Day 30 – What I’m Wearing
Shirt – Charity Shop
Cardigan – Charity Shop
Skirt – Oasis
Today I’m cheating a little bit (shhh), this is actually yestersdays outfit, but I forgot to get a photo taken today, and as I’m not very good at taking photos of myself you’re going to have to wait for the final outfit of my challenge.
Over the next few days I’ll be compiling all my outfits into a glorious photoshop montage, complete with documentation of all my 30 items – stay tuned – it’s going to get pretty exciting!
Tomorrow I shall be returning to my full wardrobe, but hopefully not returning to my old ways of wearing the same things over and over and thinking I have nothing to wear. For the first time in ages I have absolutely no desire to buy new clothes. I’ve got my whole wardrobe to remix!
A few people have hinted that they would be interested in doing the 30/30 challenge for themselves. Are you one of them? If so let me know, leave a comment or get in touch, if there is enough interested we could start a movement! I have a few ideas up my sleve on how we could develop this little idea.
Let me know if you’re up for it.
Day 30 – Why Campaigning Matters
In earlier posts I’ve talked about and alluded to the importance of campaigning. I’m often refereed to as the ‘activist’ at YPHR (a title I’m not entirely sure is accurate). At University I spent my time campaigning against the things I didn’t like, yes I was that student. When it comes to Human Rights and fashion I still think it’s one of the best ways to change things.
I could stop shopping in the stores that I don’t like, the ones that offend my sense of justice, but there really wouldn’t be much point. There is almost no point in boycotting a company unless you tell them why you are doing it. Unless a company does very detailed market research to find out why I no longer shop there they are unlikely to know that I am combating human rights abuses with my shopping habits.
If I write a letter then they will. If lots of people write letters they will start to listen. If they are the target of a campaign then they will most likely mobilise a PR and CSR team to defend themselves.
Someone once told me (I have no idea if it is true or not) that if Marks and Spencer receive 6 letters raising a significant issue then it will get discussed at their board meeting. That’s not very many letters for a very high level discussion.
Campaigning groups have achieved an incredible amount in this field. Students helped break the back of anti-union sentiments in Honduras. Campaigning regularly gives the ‘market’ a nudge in the right direction. The proliferation of fairtrade goods can be attributed to thousands of active campaigners, people putting pressure on their universities on big business and in changing people’s attitudes towards fairtrade. Obviously these are complex issues, but campaigners often blaze a trail which the wider public are happy to follow.
I do believe that we need to shift our attitudes and spending habits, but when we do so we need to tell people why we are doing it, the market will listen, but sometimes you need to shout.
Day 25 – What I’m Wearing
Dress – Charity Shop
Jumper – Miss Selfridge
Day 25 – Reflections on my Challenge
Wearing a different outfit everyday is hard. Apparently I am a creature of habit, I have certain outfits that I ‘turn to’, if it is the weekend and it’s cold then I will wear jeans and my rabbit jumper, for a presentation for work, my black skirt and cream top with lace insert. This challenge has forced me to wear items together that I would never normally have done, (todays outfit for example, I’m still not entirely sure it actually matches). I really hope that this will get me out of my ‘outfit’ rut, not once have i thought ‘I’ve got nothing to wear’ instead getting dressed has become a mini creative challenge. I think that my outfits will become more creative as the challenge draws to an end. It’s made me think about all the clothes that I don’t wear, if I can motivate myself I’m going to have a big clear out this weekend.
Men (apparently) don’t own that many items of clothing. I’m not entirely sure this is true but almost every man that I’ve talk about the challenge with has told me something along the lines of ‘I don’t even own that many clothes’. Are women more fashion obsessed? I’ll leave that for you to debate in the comments section. But I do think that men have much more of a ‘uniform’ particularly in the workplace.
More people than I thought are interested, and surprised by the issues that I’m covering. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the number of hits I’ve had on my challenge blog, it’s always lovely to have comments, especially when they are from people I don’t event know! It’s sparked a few conversations at work, with people commenting that it’s made them think and look at their wardrobes a little bit differently. I thought that the issues that I’ve covered are fairly ‘well know’, but apparently not – the posts about Uzbekistan in particular have raised eyebrows.
Have you been inspired by the challenge? Why not do it yourself, this lady is running a signup for the 30/30 challenge, why not join in?
I’m definitely going to be doing this challenge again… but maybe in a few more months.
