Really, I have no excuse. I've had my own computer for a week now, and before that, I've had full use of a borrowed laptop and yet, still, no posts. The last one is over a month old. Looks like this is going to be harder than I thought.
And speaking of harder than I thought, turns out it's not so easy building a fair trade wardrobe either. My goal was to only buy items from companies who supported fair wages - there are few. It looks like I'm not going to be able to take the all or nothing approach I was hoping for, but at least I'm trying. For Christmas I just broke down and did some shopping at Target - lack of time and resources sort of forced the issue. I did, however, buy a few things from my friend's sale of items she had purchased fairly and brought back from S. America in her many travels there.
Back from the holidays and determined to get back on track, I got online and did some shopping with Fair Indigo. So far, the experience has been fairly pleasant. The sizes tend to run a little large and it's also hard to judge how something is going to look by viewing an online picture, so I've had to send a few items back. The nice thing is that they try to make it easy by including a return form and shipping label in the package. What's not so great is that they also deduct the cost of postage from your refund or exchange, so if you return something you have to pay for shipping twice (a fixed price for returns, though, so if you have a bulk of items the cost of returning them is cheaper than the price of shipping them to you. On the other hand, if you're only sending one thing back, it's probably cheaper to take it to the post office yourself, and of course you always have that option.)
The clothes are just lovely, and well made. The 100% cotton blue jeans I purchased were the most comfortable things I've ever worn, even pre-washed. However, I bought a 10, which was just a bit too large, so I had to return them. I think the next size down would've fit like a glove, but they were sold out of my leg length (yes, they sell by waist and leg length, a real bonus for petites). The front part around the zipper was kind of pouchy, but not especially noticeable, just as described by one of the reviewers. Each item online has a space for product reviews by customers which are extremely helpful when trying to figure out what something is actually going to look like when worn. For the most part, the reviews are positive and my experience is that they are also pretty accurate. Something else you will find in reading the product reviews are references to discussions with customer service people - real live people! People answering questions and listening to suggestions. When I made my order, I received what seemed like a personalized email thank you from one of the store representatives. It's currently a small operation, with only one store in Madison, WI and of course the online store and catalog. Time magazine has more information about the company's origins.
The items were a bit pricey, so I only shopped from the sale page, which had plenty to choose from and considering the quality, not to mention that good feeling you get from supporting a good cause, it's a pretty good deal overall.
One thing I've learned as I have delved into this journey of responsible consumerism is that this is a much bigger issue than just fair wage alone. The short film on this website: http://www.storyofstuff.com/ provides a concise run down of what else is at stake here - namely, the health of our planet and the survival of its inhabitants.
