Social Activist: Fwd: When the Knockoff is More Ethical Than the Original

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From: The Daily GOOD <hello@goodinc.com>
Date: Thu, May 31, 2012 at 1:29 PM
Subject: When the Knockoff is More Ethical Than the Original
To: GOOD Readers <technologiclee@gmail.com>

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Ethical Style: How to Buy a More Ethical Knockoff

TODAY'S GOOD

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Modern fashion is a sprint. By the time a designer sends a new style down the runway, it's only a matter of weeks before the trend hits fashion blogs, migrates to high-end boutiques, and is dumped en masse on your nearest knockoff mega-retailer. But the rush to snap up the latest thing doesn't leave much time to consider what we're actually buying.

Now, a more thoughtful fashion outlet is intercepting the cycle. Fashioning Change is a website that helps trendsetters find ethically-produced, eco-friendly alternatives to whatever the big-name brands are selling this week—in less time than it takes to circle the racks at a Forever 21. Just tell Fashioning Change the types of brands and retailers you usually shop at—and the charitable causes you prefer to support—and the site's "Changing Room" will offer more ethical versions of the latest trend from Gucci, Tory Burch, J. Crew, or Guess.

Take peplum—the short overskirt trend that's turned up on the waists of Oscar nominees and fashion models this season. Hit Topshop, and you could spend $68 on a polyester peplum skirt of questionable origin. But head to Fashioning Change, and you'll be invited to consider investing $100 on a better peplum—one made of wax cotton, constructed at a fair wage by seamstresses from Ghana's Dzidefo Women's Cooperative, and produced by Afia, a designer committed to sustainable fashion. The upcharge helps supply eight Ghanaian women with their livelihood, support local fabric production and culture, and encourage the continued innovation and ethical commitment of emerging designers—and provides a cute new skirt for your closet.

When Adriana Herrera launched Fashioning Change last year, she wanted it to be a fashion site first, a vehicle for sustainable change second. "I wish we could stop calling it 'ethical fashion,'" Herrera says—a term that evokes images of strictly unfashionable do-gooders swathed in hemp necklaces and fleece jackets. In reality, Herrera says, "every designer has a point of view"—her site just elevates the best to the top. And while she's strict about the ethical underpinnings of every brand she takes on, she's also keenly aware of the realities of the bottom line. After all, if a product upholds ethical standards at every stage of the production process but fails to capture the consumer's interest, it won't do anyone any good.