Fashion Ethic (www.site.fashionethic.com)
" Fashion Ethic is proud to showcase designers and companies who are making responsible choices in design, production, and distribution. Some are entirely eco-conscious - using sustainable, organic, or recycled materials, low-impact or chemical-free dyes, and earth-friendly manufacturing processes. Others are socially responsible in their labor practices, paying fair wages, giving back to the community, and supporting social change. Other lines specialize in handmade goods, being animal-friendly or vegan, and giving a portion of profits to worthy causes. While traditionally these ethics have meant a more casual, “hippie” look, today’s designers are definitely upping the fashion quotient…we call it being “Fashionably Responsible”." - Fashion Ethic (http://site.fashionethic.com/ethics.html)
Content
The website is very minimal. The 1st link, 'shop', takes you to their online shopping forum. In apparel, they only offer womens and no menswear. They also offer jewelry, lingerie and bags. Their 2nd link, 'salon', takes you to their blog with news about sustainable fashion. Their 3rd link, 'style', basically gives you tips on how to style you're clothing. The last link, 'About', talks about the company and declares their 3 principles: Fashion and Function First, Bringing the Boutique Experience Online and Support and Promote Ethical Design. If you click on the 'Ethics' link on the side, it takes you to a very resourceful page of all the definitions of sustainable fabrics and work ethics.
Online Marketing
When you first come to their page, you are greeted with Join the.... email list , Facebook and Twitter page. They also have a blog.
Sustainable Materials
Organic cotton, Bamboo, Hemp, Ahmisa silk, Organic wool, Linen
Content
The website is very minimal. The 1st link, 'shop', takes you to their online shopping forum. In apparel, they only offer womens and no menswear. They also offer jewelry, lingerie and bags. Their 2nd link, 'salon', takes you to their blog with news about sustainable fashion. Their 3rd link, 'style', basically gives you tips on how to style you're clothing. The last link, 'About', talks about the company and declares their 3 principles: Fashion and Function First, Bringing the Boutique Experience Online and Support and Promote Ethical Design. If you click on the 'Ethics' link on the side, it takes you to a very resourceful page of all the definitions of sustainable fabrics and work ethics.
Online Marketing
When you first come to their page, you are greeted with Join the.... email list , Facebook and Twitter page. They also have a blog.
Sustainable Materials
Organic cotton, Bamboo, Hemp, Ahmisa silk, Organic wool, Linen
Personal Overview
After going through this site, I found things I liked and some things I didn't like.
One thing I liked was all the information they provided of sustainable materials that are used. Their 'Ethics' page in the 'About' section had a lot of useful information for those that don't know much on sustainable materials and fair labor practices. Also, for each product they have to sell, they provide lots of information such as the material it's made from, where the product was manufactured, the dyes they use, the ethics of the construction of the garment and how to care for it.
With everything they had to offer, I found that the styles were very fashionable and some young and modern would appreciate the apparel. Also, I liked the pricing of the apparel. Compared to most apparel made of sustainable materials, their prices were a bit cheap and totally affordable for many. What I also appreciated was their reuse of materials. They recycled materials to create jewelry and shopping bags.
I also liked their marketing strategy of bombarding the customer at the very beginning with links to their email list, Facebook and Twitter. I absolutely love that they donate a portion of their proceeds to organizations.
I also think their choices in sustainable materials were great. They had a wide variety and I think that's good when trying to get sustainable materials exposure to those that know nothing of it.
One thing I liked was all the information they provided of sustainable materials that are used. Their 'Ethics' page in the 'About' section had a lot of useful information for those that don't know much on sustainable materials and fair labor practices. Also, for each product they have to sell, they provide lots of information such as the material it's made from, where the product was manufactured, the dyes they use, the ethics of the construction of the garment and how to care for it.
With everything they had to offer, I found that the styles were very fashionable and some young and modern would appreciate the apparel. Also, I liked the pricing of the apparel. Compared to most apparel made of sustainable materials, their prices were a bit cheap and totally affordable for many. What I also appreciated was their reuse of materials. They recycled materials to create jewelry and shopping bags.
