Like the virus that is fast food, the destructive shopping tradition has spread from the U.S. to the rest of the world. The BBC is reporting a “scene of chaos” today at a store in Ireland where television sets were discounted from £179 to £99. A mere 80 pounds (96 Euro, 131 US dollars) is enough to incite people to violence.

The worst scenes tend to be recorded of people fighting over electronics at places like Wal-Mart (as seen in the video above). The much-hated big box store was the scene of a trampling death on Black Friday 2008. Numerous other incidents have been recorded at the chain – many of which are chronicled on blackfridaydeathcount.com.

Anything that induces a mob response is something that any awake & aware consumer should think twice about desiring. Especially so when the event follows what’s purported to be a day of thanks. The gluttony of feeding on food produced with questionable ethics now spills over into that same over-indulgence on cheaply made consumer products.

If shopping can’t (or won’t) be avoided, one should at least refrain from making purchases simply because an item is on sale, rather than because it is genuinely needed. Instead, The Fashion Cult promotes an austere approach to shopping be celebrated on this day. In an effort to plant the seed of responsible consumption, one might do any or all of the following.

• Shop only used – either in secondhand stores or online via sites like eBay.
• Use sales to obtain discounts on high quality investment pieces that you expect to use for decades.
• Buy only quality, locally-produced items at full price.
• Use time off to audit your wardrobe, checking each item for condition and aptness for your current body and lifestyle. Add missing items to your holiday wishlist, or to your resolutions for the new year.

The evidence of such sins comes into full view when the task of changing residences is at hand. If you’ve ever moved, you can probably relate to the feeling of amazement at the massive amounts of stuff that collects about you over the years. And the process not only forces an evaluation of quantity, but also the quality of that stuff, and its aptness for your lifestyle. When you take a step back and survey the hoard, a strange spector rises and displays to you the body your way of life has built. A body you may well be proud of, but which is no longer appropriate to the next phase of your existence. In this case the body must be burned down.

Now, wait! I’m not suggesting anyone pile their unwanted wares up and set fire to them. You can leave that literal act to the denizens of Black Rock City. Rather, to burn the body in this case means to catalyze the consumption of materials, such that they dissipate from your life. That pile of clothes in your closet may be just clutter to you, but to the world at large it is a valuable coalescence of various energy sources. You can “burn” this clump of energy by selling, donating, upcycling, and recycling the items – all of which are more soul satisfying than dragging the unused items along with you or, worse, sending them off the landfill.

In addition to lightening the load, the burn serves to provide an opportunity to build a new body, whose level and type of fitness is most appropriate to new circumstances. Such was the case when I moved from Atlanta to San Francisco. I burned a body of high heels and summer dresses so that I could rebuild with flannels and sensible shoes. The new body served me well for a time, but proved to be as transitional as my 8-month, Haight street sublet. Though temporary, this new body consisted of quality items purchased, mostly, from nearby thrift stores – Goodwill and Wasteland, in particular. So rather than give them to strangers, I decided to light the flame this time with a clothing swap.

Lucky for me, the fine folks at Epica Wines just happened to be in a giving mood and provided bottles of wine for my friends and I to enjoy while we traded sweaters, jackets, flannels, and other fog-worthy wardrobe items. So not only did I get to avoid the guilt of discarding items not used long enough, I got to spend some time in fellowship with kindred spirits – a much needed thing for anyone in a new city.

A clothing swap is, possibly, the least resource heavy means of composting your clothing. It’s certainly the most fun. It’s such a perfect method of burning (unswapped items get donated) that I’ve decided to make such events a regular part of maintaining a TFC approved closet – whether I’m moving or not. So if you’re feeling a little weighed down by your wardrobe it may be time to feel the heat. Get started by planning a clothing swap with your friends and see how being sensible about clothes can help save, not just the planet, but your soul.

Somedays, when it’s slow at work, I’ll take a walk around downtown and inevitably find myself at one of the many department stores around Union Square.

As much as I explore, I always make it a point to stop by H&M, because I like their men’s collection and they always have nicely pared-down versions of some the latest trends. When it comes to things I’d like to see in my wardrobe, I can usually count on H&M to have anticipated my desires, and ones that I can actually afford.

It’s actually pretty rare to see things I want or imagine at any given moment already in stores. It used to be that it took a couple years for companies to go ahead and manufacture the things I wanted on shelves a few seasons back.

