Green Mama Goals: Knowing What You Wear

I have long been a lover of fashion. Give me some sparkle and black and white stripes and I’m sold. But the amount of money I threw at building my wardrobe over the years is ridiculous. Not to mention wasteful. And therein lies the problem: waste. It’s hard for me to strive towards green efforts when I don’t examine the kinds of things I wear. Not only have I spent a great deal of money on things I barely would wear but I was clueless to the implications of buying brand new clothes both for the planet and the people who make it.

Do you know where your clothes come from?

Up until recently, I didn’t.

According to Not For Sale.org, there are a great deal of companies that still use slave labor to produce clothes. These are companies you and I know very well such as Fruit of the Loom, Forever 21, etc. To read more about their report, check it out here. It is really disheartening to think that profits can trump human rights and that some of the brands that I have always loved aren't ethical in their practices. The problem is that these companies outsource their labor but don't follow through to make sure their workers are being treated fairly. 

It is with this in mind I am making it a new goal to purchase most of our clothes secondhand. This isn’t much of a stretch since I tend to do that anyways, especially when it comes to dressing the baby mermaid. (She grows out of everything in the blink of an eye so I try to buy secondhand anyways).  I am simply making it official now. My long term goal is make our clothes but that will have to wait until I get better with the sewing machine! I have about six sketchbooks solely for clothing designs I have made over the years so when the time comes I will have lots of inspiration.