Guilt seems to follow us around these days… if we’re not feeling guilty about spending money we don’t have, then we’re feeling guilty about not staying late enough in work or regretting that greasy take-away we had three days ago!
But, the one thing we never feel guilty about is picking up a bargain in one of our favourite high-street stores. There’s nothing quite like the heady rush of a sartorial steal and high-street hero Zara are amongst our favourite frugal fashion destinations – amid the €200 coats and €100 shoes are plenty of budget busting bargains to be had and you can easily pick up a designer inspired guna or pair of statement trousers for less than 40 quid.
So, you can imagine our distress, disappointment and distain when we found out last week that Zara were among the main offenders in Toxic Threads: The Big Fashion Stitch-Up, a report released by Greenpeace to expose the clothing companies that are releasing toxic chemials during production of their clothes. In the last week over 700 people took to the streets to protest outside Zara stores and following public pressure and an online petition, the retail giant has now pledged to ‘detox’ – the erradication all releases of hazardous chemicals throughout its entire supply chain by 2020 – and has already asked 20 suppliers to achieve this by March 2013.
The perfect desk to dancefloor frock for €49.95
We usually don’t advocate any sort of detox this side of Christmas but this is one extreme cleanse that we’re very happy about and it will be interesting to see if others names and shamed in the report (Victoria’s Secret, Calvin Klein and H&M to name but a few) will follow Zara’s lead.
