we are living in a material world and i am a material girl
Mar 20th 2007Jess::Rants & ::Activism & ::Fair Trade & ::Culture
wow been ages since i’ve posted on here!
good to be back!
its my 21st in 2 days…yeah…happy birthday to me.
you see the thing is, a couple of my aunties and my gran wanna take me shopping for (oh my favourite thing in the world) ....clothes! (sarcasm intended)
‘something nice to wear to church’ my granny said. hmm… by that i think she means something SHE would like me to wear to church 
i’d rather go fair trade clothing but ….. the variety is seriously limited.
But shouldn’t that be ok?
I was talking to one of my friends last year about fair trade clothing etc and she said that if she wants to be serious about fair trade clothing she’s probably gonna not be able to have much choice in what she wears.
And where fair trade clothing is at now, thats probably gonna be the party line…until people start CARING and don’t just decide its easier to buy their clothes from the new stella maccartney range at target or jetty surf/jeans west/giordano/cotton on….
because we are all deep down inside MATERIAL GIRLS (AND GUYS) who care too much about wearing the right stuff…sure its not necessarily the brands but stone me if i go to uni wearing plain black slacks and a loose fitting long tee (as i often do – getting many weird looks, you don’t even know what happened when i went to chadstone).
i’m still deciding what to do with my aunties and gran but in the mean time please share this dilemma with me. what are we gonna do?
Some fair trade sites to check out:
no sweat stuff
sweatshop awards
fair wear
unbranded
11 Comments »
Dean on 20 Mar 2007 at 12:31 pm #
Jess! You posted. Good to see your back changing the world one post at a time. It’s a great one too. It’s funny that no matter how much you know and think about materialism and fair trade and all that, it’s still hard. It should be so easy to just take the look crap and not support child labor option, but when it comes down to it, those clothes are gunna look really good on you and you know it.
Rudi and I are working on the doco right now. Sorry, I meant to email you with the details and everything like a week ago. My bad. But I’ll get it to you some time today. It’ll be great to have you involved if you’re still up for it.
Christop on 20 Mar 2007 at 1:40 pm #
You can get second-hand stuff.
Bec on 20 Mar 2007 at 3:44 pm #
Being at uni right near Chapel Street (upper class shopping mania) it’s interesting what you can find. Today I noticed a shop: Material Boy. We sure aren’t afraid to flaunt this materialism thing!
Tab on 20 Mar 2007 at 4:38 pm #
Yeah like Christop, says u can buy 2nd hand – but you can also by 2nd hand fabric and make things urself [i even made a pair of shoes the other day] and its pretty easy to ‘remake’ heaps of stuff u get anyway. It takes a bit of time, but its totally worth it.
Mmm, and u could maybe get sum info together and talk with ur aunts and gran about why you don’t want to just go shopping and buy “whatever”.
People eventually care, not all but some will. I reckon that passion about stuff like this, a willingness to live it and being interesting wins people – to whatever your message is.
Eventually.
Tim Jeffries on 20 Mar 2007 at 10:16 pm #
Op Shops are a pretty good idea I think. I guess the clothes that are sold in them aren’t fair trade, but I don’t think you’re supporting the injustice if you reuse the clothes and pay someone other than whoever made them … are you?
Kate on 21 Mar 2007 at 5:12 pm #
Hi Jess – Its Kate from the front desk at TEAR - hello! One thing I’ve done a bit is buy second hand clothes through eBay. Granted there’s not always going to be suitable things on there but what I’ve done in the past is try something on in a shop and then type in the brand and size on eBay. People are often putting things on there because they have put on/taken off weight or received clothes as a gift that they don’t like. You may get lucky and find a great bargain. I think you can consider it as a form of op shopping – see what you think. Happy 21st!
Karen on 01 Apr 2007 at 6:08 pm #
Another good option is to shop at markets. At smaller local markets there are often stallholders who are selling clothes they’ve made themselves. This is also a good way of supporting local industries. Markets at festivals are also good this is often where I buy clothes from. There’s a few market stallholders who travel the festival circuit and travel overseas and buy directly from those that have made the clothes. Even though they’re probably still not getting what we would consider a fair price here in Australia at least they have had some control over how much their selling their clothes for.
Yesh on 14 Sep 2007 at 3:32 pm #
If you think it’s hard to find good clothes for “grown ups” try finding some for kids, and affordable stuff, especially shoes….. My best option is op-shops and trying to make things last….
Jess Mess on 22 Dec 2007 at 2:02 pm #
Hi All.
I’m currently researching a possible Fair Trade project for Tear WA, taking youth groups fair trade shopping. In Australia there are some great fair trade options ranging from the cheap and trendy to the really expensive boutique kind of stuff. Check out some of these websites:
www.fullystoked.com.au
www.ethicool.com.au
myfairladybird.com
www.ecogirl.com.au
www.nosweatstuff.com.au
www.newint.com.au
www.etikosports.com.au
Jess Mess on 22 Dec 2007 at 2:06 pm #
Hi All.
I’m currently researching a possible Fair Trade project for Tear WA, taking youth groups fair trade shopping. In Australia there are some great fair trade options ranging from the cheap and trendy to the really expensive boutique kind of stuff. Check out some of these websites:
www.fullystoked.com.au (Great fairtrade and organic casual stuff. Good price range as well)
www.ethicool.com.au (Slogan shirts and accessories. Profits go straight to urban third world poor)
myfairladybird.com
www.ecogirl.com.au (Boutique expensive, but pretty)
www.nosweatstuff.com.au
www.newint.com.au (Fair trade and organic, some great slogans)
www.etikosports.com.au (Clothing, shoes, sporting goods, school uniforms, everything centred around urban poor in india, when you a buy a soccar ball an indian child is given a soccar ball as well)
In Perth alone there is Ethical Threads, Oxfam in at least three suburbs, Fair Go Trading, Cafe Loka, The Leaf Bean, Stimulatte, and Ikea for goodness sake.
Just wanted to put it out there, that there are heaps of Fair Trade options around, you just have to be willing to research, shop online and hold back on that impulse buy. My husband and I have been on a fairtrade challenge all of this year, and its been three years since I started buying fair trade clothing. So far so good.
Cheers,
Jess Messenger
Raech on 15 May 2008 at 4:33 pm #
A couple of fairtrade clothing outlets in Perth are Ethical Threads in Subiaco, and The Earth Collection in Fremantle. Some outlets such as The Earth Collection may not be FLO certified, but have an ethical charter. The Margaret River Hemp Shop (Fremantle) also has this. If it’s not just clothing you are interested in, Fair Go Trading (Northbrige) and Oxfam Fairtrade Shop (Fremantle and Perth) are fantasic for gifts and commodoties such as coffee, tea and choccies!
Fair Trade, like any ‘movement’ is consumer and market driven. Make yourselves heard! The old cry of ask and ye shall receive isn’t always on deaf ears. If we start demanding fairtrade options, the market will respond. It’s already happening, but we need to persevere!