Thrift & fair-trade fashion

As a follow-up to my last post, I'd like to talk about where I like to buy clothes, accessories, and things I use for daily living.

I try to be eco- and consumer- conscious when I buy things. While I am a starving student and plus-size, unless I am absolutely broke or in desperate need of something (ie. I can't spend double the price on organic milk, or if my only pair of black tights just ripped), I try to buy things second hand, fair trade, organic, local, or I "DIY" things.

I've recently started baking my own bread instead of buying it from the store, for instance. It's probably a lot healthier because I'm only using natural ingredients, and it's actually a lot cheaper, too! In a future blog, I will show step up step how I make my own bread, and break down how much I am saving by doing this instead of going out and buying bread for convenience.

I try to apply this rule to what I consume (eat) and what I consume (fashion and other thingers). By buying clothing second hand, I am being environmentally friendly (reusing something instead of consuming a primary resource, new clothing) and I am rejecting sweat-shops in third world countries. I have a very hard time accepting "giving my money" to a company that will profit mainly those running the company versus those who make the clothes for me, yet get paid pennies for it.

Buying fair trade and local is also a solution to this, because of "fair trade" standards that give more pay to workers for their labour, and local businesses likely make money off of the clothing and goods they make themselves.

Of course, I am not perfect and I splurge once in a while on clothing from Le Chateau and Old Navy (at least Le Chateau offers clothing made in Canada!), and I also have a lot of clothing currently that I bought before I made this commitment- but hey, at least I'm trying to be consumer conscious! :)