Ethical clothes?

ItsOnlyMe_2

Due to my location the charity shop is not a viable route for me, although I can certainly see the sentiments that this may be the best route ethically.

However, I am finding that as a man the choice of ethical clothing is somewhat limited, especially for the likes of jeans.

Is anyone aware of a directory or source of information that tells me which of the main brands produce their clothing ethically.

sellingmysoul666

http://www.nomadsclothing.com/pages/fair-trade.htm

they have some beautiful clothes & you can find them in some shops as well :j

spanner07

http://www.naturalcollection.com/ also has a good range of clothes.
For the guy earlier who asked about jeans, I would check out howies, a good range, and the couple of pairs I have are lasting brilliantly. They also have the best customer service I have ever come across. I would certainly recomend them!

Sarahsaver

I would get jeans from charity shops too because they have already been 'worn in'.
i really think a lot of 'fair trade' clothing (and other stuff) has a huge mark up.

lightisfading

Sarahsaver wrote: »

I have had stuff from people tree. Nice, organic fair trade and so on.
But...
Went to India recently and saw an advert in a glossy mag over there for a people tree embroidered handbag - 150 rupees!!! :eek: there are approx 83 rupees to the pound. Who is getting the markup?

Charity shops I would say are the most eco-friendly and ethical, because it is reusing and avoiding landfill, and if you have seen the poverty (relative to our standard of living) people live in first hand, and realised that £2 a day in some places is a living wage, you change your perspective.

surely its not just the currency conversion but also the general cost of living/wage you have to take into account. ie we all find american goods cheap (if bought in america), but to people living there they're about the same in real terms.

lightisfading

John_P_Richardson wrote: »

www.absolutionsaves.com

My girlfriend and I make organic cotton & bamboo clothing for babies, children, men & women. All ethical, all organic, all fairly traded, with 100% company transparancy.

can you please please please consider doing larger sizes. fat people have ethics too!

Sarahsaver

lightisfading wrote: »

surely its not just the currency conversion but also the general cost of living/wage you have to take into account. ie we all find american goods cheap (if bought in america), but to people living there they're about the same in real terms.

Yes I see your point but the point I was making is that there is a HUGE markup on the goods, 150 rupees there, over £10 here! WHERE is the money going? NOT to the workers! And it was an official advert by a fair trade company in a glossy Indian magazine.

geordie_joe

Sarahsaver wrote: »

Yes I see your point but the point I was making is that there is a HUGE markup on the goods, 150 rupees there, over £10 here! WHERE is the money going? NOT to the workers! And it was an official advert by a fair trade company in a glossy Indian magazine.

I remember the fuss over music CDs being far more expensive in this country, and computer software too. The only answer we ever got was "In the UK we charge what the market will stand"

In other words they charge the Brits what we are willing to pay. This usually means they give the worker in India an extra 10p and hike up the price they charge us by £5. All because we are willing to pay more for fair trade goods.

Have you ever been to a farmers market? The farmer sells most of his chickens to tesco. Tesco transport them, process them, package them and sell them to us for £3. Tesco still make a profit when we buy them.

The farmer takes the rest of his chickens, chucks them in the back of his van, takes them 5 miles down the road and sells them directly to us for £7. He can do this because we are willing to pay more for produce at a farmers market.

Sarahsaver

...But I would not buy an intensively reared chicken at a farmers' market. Or anywhere else.
We should push for fair trade to be fair to ALL parts of the chain from manufacture to the customer in the UK. I am sceptical about 'fair trade' products for that reason.
i think the most ethical thing where clothes are concerned is to re-use, alter, freecycle, go to charity shops or jumble sales. (whatever happened to the good old fashioned jumble sale???)

ellie_jane_2

www.lalesso.com does really nice clothes. The range is small as it's a small company, but the cloths are cotton from Kenyan co-operatives and the prints are based on African designs, and made with sustainable dyes.

It's a little pricey but not as much as most of the ethical clothing I've come across. Dresses are about £50 but I recently got a skirt in the sale for £17 with free P&P.