• Apolis: Global Citizen is the future of garment production – and it’s a necessary future. From Bangledesh to Nepal and Uganda, “Apolis connects developing economies to the global marketplace through seasonal stories and tracks our tangible social results… Although Apolis is heavily inspired by philanthropy, we are a for-profit social enterprise wherein our customers act as benefactors, allowing Apolis to grow as a sustainable business instead of depending on fundraising for support. We have found this model of social business to be the most valuable and effective way to accomplish our ambitious long term goals of “advocacy through industry.”
While I wish (and I find myself doing this too often) that more of the items were free of livestock products, considering the immense ecological toll and inherent cruelty of raising animals to use their skins and hairs (leather & wool), from a human-rights and labor standpoint, I still think this is a very important business model to point out. Here are some of the cruelty-free items from the website:
• 90% off at GILT MAN’s Holiday Sale! Here are some vegan jackets and blazers I’ve selected from the options. If you’re not a GILT Member, get your invitation by clicking HERE.
• Join the club. Point collars and spread collars are not the only options out there. Club collars are rounded, smaller, and offer a soft but sophisticated alternative. They were popular in the first few decades of the twentieth century – and likewise, offer the wearer a subtle antique-gentleman or dandy appeal. The shirt on the right, from Patrik Ervell, does not even require a tie. When wearing a shirt like this, it is best to button up all the way, and layer under a blazer, cardigan, or sweater-jacket. Getting sick of super-skinny ties? (me too!) The club collar is a great excuse to pull out a medium or wide, striped tie.
• SDN’s Spring/Summer ’11 collection features patchwork blazers in reclaimed fabrics, hemp denim jackets with wood buttons, and vintage African fabric trunks for the beach and pool.
• Prophet, or Conspiracy Theorist? Meet Michael Ruppert, a different kind of American. A former Los Angeles police officer turned independent reporter, Ruppert predicted the current financial crisis in his self-published newsletter, From the Wilderness, at a time when most Wall Street and Washington analysts were still in denial. Now, the radical thinker spells out the impending energy, environmental and economic crises he sees ahead.
Don’t miss the premiere of Collapse, Saturday at 10 p.m. on Planet Green, and decide: is Michael Ruppert a prophetic genius or just an average guy?
• The Great Ape Protection Act is designed to address the approximately 1,000 chimpanzees who languish in research laboratories across the United States. The vast majority of these endangered animals are not being used in research experiments, but instead are being warehoused, costing taxpayers millions of dollars each year. The few chimpanzees who are used may be subjected to painful and stressful procedures such as those documented in our undercover investigation at the New Iberia Research Center in Louisiana, where more than 320 chimpanzees now live lives of deprivation and misery.
The Great Ape Protection Act (S. 3694/H.R. 1326), which was recently introduced in the Senate and already has more than 150 cosponsors in the House of Representatives, will phase out harmful research on chimpanzees in laboratories, retire all of the approximately 500 federally-owned chimpanzees to permanent sanctuary, and strengthen the government’s ban on breeding chimpanzees for harmful research.
EDUN, started in 2005 by Ali Hewson and Bono, has relaunched their website, and along with it, a crucial newinitiative: Grow to Sew. One hundred percent of proceeds from the Grow to Sew series will go to the Conservation Cotton Initiative (CCI) in Uganda, an organic farming program created by EDUN and the Wildlife Conservation Society that aims to build sustainable, organic farming communities and offer farmers a fair trade market for their cotton. This comes at the first signs of peace after decades of civil war, strife, and unrest in this once-fertile, cotton growing region of Uganda called Gulu.
As part of the Pre Fall Collection created in honor of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, EDUN introduces a Special Edition Grow to Sew African produced tee shirt series, which features organic cotton, and bold black and white graphics inspired by the vibrancy of the continent. Included in this series is a “South Africa 2010” soccer ball graphic tee that features the shape of the African continent at the center of the ball.
In addition to this initiative, EDUN’s mens’ A/W 2010 collection is looking tremendous with subtle grays, slate blues, tans, and olive. All fair trade, mostly organic cotton. I love everything EDUN stands for, but I do wish they’d ditch that one leather jacket they offer, being that livestock is the worst ecological offender out there ( and it’s just mean) – and there are so many amazing, sustainable alternatives.
