We asked Esther, owner of Theo The Label, to tell us how her ordinary life is a hero to others. She blew our minds with her response …
“I remember shopping before the words ‘ethical’ or ‘fair-trade’ were ever on my mind. I took a gap year in 2013 to travel around Europe for three months and hit up Zara and MNG in every city I visited, almost always coming out with a ‘steal’. I also remember aimlessly wondering around local shopping centres with my boyfriend (now husband) Tim, because what else do you do when you’re dating?! One time we walked through Target and had an itch to buy something, so we both bought plain grey t-shirts for $8 a pop. Mine didn’t get worn over the next few years (I don’t think Tim’s did either) but survived a few wardrobe culls because the thought of giving it away brand new reiterated how stupid the purchase was in the first place. I finally donated it, still unworn, and the frivolity and remorse are obviously still etched in my mind!
Fast forward around five years and things are quite the opposite. I rarely purchase new clothing (though you could definitely find me snooping around an op-shop or two) and shopping centres are the last resort for running errands and nothing more. I have so much appreciation for the way things are made but perhaps even more for the potential to socially impact the millions of lives that are involved in the making process that I launched my own clothing business in an attempt to do just that. My brain has done a 180 on my decision making going from ‘how much does this cost me?’ to ‘how much did this cost someone else?’.
What caused this change of heart? I accidentally learnt about sweatshops. Like most people, I knew what sweatshops were of course, but I didn’t really know. I was studying fashion at the time and a tiny compulsory sustainability subject was thrown into the curriculum that I didn’t really care for. From what I judged, my tutor was a hippie (she wore hemp before it was hipster and was conducting research to prove that denim jeans don’t need to be washed. Ever.) and her teaching about sweatshops and the environment was an attempt to convert the class to be hippies also. It’s a little ironic that I am currently in Ubud Bali, sipping a cold brew with cashew milk, and that most of my business efforts are less about sewing and more about telling people to wear hemp and stop washing their jeans!
Nothing happened overnight, of course. I remember watching ‘China Blue’ (a documentary following the life of a Chinese garment worker) in class and it threw me. How was I supposed to keep studying fashion knowing that I would eventually be working in the very industry that perpetuated sweatshops?! So I did what any innocent 20-something with no business experience would do. I started a clothing business that wouldn’t use sweatshops! I had no idea that fair wages were just the tip of the iceberg for anything ‘ethical’. I discovered big global issues such as corruption and suicide in cotton harvesting, child labour in beading and embroidery and environmental degradation in pretty much everything, which led me further down the rabbit hole to human trafficking, mental illness and plastic pollution. Before I knew it, everything I knew about anything from the food I ate, to the phone I used and the banks that kept my money were either corrupt, contributing to modern-day slavery or killing the planet and humanity, and that’s when I had to step back and take a deep breath!
The state of the world is overwhelming, to say the least. It’s normal to feel guilty at first, and then to keep on keeping on with what we know, rather than striving and struggling for what we know is better. I’m often tempted to be ‘all or nothing’ with my shopping and my business – that there’s no point making or buying a product that is only 50% ethical and if something doesn’t tick all the boxes, it doesn’t tick any ‘ethical’ box and therefore what’s the point? Unfortunately 100% ethical doesn’t exist (and my dream of living on a self-sufficient farm only fulfils my selfish desire to turn a blind eye and believe that ignorance is bliss!). What do exist are hundreds upon thousands of ‘better’ alternatives, and I believe that’s what ethical and fair-trade shopping is about. There are small businesses that offer unique products crafted with care, social enterprises that dig wells for clean water with their profits and corporations that invest in green energy and support local communities. We get to choose who benefits from our purchases and every dollar we spend is voting for the future we want and taking very real steps toward it.
Before corporate ladders were developed, white picket fences were erected and luxury escapes tugged on our heartstrings, communities were built around individuals helping one another, learning and growing at peace with their surroundings, and joy was found in the simplest of things. It sounds far-fetched and day-dream inspired, but honestly, I’m running out of logical reasons why the world shouldn’t be that way again! When I buy coffee from a family-run cafe I know where my $3.80 is going and when I buy an organic cotton t-shirt I know a farmer is being properly supported in his field. These completely ordinary acts keep me inspired and hopeful for the restoration of a broken world, one where love is actioned and peace is not just the absence of war. Who would have thought that hippies were really onto something, hey?”
