Dragons In The Closet: Checking Tags and Keeping Track

The “Made in China” tags tucked inside so much of my clothing never used to phase me because they hung next to all of my other pieces that said “Made in Jordan”, “Made in India”, “Made in Indonesia”, and the occasional, but definitely there, “Made in the U.S.A”.  If I could and would be completely pure about everything that I buy I would probably end up walking around naked (which no one wants).  However out of all of the “Made in” items, I feel that China is the worse violator of human rights (just look at Tibet, many thanks to my little Valerie for raising my awareness on Tibet, and also treatment of religious groups) and has by far some of the most extreme working environments.  In future posts I plan to detail new info about such acts and more in-depth background as supporting evidence.  At the moment I just need to lay my foundation.

I took an inventory of all of my clothing to see how deep I am entangled and if my favorite brands are about to be blacklisted and iced out of my life, yikes!  To my absolute horror all three of my favorite brands are made almost completely in China: Lilly Pulitzer, J. Crew, and Vineyard Vines.  Ugh!  Can it be that my most expensive clothing is championing the cheapest labor and considerably the most offensive? Yes.  It is at this point that I decide that there is no way my boycott can be retroactive because doing so would mean that I would basically need to buy a whole new wardrobe, get rid of my new mac computer, and all of the furniture that my roommate bought for our apartment (Target, like Walmart is a China made heaven!).  The funniest part is that all of my favorite pieces of clothing were ironically made in China: the pink winter coat, my green Vineyard Vines sweater, the yellow Lilly dress, the jade green Banana Republic skirt, and yes, my argyle sweater collection from J. Crew.  Sigh.  But, my conviction will prevail over my taste in fashion.

Excluding my household goods, here’s the damage of the wardrobe (items made in Hong Kong and China, because HK is technically China again . . .):

• 2 suit coats (Kenneth Cole, Express)
• 1 dress shirt (Alfani)
• 3 fancy tops (Express, White House Black Market)
•  my winter coat (Express)
• 4 dresses (Lilly Pulitzer, J. Crew)
• 6 skirts (Lilly Pulitzer, Express, J. Crew, Banana Republic)
• 4 cotton tops (J. Crew)
• 13 sweaters (J. Crew, Gap, Lilly Pulitzer, Vineyard Vines)
• 5 pairs of shorts/capris (J. Crew)

It definitely looks as though I will be saving a lot of money in the future on clothing. My other disappointment was to learn that my small, Vera Bradley, duffle and wallet were made in China. Further examination of another large duffle, tote, and cosmetic bag revealed that these three items were made in the U.S.A, yippy! At first I considered that the older items were crafted in the US but then the purchasing timeline revealed that it was just perhaps a split in production. Also, recently I bought several more VB items as gifts and all of these came from the U.S.A. I have mixed feelings about the company now (along with many others) and will need to do more research before I decide to acquire any more pieces . . . whether they’re made in the U.S.A or not.

Oh, it is going to be an interesting journey!