Date of publication: June 2, 2006
Source: Star Tribune
Author: Herón Márquez Estrada
Mimi Jennings' French class at Central High School in St. Paul is using a bit of savoir-faire to battle child-labor abuses.
The students are holding a fashion show today at the school theater to raise awareness about sweatshops and illegal working conditions.
The show will feature clothing made in fair-trade shops, which guarantee workers fair compensation for their labor.
"We're not going to change the world," Jennings said. "What we're asking students at Central to do is, when they buy something, ask if it was made in a sweatshop."
Students planned the project in May as part of Child Labor Awareness Month. Senior Beth Johnson, who hopes to major in international studies at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., in the fall, came up with the idea of holding a fashion show.
"It is hard to say what effect our show will have," Johnson said. "Though we don't see any radical international changes [coming] as a result of our fashion show ... I think we will at least raise some awareness."
About 40 runway models from Central will join the 15 students in Jennings' class.
Hoping to change minds
Jennings' classes took up the cause in 2001 after doing research papers on such topics as globalization, human rights and world social conditions.
"We started feeling really awful about what we found," said Jennings, who is retiring after 26 years at Central. "I found myself asking them if they wanted to do something."
After deciding to get involved, students focused on child labor in the clothing industry. In the past five years, they have raised almost $5,000 through concerts, T-shirt sales and raffles for groups such as Free the Children, an international foundation for Third World schools.
Bjorn Claeson, director of SweatFree Communities, a national network promoting better working conditions in factories, said it's important to get information to teens on how clothing is made.
"I think students at an early age should know there's a choice," said Claeson, who is based in Maine. "A lot of the kids haven't really heard about this."
Garb and accessories for the show were provided by Twin Cities stores that either sell or promote fair-trade clothing, including 10,000 Villages and Tradewinds in St. Paul and Cliche in Minneapolis.
One thing students said they found is that most clothing manufacturing involves sweatshop labor at some point in the process.
"It's one of the fashion industry's dirty little secrets," said Josh Sundberg, co-owner of the clothing store Cliche.
The other thing students discovered is that a lot of fair-trade clothing is designed for adults, especially older women, because there is more of a market available.
"I think there could be some change if there were some [more] clothing for young people," Johnson said.
Sundberg said manufacturers are making a bigger effort to produce more fair-trade clothing, especially as teenagers jump into the fray.
"It is becoming a youth-driven kind of movement," he said. "I think students at a young age should know there's a choice."
Jennings' students agree.
"Teenagers that go out and buy clothing don't think about what they are buying," said junior Wendy Vang, who will be modeling today. "I think we can change minds."
Herón Márquez Estrada • 651-298-1554