Who Made Your Clothes?

The moment that started a revolution in my own life, something that convicted me of things that I knew and believed in but had yet to put into practice, was last November. One comment from someone important in my life led me to recognize that if I wanted to truly live out my desire for social justice, equality, sustainability, and love for people around the world in every nation and circumstance, I needed to stop taking things for granted and make a stand. Specifically when it comes to clothing.

I've been a fashion enthusiast for as long as I can remember, subscribed to vogue for years, started following fashion blogs back in 2006 and have tried quite a few different "trends" in my day. The past couple years I stopped following the trends and began to focus on developing my personal style. I've been trying to prioritize quality over quantity in my budget and purchasing decisions, though sometimes I just needed a quick fix to take care of a hole in my wardrobe. The one aspect I had never truly given any thought to was the sustainability and social responsibility of the companies I was purchasing from.

So in November I immediately put myself on a shopping hiatus and began researching intensely. I discovered that there really is not that much information out there, hardly any comprehensive databases, very few companies put their ethical beliefs on their website, much less in an easy, intuitive-to-find location. And I've been striving to prove that quality/sustainability/social responsibility does NOT have to equal bankruptcy. My strategy basically consisted of googling "company name+social responsibility". Oh, and social responsibility and sustainability are not interchangeable. Additionally social responsibility has several layers when you take total supply chain into account - not just manufacturing.

I did not make my first purchase until nearly March. No Black Friday shopping, nor holiday deals nor after Christmas sales for me last year. (Consumerism and modern advertising is a whole different topic for another day...). I'm still collecting data and researching. I have a haphazard list of brands and products and links to databases, online stores, news articles and blog posts saved in Evernote at the moment. I'm still trying to figure out the best way to organize and consolidate and disperse my findings. I'm sure there's still great resources out there that I haven't discovered yet. There are brands that I used to shop all the time that left me surprisingly disappointed, and haven't stepped foot in since, and others that found me pleasantly surprised and have earned a spot in my budget. Some of my "blacklist" locations have left a hole that I'm still trying to fill.

I plan to begin a series on my findings, and try to keep things positive and encouraging. Brands will be featured and resources shared. It's hard to be perfect on something like this, it requires making some concessions and prioritizing (Is organic cotton worth it if the people aren't paid a fair wage? Or how about American-made vs international fair wages?). There will be mistakes (just because a brand puts something on their website doesn't mean they actually believe in it/follow through with it) and moments of weakness (Why are well-fitting jeans so expensive and rare without even adding the ethics requirement?). But this is one step toward living the life I'd like to live in a way that can meaningfully contribute back to the world around me.

Do you know who made your clothes?

Extra Credit: Fashion Revolution. #InsideOut. April marked the one year anniversary of the Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh. Fashion Revolution started a campaign encouraging people to wear their clothing inside out (to feature the "made in" label) on April 24. Photos were posted across Social Media as a statement that things need to change. And that change starts with simply being aware of where your clothes are made, and by whom. When consumers are aware of this and begin to demand this information from brands, then supply chain transparency will be a natural part of every business model.

umbria...um yes!

If you're a member of Gilt Groupe, then you'll also get email notifications from Jetsetter. It works the same way, exclusive limited time deals on luxury, only this is vacations instead of fashion. It's probably cruel and unusual punishment to subject myself to these emails with offers for stays at glamorous locations around the world. Especially when the deals are only good if you hop on that plane within the next month or so. But they feature some great ideas and locations for future reference. This one caught my eye today:

Sounds divine. Eating and Italy. What else is there?

missing you

this postcard wall is pure brilliance:

(via from the right bank)

New life goal: travel enough to collect enough postcards to create a wall like this in future home.
Second best: collect postcards from friends who travel (though this one isn't nearly as fun)

old school

Aren't these travel posters gorgeous?!
I kind of want all of them.

