Monday, October 24, 2011

5x5 Clothing: Sleeves & Leaves

5x5 Clothing

'Tis the week of launches for 5x5: we are so excited to announce the launch of our F/W collection, happening in Toronto at Not My Dog on Tuesday, October 25th, with a saucy lineup of DJs and what's sure to be a stompin' appearance by Toronto band Little Foot Long Foot. 

Oh and there's more. We're also launching the new incarnation of 5x5clothing.com!

And because we love you, we want to peep you a little sneaky look at what's coming.
Candy Crop Top and Hepburn Culottes.  

The Berlin jumper. To conquer the world in. 

Two sweethearts in the Sugar Dress.


We want to thank our amazing photographer, the Marquis de Haze, for such a wicked job on the shoot, and the daaaaahling JYD, for her amazing feats with our hair.


Look out for our new site and please join us for one heck of a dance party tomorrow night!


Love,


5x5


Saturday, October 1, 2011

5x5 Clothing: No Exploitation, All Party

RARA
5x5 Clothing


5x5 Clothing does not steal babies, pillage and/or pilfer, or exploit garment workers. 


We employ seamstresses working out of their own homes for fair wages.


Not to down on anyone's party or be a neg-vibe naysayer, but the modern garment industry, especially in Asia, is a hellish choice for mostly poor women trying to survive and support their families. 


Here is a picture of skulls from the killing fields in Cambodia, a genocide instituted by the maniacal Pol Pot in the 1970s.  Afterwards, Cambodia went through decades of strife and reform, eventually stabilizing and becoming one of the centres of the modern garment manufacturing industry.  


Even though the International Labour Organization has said that its routine checks of Cambodian garment factories ensure the rights of these workers, recent mass sickness at H&M factories in the country have left many skeptical.  


Road in Cambodia leading to the garment factories


Here in Thailand, hundreds of thousands of people from Burma flood into Thailand looking for work opportunities that simply don't exist in their country that has been fucked up by successive generations of military junta, including economic mismanagement and a war waged against the ethnic minority peoples.  
Where do they end up? In the garment factories on the border, working 11 hour days for 2$, locked up, with their ID confiscated by factory owners, modern-day slavery.  


Big name fashion labels, such as Tommy Hilfiger, have been caught using these factories under false company names, only to shut down operations and open up at other nearby plants.


My friend has been involved in investigating these factories; factories are locked up from public view, looking more like jails than factories, security guards keeping people out, and often, also keeping workers in.  


Grooooooooan, right? Ok Ok, you've heard it before, so have I.


So let's talk about something nice: 


5x5 Clothing is big on limited runs that enable us to use home-based seamstresses and give them fair wages that are exponentially more than they'd earn in a factory, and even more than they'd earn as a typical home-based seamstress.  All clothes are cut and sewed by hand, using end of the roll and vintage fabrics.  


Now that is something good!  Party in your 5x5!


p.s for more info on the modern garment industry read this