What do you care about? What do you wear? If you care about something, then let it show in your clothing choices…
When the author’s daughter wore a Saint Tropez t-shirt, it made her seriously consider that what we wear might show how much we care.
Appealing, yes. Meaningful, not so much. She [her daughter] had never been to Saint Tropez and didn’t care about the t-shirt’s meaning; she simply liked the way it looked. The shirt made me think about the value of what we put on the forefront of our appearance. My daughter is empathetic, she cares about supply chains and ethical standards in fashion, yet this time, she purchased with abandonment. We realized the shortfall was not with the demand. The missing piece was the supply.
She began to talk to hundreds of millennials to see if they even cared about where or how their clothes were made…or about who made them. Did they really consider the global impact of their choices? She found that most thought they were pressured into mainstream buying in order to fit in. But she also learned that they unanimously wanted products with great design and mission of social responsibility. That’s when she and her family began thinking about making items that allowed people to wear what they care about in order to heighten awareness and to share profits by supporting concerns that needed help. This sort of clothing allowed style that was fashionable but that had a message too.
She shouts out a call to action: How is it possible that we allow slave labor in countries and disasters like the Rana Plaza in Bangladesh, where 1,100 factory workers died due to negligence occur? Pay attention to the products you buy so that we can stop global abuse on both people and the environment within the fashion industry.
Here are a few tips for consumers. Research the issues, the companies, and their hiring practices; give thought to to avoid over-consumption so that there is less burden on resources; challenge yourself to buy items for long-term use; hand down old clothing; feel a sense of pride when you wear good choices. What do you care about?
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