Thursday, April 21, 2016

VIDA Clothing Collection

About a month ago I was contacted by VIDA to make a small clothing collection!

What is VIDA, you may ask? Watch their video about them here.

Or a simpler version is VIDA collaborates with artists all around the world to make beautiful clothing patterns using their artwork with simple silhouettes.
What made me immediately want to work with them was their ethical methods for how the clothing gets made. I remember learning about American history with factories and how bad the conditions were. It wasn't until the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire when people started really taking factory conditions into view and giving workers decent conditions and pay. Fire alarms were also a result of this horrific accident, but it came with a cost. As much I wanted to believe we had learned our lesson from this and many other incidents, we have not. Instead we have taken it overseas where people don't have other options for work. Conditions, pay and human respect has gone back in time. If you aren't clear as to what I mean, then watch "The True Cost," which can be seen from Netflix.

That $5 shirt you got from H&M? Human cost.

Those $10 jeans from Old Navy? Human cost.

It's just like that saying we have here in America, Freedom isn't Free, except this could be said in the clothing industry, Clothing isn't Cheap.

I can't keep going on about this without getting riled up. If I could, I would shop at more ethical places, but pretty much every major clothing company uses overseas labor, so it's hard not to support them.
But anyways, what's great about VIDA is they understand how these factories effect these people and how they help them is they give them better working conditions and pay for them to go to school. Most of the adults can't read or write, but understand the importance of it and use every bit of money they have to send their children to school. Now they can gain the knowledge for themselves! This company is changing lives in such a positive way. We need more industries to do the same.


My small collection can be found here. Everything is made-to-order (except the popular collections) to keep the designs custom and rare. They will only produce the product if the product has 3 pre-orders. Then from there, the product takes 4-6 weeks to arrive. Remember, the artwork is sent overseas where the workers use real, quality fabrics and detail is acute, which is why it takes so long.

Here are some examples of my work (the photos above are not my designs):
Craters of the Moon - $85
Sun Flare - $40
By purchasing through VIDA, you can't help but feel good about it.

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