Vogue recently announced their list of top Ethical and Sustainable Designers to know, and I was inspired by Carry Somers’ hat line Pachacuti. The hat line started when Somers, on a trip to Ecuador, witnessed inequitable and polluting trading patterns where intermediaries made all the profits. Pachacuti is the first Fair Trade organization to complete the pilot for the new World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO) certification process, has a extensive sustainability initiative, and became the first international Fair Trade business to be able to put ‘Certified Fair Trade and Sustainable’ on all products. To top it off, the hats are really cool and come in so many different styles and colors. Most of the hats are cruelty-free, but I’m not crazy about the fact that some have leather (the worst possible thing to use if you care about ecology).
A lot of the others on the Vogue list lead me to ask what they think is ethical or sustainable about leather & wool? Not to toot my own horn (toot! toot!) but The Discerning Brute’s Top 20 Designers To Know by Earth Day list is a bit more accurate and informed when it comes to tackling the real ecological problems with fashion production.
My Life’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades. Acetate or Silver and Bamboo Aviator Unitdot Bamboo Sunglasses, by Designer Cyrus Wong, come in 3 stylish designs and are available with a promotion price of $120. With every Unitdot Bamboo Eyewear sold, $3 will be donated to UNICEF for the orphaned street children worldwide and Excentree will donate a tree for each pair sold.
These sneaks from F-Troupe are all canvas with a rubber sole. On a bike, in the park, or just chilling out – I can’t imagine not having a ton of fun while wearing these. Available at BBlessing.
According to Time Magazine, The international community rejected U.S.-led efforts to expand protections for a number of endangered and threatened species at a meeting of the U.N. Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Of the roughly 40 proposals on the agenda, the most contentious dealt with a prized fish. Japan, which imports nearly 80% of bluefin tuna for use in sushi and sashimi, fought hard against a proposed trade ban. Conservationists warned against prioritizing economic interests over the survival of an entire species.
Bluefin tuna: A proposed trade ban was rejected despite the depletion of much of the world’s bluefin stock
Elephant: A ban on trading ivory was reaffirmed, though Tanzania and Zambia pushed for it to be lifted
Shark: Only one of four species hunted for shark-fin soup, the porbeagle, was granted protection
Trad and True. Linen and linen blends say casual confidence. When a fabric like linen (also known as flax) is grown, there is no need for pesticides. In addition, the fibers are incredibly strong and have an amazing ability to handle humidity and heat. The hand-feel is rugged, yet lux, and the crumple-factor adds an air of nonchalance. Check these picks from J.Crew, J. Press, Paul Stewart, C.P Company, Etro, Paul Smith, Brooks Brothers, Alexander Olch, Band of Outsiders and John Varvatos:
Food Is Bombs.
The world’s hottest chili is being turned into hand-grenades in India. While not deadly, bhut jolokia, the worlds hottest chili, is intended to render suspects harmless in much the same way tear gas does. But just because it’s a pepper, does not mean it’s not still chemical warfare.
Tigers in Twilight.
• Shenyang Zoo Abuse: There are tons of reasons to be against zoos, but in China, where 11 endangered Siberian tigers starved to death (and 3 more are in critical condition), it’s clear that international attention and action needs to shut these zoo-slums down for good. Some people argue that their kids will never get to see a tiger in the wild, and a zoo is a way to get them to see and care about the tigers. But with this line of logic should we also be caging and showcasing everything else your kids might not see like tribal peoples?Life in a cage for animals that roam free is torture, plain and simple.
• To Save a Snow Leopard: In Afghanistan, a hunter captured one of the rarest creatures alive: a snow leopard. But the hunter who snared the snow leopard saw only a $50,000 price tag. That was the fee supposedly offered by a wealthy Pakistani businessman to any hunter in the Wakhan who could deliver a snow leopard — alive. But the capture of a snow leopard, once believed to be extinct in Afghanistan, didn’t stay secret for long. The feline was to become the object of a four-day rescue operation that involved NATO forces, the U.S. ambassador in Kabul, a royal prince and even Afghan President Hamid Karzai. But the mission would end like so many others of similarly good intentions in Afghanistan.