I also liked their marketing strategy of bombarding the customer at the very beginning with links to their email list, Facebook and Twitter. I absolutely love that they donate a portion of their proceeds to organizations.
I also think their choices in sustainable materials were great. They had a wide variety and I think that's good when trying to get sustainable materials exposure to those that know nothing of it.
Unfortunately, there was more things I didn't like compared to what I did like about this online company.
What I didn't like most is how true they were to the sustainable cause. As you can see, the care instructions here says to dry clean. Actually, many of their garments needed dry cleaning. So I was a bit surprised they would offer apparel that needed this kind of chemical treatment for cleaning. Also, some of their garments used synthetic material such as was this. Granted it was very minimal and is used for stretch, but it doesn't make the garment 100% sustainable. Also, they list 'natural dyes' as their source of dye but never tell us what kind of dye.
Another negative was the lack of apparel they had to offer. I didn't like they only offered womenswear. I didn't like that they minimal options of garments to purchase. You can also tell the site isn't being maintained. Some of their links weren't working and there was a lot of "coming soon" links which was surprising since the site was created in 2007; you would think they would have expanded and finished the additions by now.
With the lack of apparel options and functional links, also came the lack of marketing updates. I checked their blog and there hadn't been a posting since November of last year. And before that, there were minimal postings and then a huge gap with their next posting in May. I then checked their Facebook and saw that their was very minimal postings and marketing done there as well. I then checked their Twitter and to my surprise, they actually have been keeping their page up to date, but again, very lacking in the marketing in trying to spread the word.
The last thing I didn't like was their principles. What irked me was their statement of, "Fashion and Function First". Being a company that specialized in products constructed of sustainable materials, I would think your first principle would be, "Support and Promote Ethical Design" and not make it last.
Conclusion
Overall, I think this is a pretty decent site. What I would other information that I would have liked to have seen is their personal involvement in the monitoring of their production. They pressed a lot on labor fairness and the type of materials they used, but I saw a lot of manufactured in "sweatshop-free" Japan and US, but how often do they visit those facilities to make sure that labor fairness is happening? They somewhat mirrored my views on sustainability. They used bamboo as a source of material. They used alternative dyes.They're an online only provider so they don't use much energy to maintain a store. They advocate for fairness in the workroom and most importantly, they donate a portion of their proceeds to organizations.
Another negative was the lack of apparel they had to offer. I didn't like they only offered womenswear. I didn't like that they minimal options of garments to purchase. You can also tell the site isn't being maintained. Some of their links weren't working and there was a lot of "coming soon" links which was surprising since the site was created in 2007; you would think they would have expanded and finished the additions by now.
With the lack of apparel options and functional links, also came the lack of marketing updates. I checked their blog and there hadn't been a posting since November of last year. And before that, there were minimal postings and then a huge gap with their next posting in May. I then checked their Facebook and saw that their was very minimal postings and marketing done there as well. I then checked their Twitter and to my surprise, they actually have been keeping their page up to date, but again, very lacking in the marketing in trying to spread the word.
The last thing I didn't like was their principles. What irked me was their statement of, "Fashion and Function First". Being a company that specialized in products constructed of sustainable materials, I would think your first principle would be, "Support and Promote Ethical Design" and not make it last.
Conclusion
Overall, I think this is a pretty decent site. What I would other information that I would have liked to have seen is their personal involvement in the monitoring of their production. They pressed a lot on labor fairness and the type of materials they used, but I saw a lot of manufactured in "sweatshop-free" Japan and US, but how often do they visit those facilities to make sure that labor fairness is happening? They somewhat mirrored my views on sustainability. They used bamboo as a source of material. They used alternative dyes.They're an online only provider so they don't use much energy to maintain a store. They advocate for fairness in the workroom and most importantly, they donate a portion of their proceeds to organizations.