Lady Grey

I just read a bit through my old blog. It's interesting to see the change over the years. January 06 says:

I'm reading Naomi Klein's "No Logo" at the moment. It's a wonderful book. It was recommended to us in my lecture on Popular Culture in Oxford, and I finally got around to buying it. Klein shows a nicely critical view on how branding works and how brands influence our society. I didn't think I could get really interested in such a topic, but the book has really been an eye-opener (not that it's any likely I'll change my consumer habits, but at least I'm aware of certain things now).

20 months later my consumer habits have changed dramatically (and quite a lot of other stuff too, i.e. my relationship with sports). I still hold Naomi Klein's book in the highest regard. I guess it's my personal bible of sorts, if you define bible as "book that carries an ideology which causes people who read it to take over that ideology and maybe even go a step further".
And what we can learn from that is to never say never and that change is often unsuspected and good.

***

I put some colour on the lady:



(Now I wish I had a dress like that ... or at least the top.)

Not Buying It

I finished reading the book. It was okay - some good stuff and some stuff that wasn't interesting for me. The book is divided in chapters, one for each month. The first three months didn't give me much useful/interesting information. After that it got better, as the author got involved with groups and visited people who follow an alternative lifestyle.
Overall, though, the book didn't fullfill the hopes I had in it. Mostly it showed me that compared to some of the Americans described in the book, my own way of living is alright. I raised my eyebrows a few times as I read about kitchens containing at least four types of rice and about people who are proud to have eaten out only under ten times in the last six months.
The insights at the end were interesting, and mostly comply with my own point of view. I was surprised by the impact that year had on the author's relationship with her partner (they did the year without shopping together). For some reason I have the opinion that most guys wouldn't want to break free from the comfort culture (because they see no use in it?). If I did something like that, I wouldn't even consider asking my partner to join me - probably because most people in my surroundings get annoyed whenever I raise the topic ethic living.

I figured there are three behaviour types that are considered to be ethical in respect to consuming:

a. Buying organic goods
b. Buying Fairtrade goods
c. Cosuming less

While you can always do c, you get some problems when you try to combine it with both a and b. Firstly it's hard to find stuff that's both Fairtrade and organic - shops specialise either in organic goods or Fairtrade. Secondly, Fairtrade goods come from very, very far away, which increases the good's environmental footprint. Combine that with the try to buy groceries from local farmers and avoid fruits, vegetables, etc. from far away countries, and you're facing tough decisions.
If you want to buy apples, and have the choice between common apples from Austria/your country and organic apples from Spain or Italy, which is the better choice?
Thing is, every one of the categories I stated above stands for something else. Organic goods are produced with regards to the environment (their impact on your pocket will probably be bigger than their impact on your health, and they probably taste the same). Fairtrade goods center on human rights. Consuming less is a statement against pop culture and consumer culture. I guess you have no other choice than to set priorities (apart from c, which you can do regardless). Which is more important, human rights or protecting the environment? Does the organic-ness of the apples from Spain even out the transport effects on the environment? I have no idea.
(In the end I went for Austrian apples, though.)

***

Kendo training was outside today. What an amazing experience. We're lucky that our dojo is part of a leisure activity centre for children and youths, so there is a big greenspace attached. Not to mention how handsome the guys in the hakama look when they're standing on the grass and the wind moves the garment slightly (ever since I started Kendo and saw the sensai in his hakama for the first time I wanted to make a painting depicting it). Today's training was less exhausting, because we just worked on the zen mindset and practiced cutting techniques involving three enemies. Most of all, I like the constant support of the sensai - improving our techniques without saying what we're doing is wrong, adapting individually to our various needs. Shame I didn't start with it earlier.

***

Rough painting I did for one of the contests over at the ImagineFX website. The face is heavily referenced, obviously, to get the likeness. I still need to go over it again to polish it a bit - which I had intended to do before submitting it, but since I somehow messed up the deadline and had a day less than expected, this is how far it got. Those are the problems you're confronted with when you don't just paint for yourself :)

What's with all the screaming?

Ah, springtime. All the sun, birds and the warmth put me into a very giggly and playful mood, which I use to the utmost extend. I forgot how much fun teasing everybody around me is.

Now I am really ready for all the medieval fairs.