What’s the best part about Sweet & Sarah’s Easter marshmallows in the shapes of chicks, bunnies, and eggs? There no boiled cow or horse hooves, tendons or cartilage in them! Don’t get me wrong – I love how cute Peeps are as much as the next guy, but there’s something as sinister and creepy as a Zombie-Jesus about disguising nasty slaughterhouse-scraps as yummy candy for kids. Thanks to Sweet & Sarah your celebration of Easter doesn’t have to support factory farming.
Also, don’t forget to include some vegan Cadbury-style ‘cream’-filled eggs from the Chocolate Wendy House.
• GQ’s Spring Must-Haves include a vegan new-wave boat shoe from Sperry Topsiders (without those leather laces, finally), fancy pocket squares of every pattern and color, bright and bold striped ties and straw fedoras.
When searching for a striped tie that isn’t made from hundreds of worms who are boiled alive, we suggest hitting up your local thrift or vintage store which typically have piles of ties or our favorite vegan tie company, Jaanj.com. As for straw fedoras, that one thing we love about spring. You can avoid the wool hats and go with a 100% plant-based straw hat. LiViTY makes recycled, hemp, organic, and fair trade fedoras in some bold patters and classic shapes, and Engineered Garments makes an organic linen boater cap. We suggest keeping a lid on it and sticking to classics like these:
The Hill-Side offers some selvedge Pocket Squares that we find quite fetching:
• I’ll be as happy as the next guy to see SeaWorld go under. The next guy is our pal Gary Smith, and he’s written an article on SeaWorld and the exploitation of dolphins and whales that flooded the enterprise with a 1.4 billion profit last year. In the article over at Elephant Journal. Ric O’Barry, who was featured in the Oscar-nominated documentary film “The Cove” and serves as the marine mammal specialist for Earth Island Institute, shares some thoughts with Gary on the recent killer whale tragedy. If you needed to be convinced that captive seas mammals are unhappy, this will do it!
“Orcas are the most social animal on the planet, even more so than us,” said O’Barry. “Males will stay with their mothers their entire lives. When we capture an animal like Tilikum, we take him away from the two most important things of his life; the world of sound and family. We put them in a concrete box and expect him to stay mentally healthy. It simply doesn’t work.” - Rick O’Barry, Marine Mammal Specialist EII
• Is Discovery’s Planet Green FINALLY getting the meat/global warming connection? Or not. The promos for Emeril’s Green(washed) Kitchen still lists “beef” as a major ingredient, but I got a recipe for vegan chocolate mousse in my inbox this morning, and they have a vegan section. Strangely, their new showFuture Food: Gastronomic Geniuses seems like a bunch of dudes playing with their meat. The video showcases these “geniuses” shooting bratwurst with paint-balls, and trying to figure out the tastiest way to serve this meat up in mad-science ways. The maddest science is showcasing meat on a self-proclaimed “green” network when it’s the #1 cause of global warming! Hey Discovery, WTF!?
• Rock It Out: A Night to Benefit New York’s Farm Animal Sanctuaries
Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary
This benefit will feature live musical performances, a scrumptious vegan bake sale, and an awesome raffle all to benefit farm animals at Farm Sanctuary and the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary! Check out what these sanctuaries do to save animals like Billy, who was taken in after almost being killed by a sledgehammer at a dairy farm just a few weeks ago:
Saturday, March 6, 2010 from 7:00pm – 10:00pm
Location: Reidy Hall at All Souls Church, 1157 Lexington Ave @ 80th St, Basement Level
$10 pre-sale, $15 at the door (cash only)
Pre-sale tickets can be purchased at: https://www.mycommunitytickets.com/event_info.asp?eventid=26496
• Did society create monstrous people, or do a collective of monstrous people create civilization? This was the topic of last week’s Hardcore History, and we suggest you listen. Totally mind-bending! Could widespread child abuse and bad parenting in earlier eras explain some of history’s brutality? We think so.
• Learn to Lobby for Animals with the HSUS. We are only a few weeks away from the 2010 New York State Humane Lobby Day on Wed, March 24th in Albany. Join fellow activists to help pass legislation to crack down on animal fighters, stop puppy mills, end canned shoots of captive exotic wildlife, and protect farm animals from cruel treatment. To RSVP and get more info, click HERE.
• Jessica Reid asks GGA readers if a No Kill Nation is possible when it comes to dog shelters. There’s always a fierce discussion on the GGA comment-board, so have you say!
