By Marissa Greenwood, ILRF intern
Season after season, trends change; women stop wearing the dress from a month ago, the jeans from two weeks ago, and the shoes that haven’t even seen the light of day. Like fashion trends, the issues we care about arguably change too often. Like our dresses, jeans, and shoes, we change our concerns. One day we’ll be wear a t-shirt to stop the genocide in Darfur, the next we’ll be watching Blood Diamond and then we’ll polish off the week by buying our compact fluorescent light bulbs and organic cotton sweaters. It’s interesting, like fashion, people are fickle in what issues they choose to support.
One concern with fashion that should never be just a trend is ensuring that what we choose to wear is made in a sweatshop-free environment. This is a difficult task, considering, the vastness of the industry and the lack of information about the sources of the clothes. Luckily, a couple of organizations have done some of the work for you! Every year ILRF teams up with Sweatfree Communities and Sweatshop Watch to release the Shop with a Conscience Consumer Guide. The Shop with a Conscience Consumer Guide is a listing of stores that sell wares that are entirely “made by workers organized into democratic unions or worker-owned cooperatives.” Each of the companies listed in the guide underwent a rigorous application process to guarantee that each of them meet the criteria necessary for the guide.
Shopping with a conscience is more important now than ever before. Globalization has led us to value the products we buy that are produced worldwide, but unfortunately at a cost to many. The situation is ironic, because it is apparent that sweatshops are completely unnecessary for further economic development – the global economy can sustain itself without sacrificing fair and equal standards for workers. Half of the work is done for you, now all you need to do is go online and shop!
And if you need a little help deciding what to buy, check out a store we like, Just Shirts.
Just Shirts is a Canadian company that believes that trade should be
beneficial for all parties involved. As part of their commitment to
fair trade, they adhere to four principles – cooperation, 
fair pricing,
sustainability, and transparency. In addition to their commitment to
fair trade standards and principles, Just Shirts also dedicates any
excess resources to providing educational and social opportunities to
the children of their cooperative partners.
Selling a selection of easy to wear basic t-shirts and hoodies, the
real stand-out of Just Shirts is the array of graphic tees and hoodies.
For ladies, we like the Cityscape t-shirt, featuring the hectic urban
jungle transforming into serene countryside.
Usually wearing obvious brands and advertisements isn’t the best taste. But fair-trade is always tasteful, as is the Fairly Traded hoodies for guys.
Finally, we have a cute little t-shirt for kids, My First Bike.
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