I went downtown today because I needed an envelope to submit a short story to a writing competition (I wrote the story when I had 38.5 degrees and everything was spinning around me - thankfully I've been more or less healthy again the last few days, after literally weeks of being ill).
"Pure Irony", I thought on the tram to the city. I was reading Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping by Judith Levine while I was on my way to go shopping. When you do that, thoughts about shopping for pleasure roam around in your head all the while you're walking in and out of shops. Not that I bought much (compared to other people), but most of what I got was probably not necessary. I checked out a couple of shops that sell organic clothes, bought envelopes, a small sketchbook to carry around with me, two CDs, an organic Fairtrade shirt and a tiny lipstick box. (If you now think "What the hell?" you're entirely right to do so. That was just my thought the first time I saw the lipstick boxes. It seems ridiculous that a market exists for such a thing. However, the box has the perfect size to put some small pencils and an eraser in, to carry around with the sketchbook.)
70€ total, roughly. 10€ of that are for things that I needed (envelopes and office material). For all the stuff that's not needed, I have excuses. With the shirt I support the local Weltladen, and I'm on an all-time-low for shirts anyway, because I gave away a lot. I want to sketch more, so I needed a sketchbook and the lipstick-soon-to-be-pencil-box. I need new CDs to not go insane, because you tend to listen to a lot of CDs when you paint several hours a day.
I see I'm still quite a bit away from my year without shopping. I'd probably even try it as a project, but I just can't see how I could live without going to the cinema and buying books. I breathe and eat books. The last two weeks, I've been devouring them (seven books in ten days, mostly for uni or my diploma thesis). More, I don't just need books, I need to own the books I read. Books are the one thing that I need to possess and dominate, I reckon (probably for lack of anything else I can dominate, so maybe I can stop buying books once I have a pet).
Ah, books. Source of wisdom, travel companion, burglar stunner; I could not live without your pages of words.

Of course, a month without shopping is on my 101 list. A month is ok. I have enough books to last me a month. I just need to find a month without good films (and looking at most of the recent films, the possibility of such a month arriving gets increasingly likely).

These thoughts crossed my mind while I walked through the streets and shops of Linz, feeling increasingly bad due to the increasing weight of my shopping bag. Back on the tram, on my way home, however, I consoled myself by looking at all the teenage boys and girls with their plastic bags from H&M and all the women with their plastic bags from Kleiderbauer, some of who had more mass in their bags than in and on their bodies (shocking, really), while sitting there with my book and my cloth bag, in which I had conveniently hidden the plastic bag I had got when the shot assistant hadn't asked me whether I even wanted one.

***

I stumbled across musician Jonathan Coulton the other day. His songs are very entertaining. Typical pop tune, but the lyrics are hilarious. I especially like Skullcrusher Mountain. First of May and Chiron Beta Prime are also quite funny. Shame that it seems I can't get his CDs anywhere here.

***

Current insights from my reading of secondary literature for my diploma thesis:

Amazons

Amazons somehow got pregnant (through raping their future victims, I presume) and killed their male babies (instead of bringing one or two up as a baby-making-machine).

They also cut off one of their breasts in order to improve their usage of the bow.

(Makes you wonder if that really works. My bow-shooting skills are quite good even though I have two breasts.)

(What do Amazons have to do with Victorian fairies, you ask? Nothing at all, love, and at the same time everything. Sexual liberation and independence.)

***

Sketches: Some mermaids here, because they've been part of my thesis reading as well, next to Amazons. Nina Auerbach compares them to angels in Woman and the Demon, saying both creatures submerge themselves, but to different means.

Roll, Roll, Rock'n'Roll

A first (or second?) Stardust Trailer is up. It's looking good. Maybe a bit crowded with action, which makes you wonder if they aren't trying to press too much story and action into one film, but overall it looks exciting. I'm looking forward to the film. There haven't been nearly enough good films in the cinema recently (I had to switch from going to the cinema once or twice a week to once a month because there are simply no good films that I want to see - and the good ones like Pan's Labyrinth only make me realize how bad the bad ones are, so I'm not even trying to see the films that look okay but might be bad).

***

I had my first game with the German RPG system Das Schwarze Auge (The Black Eye). It's insane. You have to do three die rolls to see if you managed to make a spell or to see if you managed a skill check. If one of them fails, you're out. It's not even as if the three checks were easy.
You also have to roll die when you gain a level to see if you even level up - a roll for every skill and ability and spell you want to level. This means if you roll really badly, you can level up without improving your character at all (unlikely, but still).
I like the theory behind all this, which is that a skill is influenced by several abilities; but it's not practical at all. Maybe it will get better after I've played a few times. I certainly hope so.

