Introduction and Methodology

Welcome to "The Good, the Bad and the Tacky"! My name is Maria and I love fashion and I love shopping. I also just finished my MBA, where one of the things I studied was social responsibility issues in the apparel sector. I am sure many of you have heard about sweatshops and child labor and climate change by now. But, did you know that there are many brand-named apparel companies that are doing a lot to promote fair wages, reduce child labor and reduce their impacts on the environment? And, unfortunately, there are some companies (brands that you probably see on every trip to the mall) that seem to be doing almost nothing. Yep, pretty much nada. I was surprised, too.

It took me a while to find this out. For my last MBA project, I researched many brand-named companies to see exactly what their policies and programs were in regard to many key issues. It took a long time. And I thought, "wow, an every-day fashionista just won't have the time to do this." (I know that I probably wouldn't have done it if it wasn't for my MBA.) So, I decided to share my research with you all through the amazing world of the internet. So, here it is.

A word about methodology (or, MBA-speak, feel free to skip this part):
The rating system is based on a project developed through the Spring 2008 Global Corporate Social Responsibility class at the George Washington University's School of Business. The rating system identifies key issues of impact for companies. Each issue area is then ranked based on the "Scale of Involvement" rating system. This scale was developed as a way to attempt to quantify what is usually qualitative information. The data for the ranking was gathered primarily from information available on the company's website, its annual reports and SEC filings and third-party sources (like, news agencies, NGOs, government agencies, personal interviews).

Disclaimer: The methodology is not perfect. Much of the rating system is subjective. But the website will provide links to specific information that a rating was based on, so, if the reader wishes, they can review the data themselves.

What we hope to achieve: This website was created primarily to give fashion consumers access to information that is not always easily accessible. It was not meant to serve as any sort of activism against the companies profiled that receive a low rating. But, we do hope that those companies are encouraged to at least look at the impacts they have throughout their value chain and determine ways that they can turn existing challenges into opportunities - for themselves and society at large. Some companies are doing an awesome job - and we want you to know about it. In a shrinking, more connected, world, doing the right thing is more important than ever.