Ethical Fashion: Howies

One of the few things I remember from economics class in college is the Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility. The reason why I remember is because the professor used navy blue cardigan sweaters as the example -- the first navy blue cardigan sweater you buy brings lots of satisfaction (utility), but each subsequent navy blue cardigan sweater you buy brings less and less satisfaction, especially if they are purchased in quick succession. This made sense to me -- if he had picked a black cardigan, it wouldn't have worked because, let's face it, we all need another black cardi.

But that was way back before the advent of cheap fashion.

Not cheap, ala Paris Hilton cheap, but very current fashion that is inexpensive ala H&M, Zara or Target. Heck, this was even before Costco started carrying name-brand clothes! Even if you have a few navy cardigans at home, when you come upon a great copy of a designer's navy cardigan, and it costs less than 20 euro, it almost seems rude not to buy it. And that is utility of a different sort.

I write about this because I am starting to think cheap fashion is a bad thing. I stumbled upon a documentary on BBC 3 called, "Blood, Sweat and T-Shirts" that takes six youngBritish fashion-addicts and sends them to India to learn about the garment industry from the inside out. They work in factories as sewers and ironers, they harvest cotton and work in the cotton mills to produce the fabric, they live with the workers (or in some cases, share the factory floors where they sleep) and are generally flabbergasted by the conditions and the tiny wages that are paid. "But the costs have to be kept low in order to feed the demand of the West!" explains a factory foreman. Errr. Um. I think that means me.

So I have decided to feature at least one ethical on-line retailer each week. Ethical fashion, according the BBC on-line fashion magazine Thread, is fashion that has been made, worn and passed on in a way that looks after people, animals and the environment.

I start with Howies -- a British-based company that started making t-shirts for BMX bikers and skaters in the mid-90s. Now they have shops all over the UK, a digital catalog (yea!) and a great site for ordering ethically made clothes and accessories for men, women and kids. They ship world-wide and seem like truly fascinating people who I'd love to have over for dinner (locally-grown/raised foods of course). The site is worth exploring and, though it features no navy cardigans per se, there is plenty of utility to share. Rock on with your eco-selves.