Fair trade: For the globally conscious
Fashion has come a long way from the 1800s. Tons of trends come in and out of style on a regular basis.
Something new and upcoming in the world of fashion is vegan clothing and fair trade clothing.
Vegan clothing and fair trade clothing are styles that began in the mid 1990s, but haven’t been noticeable until recent years. Now it has become a huge phenomenon.
But what do we really know about fair trade clothing?
Fair trade clothing ensures that garments are not made in countries that use sweatshops and child labour.
The United States Department of Labour (DOL) estimates that 50 per cent of the 22,000 registered garment contractors pay their workers less then minimum wage.
The term fair trade indicates a product for which an employee has been paid a living wage and has been given equal opportunity. It also guarantees that employees are treated respectfully.
For example, vegan clothing is guaranteed to be fair trade, but focuses on another aspect important to a growing number of consumers. Vegan clothing products are made from materials not made from animals and that have not been used for animal testing.
Vegan clothing and fair trade fashion includes everything from winter to summer clothing, shoes and jewelry. Anything you could possibly imagine buying can in found in a fair trade version.
You are probably thinking that buying fair trade means spending more money, but that’s not the case. Not only is fair trade better but also is around the same price if not cheaper than non fair trade items.
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Has your interest been sparked yet? If it has there are a lot of places that you can buy vegan and fair trade clothing. Most of them seem to be online, so get those credit cards ready.
Places like veganstore.com offers anything you could ever imagine and it is run and owned by vegans. Another site, fairindigo.com offers organic and fair trade clothing at a fairly decent cost and with items on sale all the time.
If you’re not interesting in buying online, there are some local shops in Kitchener-Waterloo that strive on fair trade clothing.
Ten Thousand Villages, located on King Street in Uptown Waterloo, is filled with tons of jewelry and some fashionable clothing from around the world.
Another store that is worth checking out is Hand to Hand, which is located at the St. Jacobs farmers market in Waterloo.
This store offers a variety of clothing and jewelry at a reasonable price, which you can check out online at shophandtohand.com.
Vegan clothing and fair trade clothing is funky, fun and fashionable.
The clothes are not expensive and you get to help a great cause.
What’s not to love?