The Righteous Capitalists
Original Description:
After decades of bad news and tragedies in the far-off places where our clothing is made, we would all like to think the fashion and apparel industry has changed their ways. For the most part, they have not. They certainly talk more about fair trade and sustainability on their websites and take every opportunity to add a tag to new clothing stating that some small portion of the garment was made without exploiting people or the environment. The industry has consistently said that the complications, size, and scope of what they do means progress will be real slow no matter how much they believe in safe workplaces with fair pay and high environmental standards.
On the one hand, I call BS on them. Where there's a will and a willingness to sacrifice, there's a way. On the other hand, I can understand how the complexity and size is difficult to address, because that is exactly why we have yet to address the fashion industry on The Righteous Capitalists. There are lots of people doing so many great things, more people doing horrendous things, and still more people saying they're doing great things, but don't check under the hood to verify. The question for us has been, "Where do we start?"
We are starting with Andrea Reyes, who has seen every part of the fashion industry from the inside. Andrea has given us her time to talk broadly about the fashion industry - kind of a Fashion 101 class if we were still in school. We spend a lot of time talking about how clothing is made - from raw materials off of a farm or petroleum plant, all the way to when you see a garment in the store. It is a wonderfully enlightening discussion that sets us up to have lots more guests from the fashion and apparel industry.
We have also put lots of great references to books, documentaries and articles on our website for a deeper dive. Just click on the giant microphone to go to the episode and these resources.
Thank you for listening.
Enjoy!
Doug
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