***

San Francisco and Paris banned plastic bags from supermarkets. That's great. One thing that always annoyed me a bit in Oxford was that I usually ended up with three or more plastic bags, because the cashiers were so overwhelmingly helpful to pack them for me (which isn't done in Austria and which I found nice service). Problem was, that usually didn't give me the time to get out my cloth bags and pack them, and the cashiers put only about 4-5 items into one bag, leaving huge amounts of space there (probably because otherwise they'd rip). The general attitude is nice, because you're not so stressed about packing your bags quickly - but it would be perfect if I could still pack them myself and have the other customers wait patiently (which they almost always did in Britain and never do in Austria).

***

Two designs of skirts I intend to sew, and some scribbles:

What People Don't Think About

Some people (including me) don't consider the upside of having a film made after a book, and deviating from the book in some degree. I read LoTR twice, ages ago, and saw the film lots of times, not long ago. So I only really know the story of the film (I also know some of the things that were omitted, like Tom Bombadil, but not much about it). Now I'm rereading the books to increase my active vocabulary. It's much better than when I read it the first two times. Somehow, the books get better the more often you read them. And since the films deviate from the book, there's still some suspense in the scenes that I don't remember from the first two reads. It's nice.

***

I read in the newspaper today about some US teenagers who said they wouldn't consume for 10 months in 2006, and felt so great about it that they'll continue in 2007. It sounded like second hand goods were an exception, which is fine. Unfortunately the article didn't say where you can read more about them. I'm sure that would have been interesting. It was also just a very small article. I'd have given it half a page if I was the editor.

***
101 in 1001 is going good, except that I simply don't manage to get up when the alarmclock rings. I'm starting that task anew for the second time tomorrow. Gah.
But the daily exercises and the vocabulary learning have a nice impact (my back doesn't hurt anymore and I now know that Tolkien must have been a botanist as well as a linguist and writer, for all the plants he mentions in the Old Forest).

G. here and there

I'm reading "Das neue Schwarzbuch Markenfirmen" by Klaus Werner and Hans Weiss at the moment. It's about companies, brands and globalisation, very similar to Naomi Klein's "No Logo". Very, very similar, actually. There are quite a few things repeated in the Schwarzbuch Markenfirmen that has already been written in No Logo. Some stuff is new and interesting, though, e.g. that Milka chocolate and the Mozartkugeln are produced by an American company and that an African 14-year-old child costs 30€.

The positive thing about the book is that the content is more local to the German-speaking countries, so companies like Aldi and Eduscho get mentioned. These are the companies that you never hear about in the American books on globalisation.
Otherwise the books gives a very general overview on the impact that globalisation and big companies have on all sorts of products in the world. Food, toys, clothing, oil, medicine, electronic gadgets, etc. It's not as detailed and in-depth as No Logo, but a nice introductory book on the topic.
About half of the book is also dedicated to single companies. So every company has a two-page company profile, listing what violations the company is accused of.

***

Jehova's Witnesses were at our doorstep again. The very same people who were here the last time I posted about them. They said they could give us stuff to read about God and religion, so my mum told them she's not interested in it and sent them away again. They must be quite desperate to return.

Good Day

Lots of nice things happened today.

I donated blood. That needle is huge, but it wasn't as painful as I expected it to be (after seeing the needle). It also didn't affect me and I felt like I could donate again right after I was finished (not that they would have let me). I got chocolate and some drinks for it, and the Red Cross people were really nice.

Then, right after leaving the building, I stumbled across another Fairtrade shop (Eine Welt Handel) that I hadn't known yet. The more, the better.

And lastly, I never thought I could find a biological/Fairtrade chocolate that I'd like. They all have some peculiar taste that I can't stand, and I've tried all brands in the bio and Fairtrade shops. So I decided to go back to Milka, Dove, etc. because I'm not gonna buy chocolate that I don't like just because it's Fairtrade.
But. My brother has been telling me about an Austrian chocolate brand for ages now. It's really expensive (more than the Fairtrade one; 3€ for 70g), typical quality chocolate that you usually buy as a present for someone. So I only bought one bar some days ago to see if I like it. Today I opened it, had a closer look at the wrapping, and it says "bio and fair". Awesome! Chocolate switch to Fairtrade initiated. (It tastes good.)
Check out the website: Zotter
They have about 60 different standard flavours, plus some flavours that change seasonally (plus drinking chocolate and chocolate liquors). My brother already ordered Zotter chocolate for 55€, and he and Christine are planning to visit the factory (where you can taste all the chocolate), and I'm coming along. That will be great.

