Sweatshops

When most people hear the term sweatshops, most likely the first things that come to mind involve horror, forced child labor, and law breaking. Many people tell of horrible things they have read or seen on you tube that involve terrible stories with sad endings. When asked if you are for or against sweatshops there is not much thought that goes into the reaction of "I am totally against sweatshops, they are bad." However, in my personal opinion, I am not 100% against sweatshops.

In American culture, we are taught that forced child labor is wrong and pristine working conditions are a requirement. the American way is the right way and no others suffice. But when comparing America to other countries, we all know that we are not nearly the same. The term sweatshop refers to a manufacturing workplace that treats its workers inhumanely, paying low wages, imposing harsh and unsafe working conditions, and demanding levels according to www-personal.umich.edu/~alandear/glossary/s.html. But what about the child who is the sole provider for an 8 person family? It is that child who needs the job to provide the resources for the family to survive. Granted, it is unfair but a 13 year old child does not have much of a choice when it comes to looking for a job that will allow their family to survive but it still their livelihood.

According to Andy Peterson's article, Third World Countries Need Sweatshops, "No person can claim that the increase in production that came with sweatshops didn't contribute to the evolution of [many] countries, because the change can be seen today: there are now minimum wages, age limits, and safety procedures that must be followed in the entire industrial world." His article goes onto support the idea that development in many third world countries is a long and difficult process that America has very close to achieved. In fact in some countries, sweatshops offer higher wages than in the domestic market.

There are unfortunately sweatshops that do not treat their workers with any kind of respect and sexually harass workers. But some of the alternatives in these countries for children involve child prostitution. I believe that sweatshops should not be completely wiped out but the supervision of humane conduct needs to become more important and practiced. It will never be possible to know for sure if all factories in the world are treating their employees right but with enough of a force and consequences the world can get closer to the elimination of these problems.

Below is a video of Penn and Teller and their defense of Sweatshops.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjsshqyAFh8

Milan Fashion Week

The typical Milan Fashion Week involves very inventive, unique, artsy and all around unwearable clothing. However, this year, that has changed. Milan Fashion Week actually included very wearable, understated clothing. One of the trends in Milan seemed to be transparency combined with different elements so that it was not overbearing or trashy. Instead it turned out to be very classy and sophisticated. An example of the transparency is located in the picture on the right which comes from the Roberto Cavalli Collection for Milan Fashion Week.

When dealing with art over usability, this year is very usable but there are still elements of sculptured art. According to the "Fashion Directory" some of the themes for Milan Fashion Week included bejewled, bouffant, one-shoulder, folds, fringe, gold and intricate just to name a few. The bouffant style seems to show some of the sculpture looking pieces. The picture on the left is taken from the "fashion directory" website and gives an example of the sculptured clothing.

Another interesting aspect of the Milan Fashion Week was the use of plus size clothing that emphasizes the usability aspect of the Milan Fashion Week. According to Fashion Director Hillary Alexander, "Milan Fashion Week opened yesterday with a delightful surprise for all those women bored with the seemingly endless parade of lean, lithe teenagers that tends to dominate the catwalks." Elena Miro's entire collection was designed for women of average size. On the right is a picture of one of her pieces. All in all I feel that Milan Fashion Week was extremely successful in that many of the pieces were extremely usable with a hint of sculpted art adding an extra unique element.

Inspiration

When most people hear that I am a fashion major, they assume that I want to work in the design field. However, I am focused more on the business. I have never thought of myself as someone with much of a creative mind but like all fashion majors, I would say that I definitely know what I like. I thought about maybe describing my ideal outfit in words but realized quickly that it was harder that it seemed. I would rather just illustrate and explain my inspirations and influences of my ideal pieces of apparel.

The color pallet that I would use would remind most of spring and summer. I am a huge fan of bright flashy colors such as hot pink, lime green and bright yellow. In my mind these colors relate to thoughts about the warm and fun months in the year and are related to the beach and vacation. As far as prints, I love the flowey type of flower prints such as Cherry Blossoms and Hibiscus however I do not think that many of my ideal clothes would involve prints.

I love bohemian flowey skirts that give a faint but classy silhouette of the waist and legs. I love these skirts because it does not matter what your body type is, they can look good on anyone. The most important aspect of fashion is to be comfortable and feel beautiful and confident. The clothing that I love incorporates those aspects. The pictures I have posted are different peices I would model an outfit after.: Ketsa.com and H&M.com.

One of my favorite stores is H&M and I feel that the styles that are portrayed there can be twisted and teased into something all your own. They have the basic pants and shirts but there are many elements that can be added to them to make them original. In conclusion, when I think of designing a piece of clothing, comfort and beauty would be my main components and inspirations. Also, multifaceted sillouettes that would look great on any woman would be very important as well.