Tag Archives: consumerism

What’s Your Slavery Footprint? Take The Test And Find Out!

Julie GersteinMay 21, 2013 //
Fast Fashion
Let's talk about Forever 21 and other fast fashion retailers. Read More »
Compassionate Fashion
Dresses from sustainable designer Karen Kane. Read More »
Ethical Clothing?
Clothing Rack
Would you be more likely to buy clothes with an "ethical" label? Read More »
My Slavery Footprint

When we think of slavery, most Americans likely consider the slave history of our own country. We relegate slavery to the past, believing that such a barbaric concept couldn’t ever exist in our current world.

We were wrong.

Slavery is alive and well, and happening in more places than you think. There are 27 million slaves in the world today, involved in a variety of industries and in a multitude of countries. There’s the forced prostitution and trafficking of women around the world; the men forced to work in the copper, diamond and coltan mines in the Congo; and the trafficked migrant workers of India, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

But that’s just a fraction of the slave and indentured labor that happens all over the world, employed to create products and services we use every day. Keep reading »

7 Colorful Alternatives To Black Friday

Winona Dimeo-EdigerNovember 21, 2012 //
Black Friday Is Coming
Braving the crowds? Here's how to survive! Read More »
Black Friday Crime
Sales make some totally people wig out. Read More »
Black Friday On Thurs?
Black Friday begins at 8pm on Thanksgiving now, apparently. Read More »

Black Friday seems to get crazier and crazier every year, and while I’ve gotta give props to my friends who are willing to brave the angry mobs in the hopes of scoring a sweet deal, I think that gloriously bloated day after Thanksgiving has the potential to be a lot more than the frightening consumerist orgy it’s become. With that in mind, I compiled 7 other colorful Friday traditions. Find out what they are and how to celebrate them, after the jump! Keep reading »

Anna Wintour Says Women Are Unfairly Criticized For Loving Fashion

Julie GersteinNovember 8, 2011 //
Anna Wintour 101
anna wintour at diane von furstenberg
What we can learn about style from Vogue's EIC. 9 Photos »
Anna on power
What the Vogue chief has to say about being a powerful woman. Read More »
anna's career advice
The surprising career recommendation she makes. Read More »

“When women are in positions of power, and they’re featured in a women’s magazine like Vogue … they tend to be incredibly unfairly criticized. It’s an incredibly old-fashioned approach. Just because you’re in a position of power, and you look good and you enjoy fashion — does that mean you’re an idiot, or that it’s not seemly to be in a woman’s magazine? If a man is in GQ, they don’t get the same kind of criticism.”

– Vogue HBIC Anna Wintour on how women are unfairly judged for enjoying fashion. I wasn’t really aware that women were terribly criticized for being into fashion. Do you feel that women are judged harshly for loving clothes? Perhaps what Anna’s actually alluding to is the way that women’s fashion magazines aren’t taken seriously — because of their emphasis on materialism and consumerism? [Wall Street Journal]

Be A Virtual Clothes Whore With The Retail Therapy Game

Lily QJuly 21, 2010 //


Know how you kind of want to shop all the time, but there isn’t enough money in the world to support that habit? Well, we kind of thought it might be just us with those issues until we heard about Retail Therapy, an online game centered around virtual consumerism. Retail Therapy launched quietly as a Facebook app last week, grabbing about 4,000 users in just a few days and making us feel a little better about our shopping obsession. If you, too, want to get in on the game, here’s how it works: after choosing your avatar (they’re all ladies, so get comfortable with your feminine side, boys), you get $2,500 with which to stock your boutique, design clothes or keep your own closet looking classy. Stock will update frequently to reflect what’s actually going on in the fashion world, too, which is quite cool. Better still, however, are the partnerships that Retail Therapy has forged with brands like The Gap and Diane von Furstenberg. Through the game, it’s possible to browse e-DVF dresses and click through to the real thing. We’d write more about it, but our avatars are jonesing for some espadrilles. [Tech Crunch] Keep reading »