Clothing with a Conscience  

No Sweatshops, No Leather, No Landfills…Just 100% Pure WOW!By Elizabeth CutlerMay 2006 – Monitoring personal consumption can seem like a never-ending battle, full of no-win situations. A vegan pair of shoes, constructed out of synthetics rather than leather, may be made by sweatshop labor. And if you find the Holy Grail of products, one which manages to earn the approval of even a fifth level vegan, chances are it’s horrifically ugly. Not satisfied with these “either/or” scenarios, more and more companies are catering to hot hipsters who want their t-shirts and jeans to coordinate with their ideology. Here are some companies leading the way:

Monitoring personal consumption can seem like a never-ending battle, full of no-win situations. A vegan pair of shoes, constructed out of synthetics rather than leather, may be made by sweatshop labor. And if you find the Holy Grail of products, one which manages to earn the approval of even a fifth level vegan, chances are it’s horrifically ugly. Not satisfied with these “either/or” scenarios, more and more companies are catering to hot hipsters who want their t-shirts and jeans to coordinate with their ideology. Here are some companies leading the way:When companies branch out, they often lose touch with their roots. Camper Shoes, which sprouts from four generations of shoemakers, is committed to “…faithfully transmitting its values,” regardless of how large it gets.
Sincerely dedicated to the environment, Camper’s Camaleon shoe received the European Union’s first “Ecolabel” in 2000. Additionally, the company has developed an Edible Gardens Project, an innovative social program where urban school children keep flourishing gardens in cities like London, Madrid, and Rome.
Loomstate Jeans are both organic and orgasmic. Organic dairy farmer Justin Vyn expounds on the benefits of organic products,while suggestively straddling a playground swing during his video interview. Watch it late at night and you’ll be thinking about milking something other than the cows he’s talking about! Available at Relic and www.loomstate.org
American Apparel sells scrumptious sweatshop-free T-shirts made in downtown Los Angeles by laborers who earn between $13-15/hr. as opposed to the 9 cents/hr. other companies pay their overseas workers. The company’s worker benefits, laid out in detail on their website, include a bicycle lending program, health care, work security, and a work environment with tons of natural light.
Visiting AA’s Newbury Street store is the closest you can get to a naked hipster without going to the zoo. The cashier who waited on me wore a beige tube top sans undergarments, highlighting her headlight-sized…well…headlights for customers. (A funny side note ~ the store walls, plastered with men’s magazine covers from the ‘80s, had apparently beckoned to a misguided older man whom I noticed wandering around and fondling fluorescent camisoles with a mixture of confusion and titillation.) Just another bonus for checking out American Apparel’s trendy products that are manufactured without blood, sweat and tears!

LUSH, a British catch phrase akin to “faa-bulous” and not a reference to boozers, hand-makes all of their natural products and includes a clever cartoon sticker on each depicting the actual worker who made it. Lush loves percentages and announces confidently that 72% of its products are vegan-friendly and 65% are made without preservatives. Their Dream Cream is heavenly and will leave you 100% satisfied. (Good news, too, LUSH announced in April its plans to open a 7,000 ft. Cambridge store in Harvard Square.)

Herbivore magazine and clothing line supports the protection of animals and a vegetarian lifestyle. Their Cow Hugger T-shirt made by Providence, RI illustrator Jen Corace is for cow lovers, not biters. (Herbivoreclothing.com, JenCorace.com)

Candy wrappers are usually cluttering the insides of purses, not adorning the outsides. Ecoist recycles misprinted labels, turning them into eye-catching clutches. Sparkling and glossy, the woven bags reduce waste by utilizing materials that would otherwise go to landfills. (Don’t fret, the labels have never touched sticky chocolatey goodness!) If that isn’t enough, the company also plants a tree for each bag purchased. Who said sustainability can’t be sexy? A small tote is $118 at www.ecoist.com.

Matt&Nat, a yin girl and a yang boy with similar names, emblazon their products with their mission of choice “Choose life. Choose positivity. Choose to make a difference.“ Their vegan shoes and handbags make statements without losing the fashion. Their Zen shoe, with the under-the-radar rage the “cow-hoof toe,” echoes the subtle simplicity synonymous with spring. It’s $45 at mattandnat.com

Last March, Earth Pledge launched its first FutureFashion show as part of New York Fashion Week, enlisting 28 top designers to construct high fashion garments from low impact sources. Heatherette’s bustier was made out of recycled polyester; Jeffrey Chow’s sequined bolero out of recycled Coke cans. All of these high-fashion creations showed that politics do not have to negate aesthetics and that conscientious consumption does not have to be crunchy. While it may be a while before eco-friendly garments consistently grace the shelves, the launch successfully got across its message that fashion can be head-turning without being exploitive or soul-less.

Warning: Hot Vegan Wear may make you look good enough to eat, so go ahead, wear your politics on your sleeve!