Ethical Fashion Blog

EARTH WEEK!
EARTH WEEK!

I celebrated Earth Day by having a mini picnic and wearing Mata’s ‘Blue Belle Dress‘.

By choosing to wear Mata’s clothing you are making a difference.  Usually fashion is seen as having a negative effect on our planet (lots of dyes and chemicals are used to produce garments).  Luckily for us, most of Mata Traders’ pieces are hand block printed with eco-friendly vegetable dyes.  Mata also uses fair trade cotton, which means they support small family farms and follow environmental standards that restrict the use of agrochemicals and encourage sustainability.

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THE COOLEST PLACE TO VOLUNTEER
THE COOLEST PLACE TO VOLUNTEER
Our Charity of the Month for April is Inspiration Corporation, the coolest place to volunteer.  IC is a community organization that helps people who are homeless and at risk of homelessness, offering meals, case management, job training, and housing.  What started out 23 years ago as one woman pulling a little red Radio Flyer wagon filled with sandwiches and coffee is now a powerhouse of homeless services.
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AIRING HER DIRTY LAUNDRY
AIRING HER DIRTY LAUNDRY
Congratulations to Human Rights Watch for their successful campaign to have New York Fashion Week cancel Gulnara Karimova’s show, daughter of Uzbekistan’s long-standing dictator.  She was scheduled to present her spring line on the prestigious runway, but HRW and other rights organizations intervened to voice their concerns about her role in her father’s tyrannical government.
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WE WANT THE WORLD TO KNOW.
WE WANT THE WORLD TO KNOW.
There is a kidney disease epidemic happening in western Nicaragua.  In one town, called La Isla, 70% of the men and 30% of the women have it.   People in the area refer to the town, where 30% of the households are headed by widows, as La Isla de las Viudas — The Island of Widows.
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GLOBALFEST – BE THERE AND BE FAIR
GLOBALFEST – BE THERE AND BE FAIR
Join the celebration at Chicago Fair Trade’s annual gala featuring fair trade wine and cocktails, appetizers, and special Day of the Dead brew.  Find elegant fair trade treasures in the silent auction.  Global fest will celebrate the growing consumer support for products that guarantee a fair wage and social benefits to workers.
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PETITION FOR JUSTICE
PETITION FOR JUSTICE
If you’re a fan of Mata Traders, you probably care about how your clothes were made. It’s true that all over the world, people are being exploited – or worse – making the clothing that we wear everyday.
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1000 Fair Trade Towns
1000 Fair Trade Towns
A few weeks after Chicago was declared a Fair Trade City, several more towns will reach that milestone.  Enough to make 1000 fair trade towns in the world!!!!  Fair Trade is clearly a strong and growing movement, as more people shop for fair trade products and demand fair trade options in their towns.  The fair trade towns campaign really epitomizes that expression, “Think Globally, Act Locally.”
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Social Purpose is the New Black
Social Purpose is the New Black
The global marketing firm Edelman conducted their 4th annual good purpose study to explore consumer attitudes around social purpose and their social expectations of companies.  The study surveyed more than 7,000 adults in 13 countries (1,000 in the U.S.) and some noteworthy data has emerged.
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106-year-old new voter
106-year-old new voter
Wednesday I witnessed 106-year-old Ignacia Garibay de Moya request an absentee ballot to vote for the first time in this election.  She became a citizen just months ago on July 19th, 2010.  When asked why she wanted to vote, she said, “I’m a citizen now.  My children are all citizens.  That’s what citizens do.”
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