creation.
To some extent, the t-shirt is meant to be difficult to read. Just as it is difficult to know the worldly extent of this cotton t-shirt when you see it under bright lights on the shelf. However, it follows Waldo Tobler's (1970) first law of geography in that "everything is usually related to all else but those which are near to each other are more related when compared to those that are further away". Starting at the top left corner and reading left/down from this point, you should get a general idea of how many ways we can understand this t-shirt. To some extent, this confusion is also just a side product of choosing to add text to the QR code that was generated, however, I think it can also be understood metaphorically - as people also having to piece together an understanding of the commodity chain in the same way that I did.
Text on the T-Shirt
HOW DOES THIS TSHIRT ONLY COST £3.50?
PHOTOSYNTHESIS - LIGHT TAKES 8.3 MINUTES
160 DAYS FROM PLANTING TO HARVEST [1]
A MACHINE CAN PICK 1200 PLANTS IN 30 SECS [2]
HANDPICKED COTTON 20 PLANTS IN 10 MINUTES [2]
7% OF LABOUR IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES [3]
WHERE IN THE WORLD?
COTTON FROM INDIA AND PAKISTAN [4]
PRIMARK DOES NOT OWN FACTORIES [5]
IRISH MNC - HQ IN DUBLIN [6]
MADE IN BANGLEDESH
STILL IMPLICATED IN RAZA PLAZA [7]
WORST INDUSTRIAL INCIDENT IN THE GARMENT INDUSTRY EVER 2013 [7]
1134 PEOPLE DIED [7]
GINNING 12-60 BALES PER HOUR [8]
MECHANISATION
A LARGE, MODERN MILL CAN PRODUCE MORE THAN 6 BILLION METRES OF COTTON PER DAY [9]
A WEAVING MACHINE CAN MAKE OVER 2000 METRES OF FABRIC PER MINUTE [10]
ENVIRONMENTAL COSTS
SOIL EROSION [11]
TOXICITY [11]
WATER SCARCITY [11]
WATER POLLUTION [11]
SLOW VIOLENCE [12]
DO THE WORKERS EARN A LIVING WAGE?
GARMENT WORKERS MAKE 5000-10000 GARMENTS PER WEEK [13]
WHERE DO THEY END UP?
190 STORES IN THE UK - £7.50 MINIMUM WAGE [14]
CIRCUITS OF WASTE
LANDFILL?
RESOLD?
SECONDHAND MARKETS? [15]
REAL COST OF MY PRIMARK T-SHIRT
References
[1] Barnhardt Manufacturing Company Inc. (2018) The Journey of Cotton: Harvesting, barnhardtcotton.net [online] Available via: https://barnhardtcotton.net/blog/journey-of-cotton-harvesting/#:~:text=Cotton%20is%20fully%20mature%20and,parts%20of%20the%20cotton%20belt.
[2] https://everythingwhat.com/when-did-picking-cotton-by-hand-end.
[3]WWF (n.d.) "Cotton - Overview", worldwildlife.org [online] Available via: https://www.worldwildlife.org/industries/cotton#:~:text=Cotton%20is%20the%20most%20widespread,textiles%20are%20made%20of%20cotton.
[4] Corporate Primark (n.d.) PRODUCT Our Sustainable Cotton Programme, Primark Cares [online] Available via: https://corporate.primark.com/en/product/sustainable-cotton-programme#:~:text=onto%20our%20customers.-,Our%20Sustainable%20Cotton%20Programme,to%20support%20or%20formal%20training.
Primark (2018) The Clothing Journey, Youtube [online] Available via: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fFAdmo4FZI.
[5] Willow, F. (2021) "How ethical/sustainable is Primark?", Ethical Unicorn [online] Available via: https://ethicalunicorn.com/2021/10/04/how-ethical-sustainable-is-primark/ .
[7] Clean Clothes Campaign (n.d.) "Rana Plaza", cleanclothes.org [online] Available via: https://cleanclothes.org/campaigns/past/rana-plaza.
[8] cotton.org (n.d.) "Ginning", cotton.org [online] Available via: https://www.cotton.org/pubs/cottoncounts/fieldtofabric/gin.cfm.
[9] https://www.quora.com/How-much-cloth-is-extracted-from-1-bale-of-cotton.
[10] Cotton.org (n.d.) "Fabric Manufacturing", cotton.org [online] Available via: https://www.cotton.org/pubs/cottoncounts/fieldtofabric/fabric.cfm
[11] WWF (n.d.) "Cotton - Overview", worldwildlife.org [online] Available via: https://www.worldwildlife.org/industries/cotton#:~:text=Cotton%20is%20the%20most%20widespread,textiles%20are%20made%20of%20cotton.
[12] Nixon, R. (2011) Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor, Presidents and Fellows of Harvard College: USA.
[13] The Garment Worker Center (n.d.) "Get Informed", garmentworkercenter.org [online] Available via: https://garmentworkercenter.org/get-informed/
[14] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primark
[15] Barber, A. (2021) Consumed The need for collective change: colonialism, climate change and consumerism, Brazen: London, UK.
Ghosh, A. (2021) The Nutmeg's Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis, The University of Chicago Press: Chicago, USA.
Tobler W., (1970) “A computer movie simulating urban growth in the Detroit region”. Economic Geography, 46(2): 234-240.