How about an "I don't know" option? I don't buy that many clothes, I'm still wearing clothes I bought 5 years ago. What I do buy, sometimes I get organic and/or sweatshop free, but it's hard ordering stuff online, especially every day office clothing - I've had enough items come and be too big or too small. And there aren't any stores I've found, even here in NYC, that sell good clothes that you know are sweatshop-free or organic. The one or two that do, like American Apparel, don't sell anything I would wear.

The last clothes I bought were on holiday in the UK. They're not organic, I can tell that from the tag, but I don't know if they're sweatshop-free.

I'm a lifelong (since the 4th grade) political, social and economic activist and this carries over into my work as a garment industry manufacturing consultant (Earthcreations is one of "my" companies). I wrote a book about manufacturing because if it is done correctly, one does not NEED to run a sweatshop.

That said, I have a bone to pick here; specifically with the use of the term "sweatshop". That word is thrown around so casually and I truly doubt that most of the responders to this survey know whether their apparel was made by a "sweatshop" or not! The reality is, sweatshops are not that common. The fact is, if a consumer purchased an item of clothing made in the USA, there is less than a 3% chance the item was made in a sweatshop. Just because something was made in a factory setting doesn't make it a sweatshop. I've enjoyed working in factories all of my life (on the factory floor mind you, not an office) and the term "factory" is not interchangeable with "sweatshop". Factories provide well-paying meaningful jobs for people. I would urge respondents to this survey to be more discriminating in how the choose to describe the goods they purchase and lastly, I'd wonder how they can sleep at night were that to be an actual fact.

I eagerly look at the treehugger clothing posts whenever they come out, but none of the companies I've investigated through your site so far makes clothing in large sizes or wide width shoes.

It's too bad for the companies - they're missing out on a marketing opportunity (lots of big people would buy eco-friendly clothing if it came in our sizes).

I only know of one such company: http://www.decentexposures.com makes sports bras, other undergarments, and casual clothing in all sizes, and they offer organic cotton as one of their fabric choices. Their social responsibility policies can be found here:
http://www.decentexposures.com/who.shtml

I picked nonorganic in a sweatshop for two reasons.
One, I'm assuming that by organic, you mean that it is organically and responsibly grown. Not just that it is made of cotton or other natural materials. If that's the case, then my clothing is all organic. I don't wear polyester or other wacky man made materials.
Two, I haven't purchased any new clothing for myself in the past year...and that's about how long I've been coming to the site. So everything I purchased before was definitely made in a factory environment.
I hope to be able to afford better options in the future. At least you guys are a great source with a good list of options.

I selected mainly second hand and usually apart from under wear sock and footwear I don't wear anything else. Until sweat free organic clothes become available to people earning a mean average wage they are simply something I can only admire from afar.

Seems like the best option is to buy second hand, which I do a lot of. When I buy new I try to buy natural fibers to avoid the chemicals in the man-made fabric. I also love to look at the organic clothes and do buy some things that I can afford such as Maggies socks, but a lot of the nicer items are way out of my price range. And Stef, I like decent exposures too!

Hello

Mostly second-hand. Then I use a portion of my savings from purchasing clothes for dirt cheap for a long time, and put it towards buying a nice piece of over-priced organic wearable every once in a while.

I love many of the organic wearables out there, but I am not going to buy something new for the sake of supporting the industry if I can acquire an equivalent used.