Welcome BeautyTips readers. You might be interested in my articles on US-made goods, sustainable living, cooperatives and unions, too.
Ms. Theologian is talking about not buying clothes from China. I’ve written at length about my hunt for US-made, union-made, non-sweatshop-made clothing. See here, here and here.
Let me plug three vendors.
- The mystery US-made underwear manufacturer is Skiviez. (Search for USA.) Enjoy the ordinary briefs while they last, in limited sizes; I just ordered (closeout, sigh!) boxer briefs. They also sell fancy underpants, evidently for the gay and metrosexual market, also US made: these are more expensive so should be available in the future.
- I got a pair of slacks — dark olive, cotton, wrinkle-free — and walking shorts — olive drab, cotton — at ZebulonUSA, something of a one-stop-shop for US made clothes. Well made of sturdy cloth, comparable to department store prices. Alas, the slacks are old stock from Quantum Cotton; they’re now out of business. [2009. And ZebulonUSA is also out of business.]
- I’ve mentioned Pangea, a vegan clothing and accessories firm in the Maryland suburbs. (Locals and visitors: it is an easy walk from the Twinbrook Metro station.) I got my US-made, vegan (polyurethane and cotton fiber) dress shoes and belt there. Note, they don’t sell Chinese-made goods on principle.
Some days I come within an undershirt of having all my clothes made in the United States. It can be done with a little effort.
Thank you for digging up these posts, because I was going to today, once I’m not under deadline.
My site advisor won’t let me go to Zebulon, but I absolutely love Pangea.
And I think you’re going about this absolutely the right way, which is to find the manufacturer of US goods first. I keep trying to find items I like, and then see if they’re made in China, and, of course, they all are. Death to my lust for J-41 shoes.
My site advisor won’t let me go to Zebulon
What?
Well, I’ve never seen this message before from McAfee Site Advisor, but here it is:
zebulonusa.com may cause a breach of browser security.
Why were you redirected to this page? In our tests, this site attempted to make unauthorized changes to our test PC by exploiting a browser security vulnerability. This is a serious security threat which could lead to an infection of your PC.
What do you think that’s about?
Wacky. But that’s why I use the more secure Firefox. (I’m guessing you’re using Internet Explorer.)
For what it’s worth, ZebulonUSA had prompt customer service and the president answered a pointed question plainly (Do they sell clothing made in the Northern Marianas Islands? No.) I got what I ordered — no muss, no fuss.
Pangea’s “No-Bull” dress shoes are tops in my opinion; I hope you like yours. They seem to last forever, they breathe well, and they don’t show scuff marks as much as leather shoes do. Their belts are high quality, too.
Last year Pangea began offering non-animal shaving brushes, which I had not been able to find before. Lathering up with a brush makes shaving a pleasure.
I wish like you I lived near their store, but they do have a reliable mail order business.
I have my No Bulls shoes and belt on right now. I’ve never loved a shoe so much. The belt is pretty good too, but its harder to get excited about belts.
Thanks for the word about shaving brushes. I wet shave and every so often I look down to my brush and drone the “Badger, Badger, Badger” chant and feel a little sad. OK, now I sound crazy.
Have you seen the website http://www.shopforamerica.com? It has lots of US-made clothing, furniture and more.