Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Times are changing




My new blazer is my favorite piece of clothing right now. I love that it's spring and that I can wear my summer shoes and a blazer instead of my winter jacket. Lately I've been happy to see change in our society as well, and not just in the weather. I've noticed that some clothing brands have started making more and more of their clothes in countries with laws that require fair trade.

JCrew sells my favorite summer shoes, the Cece ballet flats, they are Made in Italy. I bought my new blazer from Zara this spring, it's Made in Spain. I'm hoping to see more clothing brands take responsibility in the future and start supporting fair trade rather than continue to make their clothing in factories that have child workers and other types of unethical labor. I'm proud to see many Canadian brands focus on making a lot of their products in Canada. Le Chateau is one brand that has a whole collection of clothes that are Made in Canada. I was also happy to read about the new Swedish clothing brand Miss Clarity that make all their clothing in European countries to ensure that the clothes are Fairtrade.

We like to shake our heads at our ancestors who supported slavery and we think that we are so much better people than them. Are we really? I don't know about you but I have a lot of clothes in my closet that are made in countries that I know use child workers and pay their workers very little money. I'm not okay with that. I'm not okay with supporting child labor and modern day slavery.

My goal is to buy more and more of my clothes from countries that accept only fair trade labor. The clothing brands that care about fair trade will be the brands that I choose. I don't care if my clothes have a designer label or are made by H&M, the only label I care about is the one that reveals where the piece of clothing was made. It's not a coincidence that our world lacks justice for all today, us in the West can buy cheap clothing because other countries continue to sell us products that were made under unethical labor standards. What we shop and how we shop will determine how the clothing industry continues to do business in the future.


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