Archived Story

Non-sweat shirts: Show promotes clothes made in fair conditions
By CHELSI MOY of the Missoulian

University of Montana junior Svein Newman entertains the audience while modeling sweatshop-free clothing during the second annual Sweat-Free Fashion Show, sponsored by Students for Economic and Social Justice in the University Center Atrium on Wednesday afternoon. Everything Newman is wearing down to the shoes are union-made in Pennsylvania, Canada and El Salvador.
Photo by LINDA THOMPSON/Missoulian
Watch a video of the Sweat-Free Fashion Show
It looked as though University of Montana student body vice president Tara Ness may have broken a sweat dancing down the runway at the second annual Sweat-Free Fashion Show on Wednesday afternoon in the University Center.

But that's fine - these students aren't against perspiration.

The fashion show aims to encourage students to support local retailers whose clothes are not made in sweatshops. All 18 of the models wore clothes made by companies that provide a safe working environment and offer good-paying jobs to their employees.

The event, organized by Students for Economic and Social Justice, was also a call to action for university administrators to sign an enforcement plan to ensure the company that makes UM's logowear pays its workers a living wage and meets human rights standards.

“The administration needs to know this is important,” said organizer Kendra Kallevig, 22, a senior in environmental studies and native of Sidney. “It's not just an activist issue. It's a fundamental rights issue. The university should be a conscious consumer.”

It certainly wasn't the type of fashion show you'd see in New York or Paris. Many of the students sported Converse-like tennis shoes and colorful plain T-shirts and sweatshirts purchased

off “No Sweat,” a Web site that sells union-made apparel.

One model wore a colorful poncho from the Jeannette Rankin Peace Center, leggings and a big grin.

Music blared through the University Center around noon, attracting a crowd to the catwalk. Freshman Kacie Engum, 18, picked out her own outfit.

She wore a pair of secondhand cowboy boots and a recycled North Face jacket made in the United States in the 1970s.

Her legs were covered by shiny purple spandex from American Apparel, a company that prides itself on its “sweatshop-free” environment. On her head was a green, blue and pink headband that took Engum 25 minutes to knit the night before using American yarn.

“I wanted to get crazy to draw some attention to the sweat-free cause,” she said from behind her dark oversized shades. “You can't go wrong with shiny purple spandex.”

The student group purchased about a quarter of the clothes online for about $275. If each individual model didn't then buy the clothes, the group planned to donate them to the Poverello Center.

The rest were on loan from Betty's Divine, the Jeannette Rankin Peace Center, Authentic Creations, House Fraus or local evening-gown designer Michelle Adams.

Last year, UM agreed to affiliate with the Workers Rights Consortium, an independent monitoring agency that provides report cards to its members about factories that make university apparel. Students for Economic and Social Justice would like the university to take that a step further and sign up for the Designated Suppliers Program, which is an enforcement group.

Kallevig figures that if all UM students started paying a little closer attention to how and where their clothes were made, “that could have very wide-ranging effects.”

Reporter Chelsi Moy can be reached at 523-5260 or at chelsi.moy@missoulian.com.
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