Fair trade business casual

[Melalvai]

I'm down to one pair of slacks for work, and one pair of jeans, and both have shiny butts because I bike everywhere. I'm sure they are close to wearing through. I'd really like to find clothes that weren't made by slaves, but all I can find that is fair trade is hippie clothes. I don't have a problem with hippies, it's just not my style, and anyway long flowing skirts don't work well for bicycling or for lab work. (I carry my keys & phone in my pocket.)

So I did a search on "fair trade business casual" and turned up NOTHING.

I own a sewing machine but I'm not that great a seamstress and I don't have time for it.

Are my only options slave-made clothes or long skirts & yoga pants?

This launched a discussion between my husband and me about having values & ideals and trying to make them available for mainstream culture, versus trying to make mainstream culture come to you by adopting your style. It's interesting but doesn't solve my problem.

[shootingstar]

Maybe you can define what is meant by slave labour in the garment industry....people who desperately want to earn money and pay huge sums to migrate somewhere, end being indebted to the middle men to pay back the debt out of the meagre salaries? And such people are working in countries that lack occupational health and safety laws?

Or child labour? ?

I totally agree to wear clothes conscious-free in the end, would be for a person to sew them.

Do I agree that so much of Canada's garment industry has gone overseas because the labour cost is much lower? No. But not sure what can be done about this, short of sewing one's clothes. I had several relatives working in garment factories in Toronto and San Francisco. Not that they really wanted to do this work but it was the alternative left with limited English.

Or paying alot more money for clothing made in North America.

No easy answers. :( I used to sew my clothes and do consider myself a decent seamstress. I just got lazy. Othe priorities. Now my sewing machine is in a different city at this time.

[Trek420]

Start here:

http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=42978

and here:

http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=23285

and here

http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=35470

also many stores now let you search by made in USA, REI does anyway.

[Eden]

If you can fit their sizing American Apparel has a selection of pants, skirts, and dresses.

A list of resources - http://americansworking.com/clothingwomens.html

[jessmarimba]

I totally agree to wear clothes conscious-free in the end, would be for a person to sew them.



What about the fabric itself, though? It's much more difficult to track fabric origins, and just as likely to be made out of the country.

[Melalvai]

I'd even just take assembled outside of sweatshops, and save the fabric issue for later.

The Diamond Gusset jeans look nice and I will need a new pair of jeans soon. But what about business casual? I sometimes wear jeans to work but generally try to wear slacks, especially if I have a meeting. It is a medical school so dress expectations are a little higher than at the university. If I wear jeans all the time, people might think I'm making some sort of statement, as if I'm "against the Man". I don't want to be making a statement (intentionally or otherwise) all the time.

Edit: I've been to the americansworking before and browsed it fairly thoroughly without success. But I noticed that you had mentioned a specific company, American Apparel, so I googled them, and found that they do have some selection. The sizes do look a bit strange. But I'll check it out further.

[radacrider]

I ride in my work clothes (6 miles one way) and have started buying travel clothes - fit better than my jeans on the bike and more comfortable, quick dry and all that. Still the challenge is finding those clothes with a conscious.

[Reesha]

What about higher end resale shops? We have a few in St. Louis and they have a great selection usually. Plato's Closet, the Scholar Shop, leap to mind. I keep finding amazing pencil skirts from the 60's and 70's which look like they came straight out of J. Crew.

At least when you're buying used you are not adding to the problem. Just a thought!

I wear a lot of patagonia clothes to work. They have comfortable skirts, cute tops, and gorgeous sweaters and I *think* their materials are all ethically produced etc. You might want to check that out though.

[PamNY]

This is not useful to the OP, but here is an article that demonstrates just how complicated the ethical issues in clothing can be:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/feb/24/patagonia-ethical-outdoor-clothing-interview

[Melalvai]

This is not useful to the OP, but here is an article that demonstrates just how complicated the ethical issues in clothing can be:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/feb/24/patagonia-ethical-outdoor-clothing-interview
That's a great article. That's so cool that Walmart is at least thinking about trying to improve their practices, and that they look to a small company like Patagonia for their experience.

Patagonia actually is also fair trade, I don't know if they can claim that exact label but they do state on their web site the steps they take to ensure their products are made with fair labor. In fact they were one of the founding members of the Fair Labor Association (although they dropped out for a while).

Patagonia may be a partial solution. Their clothes are geared toward being active and they are a little more casual than what would be ideal. But the pants are slightly less casual than blue jeans. And the bike shop in Columbia (not exactly local but it's the closest bike shop) carries Patagonia. Of course it's pricey, but I knew that would be the case.

