My kind of model; or Production that we can believe in

What does goofy Goldy the Gopher have to do with ethics and clothing?

I know that usually I gripe and moan about crises and misogyny, but I also love a silver lining now and then. Bloggers have talking about sustainable consumption (although I prefer the term ethical, because I always think environmental when I think sustainable, but I am also interested in labor and human rights aspects of production) for a while now, and it's often easy to get into a depressed funk.

I am a big supporter of Students Against Sweatshops (I started school just after the bulk of their campaigns were over but I was involved in activisty campaigns with many of their "veterans"). It's not a perfect organization (a pretty darn good one), but they recognize that globalization and overseas production are facts of modern economic life, and while we can't change them, we can try to influence institutional consumers to make a change. I care about my individual consumption choices, I know that I am a drop in the bucket, while universities and other organizations have much more bargaining power.

This weekend, the NYTimes wrote a piece about how Knights Apparel opened a "model" factory in the Dominican Republic that is organized around principles of living wages and ethical production. The best part is that the price per T shirt at living wage, rather than minimum wage, is a mere $0.80. I think we can all dig down and cough up that amount for ethical production. (Knights will be selling these shirts at a lower profit margin, too. I could kiss the CEO, John Bozich. You will not likely ever hear me say that again.)

source

This lovely women is thrilled to have landed a job at Alta Gracia, which will be producing clothing for licensed University sportswear. Because of this job, she was able to secure a small loan to build a sturdy nice house (with toilets) for her family.
This makes me happy in a way that stories of microcredit do not. I know that microcredit is popular with many prominent people, but the problem with microcredit is that giving capital to a few small business is great, but you basically move money in impoverished places. Don't get me started on the high interest rates too. A really common microcredit business is a restaurant or a small shop. All this means is that the lucky person who got the microcredit loan gets all the money in the village/neighborhood. It's just an internal redistribution. What impoverished communities need is a steady in flow of external money. The woman working at Knights now takes her income and hires builders, feeds her family, and those folks use that money within their community. It's a big difference to provide externally funded, salaried jobs.* (For feminist economists' take on this issue, see here).
I am unimpressed with companies, like a certain fruit-monikered dress company, that blah blah about their ethics by pointing to the fact they donate to microcredit. Why not follow Knights Apparel and open up factories with the highest possible working and wage standards?
Shopping diet or no, I would be so happy to spend my money here.

Anyone else going to go out of their way to buy Alta Gracia's version of your Alma Mater's gear? Check to see if your school is a member of the Workers' Rights Consortium here:

And yes, reading about this happy young factory worker makes me want to STFU about my housing woes. Sigh. I am a spoiled, Global North Brat.

edit: For some good resources, check out the following links:
Good Clothing Companies
Interrobang Anonymous' list of resources

*I am not saying that we should give to microcredit, as I know that many microcredit loans help the quality of life for some people. But it's not how any country has or could possible transition to a more developed economy, if you're into that kind of thing.

Ethics, ads, and curling

I am finally back in New York, and I look like someone who has spent the past week eating deep friend Cajun food and staying out too late with reconnected friends. Maybe an outfit post later, but I wanted to chime in on some of the debates going on in the fashion blogosphere (to which I am a real newbie).

One of the cool things about NYC fashion week was the new emphasis on bloggers. The wonderful folks at 39th and Broadway have a great piece on the role of bloggers at fashion week. One of the recent controversies in the (non-blog) press concerns whether or not (certain) bloggers are just mouthpieces for certain brands. Wendy Barnes has a brilliant post about how bloggers should disclose their activities, sponsorship, and swag fully, and the conversation that ensued was really insightful. I understand that everyone blogs for a different reason, but I agree with Wendy Barnes, that if a blogger have certain obligations to certain sponsors, than he or she should be very forthright. The blogger/reader relationship (and often it's not a huge distinction, and many readers are also bloggers) is a delicate one, and people can get turned off and offended easily (both side). I suppose that for this is not a problem for me as I only have a handful of readers and I have no aspirations to make this into anything but a hobby. I am no one's mouthpiece but my own. I have my own weird style, and my own weird preferences, and I hope that a few folks read this, find it amusing/entertaining/practical (I first starting reading style/fashion blogs as a form of procrastination, but it became something else).

That said, I would like to disclose why I've started this style blog, by citing the comments by Sal from Already Pretty in response to Academichic's discussion about the "politics of style." I engage in this both as a way to encourage my own style development, but also because part of me believes it's important for non-normatively attractive woman to engage in creating style. Like Sal, I want to challenge the hegemonic notions about beauty and style.

I have recently discovered Jessie.anne.o's blog. She lives in Brooklyn too, she's adorable and stylish, but also incredibly insightful and socially aware. She had a logo (now visible to my left) of the "Ad-Free Blog." I loved the whole ideology behind the Ad-Free Blog, and so I want to commit myself to some idea of social responsibility, sustainability, and progressive politics whilst engaging in something that is generally considered trivial and vain. I'm certainly not the poster child for any of these things (although we live very green compared to the rest of the United States in NYC, without a car, with barely any heat, and eating a mostly vegetarian diet).

Enough heavy politicking, as I tend to do. How cute are the ladies on the U.S. Olympic curling team? I was once a dedicated member of the St. Paul Curling Club (biggest in North America). My curling broom now hangs on my broom rack in the kitchen. One day, I will have more time and money and I will start curling again (it's hard to do this in town. You gotta be Canadian or travel to Bridgeport, CT; Ardsley, NY; or somewhere in NJ (all expensive to get to on commuter lines).

Source: The U.S. Curling Association