Time to Shop

Wednesday was the breaking point.

It's no secret that I do not enjoy shopping. Wasting time, spending money, and not knowing if I'm indirectly promoting slave labor. What's to love? The more active I've gotten in abolition work, the more convicted I've become. How can I support anti-trafficking causes when I wear clothes that people whose human rights have been violated made? It seems quite counter-productive, not to mention hypocritical.

I've successfully avoided buying new clothes for quite sometime. Chasing around after Mr. Binky means that my work uniform is usually hole-y jeans and sweatshirts. It's not exactly a fashion show when you have shoemarks and smeared food all over your clothes. In this manner, my deteriorating clothes actually come in handy. But when I was getting ready for an internship on Wednesday, I put on a black sweater and, suddenly, saw my clothes in a new light. A light that revealed how worn most of my clothes looked. I took off the sweater, knowing that I could never wear it again. That no one should ever wear it again. Ever.

Thankfully, I managed to pull an outfit together and made it to work on time. But the seed had been planted, and it was only a matter of days before I found myself riding up the escalator to the women's department of the Gap.

The Gap. A classic Ellie store. Few items. Multiple colors. Uncluttered store. Predictable. Classy. Simple.

The words of David Batstone (founder of the Not For Sale campaign) resonated with me as I browsed through the myriad of (adorable!) sweaters. The Gap received a B- on the free2work rating scale (a scale that rates a companies supply chain accountability and violation of human rights). Now, according to Batstone, a B- is not an A, but nor is it a D. A B- is much better than a D. So, for the sake of wearing clothes that don't look like they've been worn since the 70s (and because I had a giftcard), I purchased two sweaters from the Gap. And yes, they are the same sweater, just in different colors (perhaps that's the topic of another post...!).

I walked out of the store, plotting how I would dispose of my existing black cardignan - a sweater that should have been discontinued seven months ago, but was a near-daily part of my wardrobe due to functionality and comfort. There's no shape to this sweater. None. It hangs on me like a lifeless shadow of a once-beautiful garment. My new black cardignan had life and youth in it. It was ready to be worn. Ready to take on the world.

My next stop was Buffalo Exchange, a second-hand clothing store. I love the idea of recycling clothes, but sadly didn't find anything that fit me well, so I headed down to Urban Outfitters.

I had spent 10 minutes the night before searching various phrases such as "Urban Outfitters - Supple Chain Accountability" and "Urban Outfitters & Slave Labor." My research findings? Nothing except a few rants on a few blogs. Nothing on their website, and no ratings on free2work or the Better Buyer Guide.

But I went anyways. And found a cute sweater on sale. And when I looked at the tag, read that it was made in America. Happiness.

Today I wore that grey sweater. Putting on a piece of new clothing was a wonderful (and foreign) feeling. I felt good. I felt like wearing clothes wasn't just a necessary evil, but a fun expression of my style.

I'm not going to go crazy, but plan to do a bit more shopping this weekend, as well as to comb through my clothes and get rid of the many too-often-worn shirts.

I guess shopping isn't always such a bad thing - but it definitely is something we can spend more time thinking about instead of just rushing off to buy the latest fashion.

For more information on how to check the ethics of your favorite companies, check out:

www.free2work.org
www.betterworldshopper.com/rankings