While I'm still struggling with getting regular online access, I did want to take a moment to thank the television program "E!" for saying something correctly: They were discussing various spring/summer fashions when one of the models came out wearing an open-work crocheted vest over a (regular) bikini. The announcer noted all the details about what the model was wearing, and included the words, "hand-crocheted" when mentioning the vest.
Of course I knew what "hand-crocheted" meant, and I'm pretty sure you do too. But does the public? I doubt it. IMHO, there isn't enough emphasis placed on items created by human hands.
If a genie granted me a wish (OK, if a genie granted me several wishes -- because we all know I'd ask to have my online woes taken care of immediately!), I think I'd ask for merchandise to be better labeled -- where a big hang-tag states where the item was made AND have another tag (maybe in the shape of a human hand?) saying, "This garment was entirely created (crocheted!) by human hands." Until that happens, I'm loving the "Hand-Crocheted" wording.
The question rolling around in my mind is: If we're willing to pay more for hand-dipped chocolate covered strawberries, then why is it not a crime to pay $6.99 for a huge "hand-crocheted" market bag? Is it because we don't see labels stating such?
What are your thoughts on this?
2 comments:
Hi, great post!
I was always giggling about "hand-crocheted" items, but then I found out that there is a crochet machine (really - google it!). Sad but true. Most people even don't see the difference between knittings and crochets - and if you market them right, you can sell anything... sad but true.
I think if we market the huge bag the right way - we could sell it for hundreds - right stores, right brands, right labels etc - it's a whole art of selling and marketing as we know.
Found Linda's comment interesting because I was always under the impression that crochet couldn't ever be done by machine (unlike machine knitting). Will have to look into that more!
I think the most important thing as a consumer if you're going to buy handcrocheted items from chain stores is to make sure that you do some research into the fair wage practices of the brand to make sure that they're paying people appropriately for their work. But that's just my two cents.
I'm much more into bartering one craft for another locally anyway. :)
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