why
the gfs mission:

donate 5% of all proceeds to select non-profits to support their good works.  Please go to charitable$$ to read about our current charity and their mission.

seek vendors who are also mission oriented and share some of their stories with you!

support entrepreneurial businesses, handmade products and encourage domestic manufacturers.

work with vendors concerned with their impact on the environment; and by offering their
products we encourage the use of natural and organic ingredients, recycled components, low-impact dyes, eco-packaging, non-sweatshop labor, and Fair Trade producers that employ and sustain low-income artisans in many countries.

encourage eco-education within the fashion/textile community we know, by sponsoring design and fashion contests. 

So guiltfreeshopping.com won’t be about just selling another pretty something. It's about supporting vendors who care about work conditions and environment. It's about vendors who donate time and funds for meaningful causes as we will. It’s about finding ways to support smaller companies in their efforts to limit their manufacturing impact on our planet by carefully considering ingredients, packaging, work conditions. It’s about giving back, making better choices, and u&i together making a difference!

                                       who 

Susan Power and Kathryn Zarczynski, guiltfreeshopping creators, first met in the late ‘70’s
when they worked for the same Fortune 500 company. For several decades their paths crossed as they both became entrenched in the NYC Garment Center. In late fall 2005, Kathryn was looking for a change in careers. Susan wanted to launch guiltfreeshopping.com, and was looking for a business/working partner. Since registering the site in July 2000, it had been posting an under-construction sign! The timing was right, the mix of business experience and skill synched and so SP & KZ decided to build guiltfreeshopping.com, as a joint venture.

SP is a resourceful entrepreneur whose enthusiasm is contagious. Prior to venturing into publishing, Susan designed and marketed both textiles and apparel – including her own children’s wear collection. In the spring of ’88, she realized the need for an industry sourcing guide and co-created/ published the first comprehensive, NYC based, resource guide to help apparel & accessory manufacturers locate the products and services they needed. Quarterly, she publishes sourcing guides, used by manufacturers coast to coast, and is developing a B2B site - aboutsources.com.  In January 2006, Susan founded RRAG -  The Resource Room At Gibbs. This information center will be open to fashion industry professionals and the academic community.  The Resource Room is located in the NYC garment center, at the Katharine Gibbs School.  A creative solutions finder, SP enjoys the challenge of bringing a new product or service to the market place.

KZ comes to guiltfreeshopping.com with a life long appreciation for handmade products and recycled items. She says she never met a textile she didn’t like. She is still inspired by plain but powerful choices of her Grandma Ruby who saved every bit and bob of left-over ribbon and wrapping paper, and bought only what she couldn't sew, knit, grow or cook herself. KZ's career in knit textile design, accessory production, and designer apparel operations in NYC taught the values of non-sweatshop factory conditions and appreciation of fine workmanship and materials. All along, after her day jobs, she has been doing volunteer work: as a tutor for an after-school creative learning center, making costumes and sets for a small theater group, and most recently creating and selling tee shirts whose proceeds go to help the people of Darfur.