“The truth is you cannot blame having to kill shelter animals on an “irresponsible public” or “too many animals” when a shelter doesn’t implement lifesaving and low cost programs. I personally witnessed missed opportunity after missed opportunity from alienating potential fosters to terrible customer service to rude behavior toward rescue groups. I heard the same stories from other volunteers. These were not isolated cases. These were failures of management and staff to do what they should be doing: saving lives.”
“We’re looking to kill a deer in the name of manliness”.
That’s what the host and subject of the documentary film “An Emasculating Truth” (presented by Dockers) says in the trailer. The trailer consists of very “manly” killing-things-drinking-womanizing-weight-lifting-bull-riding-gun-shooting-circumcising stuff that all lead to a Dockers-wearing dude trying to find out why men are becoming such sissies? Gosh, can’t we get back to being rugged, chiseled, animal-killing, stoic cowboys? Or can’t we at least embrace being lazy, apathetic, sloppy, couch-potato assholes who ignore our kids and expect the woman to cook and clean? I mean, if we’re gonna’ embrace gender stereotypes, why not all of them? When did becoming a man have to have so much… hair product in it?
“Women will succeed. They will eliminate men probably in a thousand years. There’ll be like a few men and like a lotta’ lesbians”.
Masculinity is in danger! Testosterone is down, 17% in the last 14 years! Men are becoming superficial, vain, feminized, gay, metrosexual, and ruled by the ladies they should otherwise be smacking around! Let’s blame it on Tofu! Or how about your female boss. That bitch. We’ve gotta organize and take this society and turn it into a patriarchy! oh, wait…
While Dockers doesn’t actually advocate violence toward women in this film, (just animals – who really aren’t deserving of consideration anyway, you sissy) they are capitalizing on a very trendy idea. A percieved loss of male identity within a culture that is already male-dominated seems to be satirical. But what if there is some truth behind this joke? Being the one who “wears the pants” basically means not letting a woman influence your decisions. Jamie Doak over at BUST Magazine does an excellent job of summarizing the sexism-as-satire vs actual sexism that can be found in this new Dockers Campaign. I guess it might be humorous if the Levi-Strauss company didn’t have such a recent and horrible history of abusing female workers:
Late in 1991 a Levi’s contractor in the US Pacific territory of Saipan was accused of keeping imported Chinese women in virtual slavery, confiscating their passports and forcing them to work 84-hour weeks at sub-minimum wages. A contractor in Indonesia who had been given a clean bill of health by a Levi’s inspector was found to be strip-searching female workers to determine whether they were menstruating as they claimed and thus were entitled to a day off with pay in accordance with Muslim law. Employees of a former Levi’s contractor in Mexico said that at least ten children aged under 14 worked at the plant; workers were laid off for a few days if they went to the toilet ‘too often’, and rain-water poured through the roof, collecting in puddles and causing electric shocks. source
May favorite part about Dockers’ Facebook page is the poll:
“Right or wrong taking a stand”? Total bullshit. Wearing toxic conventional cotton pants made by underpaid, mostly female workers is not taking a stand. It’s falling in line. Did you know that between 1981 and 1998 the Levi Strauss company, who owns Dockers, closed 69 plants and put 17,795 people out of work in the United States, including 1,000 white-collar jobs? They moved all their labor overseas and into Mexico where they can pay people less and factories continue to expectantly violate human rights. Even more factories have been moved overseas and into Mexico since then.
While Levi’s now claims to enforce strict labor standards at its factories, its recent history of mostly-female worker exploitationand its even more recent business (late 2007) with Maquiladoras that continue to violate workers’ rights in Mexico tells a different story. As recently as August of 2009, a factory in Lesotho making Levi’s was caughtdumping needles, razors and harmful chemicals at two municipal dumps that attract young children who search for pieces of clothing to sell. It’s not a desirable thing have leaked into the mainstream media, but the point is that when you have factories all over the developing world, its difficult and costly to maintain strict environmental and labor standards. Levi’s has made huge improvements – including beginning to purchase organic cotton and offer recycled denim, but WRAP certification might be a smart next step.
So what does it really mean to be a man who wears Dockers? Is this campaign a joke? You tell us.
Grasp your pearls, for the future of the luxury market is at risk! We saw this video over at EcoStiletto (a special that appeared on The Luxury Channel) and were both intrigued and sort of disgusted by these luxury brands who are finally realizing that their own futures are at risk if the resource-tap they call Earth dries up. With their own mortality in sight, the main question this video raises is, “Does looking and acting rich conflict with sustainability?” Hello? Does a bear shit in the woods?
