The Discerning Brute: fashion, food & etiquette for the ethically handsome man » sweatshop

Who Wears The Pants?

joshuakatcher — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 02:00:19 +0000

"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 exploitation and 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 caught dumping 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.

Getting All Huffy & Shoes by the Gram

TheDiscerningBrute — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 20:01:29 +0000

1. Getting All Huffy About It:

Photograph by Phillip Toledano - Vanity Fair 'Green Issue' 2008

Right before Earth Day, Todd Paglia, Executive Director of Forest Ethics, a forest protection organization, blogged about the hypocricies of Vanity Fair and other copycat magazines' so-called 'green' issues in the Huffington Post. Vanity Fair is printed on paper from clearcut forests. None of its 12 issues per year are 'green.' In his editor's letter, Graydon Carter laments the lack of stage time some of our largest looming challenges -- global warming, the true costs of the US's energy-ineptitude -- have received in our current presidential race. While he goes on to say that those topics get their due in the subsequent pages, he conveniently neglects to mention another problem: the fact that every year, the magazine industry destroys an area the size of Rocky Mountain National Park -- at an average of one tree per second -- to print its 12 billion magazines. Read more... Want an easy way to help protect endangered forests? Petition for a "Do Not Mail" Registry. 2. Gram Shoes I wish these were organic, but at least they're not leather! These hot shoes are as sophisticated as they are bad-ass. I spoke to their super-friendly and helpful US agent (BRNDNU, also associated with Good Society) to find out about their labor policies and ecological footprint. I was informed over the telephone that Gram is made in China by a Japanese owned and staffed factory. They are paid living wages, so no sweatshops. The fabrics are from England, and the design headquarters are in Sweden. Their new range is entirely nylon & denim, but in the past they've used leather, suede, and lambskin. Buy them at Mauve.

© Just Screw It

TheDiscerningBrute — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 23:22:20 +0000

Adbusters is not just a great magazine. (If you don't read it, you certainly should.)

Taking the momentum from anti-globalization activists of the mid-late nineties and crafting it into a refined movement of 'culture-jamming', the Adbusters community focuses on questioning corporate control of...well, everything. Who determines the status-quo? Who has permission to challenge and change it? Adbusters has grown into a Media Foundation:

"We are a global network of artists, activists, writers, pranksters, students, educators and entrepreneurs who want to advance the new social activist movement of the information age. Our aim is to topple existing power structures and forge a major shift in the way we will live in the 21st century."

Famous for making spoof-ads which file grievances with a plethora of coporate scum-bag-ness, Kalle Lasn and the folks at Adbusters Media Foundation are also the brains behind a shoe that aims to 'unswoosh' Nike. What's the beef with Nike? Sweatshops, for one. Add environmental recklessness and the power of a true corporate colossus, and it looks like a real monster. Find out more on why a Discerning Brute should never be caught in Nikes HERE. Can the David that is Adbusters take on a Goliath? Time will tell... The classic Blackspot Sneaker and v2.0: The Unswoosher are both designed by John Fluevog, known for his cutting edge innovativeness and flair. The shoes comply with vegan standards, and are being monitored by Robin Webb of Vegetarian Shoes in the UK.

"...the Blackspot, from it's red toe-tip and hand-drawn anti-logo to its renegade billboards and TV ads, is designed to do only one thing: kick megacorporate ass. We're going to cut into Nike's market share, unswoosh that tired old swoosh and give birth to a new kind of cool in the sneaker industry." - Adbusters

What I love about these shoes is not just things like recycled tire parts (which makes so much sense to use for shoes - designers, pay attention) but the integrating of social, political, environmental, and animal advocacy into a product. Consilience! This is a paradigm shift within the capitalistic model - and a testament to to our generation that says :'cool' is not one-dimensional. 'Cool' is comprehensive and multi-dimensional, and should meet our need to take responsibility for things aside from aesthetics or how much money one can make at any cost.

DB's Etiquette Recommendation: The fact that a product like this exists is extraordinary in itself. Hold on to your standards! There is no reason to expect any less of the companies with whom you do business than an accommodation of your demand for accountability. You are paying for a product - but you are also paying for how it was made. If you wouldn't force a child into sweatshop-labor, kill and skin a cow, or destroy a river with chemicals, are you OK with paying someone else to do it just because it's out of sight?

Friday: Top 3 Affordable Finds

TheDiscerningBrute — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 19:13:50 +0000

1. Ethletic Blackout High-tops. Retro ‘blackout’ high-top sneaker made with 100% cotton canvas upper and tough rubber sole. Sole is produced and stamped with all natural and sustainable latex. A Fair Trade premium is paid to both the rubber producers in Sri Lanka and to the shoe stitchers in Pakistan. Certified by the Fair Labeling Organization and the Forest Stewardship Council. 100% Vegan. $56 2. Nutella, eat your heart out. RAWtella does it betta' with 100% raw, vegan, organic ingredients. Who knew that indulgent dude-food could be so chocolaty and... chocolaty? $11.95 3. "Postman" Organic Hemp Bag by SATIVA. Hemp and cotton, finished with metal buckles and plastic zips. Made in Hong Kong, China in an audited factory ensuring no child or prison labour. Only $79.95

DB's Etiquette Recommendation: Using leather is unnecessary - alternatives are abundant. SATIVA does use leather in some of their products. Click HERE to find out why not to support the leather industry.

