Supporting locals designers is something I always like to talk about but rarely do. It’s usually because the clothes are too expensive, too hard to find, or most often, because all I need is a plain white T-shirt and the Gap sells those for about $20.
But I actually used to work at the Gap, and man was that ever horrible. I won’t get into all the details here because I can’t afford to be sued, but at one point I remember having to work during a “flow” shift, which is either from 5 a.m. until the store opens, or from closing time until 2 a.m. This is when employees change over all the merchandise and display cases, and it happens every couple weeks.
That night I was working, it was about 1:30 a.m. and we were running late. I was sitting on the floor surrounded by piles of Baby Gap apparel as a 16-year-old girl stood next to me, throwing more and more shirts at my head as she asked over and over again, “Can you, like, fold faster or something?”
Totally ridiculous. I’m not going to whine about the crappy minimum wage and the even crappier hours, but the sheer quantity of clothing that comes in and out of that store is mind-boggling and, really, pretty depressing. The fact that we’d get an employee discount off an item that was already 50% off and the company would still be profiting just goes to show how cheap the manufacturing process is. I’m sure that when No Logo came out and students began protesting, Gap made some changes here and there, but even if they don’t get their clothes from sweat shops anymore, there’s no way that stuff is being churned out by fairly paid workers.
So I’ve decided that, no matter how desperately I want a plain T-shirt or cheap pair of jeans, I will not shop at the Gap, nor at any other chain for that matter, until my challenge is over. From now on, I’m only buying clothes from local designers like Passenger Pigeon (whose wrap dress is above), lilikoi (I got this dress from them recently) and preloved. I’ll also allow myself to buy from companies outside of Canada if their merchandise is made from sustainable, sweatshop-free materials (like American Apparel, except not American Apparel, because their advertising revolts me).
Posted by Vanessa Farquharson 
