 Ask
Roxanne
From: "Carina"
I
I have a question that I hope won't offend you. Do you make sure that your
products aren't made in sweatshops? Granted, I don't have the money to
quibble much, but I am in a drama troupe performing a play about human
rights and sweatshop abuses and would like to stay true to my beliefs.
It's very hard to find
preggers clothes that aren't made in sweatshops, and I've pretty much
given up, but I was hoping that maybe you knew which manufacturers we can
trust or not. I'm not saying I won't buy from you, as I obviously have and
most likely still will, I've just saying it would be nice to know if I'm
buying something made by the hands of children or women forced to work
without food or bathroom breaks or even take monthly pregnancy tests as a
basis of continuing employment.
Dear Carina:
Offend me? Ha! Actually,
the sweatshop question is a good one. I ask it of each of my suppliers,
actually.
Of course, anyone could be
lying, but here's the best way I know to tell: Japanese Weekend, Fit For
Two, Mother 2 Be and many of our other suppliers are name businesses, with
actual families at the helm, making not very many clothes in the grand
scheme of things (for ex, a big run for them is 1000 garments) and they're
making them in the US. The wholesale prices I pay on these items is pretty
durned high, and that, coupled with the small quantity, means that they're
paying a fair price per piece.
I think that I would see a
red flag if, for example, the cost of a nursing shirt was only $8 or so to
me. Believe me, it's not! The few suppliers we have that are out of the
country are, of course, impossible for me to monitor, but one factory in
South Africa is run by the sister of our designer and the one in India is
a family business and the guy invited us to his wedding and was going to
let me see the factory then, so I think he's okay. The Italian lingerie
factory keeps going on vacation for 3 and 4 weeks at a time, so clearly
the benefits there are pretty groovy.
The bottom line, if we ever
get an inkling that our stuff is made in sweatshops, it won't get made.
Roxanne
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