I’m walking through mango clothing store and I start reading these colorful t-shirts with different quotes on them and I’m like these shirts are cute and I’m digging the quotes and I look down and see Paulo Coelho face on what looks like a book. I say to myself when did Mango start selling books? I’m not understanding this at all, so I pick up the book and I realize its not a book its a box (my brain is slowly processing the fact that the cool shirts above the mock book is shirts by Paulo Coelho and inside of the book box is the shirts), the light in my head turns on and I want to scream and do a dance in the middle of the store! Yes, I’m a Nerd
The store salesman walks up to me and I say to him “I know this man he is my friend” and he gives me this look like yeah right so you read his books “what size would you like mam”? I look at him like seriously I’m not joking and I tell him a size large! I grab my cell phone and snap a couple of pictures and call Sara who also is a friend of Paulo and tell her what I have discovered and she tells me she saw them yesterday and we start giggling like teenagers. If your in Doha, Qatar you can find them at any mall with a Mango store inside 
I’m so excited that Paulo has decided to venture out into the fashion world~~~ “Conscious Clothing” with conscious quotes and earth friendly material. What better way to get a message across. Not everyone read books, some prefer to watch fashion or read fashion I like both; so I got me a couple of the shirts to represent. Yes, fashion is fun and really fun when you expressing what you feel on your clothes.
Paulo you just keep on keeping on…… there is always a surprise around the corner when it comes to you!!!
MNG & Paulo Coelho
2 responses so far ↓
Keith // April 28, 2009 at 4:05 pm
A more detailed exploration of the issues
http://www.indymedia.org/en/2009/04/923797.shtml
Enjoy!
Keith // April 30, 2009 at 4:08 pm
‘Everything which is done in the present, affects the future by consequence, and the past by redemption.’ — Paulo Coelho
‘I receive 30% of the sales (the rest going to retailers, distribution, manufacturing, etc), and it goes to Instituto Paulo Coelho.’ — Paulo Coelho
‘… to what extent can our dreams be manipulated? For the past decades, we lived in a culture that privileged fame, money, power – and most of the people were led to believe that these were the real values that we should pursue, unaware that the real behind the scenes manipulators remain anonymous. They understand that the most effective power is the one that nobody can notice – until it is too late, and you a trapped.’ — Paulo Coelho
Paulo Coelho t-shirts from Mango is not the only foray by Paulo Coelho into the world of fashion. Far more interesting and revealing is his latest novel The Winner Stands Alone, a damning indictment of the fashion industry.
What are people buying into, what are they paying a high price for? It is not the designer on the label as the design will have been by a young designer who wants out to set up his own label. It will have not even have been made by the company, it will have come from some Third World sweatshop, a dollar or less at the factory gate, one hundred dollars or more retail. All that people are paying for is the label, the brand name.
Often the products from different brands, different labels, competing companies, all come out of the same factory. In a global race to the bottom, production is moved around the world to keep prices low, which impacts on working conditions and the environment. [see Globalisation - the human cost and No Logo]
Anyone considering buying a leather bag or pair of gloves from designer brands Prada, Mulberry, Louis Vuitton, Aspinals of London and Samsonite could be forgiven for assuming that paying such high prices might mean avoiding the exploitation and abuse for which high street fashion is renowned.
However, as Turkish workers at the DESA factory in Turkey could tell you, the reality is very different. Long hours, low wages and appalling conditions are the norm and for many months the factory has been running a campaign of harassment and intimidation against the union they formed to stand up for their rights.
The ultimate chic, t-shirts bearing quotes from a critic of the fashion industry!
Nice pictures! Well written piece.
30% of sales goes to the Paulo Coelho Institute, where it goes to support 450 street kids in Rio.
Keith