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Fashion is bad for us

This Debate of the Day was written to compliment our live debate "Fashion maketh woman", which took place on Thursday June 17th at Methodist Central Hall in Westminster. Speakers included Grayson Perry, Stephen Bayley, Susie Orbach, and Paula Reed.

Full video and highlights are now available for our Members.

Today, fashion is a trillion-dollar industry, followed avidly by catwalk-watchers, magazine-readers and, of course, shoppers. Some consider it a sort of communal art which we can all get involved in, and others value it as an outward sign of identity and group allegiance, allowing people to present themselves as goths or skaters, slackers or business-people.

But many also criticise it, claiming that it puts pressure on women to aspire to unrealistic ideals of beauty and thinness, and that developing-world garment manufacturers are paid pitiful wages. But what the world be like if we cast off concerns with fashionability? Would it be puritan and bland, with millions of people in poor countries out of work? Or would it be greener and happier, allowing us all to concentrate on the things that really matter, rather than this season's colour-scheme or hemline?