Nine Easy Ways To Get Into Ethical Fashion

“Treat others as you wish to be treated.” It’s a simple philosophy, and you’ve probably heard it a million times – I know I heard it more than enough when I was growing up.

It’s a phrase that is quite deeply ingrained in the way I behave today. I like making small talk with the postman when he’s got a delivery for me, and even when I’m mouthing off on Twitter I try to make sure there’s a moral to my story, something to learn from and improve on!

So I was deeply troubled a few years ago when I learnt that the clothes I was buying caused poverty and pain for millions of fashion industry workers. It was one of those revolutionary moments, looking down at a dainty dress and wondering how such a pretty thing can come from system of exploitation, poor working conditions, and even death.

Luckily, there are ways to source clothes in an ethical fashion (see what I did there?)

And they’re good clothes at that: forget the stereotypical hemp hoodies and dreadlocks, this is fashion that is modern, well-made and readily available too.

Here’s my list of easy ways to switch up your wardrobe and feel better about the clothes you wear:

1. Watch The True Cost

If you’re new to the ethical fashion movement, I really recommend you take a peek at the way the majority of high street fashion is produced. Documentaries such as The True Cost (currently on Netflix) will open your eyes to the plight many people are suffering because we’re used to buying cheap clothes without knowing the consequences.

2. Learn ethical fashion lingo

This could be a guide unto itself really. There are a lot of different descriptors for ethical fashion, and it’s worth knowing what each one means and where your preferences lie:

• Slow fashion: clothes that are not governed by seasonal trends, classics, investment pieces
• Sustainable fashion: clothes made from materials and practices that are earth-friendly
• Ethical or fair fashion: clothes that pay a fair wage to their producers, garment workers, etc.

2. Unsubscribe from fast fashion

It’s hard to escape the temptation of new trends, accessories, it-bags, etc. when they’re bombarding you across social media and even in your inbox. Unsubscribe from brands that don’t fit with your own ethics.

3. Read ethical fashion blogs

Ethical fashion blogs are popping up across the world, and provide a constant stream of inspiration. Personally I’ve found there’s a lot more movement in the USA, and it’s slowly creeping across the Atlantic to the UK. Here’s my ethical blog directory to help you get started.

4. Demand transparency

Now it’s time to start looking for ethical fashion brands. The easiest way to spot ethical fashion brands is the way they use their ethics as selling points, rather than hiding them under their FAQ page coded in lawyer-speak. Stella McCartney proudly declares it is a vegetarian company and makes whimsical videos on deforestation for example.

There are tools out there to help, too. Apps such as Not My Style rate brands based on transparency, while sites like Project Just provide a crowdsourced database to refer to.

5. Invest time in your wardrobe

Whatever your style, there is ethical fashion out there to suit you. Getting into ethical fashion also involves changing your buying habits: with less trends, your wardrobe will slowly become a selection of classic pieces and accessories. It’s therefore a good idea to invest time working out your style at the start of your journey to ensure you’ll love your clothes for as long as they last you.

It’s also important to respect that the clothes you currently own: they may not come from ethical manufacturers, but they’re yours now and they’re your style!

5. Fuss over fabrics

Knowing the fabric composition of your clothes is actually a great indicator as to its ethical credentials. Natural fibres such as cotton, wool, flax, and yes, hemp, are renewable and biodegradable, while often making for a better garment too. Better still is organic materials, which reduce the use of pesticides – a positive for the planet and the people growing them.

6. Try vegan fashion (with caution)

By reducing our demand for leather, we reduce our general demand for the meat industry and its harmful emissions. Vegan fashion is on the rise: Votch produces vegan leather watches, Matt & Nat create vegan bags and shoes. Both use eco-friendly materials to do so, but vegan leather can sometimes be used to describe petroleum-based products – not a good alternative.

7. Give it a second life

Second-hand items provide a handy ethical fashion loophole: items that would otherwise be going to waste are now up for grabs. Try using eBay and searching under “Used” to find clothes you would like on a budget. It’s not the perfect solution, so if you prefer, try charity shops (Oxfam even has an online charity shop) where your money will do good too.

8. Rent your wardrobe

Sometimes, you just need a new dress. I know, I’ve been there! It might be an important work event, or a wedding, and it seems frivolous to buy a special dress for one occasion. Instead, try renting ethical couture from sites like Wear The Walk.

9. Ask for better

Ethical fashion is still in its infancy, but it’s growing fast. It’s important to vote with your money, but also spread the word about the ethical options out there. Even celebrities like Emma Watson are doing so – her ethical fashion Instagram page The Press Tour has over 500,000 followers. Take part in the Fashion Revolution by praising the brands with ethical practices, and asking shadier stores #WhoMadeMyClothes?

This post has been published on HuffPost’s blogging platform. The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author and should not be taken as those of HuffPost. HuffPost does not allow bloggers to acquire products, access or accommodation for review in the site’s name.

