Were any of you daft enough to queue outside Sainsbury’s for an Anya Hindmarch “I’m not a plastic bag”? Or worse, to buy one for a ridiculous price on Ebay?
Yes, in some ways it’s a good idea. The most influential handbag designer of the moment jumps on the green bandwagon. That can’t be doing her profits any harm. Or Sainsbury’s. It brings the issue of recycling and re-using and landfill to the public’s attention. But I would like to bet that these Anya Hindmarch bags won’t be used by people who actually care about not using carrier bags for their shopping. They’ll be used mostly by fashion victims as a handbag, while they continue to drive their groceries home in the car, in ordinary carrier bags, as per usual.
The bag itself was made in China, and shipped over to the UK. It will also shortly begin another production run to be shipped over the the US. Hardly a low carbon footprint or an ethically sound manufacturing option! It’s made from “unbleached” cotton, but nowhere does it say whether the cotton is actually organic, or fairly-traded.
Maybe that’s asking too much from one small bag, but why should it be? There is no excuse for designers, especially designers who are jumping on the “green” bandwagon, not to be using cotton which is either fairly-traded or organic, and preferably both. Yes, organic cotton is more expensive, because the yields are lower. Gradually, as the earth recovers from being doused in pesticides for decades, this will change. Yes, Fair Trade cotton is more expensive because, shockingly, you have to actually pay the farmers for growing it for you.
A number of high street stores are now selling “green” clothing ranges, although it’s quite difficult to find out what criteria they’re using to make this claim. M&S has a range of t-shirts, Asda has similar, and even Primark are somehow producing the cheapest “green” clothing around. I’m happy to see this kind of thing filtering down to the high street, even if I am suspicious of how Primark can produce so much, so cheaply.
At the moment I simply can’t afford to buy organic and fairly-traded cotton to make my clothes, although it’s something that I’ve been looking into for a couple of years. This is why I’m currently taking the recycling route, and trying to make something new out of something which would otherwise have been thrown away.
How long do you think it will be before the fashion victims get bored of the “I’m not a plastic bag”, and simply throw it away in favour of the next most fashionable thing? Still, if they all end up on Ebay, at least they’re being recycled…