Design

UPDATE III // The NICE Consumer Project & the Copenhagen Fashion Summit

May 2, 2012
By
UPDATE III // The NICE Consumer Project & the Copenhagen Fashion Summit

The initial stage of the NICE consumer project comes to an end this week and the NICE  Framework for Achieving Sustainable Fashion Consumption through Collaboration will receive its final revisions during the Copenhagen Fashion Summit. The framework is designed to inspire action from government, industry and civil society, it also highlights areas where more discussion is needed; for example, how can we create a transparent value chain, or an environment which fosters sustainable business models and supports sustainable behaviors? Since my last update I have attended a workshop in London, and taken part in the final webinar, Stress Testing the...

Read more »

Killer Jeans: Sandblasting continues…

April 6, 2012
By
Killer Jeans: Sandblasting continues…

    A new report by the Clean Clothes Campaign exposes the continued use of sandblasting in the Bangladesh garment industry, despite it being banned by some big brands and outlawed in Turkey since 2009. The CCC recognise that this problem is not exclusive to Bangladesh, and like the International Textiles Garment & Leather Workers’ Federation , call for global action on the issue. ”This report shows that a voluntary company ban is simply not enough – governments worldwide should enforce a national ban as well as enforcing import bans.” Clean Clothes Campaign 2012 Sandblasting is a technique used to distress...

Read more »

UPDATE II // The NICE consumer project

March 27, 2012
By
UPDATE II // The NICE consumer project

As promised here is an update of the second NICE consumer consultation webinars, The Art of Sustainable Consumption. At this session we heard from four speakers presenting a range of responses to sustainability. In bringing them together we were able to imagine what  ’sustainable consumption’ might look like and also how some of these approaches could be linked. Giordano Capuano -Vivienne Westwood- presented the model of ethical production behind Westwood’s Ethical Africa collection. The project began as part of an initiative of the International Trade Centre, which aimed to link luxury brands in the West to producers in communities...

Read more »

GET INVOLVED // A framework for sustainable consumption

March 9, 2012
By
GET INVOLVED // A framework for sustainable consumption

“Consumers can play a pivotal role in transitioning the fashion industry toward more sustainable business models.” (BSR) This year the Copenhagen Fashion Summit follows the theme of consumption, and will see the launch of a framework for sustainable consumption, developed by the NICE Consumer project. The framework will also be presented to the EU presidency council, and at the Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development later in the year. The NICE consumer is a collaborative project between the Danish Fashion Institute and BSR, which actively engages stakeholders from the industry, civil society and the government. So how can we be involved? As consumers we are...

Read more »

The Fair Wear Formula

March 1, 2012
By
The Fair Wear Formula

The Fair Wear Foundation (FWF) has recently produced a short film which presents a clear summary of what they do, how they do it, and the reasons why. The organisation works towards fair labour conditions for garment workers. To define this they identify eight labour standards based upon the UN human rights principles. These objectives include maintaining a living wage, an end to child labour and the right for workers to form or join a union. The FWF supports brands in achieving these aims in an open manner and provides consumers with the information they need to shop ethically....

Read more »

Fashioning the Future Award winners announced, London

November 23, 2011
By
Fashioning the Future Award winners announced, London

On November 10th, the Centre for Sustainable Fashion (CSF), at London College of Fashion, announced the winners of this year’s Fashioning the Future Awards — themed UNIQUE. Congratulations to Ashley Brock (United States), Sara Emilie Terp Hansen (Denmark), Evelyn Lebis (Sweden), Christian Frank Muller (Germany) Alice Payne (Australia), and Lara Torres (Portugal). Here is a taste of just two of the award winning entries (now added to the ‘Projects for Change’ collection on the left): “Man sinking to the floor” from “An impossible wardrobe for the invisible,” by Lara Torres, is “a video installation showcasing water soluble clothing in order...

Read more »

READ // Let’s Clean Up Fashion 2011, Labour Behind the Label reports

September 16, 2011
By
READ // Let’s Clean Up Fashion 2011, Labour Behind the Label reports

Labour Behind the Label has released a new report, Let’s Clean up Fashion 2011: The state of pay behind the UK high street (LCUF). With respect to a living wage on the high street, this is the 5th edition in a series of LCUF reports from LBL. The findings have ranked Levi Strauss and Gap Inc. with a score of 1 out of 5 (along side H&M, and others), while Zara, Monson and NEXT were found with the highest scores at 3.5 out of 5. According to LBL, initiatives taking living wage seriously must be grounded by four essential...

Read more »

Fun Find | Vintage Chinese Fashion Magazine

September 11, 2011
By
Fun Find | Vintage Chinese Fashion Magazine

Remember about a year ago when I posted an overview of the exhibit The Evergreen Classic: Transformation of the Qipao that was showing at the Hong Kong Museum of History. This is somewhat of a follow-up to that post. Yesterday, while perusing my twitter friend feed I came across this: Having lived in Shanghai for a long time, I couldn’t resist clicking on the link and up came the website for the online repository of Ling long Magazine at the C.V.Starr East Asian Library at Columbia University. On this site you can find every issue of Ling long Women’s Magazine...

Read more »

ATTEND // (sustainable) Fashion’s Night Out, New York

September 8, 2011
By
ATTEND // (sustainable) Fashion’s Night Out, New York

If you’re in New York, check out (sustainable) Fashion’s Night Out, hosted by EcoSalon, Of Rags, NYC Fair Trade Coalition and Textile Arts Center. Not just for an evening of shopping and celebrating, but also education! FREE education! “(sustainable) Fashion’s Night Out is a collaboration that celebrates sustainability’s place in the fashion world and in the global economy. The term sustainable is in parenthesis for the event title because this word itself is not the focal point of the event, rather, the evening aims to show that anything fashionable should simply make a positive impact and not need a qualifier to differentiate...

Read more »

Otto von Busch Hacks Fashion Theory

September 2, 2011
By
Otto von Busch Hacks Fashion Theory

As you know, we’re huge fans of Otto von Busch for his innovative work and research in ir/responsible fashion and hackivism. In a recent project, Otto hacks fashion theory through a series of small booklets. We’ve just added them to our required reading list and so should you! “Fashion is the celebration of the immediate future. By being constantly new, fashion indicates that the future can be something else, and it pulls us there, by force almost, promising the endless possibilities of the new, the unwritten, our possible better self.” (The Virus of Fashion, Axel Trumpfheller and Otto von...

Read more »