[OakLeaf]

AFAIK only food goods are certified fair trade (and as you may know, there are some serious ethical/philosophical/turf battles going on in that world right now). American Apparel is also problematic because of their sexist and size-ist advertising... :(

Good luck, I'll be interested to read what suggestions others have ... I'd love to have ONE pair of slacks that look half decent or ONE pair of shoes of any kind that fit, made with humane labor and environmental practices... (and I'm way too curvy for Patagonia, unfortunately)

[Trek420]

REI is one store that lets you search by "Made in USA"

http://www.rei.com/search?cat=4500355&jxMade+in+USA=Made+in+USA&hist=cat%2C4500355%3AWomen%27s+Pants%5EjxMade+in+USA%2CMade+in+USA

Since my job's being off shored I appreciate the attention to locally sourced stuff (wherever in the world local is to you). Wherever you are now (this is an international board) or were before and whatever it is you do now your job can go away. There's someone somewhere who will do your job for less. Probably not as well as you do (my replacements do not do as well as I do, that's for d@mn sure).

But who cares!!! They will do it for less.

Think you're exempt from that because you are a ________ and that job can't go away? Think again.

So I do appreciate buying local, creating, saving jobs, sustainable work wherever local is for you.

[shootingstar]

Well, the term "slave" labour really should only be used when the person was purchased as a commodity. Or not slave labour, but indentured labour, where the person was innocently bribed by a snakehead/middle man by paying thousands of dollars to come....to Canada or U.S. and they are smuggled in (let's think reverse, ok? stuff happens on the North American continent).

Vs. sweatshop which might be a more accurate term ... very low wages, unsafe/poor working conditions, no benefits, no breaks, non-compliance with health and safety, locked factory doors (which is a fire hazard) that imprison the workers, etc

Ok, I think some of my relatives did work in sweat shop conditions. Not for long. In Toronto. (I have been into homes in the heart of Chinatown. It's tougher than you can imagine.)

I have also personally known 2 bilingual Chinese-Canadian social workers involved directly in mobilizing some of the garment workers in Toronto to form their union. This was 20 yrs. ago.

It would be nice for me...to boycott products but at the same time, but I have family memory of the hurdles and needs for non-English speaking relatives, to earn money to survive during their first few years of immigrating to Canada.

It might better to volunteer time/donate money for the non-profit social service agencies that serve these people, rather ...than just boycott.

[NbyNW]

Icebreaker might have a dress (http://us.icebreaker.com/Roma-Dress/IBCA39,en,pd.html?dwvar_IBCA39_color=001&start=2&cgid=womens-dresses-skirts) or jacket (http://us.icebreaker.com/Mayfair/IBKB48,en,pd.html?dwvar_IBKB48_color=C64&start=7&cgid=womens-jackets) that could pass for business casual ... and they have a good portion of their website devoted to business ethics (http://us.icebreaker.com/Icebreaker-Ethics/what-is-our-supply-chain,en,pg.html).

[Irulan]

Why not shoot for "made in USA"?

[OakLeaf]

Why not shoot for "made in USA"?

That depends on what values the OP puts highest ... and that's going to be a different judgment for every one of us. I don't think Mel meant to exclude USA-made clothing, though, only that she left open the possibility of including things made elsewhere.

Some industries - textiles/garments and agriculture being high on the list - are especially prone to abuses even inside countries that nominally have some labor and environmental protections. The scandals with the northern Marianas islands - the Chinese workers in Italian factories - and the one Shootingstar mentioned in Canada - (not to mention the rampant slavery in agriculture in the continental USA) are proof of that.

I sometimes wonder whether it's better for workers if I buy products of cooperatives in developing countries where there's some independent certifying agency doing inspections - but you still have to wonder whether the certifying agency is trustworthy. But then there's the value of supporting one's own local/regional/national economy. And the environmental costs of shipping. As that Guardian piece pointed out, if you're going to engage with the world rather than withdrawing from it, choices aren't easy or simple, and they usually involve some balancing acts.

[shootingstar]

http://www.tenthousandvillages.ca/cgi-bin/category.cgi?category=homepage

More for non-clothing items, but who knows there may be something that meets your style.

I am aware of this organization over 25 years ago (when they were much smaller) because:

*I went to the national Canadian warehouse headquarters with a friend..just outside of Kitchener-Waterloo in Ontario.

[Melalvai]

I almost bought a pair of slacks online but I couldn't bring myself to shell out $$ for something that might not fit me very well. Or to go to the bike shop (not particularly local, it's 90 miles away) and spent $$ on something that is a little more casual than business casual.

I went to Penney's and bought 2 pairs of slacks. :(

Maybe next time.

A friend of mine just bought a sewing machine. She's going to learn to sew and make her own clothes. (Her sewing machine was probably constructed in a factory which abuses its employees.)

[shootingstar]

Maybe you will find something later or a solution.

I haven't thrown out my sewing machine. I never, say never to myself.

(I just realized now in looking at the latest annual report for Ten Thousand Villages their national headquarters...is still the same town where I visited them a long time ago, on the edge of Mennonite country. These are "modern" Mennonites, not the horse 'n buggy, though mind you their relatives may have been from the traditional older Mennonites in last few generations.)


I grew up in this county, in the city. And have friends who still live in the region.)