410BC – An Age of Teemocracy

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     410BC, 410bc.com, NY fashion, designer, designer t-shirts, ethical fashion, hip hop, indie, political tees, punk, sweatshop free tees, urban wear

410BC is a New York based clothing company and arts collective with their finger on the pulse and their eyes on the horizon of change and equality. With a strong ethical background and a total commitment to the ecology and conscious consumerism in every aspect of the brand, they focus on strong conceptual design in equal measure favouring a wide spectrum of subculture arts including skater, punk, hip-hop, indie and D.I.Y. There is a really strong sense of community at their site www.410BC.com and they actively encourage participation from both their wide and loyal customer base and their eclectic band of designers and artists.

I usually ‘wing it’ when it comes to t-shirt reviews, preferring not to get to bogged down with subjective ideas from designers and focus on what I see the way I see it, sure it’s not particularly objective but it can be informative for both the label and the general t-shirt fan to see a different point of view to the traditional bog-standard interview format. However I have to admit I cheated a little when it came to the name of this particular brand, Nicole co-founder of 410BC enlightened me to its origin – “410 BC stands for the year Democracy was restored in Athens. The Athenians were at war, but they managed to restore their own institutions by fighting for what they believed in. We chose that name because it resonated with us strongly. Through the company we promote conscious consumerism and fighting for what you believe in. We believe in supporting artists, sending a positive message, only using sweatshop free and organic cotton tees and giving back to our community.” A rather admirable mantra for any fashion brand I am sure you will agree.

The company have definitely stuck to their roots from day one, unlike many brands in the market they like to stay as connected with their audience wherever possible, from their humble beginnings they have certainly picked up plenty of good habits, constantly pushing their positive message and encouraging public interaction all the way. Do have a read of their blog if you have a moment – there are some great fashion, style and other features going on there and whilst you’re at it check out their LookBook which features plenty of photos of past customers donning their marvellous clothes. Plus of course you can also meet and greet 410BC via Myspace, Flickr and see their latest vids at Youtube – oh and check out their latest contest too!

However ethics asides what’s as if not more satisfying for me is that their creative stance is as powerful as their ecological one with a cornucopia of great designs available at the store, an ecelctic range of sources and ideas for their particularly unique style, and to top it off a rather fabulous website to showcase their work. Let’s take a trip to 410BC and see exactly what makes them so special in the market today… read more

T-Shirt Designers – Clean up your act with FairWear!

admin    T-Shirt News     European law, ethical fashion, fair trade, fair trade t-shirts, fair wear, fairtrade, fairwear, fashion industry, human rights, workers rights

In case you are a t-shirt designer, run a t-shirt store or label, or indeed create or sell any kind of clothing, you might be interested in the Fairwear Foundation who focus on ensuring that the garment industry finally cleans up its act and directly influences the rights of workers for all their suppliers and manufacturers. If you regularly order t-shirts from international suppliers and manufacturers it maybe worth reading on and seeing what pressure you can apply!

Since the late 90′s The Netherlands have been campaigning for ‘clean clothes’, i.e clothing created ethically and with fair workers’ rights no matter the source. FWF regularly inspect source suppliers across the world, including human rights’ hotspots such as India, Indonesia and Romania.

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Three Cheers for Eco Gear!

admin    T-Shirt News     eco clothing, eco fashion, eco t-shirts, eco tees, ethical fashion, ethical t-shirts, fair trade, organic inks

I’ve featured ecological t-shirt sites at Buy Tees before, but Canadian-based Eco-Gear.ca has to be the most ethical and ecologically aware t-shirt manufacturer and printer in the world. I was going to wait until I’d collated a few more sources for organic t-shirt suppliers/printers because I’ve had a few requests for more lists, but I couldn’t let this wait.

Here’s a quick rundown of Ecogear‘s amazing ethical and environmental credentials:

- recycled materials in pre-consumer cotton clippings and recycled water bottles( 65% cotton and 35% recycled PET )
– least water and energy needed to produce the fabric
– no bleach or dyes used. Their colours are from the first life cotton clippings.
– no land use for agriculture or need for deforestation
– for their printing processes, instead of being back end conscious and filtering all wastes, they are front end conscious and only use dyes that are either organic or water based.No PVC, pthalates or APEOs.

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