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/nine-easy-ways-to-get-into-ethical-fashion_uk_5a52094fe4b0cd114bdb3424

Noah Becker stellt Strafanzeige gegen AfD-Abgeordneten Maier

www.huffingtonpost.de/entry/noah-becker-stellt-strafanzeige-gegen-afd-abgeordneten-maier_de_5a520d05e4b003133ec88199

Ireland’s Little Christmas Starts A Year Of Big Change For Women’s Rights
Yesterday was Nollaig na mBan in Ireland: Women’s Christmas, or known in some parts of the country as Women’s Little Christmas or Little Christmas. Traditionally, 6 January (the Feast of the Epiphany) marked the twelfth day of Christmas and the end of the Christmas season, and it was a day for role reversal: women who had slaved over hot stoves and kept their families fed and watered over Christmas had a break, while the men took on the household chores. Often wives and mothers went out for the day with female relatives and friends. The tradition was particularly strong in rural and Gaeltacht (Irish speaking) areas.

Christmas cooking and preparation is no longer the exclusive preserve of Irish women, but Nollaig na mBan is still celebrated, and the tradition is enjoying something of a revival in recent years, in Ireland and in Irish emigrant communities abroad. It now has a different significance: it is a day to mark and celebrate relationships women have with other women, and an opportunity to consider the place of women in Irish society. This year, it has a particular significance, for two closely connected reasons. They both have their roots in a long outdated and misogynistic mentality that women’s bodies and sexuality should be controlled.

Abortion Referendum

First, Ireland will hold a long-awaited referendum on abortion in 2018. Ireland has highly restrictive abortion laws, which ban abortion in all but the narrowest of circumstances, where doctors believe a woman’s life is at risk. Women who obtain abortions and those who help her risk up to 14 years’ imprisonment. Even when a pregnant woman’s life is at risk, abortion is unlikely to be provided given the risks of criminal sanction and the lack of any effective system of assessment – 2012 saw the entirely preventable death of Savita Halappanavar from complications due to a septic miscarriage.

It has been 35 years since the 1983 referendum, which amended the Irish Constitution to refer to the “equal right to life” of the mother and “the unborn,” a loaded and misleading term for a foetus. International human rights bodies have repeatedly made clear that criminalisation of abortion is a form of discrimination against women, and that Ireland’s laws are unacceptable. For example, the UN Human Rights Committee condemned Ireland for inflicting “inhumane and degrading treatment” upon Amanda Mellet and her husband James Burke, forcing them to travel to England for a termination when they learned that the foetus Amanda was carrying suffered from a fatal condition. Last month, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Nils Muižnieks, criticised Ireland for its abortion laws, emphasising their “broad range of physical, psychological, financial and social impacts on women, with implications for their health and well-being”. “Because of the legal consequences,” the report stated, “women in these countries who resort to clandestine abortion are often afraid to seek post-abortion care if complications arise, with potentially severe consequences for their health.”

Justice for Magdalenes

Second, Nollaig na mBan 2018 comes weeks after the publication of a damning ombudsman’s report into the Department of Justice’s handling of the compensation scheme for women who worked in Magdalene laundries. Named after the redeemed prostitute in the Bible, Mary Magdalene, they were institutions in Ireland (usually Catholic church-run) which incarcerated tens of thousands of “fallen women”: women and girls who were pregnant but unmarried, single mothers and those who were considered “promiscuous.” Some women worked in the laundries only for the duration of their pregnancies or for a period post-birth, and were released when their children were adopted (often forcibly, and inevitably without the mothers’ real consent). Others worked there for many years, some for the rest of their lives. The laundries were workhouses, operating as businesses whilst the women were unpaid. These women are often described as Ireland’s disappeared. The end of this barbaric practice is shockingly recent: Ireland’s last Magdalene Laundry closed only in 1996, three years after the existence of the laundries became widely known when a convent sold off part of its land and the remains of 155 inmates who had been buried in unmarked graves on the property were exhumed. A superb campaign, Justice for Magdalenes, eventually led to an official State apology and the establishment of a redress scheme in 2013.

However, the ombudsman’s December 2017 report has laid bare the serious failings of the Irish government’s redress scheme. He states that, “Unfortunately, a scheme intended to bring healing and reconciliation has, for some, served instead to cause further distress… These women have spent years seeking something very simple — redress that they were promised by the State. No more and no less.” These women have waited long enough. The Department of Justice must heed the ombudsman and meet its obligations.

All Change in 2018?

The Eighth Amendment to the Irish Constitution and the Magdalene Laundries are stains in Irish history, both examples of the State and the Catholic Church exercising control over women’s bodies and their lives. Both of these historic wrongs can be righted in 2018. Let this be the last Nollaig na mBan on which we have to call for ‘Repeal the 8th’ or ‘Justice for Magdalenes.’ Reflecting on this Little Christmas, I am hoping for big changes in women’s rights in Ireland.