Day 23 – What I’m Wearing
Top – H&M
Skirt – Oasis
Cardigan – Zara
I can’t write much tonight, Littlewoods have called, they are looking for new catalogue models…
Day 23 – UK Sweatshops
Sadly sweatshops are thriving the in western world. A recent investigation by Chanel 4’s dispatches programme uncovered sweatshops in the UK, you can see some of their secret filming in Leicester here
Although these revelations may be surprising to most views they come as no shock to those in the know, Labour Behind the Label made this statement following the programme;
[we express] shock but not surprise at the UK sweatshop charges brought against high street retailer Arcadia Group among others. Such revelations confirm claims that the company is simply not doing enough to ensure workers producing their goods are doing so in decent conditions.
Arcadia group states that it is committed to paying a living wage throughout its supply chain, but it claims such a commitment is impossible to translate into reality unless wages are set by law. Yet even in the UK, where a living wage is protected by law, workers are being paid less than half the minimum wage.’
In this instance the clothing groups implicated in this programme blamed the sub-contracting of production, a practice that conveniently allows major chains to shrug off such abuses as not being their fault. Tracking a supply chain is easy and is common practice in the food industry. You may remember that at the start of the year there was a food scare over imported liquid eggs, the food industry was able to quickly track where these eggs had gone, where they had been used and which products contained them, allowing them to be removed from the shelves. Global tracking already happens in complex supply chains, why not in fashion?
Day 22 – What I’m Wearing
Jumper – Dorothy Perkins
Top (Underneath) – Dorothy Perkins
Jeans – Howies
You may have noticed that I’ve been a bit rubbish lately about posting. I could make a tonne of excuses, but instead I shall spend the rest of the evening uploading my outfits. Luckily for you I got home late today and missed the start of Glee, as Glee is best enjoyed whole I now have some spare time on my hands.
ps if you haven’t come across howies before be sure to take a look, although pricy the company is pretty awesome.
Day 22 – Organisations you should get to know
When setting up YPHR we wanted our members to broaden their understanding of the human rights sector, and provide a ‘first point of contact’ for people wanting to work in Human Rights. With this in mind today I’m going to be taking thoroughly uncomprehnsive look at the organisation that work in fields aligned with my 30/30 challenge.
In no particular order:
Network of organisations supporting garment worker’s efforts worldwide to defend rights and improve wages. They produce research papers, organise campaigns and bring together organisations working in the field. A great resource.
Provides campaigns against sweatshops and child labor, in the UK and around the world. They work in solidarity with workers around the world and it’s fair to say are predominantly anti-capitalist. They have a bank of information on businesses and their relationship with sweatshops.
Environmental Justice Foundation
You may remember EJF from my posts on Uzbekistan, working on the basis that environmental sustainability is a human right. They work with organisations in the Global South, they help build their capacity to campaign and change the injustices around them. They run campaigns in the UK and produce great reports highlighting current causes for concern.
United Students Against Sweatshops is an American student organising that works to kick sweatshops, or rather sweatshop made merchandise, off campus in the USA. They’ve been very successful at reducing the amount of sweatshop made clothing in US Universities and have played pivotal roles in fighting anti-union activity in factories.
War on Want campaign for human rights and against the root causes of global poverty, inequality and injustice. They cover a broad range of topics including a campaign on workers rights; ‘Love fashion hate sweatshops‘. If you want to action then their resources offer a good starting point and their resources offer a good introduction the issues concerned and the wider causes of global inequality.
A campaign looking to raise standards in the garment industry in asia this ambitious coalition of organisations are lobbying for a ‘floor wage’ or minimum wage to be instituted.
If you are a student and you want to get active on sweatshops (or other things) People and Planet should be your new best friend, but then again I would say that, I’m biased
Day 21 – What I’m Wearing
Lace Top – Charity Shop
Jeans – UniQlo
Tea Set – Models Own
Today, you will see, we’re being a little arty and using props, very exciting.
Have you noticed how facinated I am by the right hand corner of my lounge, I just can’t stop looking there. If you ever come over be sure to look – you may realise I’m willing the curtain rail not to fall down.
Day 17 – What I’m Wearing
Dress – Zara
Cardigan – Charity Shop
My housemate accused me of cheating with my outfit today. Apparently wearing the same dress with a different cardigan doesn’t count. I disagree, I think I look totally different. See for yourself. Please note, different accessories AND a different hair style, how much more different could one dress look?
I have also been accused of having a cardigan fetish and in documenting my outfits I’ve realised there might be some trusth in this. In my defence, it is a lot easier to create multipul outfits with cardigans than with with jumpers. As I have discovered once I’ve worn with my favourite jumper with my much loved jeans that’s it. Can’t wear that again until the end.
I am going to have a massive jumper wearing binge at the end of this. Perhaps my next challenge will be to just wear my three favourtie jumpers for the next 30 days. On the first day I may wear them all at once.
Human Rights Wardrobe 