Export-rejected clothes

I’d like to sing a hymn to a phenomenon that appears to me as an ironic twist of global fashion industry.

The first clue came when once walking nearby Janpath in the Central Delhi I stopped by a market. When scrolling down the stalls I noticed some pieces of clothes with labels of “Mexx”, “Zara” and “Mango” on it. The blouses and skirts looked ethnic type but were too westernized to be made-for-India clothes The labels looked authentic, the idea of putting proper price tags on counterfeit clothes (being it so) sold in Indian open air market seemed absurd. But I obviously wondered how those pieces (being they authentic) could appear on that market.

Later on I got to share my observations with my Indian buddy Anoop and he told me about so-called “export-rejected” clothes. Not being the major, but still substantial participant of outsourced clothes production, India has become a motherland for millions of items sold under global fashion brands’ names. The patches of ready made garments to be shipped to the destinations all over the world go through quality check before. Sometimes it is minor defect in pieces, sometimes it is the wrong size on the tag, but the fact remains – quality standards have not been complied with – rejected! The dealers buy the rejected clothes in bulks and they make handsome margins by selling them cheaply (but by pieces) in retail markets. Therefore the stuff I saw with labels “Mexx”, “Zara” and “Mango” was real….

Some time later I went to a famous Sarojini Nagar market (extremely popular with young crowd in particular). Wandering around I came across a 10-m passage with stuff hung up on the high walls – just an amusing thing to watch – high walls filled in with a patchwork of blouses and skirts. It became evident very quickly that this is it – the export-rejected stuff… Max&Co, H&M, VeroModa, GAP, Esprit and many more are here. Yet, the range is somewhat limited – for a reason, though. By roaming around export-rejected stalls you can clearly see the pattern of the apparel outsourcing that India receives. These are mostly ethnic fluffy skirts embroidered with glass beads and colored threads, long-sleeve shirts with ruches, lace and embroidery too. (Dominantly not-died textiles, very “calm colors… ).

You pay 50-70 for a top and about 100 for a skirt – subject to the sophistication of the item. Prices are quoted as double as the selling ones, so one is to be prepared for hard bargaining. One can obviously go crazy and after two visits to Sarojini I caught up with my collection of clothes wisely left at home at 1/3.

And now you think…. 70 Rs (..) for a Max&Co shirt… what would be sold at ….. otherwise…. In fact, this is mind-blowing to think that the export-rejected price might be reflecting the real production cost way more precisely than the retail price of this item at Oxford street in London? What are the rest? Marketing cost? Brand premium? Have they done that nice job to enjoy such a handsome premium?

Before I wrote “The stuff was real”…. standing there nearby the export-rejected stalls, looking at the illegitimate children of the global fashion brands you really wonder what real brand means anyway…. This is by tag which is not always there you can guess the brand the piece is supposed to be sold under… What makes brand real? The tag? The store you got it from??? The considerable amount of money you pay for it? Does the fact I got my GAP top without the tag on an open-air market from a guy who barely speak any English and paid 60 Rs for it makes it less GAP??? Does it make me less satisfied? …. But mind you… I know this is GAP as they showed me the same item in different color with the tag… And this makes me happy… It’s not the same as getting NO-NAME piece of clothes… GAP has done their job nicely – even without being present it caught me… made me hunting for it, wanting it… even without the tag… If even when so close to their non-existence, export-rejected brands appear to be so powerful then what is the limit of their power?...