Fairtrade Fashion Show

All fashion is wrong. Just because this involves Fairtrade doesn't change the fact that fashion panders to the sexist, male dominating view of women in society. Fashion encourages women to think they must look "nice" to attract men. Fashion reduces women to items to be admired by men.

Now if you keep thinking like that Jen you will never find a nice husband. I suggest you go and buy some ribbons to put in your hair and a nice dress.

if you are on about "women being reduced to being objects to be looked at by men", what about men's fashion, doesn't that equally reduce men into being objects to be looked at by women?

No to patrarchy, no to matriarchy.

Further to Jen's comments...the fashion industry is pretty screwed anyway, both image and product wise. The whole ethos is pretty much about exploitation from the models (male and female) right down to the producers. So yes, fashion IS wrong. And bad.

Fairtrade is, at least, a temporary stop-gap and at least you're aware that the producers are getting a decent wage for their product. Also that most of it *hopefully* is not sewn by small children in China (wave a cheery 'Hello' Gap, Disney et al).

Until we bring down global capitalism it is great IMHO that fluffy events like the ones Oxford Fairtrade arrange positively raise awareness. Moreover they are promoting the fact that there ARE alternatives to the big fashion industries' "wear our clothes and look the same" diktat :)

Failing that, getting stuff second hand is the other answer which closes the loop on demands for constant, energy intensive production/consumption.

Not a model, nor a size 10 x