Let’s get over the noble idea that these brands actually care about the Earth, right now. It’s like the classic case where a Hollywood mega-star get’s a disease and then suddenly they’re the biggest advocate for finding a cure. They are simply trying to save their own existence, which is not the worst thing. Often it can help, but in the case of an entire market, that means certain sacred cows can not be questioned. Like what? Poverty. Caste and class systems. Money. Materialism. Greed. Hierarchical power structures. Resource access. Viewing the planet as a stockpile of resources. Anthropocentrism. The list goes on.
One glaring issue is that companies like Gucci, Balenciaga, Yves Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Alexander MQueen, and others that rule the world of luxury, who perpetuate images of desirable and unattainable lifestyles, are all addicted to leather, fur, cashmere, wool, and other animal products. We also know that raising livestock is the single greatest ecological threat that exists. So, until these brands convert all their products to be vegan (which is possible), it’s all greenwashing and very difficult to take them seriously. Even Stella McCartney, who uses no fur or leather, still uses plenty of wool. Once again, when talking about environment and sustainability, the livestock industry was completely brushed over and left out, although it is the single greatest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.
If we leave it up to luxury brands to define the mainstream understanding of environmentalism, of course extracting things from nature and turning them into expensive products (and the social and political atmosphere maintaining their position to do those things) will not be questioned in itself. If we let luxury brands use their powerful positions to create the mainstream discourse on sustainability, it’s like letting a drug addict head up the ATF.
I was astounded to hear the list of luxury brands who helped create the documentary “Home” by Yann Arthus Bertrand. Do they not see how drastically they need to change everything about themselves? If the current definition of sustainability is “meeting the needs of the present without undermining the ability of future generations to meet their needs” then I wonder whether these brands could ever be capable of accommodating such an aspiration as that?
According to the video, the “I am not a plastic bag” phenomenon reduced plastic bag consumption in England, but is it simply an accessory of mass distraction as The Observer’s George Monibiot suggests? My fear is that greenwashing will prevail, not unlike the Canadian Fur Council’s “Fur is Green” and Diesel’s “Global Warming Ready” campaigns, and they will attempt to capitalize on the market value of “green” as opposed to actually changing industry practices from labor and environmental impact to animal welfare.
Heritage is what is at risk for luxury brands. Changing the factories, formulas, and ingredients of their products changes who they are at the core, which is a huge and uncertain undertaking. But if done thoroughly, honestly, and openly, it’s more than an opportunity. It’s common sense. It’s not biting off the hand that feeds them. It’s realizing that there is only one Planet Earth, yet many of us live in a way that requires three Earths to sustain the status quo.
What do you think? Can luxury brands change their ways? Or is the very nature of luxury in conflict with sustainability?
Topo Ranch makes some cool, organic, cowboy-cut shirts, jackets and tees for you dudical dudes out there who like yokes. You know… yokes? Those diamondy shapes on the shoulders, duh.
What’s missing from this picture of “The Carbon Bathtub”? National geographic seems to have left out one really important cause of global warming in their latest issue. According to them, 4/5 of greenhouse gas is caused by burning fossil fuels and the rest in from deforestation and other changes in land use. Not a thing mentioned about livestock. Infuriating! Yet this World Watch Institute article says that half of ghgs are caused by the farming industry. Write Nat Geo a nice letter explaining your concern about this oversight: ngsforum@ngm.com
This “Sailor” sweatshirt from KOMODO, collaborated on by German designer Kilian Kerner is 100% organic cotton and is simple, rugged, and handsome. Why complicate things?
If you get a round to it,you might want to pick up a pair of classic, round glasses or sunglasses. I’d steer clear of the exact John Lennon/Harry Potter wire-frame, and go with more of a “The Thomas Crown Affair” Steve McQueen iconic shape in a thicker frame. Like Cary Grant here, you’ll like it. What have you got to lose when everyone has aviators and wayfarers?
not being used in research experiments, but instead are being warehoused, costing taxpayers millions of dollars each year. The few chimpanzees who are used may be subjected to painful and stressful procedures such as those documented in our 
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• Did society create monstrous people, or do a collective of monstrous people create civilization? This was the topic of 
