Confused about what to do?... I am!

Spot the difference

Left: Finisterre Hoodie £90, Right: Topman Hoodie £20

As I started my day today at work, I did the usual: checking emails, reading the news and answering the phone. In between all that, I thought I would take a 5 minute break and see if there were any ethical online shops selling men’s blazers. Well, half an hour later I didn’t find a blazer but I saw this hoodie on Finisterre.

Finisterre were founded in 2002, the UK-based company has always tried to produce high quality athletic gear with the least amount of ecological impact. So they’re an ethical brand. This hoodie retails for £90. Here’s the shocking part. I have seen a similar one in Topman for £20!

They are almost similar in look, except the £90 hoodie on the left has been made with Finisterre’s philosophy of trying to make sustainable clothes to help preserve the world we live in. It is made from organic cotton / merino wool fabric.

And the Topman hoodie on the right is made from 50% polyester and 50% cotton. Polyester is a plastic, and manufacturing polyester burns large amounts of hydrocarbons and a significant amount of CO2 is released into the atmosphere. This is creating the greenhouse effect, and in turn spurs climate change on.

So there’s a dilemma, do I buy the cheaper one or the one, that will not have as much of a negative impact on the environment and is of better quality?

Which would you choose?

Why are wages so low?

In the UK about 20 years ago if the workers of a business did not like the way they were being treated they could set up a trade union.

After reading about the issues that garment workers in India are faced with, a lot of people ask why they don’t just form a union and come together to demand better treatment.

The reason there is no such thing as a trade union is because the garment sector is not run by one person or company. There are over 3000-4000 individual production units making clothes. As there are so many separate units, the workers don’t know they have the same issues as one another. This prevents them from coming together and standing as one voice for fear of being beaten or fired.

Even if 100 of those production units came together and protested, nothing would happen as there are over 2000 other production units willing to do the same job and probably for cheaper.

The exporters are the people who bring the clothes made in developing countries to us- the developed world. Exporters are in the minority compared to the vast amount of garment production units that are available. This means exporters can pick and choose where they buy their garments from.

The whole point of having a business is profit and so if you are an exporter then you will be spoilt for choice. The first thing you will ask before choosing which production unit to go with is ‘who is the cheapest’? And so the workers salaries keep getting pushed down in order to secure contracts with exporters.

This is one of many reasons why wages are low and why many clothing manufacturers move their production lines overseas.

Outsourcing to developing countries is a good opportunity for business to prosper and support poorer communities....Outsourcing doesn’t have to mean exploiting others to make a profit.

How to get the spotlight on Ethical clothes?

Whenever I do look for organic or ethically produced products the one thing that holds me back from buying it, is the price.

A pair of jeans that would cost me £30 on the high street cost more just because they are ethically produced. But at the same time I don’t want to buy something that I know has been made at the expense of someone else.

At a recent ‘Fashion Forward’ event hosted by Fashioning an ethical industry, the attendees were asked how to get ethical fashion into the mainstream. In my opinion, the one thing that stops a large majority of people from making thoughtful purchases is the price.

Yet a lot of people thought ethical fashion was in the same league as Prada, Dior and Gucci “If people can pay that much for Gucci, then they can pay that much for an ethical product.”

I ask - who is buying Gucci anyway? Should ethical fashion be compared to luxury brands? Or should ethical fashion start looking at where the majority of clothing purchases are made?

Value retailers (cheap retailers) have doubled in size within the last five years. 40% of clothes are now bought from these retailers in the UK. So if you want people to pay more attention to ethical clothes you should look at where the majority shops and why they shop there. It’s important to know your competition.

People Tree seems to have the right idea. Reasonable prices and fashionable clothes with the added bonus of Emma Watson as the face of the brand. Their clothes could easily be mistaken for something from the TopShop brand.

What do you think?

My clothes won’t kill Mother Nature

A thought crossed my mind as I was reading How to make money from recycling and I thought ’Why can’t shopping save me money?.

We always think ‘I can’t wear the same outfit straight after each other and with Facebook pictures being updated daily I can’t wear the same outfit in the same month’. Truth is, how much money is being invested in our image and how much it is also damaging the environment?

Did you know we spend about £23billion on clothing a year. This creates 2 million tonnes of clothes and of that 2 million, 1.5 million of that is destined for landfill. Considering the effects of landfills and how these clothes are made I thought ‘wouldn’t it be a better idea to make your own?’

If you took a t-shirt that you’d publicised over facebook too much and cut it differently to change the fit, dyed it or even embellished it you’d end up with a whole new outfit. Instead of spending £30 on a new t-shirt which you only plan on wearing once, you could design and make a new outfit each time. Altering dresses and jeans are just some ideas on recycling clothes

Such as this link below:



As well saving a few extra pounds you get the feel good factor of helping out Mother Nature.