So, good day. Very good day.

Partial end results and 101 in 1001

I figured that shopping on Saturdays is ... no good. Most of the small shops close at 12. So I couldn't go to any of the bio-shops and the Weltladen was also already closed. I could see from outside that it has about twice the size of the one in Salzburg, so that's promising. Apart from that, the experimental afternoon was successful and encouraging, though. I could put several additional chains on my sweatshop store list, but also found a (very expensive) shop that seems to have its clothes produced in the US. I also found a quite big Fairtrade shop with lots of nice stuff (among them woodden boxes that I've been wanting for some time now), average prices and very friendly staff. I think the friendly staff is the best thing about small ethical shops. I've never felt so comfortable in a shop before.
Another amazing discovery was ... a Fantasy shop! We have a Fantasy shop in Linz. Who'd have thought! It doesn't seem to have a lot of stuff that I'd want (few jewellery, some clothes that seem to be made out of a bad material), but its simple existance is great. I wonder how long it has been there.
Now I'm happy and excited about my findings, and buying in those shops actually makes me satisfied for longer than five minutes. Let me get girly here for a bit and talk about shopping.
I don't like shopping. It takes time, hurts my feet and you never find what you want. Shopping for books is ok, but even there I've switched to Amazon because the local bookshops don't have that many English books. Shopping for clothes is hell. I don't even know why I do it. I have enough clothes, I don't have space for more clothes and shopping for clothes is The Pain. Still, every 2-3 months I'm overcome with an urge to buy clothes. I supress it for a few weeks and then go on a day on which I'm less than unmotivated to buy stuff. Then I walk into every shop that sells clothes and looks at the clothes. Most of the time I'm turned off by the price and the style, so in 2 out of 3 times I walk home without having bought clothes (only books and stuff I need for everyday life), being grumpy because I've seen too many clothes for one day. After four shops, I really don't want to go through another shop to find nothing. Shopping for clothes is very demotivating.
When I do find something I'm willing to buy (usually because it's cheap and looks alright, not good, but alright, and I'm too fed up to look at more clothes, so I buy what I have) I get home, curse on the way, then throw the bags on the bed, go to the computer and forget about them. This isn't very satisfying.
Buying in Fairtrade shops has been different so far. It made me feel good, made me want to try their food and makes me do it as soon as I come home. No throwing away to the side and forgetting about it. Even looking through shops scanning the labels for signs of sweatshop work made me feel good. Everytime I found a "Made in China" I thought 'Oooh, you've been made in a sweatshop. Bad shirt. Bad shop. Baaaad shop. Let's see if the shop next to you is as bad as you' and got a bouncy, satisfied feeling while I wrote down the details. If the shops hadn't closed, I could have done it for hours. That must be my inner judge getting an evil sense of satisfaction from blackening company reputation.

Anyway, good results. Not finished by far yet, since I only covered half of the area that I intended to search. But I've found several nice shops with nice staff that I want to support, and that's more than I expected from that afternoon.

***

On to something else. I've found this fun project on a forum, 101 Things in 1001 Days. You make a list of 101 things that you want to do in 1001 days and try to actually do it. I've never had a problem with keeping lists and achieving the goals on them (although I don't really do lists, so maybe I forget about the goals that I didn't achieve), especially not short-term ones. I guess it's a bit harder for long-term goals, since your expectations from life change and so do your goals. Still, this looks like it will make me do things I'd not normally do, which will be a nice experience (hopefully).
I admit the idea doesn't sound so exciting and fun as it did yesterday when I made the list, so tomorrow I might think it's outright stupid - but I'll try. Started with 1 and 5 today.