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/irelands-little-christmas-starts-a-year-of-big-change-for-womens-rights_uk_5a50853de4b0ee59d41c0add

Forscher analysierte 233 Millionäre – und hat eine Gemeinsamkeit gefunden

www.huffingtonpost.de/entry/ein-forscher-hat-den-erfolg-von-233-millionaren-studiert-und-eine-gemeinsamkeit-gefunden_de_5a51d15ee4b003133ec8674c

Thinking Of Making A New Year’s Resolution? Read This First

Here we are once more – another Christmas has been celebrated, the turkey leftovers have finally been consumed and as we look forward to another, hopefully fortuitous 2018, many people are considering making a New Year’s resolution.  

January has, of course, long been a time of year when many people choose to exercise more restraint in their day-to-day lives, which could explain why the trend for giving things up in the New Year has become so popular. After the festive season, when bank balances deplete and waist lines expand, it is inevitable that almost everyone knows someone who has decided to steer clear of things like chocolate or alcohol, often to save money or to get back in shape.

Don’t get me wrong; I admire the good intentions and the optimism with which these New Year’s resolutions are made. However, as it turns out, we’re really not very good at sticking to our resolutions here in the UK – particularly those that involve giving something up, according to a new survey. 

According to the research, more than two thirds of people in the UK admit to having made a New Year’s resolution they haven’t kept. The findings also highlight a tendency for people to give things up in January, with 62% of respondents claiming that they have tried to give something up before. However, despite their good intentions, most people who try to give things up say they usually don’t get through the month without cheating or going back to their old ways, and more than half don’t reach the goals that they set out to achieve.

More to the point – for me, at any rate – is that giving things up can be a miserable undertaking. What’s the point of depriving ourselves of something enjoyable if we don’t see any real benefits? Why torture ourselves by refusing tempting food and drink or (as almost a third of survey respondents admit) by feeling guilty if we cheat on our resolutions?

My suggestion to you this year is don’t do it; don’t give something up in January. Try giving something back instead, by spending a little of your time helping others.

You see, the thing that struck me the most about the research is that although people in the UK are much more likely to try to give something up than they are to take up something new in the New Year, those who take something up are more likely to feel happier about their experience.

I can certainly relate to this finding. I had a couple of broken resolutions to my name when I decided to take up something new, by volunteering to mentor young people for The Prince’s Trust, and I’ve never looked back. At the moment, I volunteer as a business mentor for their Enterprise programme through Prince’s Trust Online, which is a service that enables young people across the UK to access online support to start their own business or develop the skills they need for work.

Before you jump to any conclusions, please know I’m under no illusions as to what your initial reactions might be if you’ve read this far. As the research itself points out, half of those people who would even consider volunteering for charity say they don’t have enough time for it – and this easily is the biggest turn off when it comes to volunteering.

The thing is, you can actually make a real impact by spending just an hour or two per week helping your mentee online. The flexibility of this approach has been the key to making volunteering a commitment I can stick to.

By being a mentor, I feel like I’m really making a difference to the lives of my mentees, and find it really satisfying to see them develop and take steps towards realising their business plans. If you’re looking to make a New Year’s resolution this year, I’d urge you to consider mentoring as an option – with just an hour or two per week, you could make a real difference both to your own life and the life of a young person.

The Prince’s Trust is actively looking for people to volunteer as mentors to support the growth of Prince’s Trust Online, which launched in July 2017. The service particularly needs volunteers to support young people starting up their own business.

The charity has launched its #Don’tGiveUpGiveBack campaign, which calls on people to ditch giving things up for January in favour of giving something back by volunteering for Prince’s Trust Online. To find out more about volunteering opportunities with The Prince’s Trust, visit www.princes-trust.org.uk.

 

 

Everyone hates January. The post-Christmas comedown hits us hard, especially with 2017 being such a tough year. Kindness 31 is our antidote to that. Every day we’ll share a good news story about someone (or a group of people) and their act of kindness or how they helped others. If you want to get involved, email [email protected]. Alternatively if you’d like to nominate someone to be featured, fill in this form.

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/thinking-of-making-a-new-years-resolution-read-this-first_uk_5a51fa2be4b089e14dbb7dc4

“Todesangst”: Georgina Fleur nach brutalem Überfall übel zugerichtet

www.huffingtonpost.de/entry/todesangst-georgina-fleur-nach-brutalem-uberfall-ubel-zugerichtet_de_5a51d1efe4b003133ec8674e

Theresa May Abandons Plans To Hold Vote On Fox Hunting
Theresa May will abandon her Conservative general election manifesto pledge to give MPs a vote on whether to overturn the fox hunting ban.

The law, introduced by Labour in 2004, bans the use of dogs to hunt foxes and other wild mammals in England and Wales.

May told BBC’s Andrew Marr Show she had received a “clear message” on the issue and said there will not be a vote during this parliament.