With social media spreading our likes and influences quickly and efficiently, mass-industry is uncannily synchronous and effective in generating the wants and desires broadcasted by the hive mind. Every subculture seems to be represented with products of every variety immediately available on Etsy.com, or any number of small and medium sized internet companies. It seems even the largest companies are able to pick up on these trends enough to satisfy even some of the more picky or avant-garde fashionistas. I don’t know if I could call myself a fashionista, nor would I want to, but I will say that H&M reaches a nice middle-ground when I want to be fashion-forward (even a little bold) while still keeping an understated look.

A new line that H&M has been rolling out over that past few seasons has been their Conscious line, which features clothing that make “fashion sustainable and sustainability fashionable.” Colors in the Conscious Men’s line feature rich greens and dark navy blues, but with odd touches like a splash of floral or coat fringes, no doubt a moder. lists a line of organic and recycled fabrics. Their organic blends include linen, jute, and cotton, the latter of which H&M consumes more than any other clothing store worldwide. Their recycled threads include polyester, polymide, and of course, water-bottle plastic. They also sport Tencel, a silk-like proprietary fabric made from cellulose (generically known as Lyocell).

If you like the clothes that H&M provides, and you’re environmentally conscious, you might wonder how sustainable H&M really is. Their view on sustainability is surprisingly sophisticated, covering all their bases in their “seven ambitious commitments.”

Here, H&M has actually given us a framework to understand what they mean by “Conscious,” and more importantly, their understanding of sustainability. They’re not entirely exempt from the notion of greenwashing, being a very large company, but at the same time they don’t just stamp an “organic” imprint on a tag and call it a day. They incorporate an all-important factor in any discussion about sustainability, the people factor. Social equity, which is addressed in their seventh ambition of strengthening communities, is the glue that keeps sustainability relevant to a human discussion.

Yet in reality, H&M’s Conscious line of clothes is but a small portion of the store floor, and nothing more than a marketing gamble.Sure, conserving natural resources, using renewable or recycled materials, and keeping a small carbon footprint is important, but it doesn’t help much from a human-centric view unless you keep people at the center of the discussion. When you buy clothes, you might wonder about whether people are being displaced to make way for big industry to source raw material. Are these inhabitants benefitting from the company? These are all important considerations, ones that are difficult for any company honor completely let alone navigate responsibly. H&M says they are committed to these Seven Ambitions, but at the end of the day we are speaking of only one collection which is already on their sale rack. The rest of H&M no doubt operates like any world-wide corporation, where profitability is what keeps them competitive in a worldwide marketplace.

photo: 1, 2

My eyes are lately caught by wooden accessories. Glasses, rings, and things like little box clutches have a humble luxe appeal that vibes with my current aesthetic. I do steer clear of wooden earrings, though, since they have a way of further pushing me down that “earthy girl” pigeon hole that I avoid like plague & polyester.

It’s the unexpected items that are especially exciting – like the wooden iPhone case I recently purchased from Root Cases. The wood isn’t as stately IRL as it is in the pictures, but the unplanned rustic charm as grown on me. Unfortunately, I’m not that confident in the durability of the case, considering that it chipped within days of first use. The limited utility of the case, however, probably matches the length of life I can expect from my Apple product’s diabolical built-in obsolescence. Both are definitely a blip in my attempts to follow the Manifesto. The Root Cases website says the brand plants a tree for every product sold.

I also love the look of these earbuds by The House of Marley. The brand was nice enough to gift me a pair of “People Get Ready” earphones in Midnight. They look great with my phone case and fit the jack perfectly (this review points out that this case isn’t always so accommodating).

The brand has many other styles, including on- and over-ear models and audio systems. All categories utilized wood that, according to The House of Marley website, is FSC certified.

ITEMS FROM TOP COLLAGE are detailed below:

I have 41 slaves working for me. That is, according to a survey taken on slaveryfootprint.org. The web app uses pretty graphics and a slick interface to query visitors about what they eat, what they own, and how they live. At the end you find out just how big of a slave master you are, you Western asshole, you…

But cynicism aside, this site truly is a great resource for understanding why the lifestyle of the average American is incredibly taxing on the planet’s resources – which include people. I have a knee jerk aversion to causes that appeal to you via guilt or pity (which, mind you, is far different from compassion); and this site uses a touch of both. Still, it’s a great tool to shed a new light on your way of life. Where does your stuff come from? Where does it go? Sadly, many of us in the so-called developed nations often float through life without ever asking.

Naturally, the portion of the survey that asked about my closet gave me the most pause. I love fashion as art & craft so it’s easy for me become a “collector.” However, The Fashion Cult Manifesto holds Quality-over-Quantity as a supreme tenet so I’ve been working on pairing down my wardrobe to only the best and most useful things. In my mind, buying fewer but better quality garments (and then learning to care for them) is the best way to sartorial sustainability.

