Critical Fashion

If you have any time and are at all interested in consumer ethics, "critical fashion", or the history of the Urban Outfitters/Anthropologie/Free People chains, then I would highly recommend reading through this article. It's seven years old but still extremely relevant.

The article is about Richard Hayne, the founder and president of Urban Outfitters + associated chains (all of which opened in or around Philadelphia). Perhaps you have heard allegations about the working conditions at UO, sweatshop labor, or its blatant ripping off of independent designers. The article seeks to point out the contrast between the stores' aesthetics and the consumers that their products are marketed towards (young, hip, liberal people) with the man at the top, apparently a square who has also been known to be a staunch supporter of "Paleolithic right-wing Republican [former] Senator Rick Santorum." Santorum has made comments equating homosexuality with incest, pedophilia, and bestiality. When Hayne was asked his opinion on the subject, he responded:

"I'm not going to comment on it. I have my own opinion, but I am not going to share it. Our job as a business is not to promote a political agenda. That's not what we do. There are all kinds of political views held by my employees. Some would be horrified to learn that we contributed to Santorum's campaign, and others would be fine with it. We openly discuss and joke about our political differences."

I can agree with him here to some extent that it is not necessary for a business to promote some political agenda, whatever the agenda may be. However, when the products promote sexism and racism then politics becomes necessarily involved. I know it is completely unrealistic to even begin to believe that consumers are making a conscious political statement through where and how they shop. Only a very small percentage of people are conscious of or even care about/would take the time to research where the products come from. I'm not saying that you should swear off buying from big brand stores (afterall, who wants to buy used underwear?) or that you should eat whole organic foods and buy a hybrid car, but I do think it is important to consider all the options out there, because these options are so much more readily available now than they were even just a few years ago.

Also, please check out these wunderbar blogs, which brought this very issue to my attention and have also inspired me to write more "meaty" posts.

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