Recommended Viewing or "Fashion... Turn to the Left... Turn to the Right"

Alright, so it happened! John Oliver is talking about fashion! Or rather the creepy Yeti of an industry behind it. After watching this video I have to front load and say: I was formerly unaware, but now am ashamed of some of my aloof posts. I thought I was cool for not purchasing Nike…

If you just laugh along to some of the jokes that he tells, you can miss a couple of details that are rather alarming. But if you look carefully you'll see a couple of compounding / snowballing patterns that I'd like to point out. It must be difficult to point out some of the nuanced details while trying to also cover of breadth of knowledge on the topic.

So here are the downward rolling snowballs that I saw: 

1. We're putting ourselves into a low-price trap. (We can't say it only hurts those making the clothing, honestly.) We outsource so that the item will be less expensive, which means we will have fewer jobs in whichever country ours may be, which means our next items will need to be more inexpensive. I don't care to see how far downhill that snowball will roll. Although I imagine it would and somewhere along the lines of: "This 1 dollar bill would be more expensive than that dress, if only we could afford the scotch tape!" (Don’t believe me? Check this mess out!!)

2. Subcontracting is don't-be-mad code for "We outsourced these outsourced items", and with that comes human rights abuses that no one is directly accountable for. Hey Walmart, you sent your work to someone else, and then lost track of where they were? Really? Because at least one Old Navy subcontractor has figured out how to keep track his workers (unethical though tying children together indeed is). What could possibly be next for the people who get mixed up with the subcontractors’ subcontractors? I can't bring myself to make something light about how things could get any worse. But maybe next time a manager looses track of a subcontractor, they should be tied together until some answers are produced... But I'll leave it at that; this snowball is too cold to handle.

3. Lastly, the dazzle and dodge techniques used by these companies are rivaled only by Richard Genre's character in Chicago. Each glittering snowflake of lovely garments, the joy of shopping and cool advertisements are all compacting together to blind us. Each time it comes up in the media, I think it's going to be handled, and then it's not. As soon as we turn 3/4 away from the problem, companies seem to try even harder to make buying clothing into a moral mine field. It's like we can't take our eyes off of them!

"So what are we supposed to do about this, Marla?" is the question my sister asks me each time I make her watch an episode of Last Week Tonight, and hope you're thinking the same thing. I say "We can't take our eyes off them!" Keep an eye on fashion companies/suppliers. They have shown us that they're willing to not so much bend morals distastefully, as do obscene back-flip after obscene back-flip in order to get our money. So can we make an effort to use our money to... encourage… (read force) these acrobats to stand upright, and be ready to keep in step with the march of progress.

If we take that laser-focused critical eye and point it at the business practices of a fashion company, rather than merely at the details of the garment, the above patterns won’t have a snowball’s chance.

Below are some resources my sister has collected along the way in order to 

help her become a more thoughtful shopper. Thanks so much for collaborating with me, Sis!

Thank you to Elizabeth S., The Notepasser, for her list of 7 Ethical Fashion Resources: http://thenotepasser.com/blog/2013/9/13/ethical-fashion-resources

Cheer on these NYC-based underdogs as they push back against those that would push them out of business. They’ll point out who to shop with, Where you can get the hook-up if you’re a designer, and even who to bother if you want to contact elected officials!: http://savethegarmentcenter.org/about/

Sara Laughed has a list of ethical brands both in the US and abroad, which creates plus sized clothing for women: http://saralaughed.com/index.php/ethical-fashion-plus-sized-ethical-clothing/

Busy Mommy must have been very busy listing 150 companies that are sustainable, fair trade, or have charitable donations built into the budget. Not just clothes: Coffee, soap, futbols, hats!: http://busy-mommy.com/2014/12/150-social-good-companies-with-fair-trade-buy-one-give-one-products-or-who-donate-a-portion-of-proceeds.html

I’m not sure how Good Guides works, but you can type in clothing brands and other items and get a rating based on how healthy the item is, the environmental impact and it’s effect on society. You can also get the app for your mobile devices. http://www.goodguide.com/

There's also this handy flowsheet!