 (via)

They're by The Heads of State. It sounds like they will be expanding the store, but for now they feature: Chicago, Phoenix, Seattle, San Francisco, Philadelphia, New York City, Washington D.C. and Miami. It kind of makes me sad that out of all those great cities I've only spent a significant amount of time in one (SF), drove through another (Seattle) and had a couple layovers in a third (Phoenix).

it's hard to be a saint in the city

Now that I'm a bit more settled in, I'm ready to begin travel-dreaming again.

So often I see New York portrayed as a fast-paced, 24/7 busy, exciting, crowded, big city. These photos taken by the lovely lady at {this is glamorous} show a quieter side of the city. More pensive, absorptive and calm. Someday when I make it to the other coast, I hope I'll get a glimpse of this.

moving pictures

so check it out. there's this cool thing that LA does, called cinespia. Every weekend during the summer, they play old school movies on a big projector...at the hollywood forever cemetary. Ok it sounds a little creepy, but as long as I avoid watching a horror movie in the cemetary (cuz really that's just dumb, you're totally asking for it!) I'm good. and no, you're not camping out on gravesites, but a big open lawn adjacent to them.

I went with my cousin and aunt last summer to see "some like it hot" with marilyn monroe. It was SO fun. We brought some cheese, bread, grapes, water and blankets and sweaters to enjoy the night. dude we were totally amateurs. There's people that bring small tables (really low to the ground), full table settings, candles, wine, MEALS. it was impressive. cousin and i are preparing for round dos this summer sometime. especially because my new apartment is TWO MILES away. (though it's through a sketch part of town...so no walking after dark.)

If I wasn't going to be in the middle of moving, I'd totally be there this weekend for the showing of "arsenic and old lace". I have many many old hollywood movies I'd like to cross off my list. Next week is "saturday night fever"...hmmm i definitely had a crush on john travolta in my middle school days thanks to "grease". awkward?

Thoughts

"There is a time for departure even when there's no certain place to go." -Tennesee Williams

"Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living." -Miriam Beard

"I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move." -Robert Louis Stevenson

"Not all those who wander are lost" -JRR Tolkien

Since AD 43...

I'm thoroughly enjoying my last little bit of vacation. Instead of doing a post, I'm going to point you over to sfgirlbythebay for susannah conway's guest post about my favorite city in the whole world: Bath, England.

Beautiful

(via)

I'm currently flying to the top half of this state! So excited to be home with the fam.

"online purveyers of high quality crimefighting merchandise"

um, coolest thing ever. In New York, there is the Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co. The storefront specializes in all the superhero apparel and gadgets one may need for a life of fighting crime. And in the back is a center that tutors children after school in creative writing. All cape sales, etc. fund the writing center. Genius. On the list for when I make it to New York.

Fiance is definitely a comic book kid. He doesn't have any tattoos yet, but the first one he wants to get will be batman related. (i secretly think he was more excited to see the dark knight than he will be for our wedding. he saw it in theaters 7 times including the midnight showing.) i do love that boy.

russia

(via)

Itching to scratch some landmarks off my list...

sunset

This world is so beautiful, sometimes it hurts...

(via)

"This photograph was taken by the crew on board the Columbia during its last mission, on a cloudless day. The picture is of Europe and Africa when the sun is setting. Half of the picture is in night. The bright dots you see are the cities’ lights. Note that the lights are already on in Holland, Paris, and Barcelona and that’s it’s still daylight in Dublin, London, Lisbon and Madrid ."

another one for the list

I would like a picnic on a rooftop in brooklyn. full stop.

(by miss chelsea jade)

gorgeous

 MORE India inspiration via Anthropologie.

Check out this link it has a lovely little description of their time visiting, the inspiration and is loaded with gorgeous photos. There's also a slideshow of photos here.
Apparently there's a 6-hour BBC documentary called "The Story of India". It's going on my list! You must know by now that BBC makes the best documentaries AND I love pretty much anything that england does.

