Ethical Style: How Ethical Is ‘Artisanal’ Production?
Like the watered-down ethical buzzwords “green” and “sustainable” and “organic” before it, the term “artisanal” no longer necessarily signifies hand-made, skilled craftsmanship. It means whatever a company says it does.That’s bad for conscious consumers, because truly artisanal products present several ethical upshots.
In the past few decades, the fashion cycle has accelerated, price tags have plummeted, and shoppers have adapted: We’ve learned to buy more clothes and value them less.
Spring cleaning may inspire you to load a bag full of old clothes to Goodwill, but what about cleaning up your cheap clothing habit instead?
Subpar working conditions in garment factories around the world have long been the subject of stateside media attention, but conditions in American factories largely slip under the radar. In fact, most consumers spy a label like “Made in the USA” and assume the workers who made their T-shirt are paid and treated better than most. As the Wang suit shows, even an expensive garment—an Alexander Wang tee can cost upwards of $200—doesn’t guarantee better working conditions for its producers.
Just because your $200 t-shirt was made in America doesn’t mean it wasn’t made in a sweatshop.
Ethical Style: Don’t Donate Clothes, Repurpose Them
Quality clothing means better fabric, and good fabric can be reworked again and again to make sure it never goes out of style. Today, we want an ever-changing array of cheap clothes, and we rarely think about sustainability or quality. In order to consume clothes more ethically, we must change the way we think about them.
Ethical fashion requires making new styles out of metaphorical rags (even if they’re just last season’s jeggings), whether from your closet, thrift stores, consignment shops, or online outlets.
Ethical Style: Where Do My Used Clothes Go?
Today, we only hang on to about 21 percent of the clothing we buy every year. What happens to the pieces that don’t make the cut? Most of them end up in landfills—only about 15 percent of discarded clothing is recycled or reused, whether by individual or industry. Perhaps it’s time to start asking a new question: Why do we have so much junk that we are in the position to inundate the world with our reject piles?
Ethical Style: Why Fashion Needs to Get Political
As the ethical fashion world has grown to tackle more problems and reach more markets—and socially conscious fashion becomes imperceptible from other clothing on the rack—the movement’s political underpinnings have decentralized. Discussion of ethical fashion has exploded in recent years, but without the clarity of a “Save the Whales” tee, we’re not totally sure what we’re aware of anymore. Fashion needs a rebirth of the political spirit—a serious consumer-focused movement to help us navigate the trends.
Ethical Style: How Is My T-Shirt Made?
Your T-shirt can be made any number of ways, but more likely than not, it isn’t made here. Ethical Style takes us through the T-shirt’s journey through the fashion supply chain.
Ethical Style: Fashion Advice for the Socially Conscious
Welcome to the thorny landscape of “ethical,” “sustainable,” “eco-friendly,” and “organic”-branded companies. What is ethical fashion, really? The truth is, even industry leaders don’t know. Ethical terminology is highly marketable, but it’s hardly illuminating. With our new “Ethical Style” column, writer Tabea Kay will tackle your fashion queries.
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