Consumption.

A year ago I did a voluntary training course to help raise awareness for child and slave labor. It left a large impact on my life, although I didn’t know it then and I didn’t play the role of the passionate activist too well, it did help me uncover some of my morals and awakened a humanitarian spark from its slumber deep within my heart. After this course I remember the vivid feeling of wanting to leave some sort of mark, an impact, a difference in my world. I knew I didn’t have to be a revolutionary like Guevara or claim a country without violence like Gandhi. I just wanted to set an example. From then onward I dropped my dollars into rattling tins supporting various causes, bought burgers for the homeless, and also purchased wristbands and necklaces which were made by people from underdeveloped towns and villages.

I walk down Bourke St and see the collection of nine-to-fiver’s garbed in their Versace shirts and watch their D&G bags dance by their hips. I have no shame in expressing my hypocritical views, sure I’ve bought designer clothing, I have overlooked $60 jeans and bought the $90 pair because they are right shade of blue. But trivial things such as the importance of stitching and label of a garment is something I cannot understand. Why pay significantly more just to have some alloted ink aligned to make a picture that means something fashionable? Because a celebrity is wearing a jacket with a certain brand, we, as the consumers, consume that brand and believe it is worth wearing because someone who means nothing (and everything) to us is wearing it.

Why do we think things look good anyway? It is as if we are pressured to validate our appearance or else we are left behind. How much of it is influence, from everyone around us doing and purchasing the same thing, and how much of it truly comes from ourselves? We are so beyond survival all we can do is elevate and relegate the hierarchy of our social status in a place where vanity is not for ourselves but for the approval of other people. I read once that ‘vanity gives us the delusion that somebody is paying attention’, in other words, we dress with the aim of NOT being comfortable, but for making ourselves known to the world. Our labels send a certain message that shouts out how we like to spend, how proud we are to rub it in and how we like to maintain ourselves.

There is nothing we need and so much that we want, and I wouldn’t have a problem with there brands and labels if perhaps they directed a small sum of their money to something as effective as a good cause. As I said, I buy designer clothing, but after realizing I bought these items for the sake of owning an extra pair of shoes or jeans I know that I wanted to change this.