Here's some of their travel tips:

Colorful

It's a given that anthropologie will produce beautiful catalog shoots. But the one for May might be my favorite. It was all shot on location in India! One place that is at the top of my travel list. The brilliant architecture, bright colors and intricate patterns take my breath away. I would love to wander the street markets, sipping some chai and admiring those ancient buildings.

(all photos via anthropologie)

jealousity

I finally had some downtime and have spent the better part of the evening going through Marie-Eve's European adventure on Lake Jane. She and her husband took off from their home in Montreal to travel for 3 months. Including a whole month in Spain. I'm going backward in time and I'm only on their time in Barcelona, which was the end of Spain. There was Carcasssone and Aix-en-Provence, France, London and 3 weeks in British Columbia. Much to my delight, they are definite foodies, so there is plenty of delicious drool-inducing photos along with scenery shots. I've already bookmarked half a dozen of her posts to my travel folder.

hook it up

365 cheap date ideas in LA and Orange counties?
YES PLEASE!

dreams

i'm still alive. just trudging through school. about to start my second to last finals week. desperately searching for non-existent jobs.

until my glorious road trip home for spring break:
1) seeking destination for use of my free round trip flight with southwest. it expires in july. unfortunately all my friends are too poor to purchase a ticket to accompany me and I can't really afford a hotel anyway. hmmm.

2) brilliant words about experiencing life help me get through the days i spend holed up in my room studying.

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness"
- Mark Twain

“she said she usually cried at least once each day
not because she was sad,
but because the world was so beautiful
and life was so short.”
- Brian Andreas

"All Paris was spread out at his feet, with her thousand turrets, her undulating horizon, her river winding under the bridges, her stream of people flowing to and fro in the streets; with the cloud of smoke rising from her many chimneys; wither her chain of crested roofs pressing in ever tightening coils round Notre Dame."
-Victor Hugo

"Every one of us is called upon, probably many times, to start a new life. A frightening diagnosis, a marriage, a move, the loss of a job... And onward full tilt we go, pitched and wrecked and absurdly resolute, driven in spite of everything to make good on a new shore. To be hopeful, to embrace one possibility after another - that is surely the basic instinct... Crying out: High tide! Time to move out into the glorious debris. Time to take this life for what it is."
-Barbara Kingsolver, High Tide in Tucson

"And that's the day I knew there was this entire life behind things, and... this incredibly benevolent force, that wanted me to know there was no reason to be afraid, ever. Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world I feel like I can't take it, like my heart's going to cave in."
-American Beauty

"For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return."
-Leonardo da Vinci

“if you are lucky enough to have lived in paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for paris is a moveable feast.”
–ernest hemingway

"Let no one look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers through speech, life, love, faith, and purity."
-1 Timothy 4:12

"Come quickly, I am tasting the stars!" - dom perignon, at the moment he discovered champagne

"I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do."
-Edward Everett Hale

"Everybody can be great. Because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve...You don't have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love."
-Martin Luther King, Jr.

Changing the world

Ahh! These videos make me so happy.

These stairs are in Stockholm. I wonder if they're still there?
One of my dear friends will be in Sweden for spring break, I've sent her on a quest to find them!


Look how excited everyone gets!



hehe! These projects are part of The Fun Theory, by Volkswagen. Makes me proud to drive a Jetta!

living the dream

I don't remember how I found these two, but the moment I began reading their blog I was hooked.
Alex and Mina of Sending Postcards are so fun and adventurous. They've already done quite a bit of traveling (Paris, Japan, Dubai). And then just this past summer they quit their jobs, sold their house in canada, got married and set off to travel the world for a while. Amazing!

They sold most of their possessions, put the rest in storage and are carrying everything else on their backs. They've already covered Central America and are in Miami on their way to South Africa. I've definitely been checking in to see their progress, their posting is about a week behind where they are actually at. I'm waiting for their update on the Galapagos Islands!

p.s. points for creative blog title
"two of us riding nowhere
spending someone's
hard earned pay...
two of us sending postcards,
writing letters
on my wall"

they're both self-professed beatles fanatics!