It's Black Friday, the biggest shopping date in the year. This year, the USA is expected to spend over $3 billion, an 11.5% increase over last year.
Want to beat the queues and make huge savings? Stay in bed and enjoy that lie-in, or try a haulternative, a fun way to refresh your wardrobe without buying new clothes. Whatever you do, don’t let Black Friday control you, you take control to use the biggest shopping date to your own advantage, like Patagonia is. Patagonia, an outdoor clothing retailer, is using Black Friday to advance their cause. This year, Patagonia is donating 100% of its profits -- estimated to be about $2 million -- made from Black Friday to grassroots environmental groups. The donations will come from sales at both its 80 global stores and online. This strategic move isn’t entirely out of character for Patagonia. The company already donates 1% of its sales to environmental organizations. This year, I’m making my mark as well by abstaining from Black Friday this year. What are you doing to make yours? http://money.cnn.com/2016/11/21/news/patagonia-black-friday/index.html?iid=surge-story-summary
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President-elect Donald Trump has quite a history with the controversial topic of climate change. From trivializing this pressing issue down to a mere can of hairspray to blaming China for making it up, Trump has made it clear that he thinks global warming is all just a big scam.
Now with the possibility of moving backwards from all the progress we have made in reducing our carbon footprint, American businesses are joining together to tell Trump that they are committed to fighting global warming. Nike, Gap, L’Oreal, and Starbucks are just a few of the 300 brands who signed an opened letter to urge the future president to maintain the current low-carbon policies championed by Obama. "We want the US economy to be energy efficient and powered by low-carbon energy," the letter states, adding "failure to build a low-carbon economy puts American prosperity at risk." Trump’s climate change stance cannot and will not interfere with the healing that has long been due for our planet. Let’s continue to be conscious and aware of our choices, keeping in mind that our environmental footprints are present even in the most commonplace of our lives. http://money.cnn.com/2016/11/16/news/businesses-trump-climate-change/index.html?sr=fbCNN111816businesses-trump-climate-change0155PMVODtopLink&linkId=31310029 Opposing fast fashion and making conscious choices of what you put in your closet are only snippets of a minimal and sustainable LIFESTYLE. As our members pledged to wear only six items of their clothings two weeks ago in the Six Items Challenge, we experienced firsthand how difficult it can be to resist the urge to automatically resort to the new.
But NYU graduate Lauren Singer takes it one step further from downsizing her wardrobe to revolving her entire lifestyle on a zero-waste commitment. The amount of trash she has produced over the past three years can fit inside a 16 oz. jar. She really gets to the core of a sustainable lifestyle -- if she runs out of toothpaste, she makes her own. If she runs out of deodorant, she makes it. She buys food from the farmer’s market to limit her use of packaged foods, or more specifically, plastic. “The best ideas are often the most simple.” Lauren demonstrates this through her simple lifestyle that communicates sustainability, an idea that we very much need to be in close contact with now more than ever. With the 2016 presidential election just a couple of days away, there's probably no better of a time than now to talk politics and fashion. When Hillary Clinton became the first woman to be nominated for president, she strutted along the Democratic national convention wearing a suit impeccably tailored to convey her message: she was the embodiment of the women's movement. The suit's snowy whiteness connected Clinton to the suffragette movement of the 1900s, and unnamed, it belonged to every woman.
But there was one tiny but significant omission -- the suit had no pockets, the greatest gender divide in clothing. Behind the pocket is an entire sexist and political history. The video shows how as women's clothing evolved to accommodate beauty over efficiency, pockets were exempt from the tight corsets and long skirts that they wore. At the turn of the 20th century, dresses with pockets made their comeback. Whether or not voters are aware of this long history behind a piece of fashion, Hillary's pocketless suit is "the answer to what women can wear to convey relatable power." We communicate who we are to a certain extent through what we wear. And our Democratic presidential candidate seems to be reminding us of the struggle behind the progress of women, both explicitly through her words and discreetly through her clothes. |
Our Goal:To inform on the ongoing crises that the clothing industry poses on our community and applaud any acts that rise over the conventional ways of consumption.
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