H&M is offering organic cotton, but it seems people are dubious regarding the ethical standards of factories that produce for H&M. Wouldn’t it be funny if you could walk into a store and see detailed production data for each rag right on the tag?
“This cashmere sweater was produced with prison labor in Jiangxi province, but the dyes are all natural.”
“This silk/rayon blend scarf was handmade, by a locally owned factory, in a Yunnanese village, but the chemical dyes run off into the nearby Xi brook. Birth defects are common downstream in Wu county.”
“This organic cotton wife beater was produced by workers treated fairly and ethically. The owner of the factory was just shot for bribing the local magistrate.”
But I don’t want to scare people away with my dark, and not very amusing, humor. I do have solutions. With the level of education of the average consumer, we deserve the maximum amount of transparency possible. I propose the following online trading site for handmade goods.
I’m sure you’ve heard of it, but it is a very interesting and strangely retro concept. One of the more interesting aspects of it is that you can see detailed information about the creators and even links to their sites. It is a much friendlier community than ebay. More on this later.
