Prohibition Schmohibition!

Like a polar bear that has to hibernate in the cold season, I have to craft. (I cringe at using that word as a verb but it has now become unavoidable. Don't get me started on combo words either... crafternoon=vomit.) Now that the temperature has turned slightly cold, I've been struck with the irrepressable urge to create things. I'm 2 for 2 in trips to JoAnn in days since Sunday.

My main purpose in going there was two-fold: the first is because I would like to make all my low-rise jeans high waisted. This was in fact a suggestion from my mom who is intermittently brilliant but consistently innovative. (This subject deserves it's own post, it's that amazing)

Second reason: to copy le sac dress from American Apparel

It is literally 2 curtains (therefore rectangles) sewn together with a string where the curtain rod would go. The concept is pretty much inspired, one dress you can wear 20 different ways but for $38 I can make 4 or 5. Which makes me wonder, how much do their garments actually cost to make? Sure they pay their workers competitive wages, but doesn't that just mean they pay them minimum wage($8.00/hour)? Also, Le Sac Dress probably takes about

5 minutes to sew so that's $0.13 plus the price of the fabric which can be no more than $5.00 but is probably less. At those prices the company makes a profit of $33 per garment sold which is a 600% markup.

So I'm bootlegging the dress, dammit! Not only because it's way cheaper, but also because although AA seems to have become the uniform of our generation, and yes, I have been known to rock a tee or 3, those fools have hella questionable marketing and factory policies (Gasp!)

For one thing is the fabric itself actually made in LA? Because most companies can get away with assembling it here and then slapping the "Made in the USA" label on it (Thank You Behind the Labels! Also check out this cool exhibit if you're in NY) The hypersexualized advertisements of "actual workers" do not help the workers seem less marginalized either. ("Look Ma, a real live factory worker").

Not to hate on my purple sweatshirt wearing, skinny jean loving, rare-dunk worshipping homies, but the clothing they are marketing is what people have been loving the only difference is they make it readily available to everyone ACROSS THE GLOBE. (Hipsters, how does that make you feel?)

But on the whole, I feel that AA has cheapened the human rights struggle for factory workers by making it trendy and therefore taken less seriously, much the way the going green movement often seems contrived. We tend to believe what someone (anyone) is telling us; "Made in Downtown LA" relieves the conscientious consumers that we all claim to be so that we don't feel bad about the amount we obtain because there was no slave labor involved or because it was for a good cause (hello RED campaign!) Seriously, check out the reviews for any of the garments on the AA website:

Elisabeth: "I was only planning to buy one of these fabulous dresses but found myself coming home with two"

or Lise: "I bought this dress today in black and I adore it! I can't wait to get it in Forest and Sea Foam!

Boo.

Also check out this circle scarf which is literally just a piece of knit fabric which is made in a loop and cut into 2 foot lengths. I also happen to have one of these in my repertoire that I found lying around the house. Price: Free!

On that note I am starting a bootleg everything campaign, next on the agenda: handbags!