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How do you balance a profitable business with ethical issues?
You have to try very hard and you must be competitive. There is no pity in the market. It's much easier to be a slob, we could all be slobs and use anything. Fur, PVC you name it. But who said designing was meant to be easy?
How can the average consumer support the move towards cleaner clothes?
I think they should be asking questions, asking: what is it made out of? Is it certified organic? Also, consumers should ask where it�s made. You need to avoid places that don�t have good labor laws.
Most ethical fashion companies seem to be setting up on the web. Why isn�t there more availability on the high street?
Mail order is good and it�s cheaper. The web is good, you have your independence and I think that is very important. You find companies involved with huge conglomerates can have their hands tied on environmental issues. It�s very hard to separate the environment from politics and you will find that the slightest whisper of any political implication and any company which has a backer won�t be allowed to do anything. Their backers will silence them, because the conventional business wisdom is that you shut up about such things and get on with it.
How can ethical fashion become more competitively priced?
I think what is needed is to go along the same lines as organic food to achieve that level of cool chic. We need to give organic clothing a gourmet market; it needs to be seen as an affordable luxury.
Organic fabric is available. It is cheap. Sixty per cent of a farmer�s expense is agrochemicals, so farming organically is actually cheaper. However, there are all these agents jumping on the eco-bandwagon and adding extra amounts, like a dollar per pound, onto the organic cotton prices. There are farmers in Zimbabwe who are growing cotton organically although they haven�t got a market for it and they are selling it to the conventional cotton mills. They are growing it organically because it�s cheaper. We can get there!
About the author:
I work for the ethical clothes directory which also sells fair trade clothes, plus we have Ethical Company articles for you to read or publish.
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