Tasks completed: 29

1. Make bed every morning for a month [done December 5, 2006]
2. Bake a cake for the family [done November 11, 2006]
3. Get up early and go to the Saturday flea market [done February 17, 2007]
4. Exercise every day for one month straight (spine exercises, breathing) [started December 5, 2006]
5. Go for a walk once a week for two months [started February 19, 2007]
6. Drink 2l of water daily for a month [done December 5, 2006]
7. Read one book on astronomy
8. Write a short story. [done February 11, 2007]
9. Start a conversation with someone I don’t know. [done December 2, 2006]
10. Finish this list [done November 5, 2006
11. Go a month without chocolate.
12. Go a month without indulging in commerce (meaning I only buy what I need – have to figure out what I ‘need’ first)
13. Honestly compliment a stranger
14. Buy something for a total stranger
15. Illustrate a book (at least five paintings)
16. Visit Ireland again to take pictures of the Black Church
17. Donate blood [done December 13, 2006]
18. Write a letter/e-mail to a friend I have not heard from in a long time
19. Send a card to a friend “just because” [done January 15, 2007
20. Give the whole D&D group presents at the beginning of the game, so they are too confused to cause havoc in the following 8 hours [done March 19, 2007]
21. Do anatomy practice/sketches for an hour per day for a month
22. Read all Loomis books I have as .pdf
23. get a job or at least one freelance commission that earns me my own money [done April 2007]
24. Take a picture every day for one month
25. go to bed every night at 10pm for one week
26. Give flowers to someone who isn't expecting them.
27. Graduate from university
28. Discover five new bands/artists that make me happy (1/5)
a. Tori Amos
29. Don't use a computer at all for a day [done March 24, 2007]
30. Brush my teeth twice a day for two months [started February 24, 2007]
31. Take another nude drawing class
32. Buy a proper, working fountain pen [done February 5, 2007]
33. Eat no meat for a week
34. Eat three pieces of different fruits every day for a week
35. Do five things straight away that I'd usually procrastinate over (1/5)
36. Take an afternoon and watch children in the playground
37. Go on a date
38. Actively write in a paper journal 1x a week for two months [done March 9, 2007]
39. Go to a club and actually dance without feeling like people are watching
40. Read a book about a different religion [done Mai 7, 2007 - Paganism]
41. Go a week without watching any television (note that I can take a week here, but only take one day without a computer) [done March 22, 2006]
42. Read the DM Guide again
43. Walk to/from university once a week for a month
44. Go swimming every day for two weeks (please let the weather be nice)
45. Accept all social invitations for one month (dates, lunch, happy hour) whether it’s something I want to do or not.
46. Get out of bed by 8:00 am everyday for 1 week
47. Visit the family grave at least 3x (once a year)
48. Donate to charity or to a good cause I believe in
49. Dress slutty for a day and observe people’s reactions
50. Do an oil painting
51. Do a comic page
52. Paint something realistic from everyday life (no fantasy content)
53. Go 1 week without saying anything negative about anyone ~ no gossip, no complaining. [done February 7, 2007]
54. Read Revelations, this time without falling asleep and putting the book away for good (come on, it’s only ten pages) [done March 18, 2007]
55. Communicate for a day in written word only
56. Try making a cocktail [done December 31, 2006]
57. Meditate daily for two weeks
58. Smile at people for a whole day
59. Start a chat with one of the artists at a fair/festival
60. Go to one of the non-university-seminars that get advertised so much in Salzburg
61. Get my Amazon wishlist below 10 (not by deleting the books from the list)
62. Celebrate Samhain
63. Buy a piece of clothing that is incredibly expensive [done February 5, 2007]
64. Help a stranger [done April 15, 2007]
65. Explore the scary, dark northern forest
66. Drink only water for a week
67. Read 10 pages of an English book every day for a month and look up all words I don’t know the exact translation of (no use of context) [done January 16, 2007]
68. Find laced leather boots that I can wear in summer and that fit my medieval clothes
69. Write an article on my findings on sweatshop stores in Linz and Salzburg
70. Make a pure graphite picture
71. Write reviews of five books
72. Release a message in a bottle
73. Design and make three new skirts
74. Translate one of Ovid’s Metamorphoses
75. Get a cat/cats
76. Wear one of my corsets in public without any reason
77. Spend less than an hour each day online for a week. [done March 25, 2007]
78. Have candlelight dinner (this can be with friends.)
79. Go to the local bookshop and choose one book from a section that I’d never look at otherwise, buy it and read it
80. Write a poem that rhymes and has proper metre
81. Put flowers or heart-shaped chocolate into my brother’s flat without being noticed, preferably so his girlfriend finds it first
82. Buy the expensive special edition of one book I like
83. Get a better printer
84. Get a new computer
85. Take photos of the nice statues at the cemetery
86. Make the anti-brands illustration that has been floating around in my head for months
87. Go to Graz to eat at my brother’s favourite Chinese [done Mai 6, 2007]
88. Water the rose bush that my brother gave me for my birthday every day for two weeks in Summer
89. Participate in Buy Nothing Day [done November 25, 2006]
90. Read a scientific book on the Fantasy genre and Elves [done Mai 11, 2007
91. Epilate instead of shave
92. Design a realistic (it must be wearable) and creative Halloween costume. I don’t have to wear it
93. Take someone up on an offer I would normally decline
94. Design a CD cover, including leaflet cover and backcover
95. Buy 1 legitimate piece of software
96. Design a SciFi monster
97. Transform one room into my own, personal library (hopefully in my own, personal flat)
98. Go to a medieval fair and dance to the music
99. Paint 10h on one day
100. Design a set of jewellery
101. Do not hit snooze button for one month [finished February 18, 2007]

