Ethical Fashion Blog

^ The motto of most Americans. We don’t have to wait, so why should we? With easy, cheap fashion at our fingertips, larger companies know that they have to keep up, but in doing so they often leave a trail of destruction in their path. With so many recent tragedies in eastern countries, there’s an abundance of informational articles and stories floating around. If you aren’t that familiar with the topic, none of the articles are as approachable as this one-minute video from Online MBA, which contains a concise summary of the impact of “fast fashion.”

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays.  It’s one of the few times that we can all tap into our inner child, dress up, and eat lots of candy.  And who doesn’t love candy?  But recently I learned that much of the chocolate handed out to children on Halloween is produced using child labor.  (For more information, click here.)  Let’s ensure that all children have a truly happy Halloween by supporting fair trade chocolate producers and avoiding chocolate that uses child labor.

Sunita was an artisan, making jewelry by hand, with a horrible boss who would often pay her less than what she was owed or would delay payment or wouldn’t pay her at all.  If she tried to contest, he would shoot her down with his “abusive manner of talking,” as she puts it.  She dealt with it for a long time because she was poor and needed the money. She had no education and didn’t think she had any other options.  Then, six years ago, she found out about our jewelry partner, a 40-year-old advocacy organization supporting artisans in their efforts to secure labor rights through fair trade.