The Semiotics of OSPOP

TheDiscerningBrute — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 22:09:24 +0000

One Small Point of Pride.

As a counterpoint to Veblen's 'Theory of the Leisure Class' in which fashion functions to allow the wealthy to stand out as icons of leisure due to their mobility-limiting and extravagant attire - which both prevent them from doing manual labor and require the help of servants to both put on the garb and maintain the garments integrity, OSPOP's iconography invokes working-class pride. It also directly helps the shoemakers of Wen County. In 2007, OSPOP created an education fund in Wen County - a rural wheat harvesting and coal mining community in the Henan Province of central China also known for producing rubber-soled canvas trainers for over 50 years. The fund was established to provide those qualified high-school seniors who cannot afford to attend university studies with financial assistance. The shoemakers of Wen County joined forces with the creators of OSPOP, who traveled to Wen County's Tienlang (Skywolf) Shoes Factory. Together, they improved the design and comfortability of the shoes, and made them available to the global market. Now you can own a pair of these vegan, socially responsible sneaks. Purchasing info at OSPOP.com

DB's Etiquette Recommendation: Just because it was made in China does not mean it's a sweatshop. By taking responsibility for our purchases (in knowing who, what, where, how and why products are made) we can put our money to good use - and get a nice functional product out of it. We have the internet - so do your homework before you buy something - and take full responsibility for what you put your money into when you do.

Utopia in the Garden of EDUN ?

TheDiscerningBrute — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 19:28:56 +0000

Ali Hewson and Bono's (yes, of U2) vision for a socially conscious and aesthetically desireable clothing line resulted in EDUN -launched in 2005 as a revolutionary model of autonomous, sustainable social and economic growth in developing countries. EDUN has challenged the typical mode of pillaging communities (sweatshops), and ecosystems (hazardous garment production) that still remains the status-quo for the majority of the fashion industry. For the facts on EDUN's practices, click HERE. Watch their VIDEO. And how does the product look? In their own words:

"EDUN is both beauty and brains. Part rock & roll, part punk rock, EDUN pulls intellectual inspiration from the 1920's Berlin Weimar culture combined with the artistic romance stirred by the art nouveau movement in Paris of the late 19th and early 20th centuries."

Shop at their online store. For a selection of additional EDUN's Mens' Classics, Click TOPS or DENIM EDUN has its hands in every element of production, from cotton growth through sales. EDUN utilizes locally run factories in Africa, South America and India and does not build or own these factories because their aim is to empower communities and workers at every phase of production (as opposed to exploit them) with the ultimate agenda of fostering self-determining garment producers. EDUN uses organic cotton wherever possible. 31% of the EDUN Fall/Winter 2007 collection is organic; 50% of the EDUN Spring/Summer 2008 collection is organic. *Source To find out about their 'ONE' campaign to fight global poverty and AIDS, click below:

DB's Etiquette Recommendation: Supporting lines like this is crucial to making a positive paradigm shift within the fashion industry. Let's face it - clothes affect almost everyone - whether we're wearing them, selling them, or making them. If you can afford to make choices like EDUN, please do so. I do, however, recommend steering clear of their wool and leather garments for obvious reasons - let's not forget that, more widespread than worker exploitation, is the unpaid and torturous exploitation of living, feeling animals who, as individuals, have a will to live and not suffer just like you or I or your dog or cat.

Vegan Bomber Jacket & Tope Wallets

TheDiscerningBrute — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 16:33:25 +0000

1. Cheap Monday, whose jeans are as inexpensive as they are tight - have made a pretty incredible vegan pilot jacket. PVC-coated polyester with a removable faux-shearling fleece collar. The pilot/bomber is a classic jacket that has rib knit cuffs and hem; 2 snap pockets at the front; and a single pocket inside. While this jacket is technically vegan, the dangers of PVC plastics are one reason to not partake. Alas, is PVC really cruelty-free if it ends up poisoning a bunch of living things? It is certainly better than the environmental devastation associated with leather production: clearing land, raising, feeding, watering and transporting the cattle, then slaughter and tanning using compounds like chromium. As for labor, this is from Cheap Monday: (Read their entire code of conduct here. Code of Conduct)

We believe that it is important to take responsibility when it comes to working conditions, from both ethical and social aspects as well as issues regarding production and the environment.

Couldn't they have made this in tope (see below) or waxed canvas? sigh...

2. DB Clay's Version 3 wallets are dope (and tope!) Have you heard of Tope?

"Tope is a synthetic fabric similar (in texture) to a vinyl canvas. However, Tope does not contain certain hazardous chemicals typically found in most vinyl-based products. In particular, Tope contains NO PVC, Tope is made from non-toxic raw materials (it causes no dioxin, heavy metal or phthalate pollution), Tope decomposes when buried, Tope is chlorine chemicals free and Tope is fabricated through a pollutant free process. Additionally, we have engineered a tremendously technical printing process whereby we print high resolution and full photographic images using environmentally friendly inks. To top it off, Tope is also vegan and animal free."

