Wish List 2 & Are Cheap Clothes Worth It
• More from my wish-list: A Nau herringbone twill wallet made from recycled poly, a colorful Osborn shoe with a recycled tire sole, a pair of Novacas x Brave GentleMan Mahogany boots in supple, Italian microfiber, and an organic cotton sweater cardigan with sporty elbow pads from Howies.
• If you wouldn't pay a young woman a meager $1.70 per day to make all of your clothing, why are you hiring someone else to do it? People often ask me why vegan, sustainable and labor-certified clothing costs more money,"Why should I pay $50 for an item I can get for $10 at Walmart, H&M or Sears?", one might ask. We have been trained to think that access to a huge, cheap wardrobe is some sort of consumer right. But there is a very dark side to cheap clothes. The Wild Magazine recently wrote about the ongoing and life-threatening problems for garment workers in areas like Bangladesh, where poorly-managed, unregulated and unsafe conditions in sweatshops kill hundreds of people a year, often due to fires. Most of the workers are young women making as little as $45 per month producing clothes for "Walmart, Gap, H&M, Sears, Tommy Hilfiger, and many more".
"The latest of these terrible blazes occurred at Tazreen Fashions Ltd. on November 25th in Ashulia, a town outside Dhaka. This was reported as one of the worst industrial tragedies that Bangladesh, and the world, has ever experienced. The fire killed 112 people, 53 of which could not be identified, and left many severely injured." - TheWildMagazine.com