Sweaters
There’s a new clothing store in New York City. UNIQLO is a Japanese company providing casual clothes for all people. The launch of the US flagship store has been highly publicized over the last month; I haven’t been able to enter the subway without seeing their ads.
I confess to being swayed by the marketing; the clothes look simple and casual – good office layering workhorses – and the photographs of knitwear indicate some attention to detail that you don’t often see in machine-knit garments. The prices are very affordable, without being so low as to ensure shoddiness. On top of that, their Grameen UNIQLO line looks wonderful — a social equity collaboration with Bangledashi producers ensuring that funds from the line are reinvested to eradicate poverty and improve sanitation and education for local people. And yet.
Headline on the Uniqlo website
And yet I look at that ad for their Cashmere sweaters, and shrivel. No matter what volume it’s sourced at, I can’t fathom how it’s possible to purchase washed, carded cashmere roving of a quality that can be spun to the barely-light-fingering gauge required for those garments, and spin it into yarn and dye it to be colorfast and knit the garment – on a machine or otherwise – for less than the $50 the company is charging for one of those sweaters. Then add on top of that the pattern making, designing, finishing, marketing, etc — and everything about this item screams to me that it must be made in a sweatshop, with cheap labor, by people who are struggling to earn enough to survive while handling luxury fibers for the rest of us to pay a pittance for – and caustic chemicals and dyes that endanger all of us and our world.
I would dearly love to be proven wrong, but for now, my assumption of that reality positioned against the green and social marketing turns my stomach.
Who has some real information?
I don’t know anything about their labor practices, but there’s a big problem right now with cheap Chinese and Mongolian cashmere (note: you can get a cashmere sweater for about $20 at Kohl’s, so Uniqlo, if their cashmere is from these sources, isn’t the worst offender here). Basically, the popularity of cashmere and desire to make it cheap has led to overpopulation of Chinese and Mongolian grasslands by cashmere goats, which are causing desertification and dangerous dust storms. Here’s one story about it from a reputable source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/chi-china-cashmere-htmlstory%2C0%2C7007933.htmlstory
Kirstin, that’s horrible — but thank you for sharing it. What with the book I’ve been reading about Fair Trade for the last two months, and this article and the conversations this post has started are making want to avoid buying anything manufactured, ever.
Ugh.
Even though I think this is likely a loss-leader to get people in the store, I agree with Kirstin 100%. The overproduction of cashmere has dire consequences for the environment. While it’s a lovely and gorgeous fiber, I’ll stick to far more sustainable pure merino and alpaca as my fluffies of choice.
Normal price is $90. It’s an introductory price. It’s still a bit on the cheap side for the real price of cashmere. =/
Lissa, I’m right here with you on this train of thought…I found this post by googling “uniqlo labor practices”. Basically I’ve found plenty on Uniqlo’s public ethical community projects which seem to be earning it lots of points with “conscious consumers” but NOTHING really on their actual labor practices. It’s rather frustrating and as one writer put must mean: Uniqlo does really do a decent job in auditing their suppliers and working with them on their human-rights and labour law performance. Or else, their corporate system is surprisingly robust with respect to whistle blowers.
If you’re interested
http://ethicalnippon.nbunce.com/2010/11/how-unique-is-uniqlo/
http://sr-rs.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=176463455719456