Wednesday, May 12, 2010
On the hunt for clothing made in the USA
Ok, I admit it. I have been really slow in starting my blog. Between kids, household chores and daily life I haven't made the time to post my findings. I have made a huge effort to try and pay attention to everything that I buy and I have also gone through most of the items in my home to see where they were made, making mental notes of everything I found.
I want to start off talking about clothing. I am a person who looks for quality over quantity when when it comes to what I wear. I do lean towards Italian made shoes and handbags. I also love to shop sales and designer outlets to avoid paying full retail prices on designer goods. To me these higher priced items don't really compete with the low quality cheap items from China you find on the shelves of Walmart and Target. On one hand I hate that dollars of mine going to workers in other countries instead of the US workers but I can't find one US shoe company that makes the shoes I want. I do feel that there is a difference in buying high end items from Italy and France where a worker is paid on the same scale that an American worker would be, versus using the people of China as extremely low wage slaves. So is it bad to buy from other countries that are on an equal pay scale as us? I don't feel it is bad, as long as the majority of your purchases are from the US and you avoid buying things from China.
Trying to find clothing that is made in the US can be so frustrating! Being a very petite person, it is already hard enough for me to find clothing that I love in a style/color I like that actually fits me well. Now with my added 3rd rule of "it must be made in the US", it is much more difficult. But I know it is not impossible. I just have to work at it. I went to TJ Maxx today to do some shopping. The news is not good. Rack after rack, every single clothing item was either made in China, Indonesia or Peru with a few other random countries thrown in. The only brand of clothing I found on the racks that was made in the US was "Robin K.". I actually have not purchased any new clothing for myself in the past few months so I was happy to find a cute summer cardigan from "Robin K" that met all of my requirements. The fact that it was marked down to $12.99 was an added bonus!
I recently discovered a really great way to find lots of items that are US made is to go to Nordstroms website and enter "Made USA" in the search box. Lots of goodies!
Probably the worst offender when it comes to made in China merchandise is the girl's clothing store "Justice" (formerly know as Limited Too stores). Everything in the store from tops to dresses, shorts, pajamas, jewelry, right down to the underwear is in made in China.
The good news about clothing? Jeans!! One of my favorite clothing items!! Going through my closet I found that all of my favorite brands of jeans are made in the US. I give the following brands a big thumbs up: Rock & Republic, Lucky Brand, True Religion, J Brand, Seven For All Mankind, Citizens of Humanity, Chip & Pepper, Earnest Sewn, Arden B., and AG Jeans (Adriano Goldschmied).
Use caution and check your labels when buying Guess brand jeans. I have three pairs of Guess jeans, two pairs are made in the US, one in Mexico.
I won't be buying any more jeans from: Miss Me, Vigoss or BCBG Maxazria. All are made in China.
I want to start off talking about clothing. I am a person who looks for quality over quantity when when it comes to what I wear. I do lean towards Italian made shoes and handbags. I also love to shop sales and designer outlets to avoid paying full retail prices on designer goods. To me these higher priced items don't really compete with the low quality cheap items from China you find on the shelves of Walmart and Target. On one hand I hate that dollars of mine going to workers in other countries instead of the US workers but I can't find one US shoe company that makes the shoes I want. I do feel that there is a difference in buying high end items from Italy and France where a worker is paid on the same scale that an American worker would be, versus using the people of China as extremely low wage slaves. So is it bad to buy from other countries that are on an equal pay scale as us? I don't feel it is bad, as long as the majority of your purchases are from the US and you avoid buying things from China.
Trying to find clothing that is made in the US can be so frustrating! Being a very petite person, it is already hard enough for me to find clothing that I love in a style/color I like that actually fits me well. Now with my added 3rd rule of "it must be made in the US", it is much more difficult. But I know it is not impossible. I just have to work at it. I went to TJ Maxx today to do some shopping. The news is not good. Rack after rack, every single clothing item was either made in China, Indonesia or Peru with a few other random countries thrown in. The only brand of clothing I found on the racks that was made in the US was "Robin K.". I actually have not purchased any new clothing for myself in the past few months so I was happy to find a cute summer cardigan from "Robin K" that met all of my requirements. The fact that it was marked down to $12.99 was an added bonus!
I recently discovered a really great way to find lots of items that are US made is to go to Nordstroms website and enter "Made USA" in the search box. Lots of goodies!
Probably the worst offender when it comes to made in China merchandise is the girl's clothing store "Justice" (formerly know as Limited Too stores). Everything in the store from tops to dresses, shorts, pajamas, jewelry, right down to the underwear is in made in China.
The good news about clothing? Jeans!! One of my favorite clothing items!! Going through my closet I found that all of my favorite brands of jeans are made in the US. I give the following brands a big thumbs up: Rock & Republic, Lucky Brand, True Religion, J Brand, Seven For All Mankind, Citizens of Humanity, Chip & Pepper, Earnest Sewn, Arden B., and AG Jeans (Adriano Goldschmied).
Use caution and check your labels when buying Guess brand jeans. I have three pairs of Guess jeans, two pairs are made in the US, one in Mexico.
I won't be buying any more jeans from: Miss Me, Vigoss or BCBG Maxazria. All are made in China.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
The purpose of this blog
I have often wondered to myself, is it possible to only buy American made products when it seems every item you buy says "Made in China"?
It's not that I never cared. It has always been easy to make the decision to buy American on major purchases like a new car, but what about the items we buy everyday with little thought to where it came from?
Like many busy moms, I find that I just go about my day to day life worrying about getting to the soccer game on time, what's for dinner and who has homework still to do. When you are circling the isles at Target with kids in tow you mindlessly toss the items you need in your cart. Sure you look at the prices on the shelf but you rarely look to see where a product was made.
I love saving money as much as the next guy, but I wonder at what cost. I can't help but feel everytime I have bought an item that says "Made In China" somewhere in America another worker loses a job & another factory closes.
The past couple years I have definately been more aware of the Made in China issue, mainly because of the poison dog food from China and scares with children's toys and children's jewelry made in China. I now check the toys that I buy my kids and do my best to avoid any toys from China but I will admit I let it go when my daughter desperately wanted a Zhu Zhu Pet for her birthday. It isn't possible to buy one that isn't made in China. So what's a parent to do?
I decided to challenge myself for an entire year to see if it is possible to truly go all American. Is it even possible to buy 100% American products anymore? I will find out in my year long experiment. I encourage you to join me :)
It's not that I never cared. It has always been easy to make the decision to buy American on major purchases like a new car, but what about the items we buy everyday with little thought to where it came from?
Like many busy moms, I find that I just go about my day to day life worrying about getting to the soccer game on time, what's for dinner and who has homework still to do. When you are circling the isles at Target with kids in tow you mindlessly toss the items you need in your cart. Sure you look at the prices on the shelf but you rarely look to see where a product was made.
I love saving money as much as the next guy, but I wonder at what cost. I can't help but feel everytime I have bought an item that says "Made In China" somewhere in America another worker loses a job & another factory closes.
The past couple years I have definately been more aware of the Made in China issue, mainly because of the poison dog food from China and scares with children's toys and children's jewelry made in China. I now check the toys that I buy my kids and do my best to avoid any toys from China but I will admit I let it go when my daughter desperately wanted a Zhu Zhu Pet for her birthday. It isn't possible to buy one that isn't made in China. So what's a parent to do?
I decided to challenge myself for an entire year to see if it is possible to truly go all American. Is it even possible to buy 100% American products anymore? I will find out in my year long experiment. I encourage you to join me :)
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