La Cruz Verde

But I don’t wanna be a hippy

by Anna Gurney

Is it possible that anyone genuinely enjoys clothes shopping? I think it's a myth perpetrated by evil women testing their boyfriends and those gangs of girls with hoop earrings. Where's the joy in having cheap pop music forced on you whilst traipsing busy streets and being sucked in to somebody else's transient idea of what looks good?

But I can't walk round naked. I tried window shopping to ease the pain, but have now learnt that they never, ever actually have those trousers on the rack, and inside H&M recently I was reduced almost to tears/shoplifting. A t-shirt I really wanted to buy was in my hands. I tried it on right there, a few metres from the door, got out my 8 euros and turned to see a queue llarguíssima. I joined it, got so frustrated I went upstairs to find a shorter one, came back, lost my place, swore loudly and then headed out of the shop. Hovering by the exit, I concluded that I was right and the law was wrong, but the grassonet security guard had noticed me and I chickened out (the whole episode could probably be blamed on hormones).

Now, just to make shopping even more complicated, I've gone green. The simplest yet most amazingly difficult way to do this is to avoid filling your wardrobe with crap that you never wear. Next time fashion dictates that a puff ball skirt is something you might wear in public, don't fall for it. Looking through my own cupboard I discovered a lime green dress and jumpers that don't even fit, and yet I don't have enough clothes to wear to work.

At the top end of ethical shopping are fair trade shoes made of recycled tyres, and organic cotton yoga clothing. But if you would like to be able to afford anything, you are stuck with the musty and 99% fruitless task of trawling second hand shops, (I prefer friends' wardrobes). Fair trade retailers in Barcelona include Intermon, Natura (sort of), and various ethnic shops (smell those josticks).

But what if you don't want to dress like a hippy?

High street names have big problems paying their workers a fair wage—the word sweatshop jumps to mind. Kate Moss was paid 3 million pounds to put her name on a Top Shop line of clothing. Someone making those clothes in Mauritius would earn the same in 4000 years. But some companies are improving (believe it or not, Inditex is a member of the Ethical Trading Initiative) and we can choose where we shop.

We can also choose what we buy. No one wants to admit it, but cotton production includes all that is bad: pesticides that pollute, chemicals that kill thousands of workers each year, child labour, and most US cotton is genetically modified. Even the economics is scary, with one company controlling the market and overpriced seeds now being sold in India and China.

The question is, taking all this into account, will I have a shirt to wear to school on Monday?

Ethical rating = ok: Adolfo Domínguez, American Apparel, Bench, Carhartt, Columbia Sports, Billabong, Mambo, Rip Curl, ola, Mango, Miss Sixty

Ethical rating = poor: Inditex (Zara, Pull and Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Stradivarius, Oysho), women’s secret, Puma, French Connection, Diesel, Nike, Converse, H&M

Ethical rating = very poor: Nine West, C&A, Carrefour, Gap, Top Shop, Levi's, Adidas, Decathlon, El Corte Inglés, Sfera, Reebok, Pimkie

What not to wear

Bad fabrics: cotton, pvc

Good fabrics: hemp, organic cotton