If you need a custom made, one-of-a-kind, tope "Puzzle Wallet" from db clay click here. They make a great gift, and a great collector's item:

The Quest for Classic, Vegan Men’s Shoes

TheDiscerningBrute — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 16:45:55 +0000

*DISCLAIMER: this post is rather outdated now - please search "shoes" or "boots" on the search tab to the right and you'll find tons of great styles!

by Joshua Katcher

I am not going to talk about sneakers here.

It's almost impossible to find really well-made, stylish and classic mens' shoes and boots that are also vegan. We don't have a Stella McCartney or a Natalie Portman making amazing shoes for us like they do for the ladies - but clearly, the materials to work with are out there. I'd love to see some men's 16-eye waxed canvass boots, or a vegetan frye-style boot with reclaimed-wood soles, or a simple, sheik camper-style boot with a thin, subtle sole - so for those of you who work in men's fashion, spread the word and get to work!

When shopping for shoes, guys, four important things to look for are:

Simplicity: you should strive to appear effortless, like you didn't try too hard.

Style: is it a trendy throw-away or a classic keeper? Aim for investing in classics, they'll treat you well.

Craftsmanship: will it fall apart on the third time wearing it? It might cost more, but it will last long.

Impact: who made it, how and where was it made, and are you OK with that? Avoid sweatshops and hazardous materials by doing your homework and reading labels.

Generally speaking, here is a list of materials used to produce faux-leather. Most of these are 'vegetan' products which are up to 80% biodegradable. Others are petroleum products, so it might be better than tanning chemicals used in dead animal leather, but still not eco-friendly. Vegetan, hemp and canvass are the ways to go if ecology is your main concern. Why should we be wearing vegan shoes guys? Find out HERE.

One of my biggest complaints about finding good vegan boots is the way they look! Payless fails miserably not only in their labor practices but in the styles of men's non-leather shoes. Orthotic grandpa shoes and work boots are the general mens' selection there. It's a shame, because they have some really nice women's styles - but again - it's all made overseas in bad conditions using petro-products or cheap leather. Payless should be a last resort. Personally, and ethically - I would buy vintage or thrift anything before a new Payless product.

I own ''Vegetarian Shoes Airseal Engineers Boot’and the sole is so chunky and ugly that I feel like I just joined a 1996 industrial-goth band.

I have plans to get the sole replaced by something a bit more sleek. The vegetan micro-fiber is really great, however. It's sturdy, supple, and it breathes.

As of yet, the best classic men's shoe I have come across is the classic 'Dennis Brown' by NOVACAS.

The sole is sleek (finally!), the faux suede is supple, and the shoe itself is effortless. This is definitely a versatile basic that looks great with almost anything - tight jeans, suit pants, or sock-less with summer shorts. The 'Dennis Black' is also a nice variation .

If you need a versatile, basic shoe that'll take you a few seasons into the future, go with this one. A nice look right now is a tight-fitting pant or jean tucked into a half-laced 16 eye boot (only lace 8 eyes up, and let the tongue hang out. EXAMPLE: Look at the man in the green boots: The leather ones are not veg, but keep these styles in mind.From left, John Varvatos jeans with Peal & Company shoes from Brooks Brothers; Cheap Monday stretch jeans with Polo Ralph Lauren deck shoes; Cheap Monday jeans tucked into John Varvatos suede boots; Cloak selvage denim with Converse sneakers; a Tsubi high-waist style with Acne ankle boots.

The best vegan boot I’ve found is the XCap.

The sole is not obnoxious, the faux-patent steel cap is clean and certainly badass - and best of all, this boot was featured in a porno flick, so it might just get you laid. This boot outdoes every other vegan combat-style boot I've seen. Oh, and it’s described as 'macho'.

Some of my favorites to keep your eye on from UK's 'Vegetarian Shoes' are the Airseal Stable Boot. The sole is not terrible, but still worth whining just a little about - it's clear and just not elegant.

For you punkish hipsters, check the Alpha Boot. These are slick and understated - just like you, right?

Let's talk eco-shoes. Most of what I've looked at seems so forced and intentionally hippie - or looks like a five-year-olds' shoe - in size 11. Ecolutions men's shoes have two of the more appealing eco-vegan shoes I've seen.

My two favorites are the Oxford and the Humboldt. They both come in natural and obsidian. Again, my biggest gripe is the ugly sole. Seriously, people - who is designing these soles?! It's a conspiracy... We know what good shoes look like, we know they can be made well - both materially and ethically - and we know there is a demand. Someone can and will make it happen.... but guys, we're going to have to wait until someone steps up to the plate. Batter up! Have a question about men's fashion? Ask me by posting a comment! Joshua Katcher is an artist and lifestyle-television producer living in Brooklyn.