The more you know about the $3 trillion garment industry, the harder it is to shop. That's why—if you're a (usually failed) conscious consumer like me—you're stuck between the clothing rack and a hard place. Like cheaper blood diamonds, our t-shirts are often the product of poorly paid labor—stitched by underfed hands, and packed in hot and smoky warehouses while toxic dye runs into a river somewhere outside of Dhaka. It starts with excessive consumption: In the West, we buy at least six times as much clothing as our our counterparts in China. Sourcing material adds an extra layer, since countries manufacturing clothes don't always have local cotton, lycra or leather. And to meet the demand, the majority of our clothes are made in Asia—where workers are paid something like 50 to 90 cents an hour—and then shipped across the world.

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