chicagotribune.com
Kathryn Masterson
February 9, 2008
Rachel Louise Snyder didn't plan to cover Cambodia's garment industry when she moved from Chicago to Phnom Penh in 2003.
A freelance journalist, Snyder expected to write about the trials of former Khmer Rouge leaders in the United Nations' war-crimes tribunal. But soon after arriving in Southeast Asia, negotiations for the tribunal stalled and Snyder was in search of a new subject.
That change of plans led to a series of stories about Cambodia's garment industry, which had a unique agreement with the U.S. that tied imports to improved working conditions and was facing competition from bigger, cheaper manufacturing countries such as China. Those stories (including a radio piece for "This American Life" that won an Overseas Press Award) led to "Fugitive Denim," Snyder's book about globalization and the garment trade.
Snyder, who grew up in the Chicago suburbs and graduated from North Central College in Naperville, traveled to factories in China, cotton fields in Azerbaijan, fabric shows in Paris and fashion studios in New York for the book. Along the way, she discovered that designer jeans that sell for hundreds of dollars and are ethically sourced and made from organic materials can be a better buy than jeans that cost a fraction of that but were made in factories that exploit workers or dump chemical-filled wastewater into the environment.
"There's no way to buy a pair of $30 jeans without someone, somewhere down the supply chain paying the price," Snyder said in an interview. "Two-hundred-dollar jeans don't bother me as much as $30 jeans." But consumers need to be cautious: A higher price doesn't guarantee fair, environmentally friendly manufacturing policies, so consumers have to do their research, Snyder said.
Snyder, 39, sees the start of a clothing movement that could one day mirror the way we think about food, with a consumer demand for products that are organic, sustainable, ethically made and least damaging to the environment.
"We have this huge food movement—that didn't happen overnight," Snyder said. "I think we're just at the beginning of that with our clothing."
Kathryn Masterson
February 9, 2008
Rachel Louise Snyder didn't plan to cover Cambodia's garment industry when she moved from Chicago to Phnom Penh in 2003.
A freelance journalist, Snyder expected to write about the trials of former Khmer Rouge leaders in the United Nations' war-crimes tribunal. But soon after arriving in Southeast Asia, negotiations for the tribunal stalled and Snyder was in search of a new subject.
That change of plans led to a series of stories about Cambodia's garment industry, which had a unique agreement with the U.S. that tied imports to improved working conditions and was facing competition from bigger, cheaper manufacturing countries such as China. Those stories (including a radio piece for "This American Life" that won an Overseas Press Award) led to "Fugitive Denim," Snyder's book about globalization and the garment trade.
Snyder, who grew up in the Chicago suburbs and graduated from North Central College in Naperville, traveled to factories in China, cotton fields in Azerbaijan, fabric shows in Paris and fashion studios in New York for the book. Along the way, she discovered that designer jeans that sell for hundreds of dollars and are ethically sourced and made from organic materials can be a better buy than jeans that cost a fraction of that but were made in factories that exploit workers or dump chemical-filled wastewater into the environment.
"There's no way to buy a pair of $30 jeans without someone, somewhere down the supply chain paying the price," Snyder said in an interview. "Two-hundred-dollar jeans don't bother me as much as $30 jeans." But consumers need to be cautious: A higher price doesn't guarantee fair, environmentally friendly manufacturing policies, so consumers have to do their research, Snyder said.
Snyder, 39, sees the start of a clothing movement that could one day mirror the way we think about food, with a consumer demand for products that are organic, sustainable, ethically made and least damaging to the environment.
"We have this huge food movement—that didn't happen overnight," Snyder said. "I think we're just at the beginning of that with our clothing."
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