LET’S TALK: What Is Ethical Fashion?

Ethical Fashion essentially means GOOD, HAPPY design, production, retail, and purchasing. It means that things like the working conditions where products are made, exploitation of workers, fair trade practices, sustainable production and materials, the environment, and animal welfare are all considered. Because…

• fashion is the world’s second largest polluter
• the amount of water it takes to make one Tshirt is what you drink in 3 years
• 100 million shoppers visit London’s Oxford Street shopping district alone every year
• workers are paid pennies to make goods that sell for tens to hundreds of dollars
• children are often forced to work in abusive and unsanitary situations
• the less expensive fabrics and materials (often various forms of plastic) are the worst for the environment
• cotton, even though it’s a plant, is one of the worst crops for the planet and uses more chemicals to grow (don’t even get us started on the polluted water) than all other crops combined
• the average lifespan today of a garment is only 2-3 years, and is worn only 7 times
• most fabrics are treated with toxic chemicals like lead, nickel, chromium IV, aryl amines, phthalates and formaldehyde that are absorbed through the skin while being worn

There’s more. Lots more. But you get the picture.

When we look at the impact that fashion has on both our planet and the people who live on it, it becomes very important for both Us (the industry) and You (the buyer) to think about what we are doing. It actually doesn’t take much to make a major shift… it just takes enough people thinking before doing.

Our mission at Trend Privé is to work only with brands and artisans that do and make good things. We look for those who are making good choices, giving back, helping others and thinking about ALL the parts. In some cases we are helping them to find the best ways to build their business. In others we are learning from them. In all of our collaborations, we are aiming to find the best possible way to bring your style choices to you, so you can feel good about what you are wearing and spending money on.

You have probably heard of “voting with your dollar”. That’s a really important thing to remember. There was a time, not long ago, that the fashion industry cogs laughed at the idea of making changes. They made a LOT of money off of people’s ignorance, and as long as that was the case, they were very happy with their business model. They didn’t ever believe that enough people would care about things like fair wages for people on the other side of the world, toxic materials or factory conditions.

Well… they were wrong, weren’t they?

Multiple studies have been done at this point to show that people care about these issues when asked. However this doesn’t always translate into making changes. This is for a few reasons. One is definitely that we have been trained for the past few decades that it’s completely reasonable to pay $14 for a Tshirt. We wouldn’t MAKE a Tshirt for $14, of course. If we stop to think about that price tag, it’s quite obvious that the person who made that shirt was not paid fairly. And we are aware that OUR time is worth more than that. But simply because that has been the price we’ve seen advertised by brands like H&M, Zara, Walmart, etc for over a generation, we think that it’s normal. And we tend to think that we can’t afford to spend more because we have also been successfully trained by these brands to think we constantly need new stuff. Lots of new stuff. Constantly.

We don’t.

In fact, there is a certain sophistication that comes with the realization that we have two choices. We can live a life of cheap, disposable plastic based stuff we don’t care about. That’s not really a lifestyle that sounds like it feels good. OR we can reset our approach. We can choose to live a life of things filled only with what we truly love and feel an emotional connection with. We can learn to treat ourselves with a higher level of self worth. Perhaps we don’t want to put plastic on our body. Perhaps we don’t want to wear what everyone and their cousin is wearing. Perhaps we choose not to be a slave to advertising. Perhaps we know that we are smarter than that and we can think for ourselves. Even if we need to learn who we are as we go. Maybe we step off the path of “that’s just how it is” onto a stunning path

How Do We Fix This?

THINKING Before Doing

This is key to the entire movement. It’s not that you need to look at the cute shirt in your hands and ask if you want it… you probably do… It’s more that we need to adjust almost every aspect of how we currently look at fashion. Because we have created this issue ourselves by NOT thinking about a lot of key aspects.