The challenge ends on Sunday, August 2, 2009.

Circling around the target

First of all, plugging a demo that was done by some of the students in Salzburg this week. In Salzburg we have to pay the highest price in all of Austria for a semester ticket for the bus. When I started uni it used to be 64€, after I returned from Oxford it was 96€, this semester it's 99€. So a handful of students reacted and said "Since the semester ticket costs so much we can't afford a flat. Therefore we will live in the bus." And they did. On Monday they "lived" in one of the buses from 9-6, got into the media and repeated the process on Tuesday. It's looking good that the ticket might be cheaper for next semester. At least there'll be a hearing next Monday.
The website (German) with photos: Wohnen im Bus

***

Onto my sweatshop issue:
Did a couple of hours of online research again today. My approach is pretty chaotic, but it shows first results, which is encouraging. I found a list of Fair Trade shops in the UK, unfortunately not one for Austria. I'm obviously living in the wrong country. Instead, I found a blog by a likeminded person, which lists several sweatfree companies and brands, plus links to further information: Weißliste (German again). It's late and I only had a glance without taking notes. Tomorrow I'll have a closer look and check which of the shops are interesting for me (meaning they have stores in Austria or ship to Europe).
Some of the companies seem to be very good, having not just the simple shirts without print. As expected, they're more expensive than what you get in shops here, but - in the end - that's alright.

An Experiment

In the last weeks I've been looking for more ways to win my not-so-eternal struggle against sweatshops. I figured drawing a picture about it is pretty much useless right now, since I'm simply not good enough to make enough people look at the picture to make a difference (which is why I'm holding back some ideas for painting for later, when I'm - hopefully - good enough to get them out into the world).
So, instead, I did a little experiment. I went to city centre (in Salzburg) and went into every single shop and had a closer look at the clothes that were being sold, and their labels. Every single shop includes the small shops that are always empty because they are so posh that average people don't dare to walk in. A pleasant surprise was that despite my obvious student-y look I was treated better in those shops than I was in the obvious sweatshop stores like Orsay or Schöps.
The result of the experiment was discouraging. As Naomi Klein, author of "No Logo", says on her website, when shopping for clothes we don't look at where the clothes were made, only at the price and (sometimes) the quality. So I pretty much only looked for the origin and partly the quality, and only had a sideglance at the price. In the end there were three shops in all of Salzburg's city centre that don't sell sweatshop clothes for sure. Instead, they sell designer clothes from Italy and France (and are priced accordingly). Interestingly enough, the quality of these designer clothes didn't really convince me. Sure, some items were well made, but for some reason the current fashion is this kind of ragged look that implies bad quality.
About half of the labels didn't mention where the clothes were made, and the other half mentioned Turkey, Greece, Hong Kong, Morocco and China - typical sweatshop countries.

I created an Excel file with all the stores, mentioning the origin of the clothes, the quality and the price, plus some additional comments for myself. I'm also adding the law violations that are mentioned on Transnationale.org for some of the shops (unfortunately, the website seems to target mostly American shops and brands). That should give me a nice list to compare the ethics of various shops/brands.

Next step is to repeat the procedure for the shops in Linz, and to do some more research on the shops/brands that don't mention the origin of the clothes. I'm guessing it means that they're also from sweatshops, since I can't imagine why else you'd withold the origin.

In the end, I don't have much faith in finding a shop that sells non-sweat clothes (apart from dedicated no-sweat online stores). I'd imagine a shop that considers non-sweatshop labour important would advertise the fact, and I haven't come across that yet in Austria. In Britain, there is the Ethical Trading Initiative, but looking at their list of members I'm doubtful if they can really hold up to their proclamed ultimate goal on closer inspection. I'll believe it when I see it.