Here’s the thing about myself and fashion : we don’t click. We do not get along very well. You can not put me and fashion in the same sentence.
I was never one who’d buy fashion mags and indulge into ooohing and aaahing over the latest releases or lines of established and would be designers. I’d rather help myself with a John Grisham suspense thriller or a Jodi Picoult tear jerker than go gaga over featured accessories that all look the same to me. You’d never see me reaching out for glossy mags to check what Angelina Jolie wore during the Academy Awards or what Nicole Kidman donned in the Oscars. Whether they were hot property or not doesn’t interest me. Who and what movie bagged the Bests awards and whose speech was the most galvanizing are what I am curious about.
But recently, it appears that we, that is, fashion and I, are slowly working things out. It all started with three words, ethical is Fashionable. Yes, you read it right. Fashion’s new partner is indeed ethics. You don’t quite get it? Same here. I did have a tricky time understanding it too, the first time I saw it. How can fashion, a free spirit, ever hook up with a harsh and stifling personality, ethics. A really improbable pair, isn’t it?
a really interesting one, too. The ‘ethical is fashionable’ scheme is slowly gaining momentum. Some view this as a methodology still to gain popularity amongst clothing firms to propel themselves into the mainstream fashion scene. Think fair competition and trade. Others accept that this is really a drive towards a more responsive and responsible fashion industry, thinking less of what designers and outlets need to produce and more of what the purchasers like and demand which hopefully will translate into less surplus and less production waste.
Whichever stand you opt to defend doesn’t matter. The more important thing to think about here is what is being done in the light of this campaign. The moral is trendy scheme is bringing products that used to be considered non marketable to full view. Take as an example crochets and knits and other hand-crafted products which are raking in millions of bucks.
What’s happened to the claims that these are unprofitable? The point is reasonably easy and it has for some considerable time been gazing at us : there is a steady shift taking place in the fashion world. What used to be a restricting and inclusive play ground for huge corporations is becoming more accessible to smaller firms. Thanks to the more informed and more responsible patrons who’ve noticed that fashion isn’t just about having the newest and hottest item there is. Fashion is also about choice, intelligent ones. It includes : caring about starting business ventures, giving them a chance to break in the rather monopolized industry and supporting corporations who give back to their workers.
One of my favourite brands right now is Ginger and Smart Clothing. A great example of an ethical brand.
Folks caring for folk. People caring for the environment. And folks looking good. When did fashion become this exciting! Ethical is indeed trendy.
So go have a look at Ginger and Smart and do your bit for ethical fashion.