Like electronics, fashion these days comes churning out of the slave-driven factories with built-in obsolescence – a dastardly device of economy that is the very essence of evil… IMHO. Those of us that believe in changing the world for the good can and must do better. Through a fashion lense, it means skipping the latest polyester-laden fast-fashion mash-up in favor of well-made secondhand items. This, along with saving my pennies for the very occasional splurge on a beautifully crafted high-end item, is my approach to being responsibly stylish.

If even half of the world’s top consumers starting living the Q-o-Q life the insane supply chain that produces slavery and other gruesome work conditions would be disrupted. Wouldn’t it?

Built-in obsolescence is something many of us have come to expect, whether consciously or not. The concept is so common to our way of life, yet seemed starkly sinister when it was first named for me by The Story of Stuff, seen below.

H&M’s creative director Ann-Sofie Johansson has taken the scraps from that Lanvin x H&M collection that so many people went apeshit for, and – dare I say – the results are much more fantastic than that Alber Elbaz creations. Like, easily so. Hopefully the fast fashion chain will do more of this and less of THIS in its efforts to authentically join the sustainability bandwagon (it’s solar powered, BTW).

Due to the nature of the collection it will be available in very limited quantities at a just smattering of stores in Europe and the US (NYC only) starting in early February. See more of the sloppy seconds – otherwise known as the “Waste” collection – at Ecouterre.com

photos: handbag.com, coolspotters.com, ecouterre.com

Check out my Polyvore sets for some ways to wear the above pieces – E.J. style!

reduce, reuse, upcycle 2 by eighty jane featuring a suede tote

YIGAL AZROUEL Y14203WR JET EXTRA FINE WOOL FRINGE DRAPE SKIRT
289 GBP – farfetch.com
Draped skirt »

Easy in Studded Black Suede
$1,895 – ysl.com
Suede tote »

Earrings – Monroe
33 EUR – modekungen.se
Earrings »

Dolce Vita "Ivan" Demi-Wedge Sandals

$156 – bloomingdales.com

H&M ‘Waste” Collection Made from Lanvin Fabric Scraps | The Fashion…
thefashioncult.com

reduce, reuse, upcyle by eighty jane featuring a leopard bikini

Environmental awareness is a big part of the morality of our times. It’s trendy to be a tree-hugger and the proof is in the many pseudo-“green” totes and tees being pressed by designer labels these days. But for most of these brands, the fad is only in the symbols. Thankfully, there are a few designers cranking out sustainable style that’s authentic to the cause and still very chic.

One such brand is Erika Hendrix. The label’s A/W 2009 collection is chock full of the most scrumptious knits you’ll see anywhere – and at very accessible prices (big plus). These are the kind of pieces that you can buy and wear for many seasons to come. And it get’s even better: all items are handmade from organic materials. The Fashion Cult got a chance to chat with the designer to learn more about what inspires her and what’s next for the line.

All the products we see on your Website are handmade. What inspired you to go that route?
I have taught everything I know to myself. I started making one-of-a-kind shirts and shorts in 2005 and last Fall/Winter I brought out my first collection. I also love making everything myself, [but] I think I will need some help with sewing soon, its just too much to do it all alone. I will definitely work with a sweatshop-free manufacturer, that’s very important to me.

How does your brand reflect your personal lifestyle or values?
I only eat organic or fair trade food. I think its important to know where the stuff you are buying/eating is coming from. I couldn’t buy something that is so cheap because I know how much work it is to make something, so how can it be so cheap?

Have you always wanted to design clothing?
No, I have always wanted to be a hair and makeup artist or photographer, but I ended up doing an apprenticeship as a window dresser. While the apprenticeship I bought a sewing machine and just started. I have always been creative but I have never thought I would be a designer one day, but I love every second!

Any insider news about the label?
There will be a Erika Hendrix men collection by the end of the year!

Where can people buy your clothes?
Online at www.erikahendrix.com and at my Boutique in Mannheim, Germany.

Cult picks from Fall ’09. Click each pic for more info or to purchase:

About Erika Hendrix:
Born in Giessen, Germany in 1984, Erika has always had an interest in design. During an internship in interior design, Erika began designing and sewing shirts in 2002 as an outlet for her creative energies. In 2005, she created her own independent fashion label called Erika Hendrix, and shops & boutiques all around Germany began carrying her line of shirts. Since then, the label has expanded in accessories, jewelry, dresses, skirts, and shorts.