We can all agree that labor would be fairer if workers could name a price for their labor that is at least a living wage, choose the space they work in and determine their work hours. The bliss of this arrangement would be reflected in the things they create, the lives they lead and the families they raise. Customers would get beautifully made things and society would be better off all around. We would no longer live in a world where fewer than 2% of workers in the clothing industry earn a living wage.

This vision of fair labor is not as far-fetched or as utopian as one might think. The Post-Romantic Co. is making it happen right now. We work with a small network of tailors, weavers, dyers and block printers who work in their family-owned workshops. These artisans set their prices according to their local markets, just as their ancestors have done over the centuries. We pay them the prices they deem appropriate for their work. So, when you buy, say, a block-printed shirt from the Post-Romantic Co., you pay the person who printed the fabric their fair wages and you pay the tailor who sewed the shirt their fair wages. You avoid the widespread systems that drive profits by exploiting workers.

Over time, we hope to expand the network of artisans we work with. In doing so, we hope to create a small and fair economy that produces truly beautiful and artisanal clothing, made ethically, providing the artisans what they crave most; admiration, recognition and a wider circle of clientele.