14 Jan 2012, Posted by admin in Headlines,Thoughts, No Comments. Tagged Aqsa, Fashion, VICE
Cambodia Fashion Week
Words by Aqsa.
Living in west where fashion and status is everything, we sometimes forget that the ridiculously priced t-shirt we’ve just bought was probably made by a garment worker, paid as little as two dollars a day, working six days a week. While they refuse to go to the toilet in case they miss out on any bonus money and are beaten when protesting for basic human rights. Thousands of girls as young as fourteen years old are employed in the merchandising industry, whilst it enables them to support their families they end up spending hours on end in the poor working conditions in toxic factories where mass fainting is blamed on ghosts and evil spirits.
I’m not saying that you should ditch your designer jeans for an ill-fitted pair from a hippie in Brick Lane, but you should definitely be made aware of the hardships that the less fortunate face in their everyday lives. As the Autumn/Winter collections cascade down the catwalk in February, London Fashion Week designers will make the headlines, whilst Cambodian designers are fighting for their break in the elitist world of fashion with a desire to escape poverty by either continuing the upward struggle to success or succumbing to prostitution.
Charlet Duboc of VICE, delves into the duality of the fashion scene in Cambodia – check out their new documentary here. It’s set between the glitzy, glamourous shows and the far less fabulous lives of the country’s many garment factory workers. It’s followed (naturally) by a tranny-zombie after party. Phnom Penh’s first-ever fashion week may have been done right, but that doesn’t mean the dark side of fashion scene has vanished from the country’s labour force.