Esther Kirwan is an Australian fashion designer and business owner of Theo The Label – www.theothelabel.com
How My Ordinary Life Is A Hero To Others
We asked Esther, owner of Theo The Label, to tell us how her ordinary life is a hero to others. She blew our minds with her response …
“I remember shopping before the words ‘ethical’ or ‘fair-trade’ were ever on my mind. I took a gap year in 2013 to travel around Europe for three months and hit up Zara and MNG in every city I visited, almost always coming out with a ‘steal’. I also remember aimlessly wondering around local shopping centres with my boyfriend (now husband) Tim, because what else do you do when you’re dating?! One time we walked through Target and had an itch to buy something, so we both bought plain grey t-shirts for $8 a pop. Mine didn’t get worn over the next few years (I don’t think Tim’s did either) but survived a few wardrobe culls because the thought of giving it away brand new reiterated how stupid the purchase was in the first place. I finally donated it, still unworn, and the frivolity and remorse are obviously still etched in my mind!
Fast forward around five years and things are quite the opposite. I rarely purchase new clothing (though you could definitely find me snooping around an op-shop or two) and shopping centres are the last resort for running errands and nothing more. I have so much appreciation for the way things are made but perhaps even more for the potential to socially impact the millions of lives that are involved in the making process that I launched my own clothing business in an attempt to do just that. My brain has done a 180 on my decision making going from ‘how much does this cost me?’ to ‘how much did this cost someone else?’.
What caused this change of heart? I accidentally learnt about sweatshops. Like most people, I knew what sweatshops were of course, but I didn’t really know. I was studying fashion at the time and a tiny compulsory sustainability subject was thrown into the curriculum that I didn’t really care for. From what I judged, my tutor was a hippie (she wore hemp before it was hipster and was conducting research to prove that denim jeans don’t need to be washed. Ever.) and her teaching about sweatshops and the environment was an attempt to convert the class to be hippies also. It’s a little ironic that I am currently in Ubud Bali, sipping a cold brew with cashew milk, and that most of my business efforts are less about sewing and more about telling people to wear hemp and stop washing their jeans!
Nothing happened overnight, of course. I remember watching ‘China Blue’ (a documentary following the life of a Chinese garment worker) in class and it threw me. How was I supposed to keep studying fashion knowing that I would eventually be working in the very industry that perpetuated sweatshops?! So I did what any innocent 20-something with no business experience would do. I started a clothing business that wouldn’t use sweatshops! I had no idea that fair wages were just the tip of the iceberg for anything ‘ethical’. I discovered big global issues such as corruption and suicide in cotton harvesting, child labour in beading and embroidery and environmental degradation in pretty much everything, which led me further down the rabbit hole to human trafficking, mental illness and plastic pollution. Before I knew it, everything I knew about anything from the food I ate, to the phone I used and the banks that kept my money were either corrupt, contributing to modern-day slavery or killing the planet and humanity, and that’s when I had to step back and take a deep breath!
The state of the world is overwhelming, to say the least. It’s normal to feel guilty at first, and then to keep on keeping on with what we know, rather than striving and struggling for what we know is better. I’m often tempted to be ‘all or nothing’ with my shopping and my business – that there’s no point making or buying a product that is only 50% ethical and if something doesn’t tick all the boxes, it doesn’t tick any ‘ethical’ box and therefore what’s the point? Unfortunately 100% ethical doesn’t exist (and my dream of living on a self-sufficient farm only fulfils my selfish desire to turn a blind eye and believe that ignorance is bliss!). What do exist are hundreds upon thousands of ‘better’ alternatives, and I believe that’s what ethical and fair-trade shopping is about. There are small businesses that offer unique products crafted with care, social enterprises that dig wells for clean water with their profits and corporations that invest in green energy and support local communities. We get to choose who benefits from our purchases and every dollar we spend is voting for the future we want and taking very real steps toward it.
Before corporate ladders were developed, white picket fences were erected and luxury escapes tugged on our heartstrings, communities were built around individuals helping one another, learning and growing at peace with their surroundings, and joy was found in the simplest of things. It sounds far-fetched and day-dream inspired, but honestly, I’m running out of logical reasons why the world shouldn’t be that way again! When I buy coffee from a family-run cafe I know where my $3.80 is going and when I buy an organic cotton t-shirt I know a farmer is being properly supported in his field. These completely ordinary acts keep me inspired and hopeful for the restoration of a broken world, one where love is actioned and peace is not just the absence of war. Who would have thought that hippies were really onto something, hey?”
Esther Kirwan is an Australian fashion designer and business owner of Theo The Label – www.theothelabel.com