The label....

[Muslimwoman]

Originally Posted by greymare

I wont haggle when I shop. Even when I bought my house I said "thats a fair price, OK SOLD" .

You are not the only one Grey, I am just to embarassed to haggle and I live in a country whose entire economic system is based on haggling - I wonder if that is why the shopkeepers smile so broadly when they see me coming??

[17th Angel]

lol.... I would love haggling.

[Impqueen]

Yes, I am five foot tall and a european size 35 foot, which is slightly smaller than a three . Which is why I mainly stick to DM's and flip flops... It can be a pain finding clothes to fit too. Another reason to avoid labels - they so rarely acknowledge the existence of any body shape and size outside the average. Jeans in particular.... it'd be nice to have a 32" inside leg (actually it might look a bit daft on me...) but I can't be the only woman who's not a long legged amazon? I pretty much have to buy kids jeans. Problem is, kids jeans are made for kid shape arses and while I have 'delicate' hips, my butt is definitely bigger than the average 13 yr old's.... sigh..... Even petite sizes tend to be a little long in the leg, or they are strangely proportioned, like they shortened them without reducing any of the other measurements (like waist to crotch for example). I once spent a whole day looking for a smart white shirt for interviews. A whole day!

Gentlemen... this is why women take so long clothes shopping...

Sorry that devolved into a rant..... *wanders off muttering*

[17th Angel]

Not just females.... Well depends what I am buying... If it is jeans.. Then yes, I take ages to buy jeans, as I am -very- fussy about jeans... Most clothes I couldn't care less... "yeah that looks good I'll have it." No trying it on no second thoughts, It's in the bag.... Jeans.... Different story.... I like jeans that I could succesfully parachute out of a plane in and land safley because of the intake of air that they capture... And fashion these days, people like rips in their jeans? Rips? Sorry did I hear that right? Ok what else do you like on your jeans? Oh fading? Awsome yeah, fadings is good..... What else.... STAINES! Freaking Staines! I went up to a shop attendant like "I think somone has stolen a pair of jeans and replaced them for their olds ones, they are ripped, faded and have yellowy green staines on them......" OH NO SIR!! That is fashion. Oh really? Well I got a pile of old **** at home.... Stained ripped fadded give me tons of cash for them, so I can go buy some real jeans you freaking norris! Now when it gets to this level I agree a person who buys these jeans is a ****** idiot. Anyway aside from fade, stain and rips..... It is also the "in" thing to have tight jeans... I loathe tight jeans... I want jeans that I could fit my legs into four fold............ Never go jean shopping with me... It gets ugly.

[Muslimwoman]

Originally Posted by Impqueen

Gentlemen... this is why women take so long clothes shopping...

Have to go with ImpQueen on this one. I hate clothes shopping but I am a long legged pear shaped amazon, with size 8 feet, so it takes ages to find clothes that fit. I have a particularly long back, so finding a blouse that is long enough to tuck into my skirt is a nightmare. And shoes in that size tend to be lower and 'matronly', I don't want to live in flats, sometimes I like a heel.

Look at it this was ImpQueen, at least you can have things taken up or in but I don't think I would get away with adding sections to the bottom of my clothes - not without looking realy daft anyway!

Have to admit when I read your post I thought lucky you, some kids clothes are much more fun than adult ones but hadn't thought of the shape issue. I am really starting to think we all need to walk a mile in others shoes.

[Tao_Equus]

Would it not be wonderful if we could return to the days where we would go to a tailor who made clothes to fit the individual. Clothes off the rack are so overpriced when it has a branded label and of poor quality without. Though often branded labels I find to be poorly made too.

Both types of clothing are so exploitative of cheap foreign labour and the environment. 60% of the cotton products sold in Europe are manufactured from cotton produced in the slave farms of Uzbekistan where adults are bonded to work for $2 a month, yes $2 a month. At harvest time the government takes all the kids over 7 out of school and forces them into the fields where many of them suffer temporary blindness and long term eye damage from exposure to the pesticides. Irrigation of the farms has reduced the Aral sea to only 15% of its former size and has seen all 24 of its native fish species go extinct. Malnutrition in the population is endemic, the bonded farmers are denied even a tiny portion of land for the production of food.

Every one of us will have some items in their wardrobes made from the cotton from Uzbekistan. It is the worlds 2nd largest producer after the US. All the focus has been on the garment producing nations and the issue of child labour but the product they use to begin with is already ethically unsound. It is the manufacturers and retailers that really take the big profits. In both China and India the richest individuals are both billionaires on the back of such suffering and our own domestic retailers get even fatter but often pay less tax back into our country than the shop floor assistants punting the goods. Its just so wrong.

In the west we have a complacency based on the fact that we are comfortable being ready consumers. But our cheap disposable lifestyles demand a high price from the exploited citizens of corrupt dictatorships. Cheap or branded they all demand a human cost we never see printed on any label.

Tao

[17th Angel]

Want nice clothes? Some other country has to make their children or whatever go and work.....


Want to work? Ideal, there is some country that will pay through the nose for clothes get working...


Swings an rand-a-boots Tao

[Tao_Equus]

A link for anyone interested in Cotton production in Uzbekistan.

EJF: Cotton in Uzbekistan

17th, yeh yeh..

[Muslimwoman]

Originally Posted by Tao_Equus

A link for anyone interested in Cotton production in Uzbekistan.

EJF: Cotton in Uzbekistan

It does make you wonder how you can live in this world without exploiting someone. I changed to fair trade products, buying from farmers markets, stopped buying faux fur (usually dog or cat fur), beauty without cruelty makeup, etc but where does it end? When I fly back to Egypt I shall be destroying our planet with my carbon footprint. It's all dreadfully depressing.

I think it is one of the things I most enjoy about living in a poor egyptian farming town, where half the taxi's are horse and carriage and the veg shops are ladies sitting in the streets with a basket (pesticides - what are they? just pick the bugs off).

[Tao_Equus]

Originally Posted by Muslimwoman

It does make you wonder how you can live in this world without exploiting someone.

It is incredibly difficult. It should be the job of government to insure no unethical products are available for sale. But we all know who they serve first and its not the 'people'.

Tao

[dauer]

It is incredibly difficult. It should be the job of government to insure no unethical products are available for sale. But we all know who they serve first and its not the 'people'.

Reptillian overlords?

[Muslimwoman]

Originally Posted by dauer

Reptillian overlords?

Oh no, then we have all the slime to cope with and who knows what that will do to the ozone layer.

[amellcheney]

I wear a size 3 shows also and they are not too easy to find. I can find eastlanders that fit and reekboks girls sizes and high heels are a joke for me. I am 4'10" 94 pounds soaking wet. What causes the problems is that my shoe size is they are a E width.

Anita

[Muslimwoman]

Originally Posted by amellcheney

I wear a size 3 shows also and they are not too easy to find. I can find eastlanders that fit and reekboks girls sizes and high heels are a joke for me. I am 4'10" 94 pounds soaking wet. What causes the problems is that my shoe size is they are a E width.

Anita

Why don't you and ImpQueen get together to design and sell shoes for ladies with tiny feet?

Are there no specialist companies (although I know they are more expensive) or maybe a Japanese company?

[Tao_Equus]

Originally Posted by dauer

Reptillian overlords?

Yup thats right, Crocodile Dundee