Ethical Sale Shopping

The Sales are on. Because I’m only shopping ethically this year, I am completely ignoring the high street. Whilst I thought this would be very very hard (I’m an inverterate sale shopper) it has, apart from a few twinges, brought mainly a complete sense of relief and freedom.

This has surprised me. If I apply a little bit of thought I think what’s happened is that I have been suddenly removed from one of the structures of society. Just like when I was at school the year was nicely punctuated by the start and end of term and my actions and behaviour fitted in with that pattern, so too does it now revolve around certain behavioural expectations – one of them being sale shopping or indeed high street shopping. Without that punctuation my year is just drifting on and I’m having to make my own markers.

I’m not sure that that will make any sense to anyone reading this – I’m just trying to work things out in my own head.

In the meantime, I haven’t given up on sale shopping altogether, just on ‘doing the high street’ and so on Friday I bought this lovely organic cotton dress in the Adili sale.

It is gorgeous and soft and swishy and beautifully made.  The colour suits me brilliantly.  The shape however is not the most flattering – the pleating in the skirt makes my bottom look enormous, the sleevlessness shows off my bingo wings, the drapey cut under the boobs quite possibly makes me look pregnant (will designers ever design low cut tops for women with boobs?).

But I don’t care.  I’m positively reveling in the whole big arsed thing anyway – the black girls round my way really rock that look and they look great.

Ethical Fashion Directory

As spotted by The Thoughtful Dresser The Guardian online has developed a very funky Ethical Fashion Directory.

Berry good

Today I’m a symphony of berries.  I know that berry is really more of an autumn colour but after yesterday’s sunshine it’s a little greyer today so it seems to suit.  I’m wearing this

Stewart + Brown organic cotton dress which was one of my May Adili purchases over a deeper berry long sleeved T from People Tree fair trade company.  Very ethical indeed.

Cotton growing is a very dirty business indeed.  It takes up just 3% of the world’s agricultural land but uses 25% of all insecticides and 10% of all pesticides.  So going organic makes sense.  Not just for the earth but for the poor farmers who get massively into debt buying all these chemicals and then massively ill through using them wrongly and without proper protection.

Ebay

I’ve been having a bit of an Ebay month. I’ve not really engaged with Ebay very much before – I remember signing up a few years back and buying some music books and that’s been about it. But a few weeks back I was talking with the Head of Marketing and PR for Adili and she confessed that she was a bit of an Ebay addict, particularly for designer shoes.

How could I not have realised its potential for the ethical dresser. So I re-registered and far too quickly got the Ebay bug. The rush of the last minute flurry of activity. The joy of having a parcel plop through the door.

I’ve learned a few lessons as well. There’s an awful lot of sellers out there selling new cheap tat. So I had to work out how to filter so I only saw ‘used condition’ stuff. I’ve ended up with a couple of pieces that are cheaper and nastier than I had expected but generally it’s been fab (though I will have to eat less and exercise more to get into the jeans.)

In a month I’ve spent less than £50 and bought twelve items. Not bad eh.

• flower print tea dress – (better as a long top than a dress, but fun)
• brown high heeled shoes – (fab, but can’t wear for the moment due to sprained ankle)
• Churches vintage brown shoes – (geeky and glorious, makes me feel I’m a Bletchley Park code breaker)
  
• black jeans (per una)
• “gold crushed effect top” [sic] – (not great, the description should have warned me)
• brown flower patterned top
• Jigsaw skirt – (short, straight, flowery cotton skirt – simple and good for summer)
• Toast denim trousers
• white Jigsaw jersey top – (simple, unstained (hurrah) and great for layering)
• white ruffle shirt – (seller said Whistles but labels had been removed, still it’s very nice)
• yellow flowery short tunic top
• white gyspy top

I’d better stop for now I think. In the future I’ll try and be more restrained and buy quality rather than quantity. But it’s been fun.

Now, I supposed I’d better go and clear twelve things out of my wardrobe to make room.

Shoes, shoes, shoes

I sprained my ankle a couple of weeks ago and whilst I adore my Veja trainers and Ethletic converse I do feel the need to wear actual shoes sometimes. But most of my summer ones aren’t flat (not quite sure how this came about as I walk a lot and don’t get on particularly well with heels). So I went on a bit of a shoe spree.

The bronze ballet flats are by French Sole. They’re made in Spain and whilst there are still ethical issues with shoe production in Europe, that does give me some degree of confidence. Their webiste also says they’re made in their ‘own factory’ in Spain – though whether than means they actually own and run the factory is unclear. I should email.

The black ones likewise are made in Italy.

The fab black and white twins are of course Camper* (and I’m very upset that I’ve already lost one of the badges). And made in China which of course sets my alarm bells ringing. (But they are very gorgeous and very comfortable.) Deep in the corporate information pdf on on the Camper website is this environmental claim

In October of 2000, Camper was recognized for its efforts to reduce the environmental impact of
its products over the course of their life cycle, for its search for greater efficiency in the use of
resources, for the reduction of toxins in the waste generated, for reuse, and for recycling. This
recognition came in the form of the Ecolabel of the European Union, and was a recognition of Camper’s ecodesign in the form of Camaleón. Camper thus became the first company in our
sector to receive this label in Europe.

though they don’t appear to use the Ecolabel on the products so I’m not sure if it was only for one product and doesn’t cover mine even if they still have it.

They are also involved in various social projects though passing off re-selling factory seconds as a social project to reduce waste seems to be stretching things a bit. But no mention of how they ensure good labour standards in the factories they use around the world. Another email required I feel.

So not particularly ethical, though I hope for the most part not too bad either.

*I do like Camper but they deserve a place in Pseuds’ Corner for this – Camper is not a specific shoe, but rather a style, a philosophy of life, a way of thinking and of making shoes. Camper is a way of walking.