Beyoncé’s new line of feminist active wear, Ivy Park, is supposed to “empower women through sport.” According to an exclusive report in The Sun, the Sri Lanken seamstresses who piece together the $200-a-pop leggings make around $8 a day.
More: Meowmentum! Students Elect Cat as Leader
Per the Sun’s report, most of the women who produce the Ivy Park line are from poor villages, work more than 60 hours a week, and won’t speak out because the positions are highly prized in the developing country. A complaint could mean losing their coveted job, which consists of toiling behind a sewing machine for nearly 10 hours a day. Not exactly in line with Beyoncé’s Ivy Park mission to remind women that “true beauty is in the health of our minds, hearts and bodies.”
Beyoncé and Topshop, the retailer that sells the Ivy Park line, pushed back on the report, saying that the women make twice the Sri Lankan minimum wage—and that’s good. The Sri Lankan economy certainly isn’t the U.S. or the UK economy, and twice the minimum wage is a decent salary.
But there’s an opportunity for Beyoncé to embrace the Ivy Park mantra of empowering women in the line’s production phase. Companies like Punjammies, which makes lounge wear, help the women who produce their clothing (who have escaped domestic violence and human trafficking) by giving them a living wage and helping them to provide housing and food for their families. The brand Raven + Lily employs Third World women as collaborative designers and not just workhorses. The hip line clothing and accessories line Accompany pledges that its workers are treated fairly—and that’s a huge selling point.
Knowing that, say, every purchase of $200 Ivy Park leggings helps to send the women who produce them to school, or helps provide for their families would be a boon for Beyoncé’s line, too (and might help to justify the price tag). And Beyoncé is already set up to do exactly that. She co-founded Chime for Change, an organization that “raises funds and awareness” for the plight of girls and women in Third World countries. Chime for Change would be a great, socially responsible partner for Ivy Park.
Of course, Beyoncé is in good company among feminists who accidentally took advantage of women in their fervor to support the cause of female empowerment.
Last year, Elle Magazine and the Fawcett Society sold $70 t-shirts to celebrity feminists that read “This is What a Feminist Looks Like,” produced in a factory where women earned $1 an hour and slept 16 to a room.
Before they learned about the crimes against “female empowerment” they were actually committing, everyone from Lena Dunham to Benedict Cumberbatch to Emma Watson were pictured wearing the shirts.
The Fawcett Society also defended themselves by saying that the workers earned more than the average wage, and made follow up efforts to ensure conditions improved.
