Pirates support sustainable fashion by purchasing School House brands

For many students, the origin of where their clothing is from is nothing more than an inconsequential fact. Whether it is made in China or Taiwan, students focus on the wear ability of the garment and not its birthplace. From cotton field to cash register, the apparel world has become a fundamental part of the world economy and is woven into the fabric of our history.

Preceding the industrial revolution, garment construction took place in the home; during this time, families bought bolts of cloth and made their own clothing. After the industrial revolution, textile mills began popping up beside rivers, and "factory girls" would spin cloth and weave for hours on end. Due to poor and unfair working conditions, the coinage of the term "sweatshops" was created and workers demanded rights, which created higher costs for labor and production. Since that time, most garment production has moved overseas for inexpensive labor prices and overhead costs.

Factories in developed and developing countries have adopted manufacturing as a major source of economic revenue. Countries such as Bangladesh, India, Mexico, Cambodia and China all have factories that cut, make and trim garments for American-based companies. However, the road to garment production is often riddled with controversy. More modern-day sweatshops have begun rising in countries that produce high volumes of apparel products. Often, workers are maltreated, forced to work 10 to 16 hour days, required to go without meals and take work home with them.

For Rachel Weeks, president and founder of School House LLC, this was not a tolerable state of affairs. Weeks started her creation of School House while in Sri Lanka searching for socially responsible manufacturing companies. Weeks did not find exactly what she was looking for and decided to start School House in order to rupture the vicious cycle created by low wages and ill-treated workers.

Weeks filled a different niche in the collegiate-apparel market, stating, "School House meets a latent but growing demand for fashion-conscious. University communities can also be proud to know that buying our products directly supports our living wage factories in Sri Lanka."

The company was started in 2007 and has been growing ever since. School House is set apart from other collegiate apparel due to the personal interaction with students in regards to School House merchandise. Weeks and her creative director, Colleen McCann, personally visit each campus and spend time getting to know the students, campus culture and traditions. This inspires new designs for each line. McCann helps with the design aspects of School House's clothing and has also worked for Under Armor, Calvin Klein, Redken, Betsey Johnson and Nordstrom.

The 50-piece launch collection includes soft fitted-tees, fold-down yoga pants with hidden iPod pockets, vintage tees and cotton briefs.

McCann is proud of helping to create recession-proof merchandise, stating, "We're in the middle of a terrible recession, and every single person we put this in front of is buying it. It's a winning formula." For School House, the formula is working at ECU; product sales at Dowdy Student Store have been successful since the line's first introduction.

School House aims to tailor marketing directly to the students in order to create a lasting and emotion evoking connection to their particular collegiate garment. For McCann, success is not only measured by the popularity of the product, "This is the first time I've done any kind of design work where I know I'm helping people have a happier life."

School House can be purchased at Dowdy Student Store in Wright Plaza.

This writer can be contacted at features@theeastcarolinian.com.