Designers can now access much needed information on opportunities and limitations of materials in India such as cotton and silk (among others). While designers may feel discouraged when they learn that genetically modified (GM) cotton “has found its way into almost every Indian supply chain,” they will no doubt understand the opportunity for change, as it exists in India, when they learn that “[s]eed exchange projects empower farming communities” (Shared Talent India).   

The project also provides information on the historical and cultural significance of skills such as weaving and knitting, dyeing and printing, embroidery, etc., as well as information on their processes. And, most important to designers, Shared Talent India presents a platform not only for education, but for engagement with direct access to suppliers on the ground.

Visit the project, get informed and join in on the industry conversation!

Congratulations to the Shared Talent India design team, their partners and funders and to the Centre for Sustainable Fashion for making this brilliant project happen.

“Workers’ children in the area are not admitted in the Government schools in Delhi as they cannot provide the documents the Delhi Government Schools ask for.” (Worker X, Case Study: Taking Liberties)

Labour Behind the Label and War on Want are reporting gross violations of workers rights in two Delhi factories producing garments for M&S, Debenhams, Next Monsoon and Arcadia.

Taking Liberties, cites exploitative labour practices such as unregistered living in slum housing, precarious labour through non-contractual temporary employment, threats and violence against workers through hired security in anti-union workplace environment, poverty wages (workers paid less than ½ a living wage), and forced overtime.

The report is asking M&S, Debenhams, Next Monsoon and Arcadia to:

• Take concrete steps to ensure freedom of association and collective bargaining in Gurgaon
• Develop clear benchmarks for paying a minimum living wage, based on the Asia Floor Wage figures
• Address purchasing practices that impact on wages, in particular the costing in of a living wage to prices
• Eliminate the use of short term contract labour in supply chains
• Work with others, especially workers and their unions, to translate aspirational codes into reality

Take action! Click here to download the report have your say! Speak out against worker violations and speak up for workers rights!

[Centre: This child was 12 years old when he was assassinated for standing up for his rights]

“Acting is what I do for a living; activism is what I do to stay alive.” (Martin Sheen)

Today I witnessed 18,000 youth stand up and shout out  in support for children’s rights. Have you ever heard 18,000 children chant freedom, again and again? I can assure you that it is a sound I will not soon forget.

Did you know that he has been arrested more than 60 times for activism? He looks pretty darn innocent in this photo!

This year’s We Day events saw Free the Children co-founders Craig and Mark Kielburger celebrate the hard work and dedication of students all across Canada—students who have collectively raised 5 million dollars, banking 1 million volunteer hours along the way, for children in need.

The event has attracted human rights and environmental leaders from around the world; on stage to support, celebrate and motivate these students were activists Martin Sheen, Al Gore, Reverend Jesse L. Jackson Sr., Rick Hanson, Ethan Zohn, Philippe Cousteau, Spencer West, Scott Hammell, and Robin Wiszowaty, and musicians Hedley, Colbie Caillat, and The Barenaked Ladies.

Click here to watch it live on demand.

“Youth are not our future, they are our right now” (Reverend Jesse L. Jackson Sr.)

Empowering students by empowering teachers, the We Schools in Action program has built 150 schools (650 schools, over the last 15 years) in Kenya, Sierra Leone, Ecuador, China, Haiti and Sri Lanka and provided more than 60,000 people internationally with clean water.

Free the Children Founders Craig and Mark Kielburger

Want to get your students involved? Teachers, this is a year long initiative, with campaigns set to keep your students motivated and engaged throughout the entire process:

• Halloween for Hunger asks children to collect canned goods instead of candy, for donation in their community: 2009 saw 217,000 pounds of food collected

• On November 19th students are asked to participate in a Vow of Silence; this day of action calls attention to the 218 million child labourers who have no voice.

• On January 12th, students celebrate and remember Haiti, through the We are all Haitians campaign

• February 19-25 is Aboriginal Education Week, where students are tasked to take action within their own local communities

• April 11-15 is 5 Days of Freedom. Register your interest and they will provide your school with posters, celebrity videos, motivational resources, etc.

Representing Social Alterations, I felt proud to be in the same room not with the leaders mentioned above, but with these kids…..these 18, 000 kids! It was like nothing I have ever experienced.

For more information, please check out We Day and Free the Children.

Attention tutors, students, and recent graduates! The Centre for Sustainable Fashion has launched the 2011 Fashioning the Future Award brief.

• What kind of world are you designing for?
• What is your motivation as a designer?
• What is your unique contribution to our collective futures?

To participate, you must register your interest online: www.sustainable-fashion.com from1 October 2010 where you will have access to resources and ideas to stimulate your work.

Here are the submission dates and deadlines:

Round 1 of submission: you will be required to submit your work online by 15 June 2011.

Candidates who are shortlisted from Round 1 will be invited to Round 2!

Round 2 submission deadline: July 2011.

Good luck!

Source: Centre for Sustainable Fashion, London College of Fashion

Fashion High @ Balmoral Jr. Secondary School from Social Alterations on Vimeo.

On Earth Day, SA stepped back into the classroom to introduce Grade 8 students to the social and environmental impacts of fashion.

We have collated our favorite activities from Teaching Sustainable Fashion: A Handbook for Educators as well as developed our own exercises to create two workshops for pre-16 learners.

These workshops hope to engage, educate, encourage and empower both educator and learner to get involved with the issues. Each workshop provides resources and tools to help lessen the impact of the fashion industry on both people and planet.

We’ve put together this video of the 1 Hour workshop in action, so that you may get a better picture on how this might work in your classroom.

Introduction

This workshop was designed to introduce pre-16 students/participants the value of a responsible fashion industry, by understanding the impact our clothing has on both people and planet.

Objectives

• To engage students/participants on the impact their clothing has on garment workers working within the fashion industry.
• To educate students/participants on the impact their clothing has on the planet, specifically in terms of best practices in laundry habits.
• To encourage students/participants to ‘talk back’ to the industry, through a critical examination of fashion themes coming out of the industry, specifically surrounding beauty and wealth.
• To empower learners to take back control of the impact their clothing on both people and planet. 

For more information on these activities, please visit the ‘Works Cited’ page at the end of each workshop.

* If you are planning to use this lesson, please let us know so that we may keep track of our programming.*

** Please ask your students to complete the online feedback forms**

[Fashion High] Understanding the Impact of your Clothing: An Introduction by Social Alterations is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.

Click on the links below to download the workshops:

[Fashion High] Understanding the Impact of your Clothing: An Introduction, 1 Hour Workshop

Fashion High_1HourWorkshop

[Fashion High] Understanding the Impact of your Clothing: An Introduction, 2 Hour Workshop

 Fashion High_2HourWorkshop

Back in January, we posted on Clearing the Hurdles, a report by The Playfair campaign, which is made up of  the Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC), the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), and the International Textile, Garment and Leather Worker’s Federation (ITGLWF), in partnership with Maquila Solidarity Network, and other organizations worldwide.

This May, Fashioning an Ethical Industry invites teachers and tutors  to “Step into her Shoes” and be introduced to a “new pack of teaching resources aimed at KS4, A-level and FE themed around the London’s 2012 Olympics. The pack focuses on issues of human rights within global sportswear supply chains, including case studies, lesson plans, an online game and picture resources. The session will introduce the materials with suggestions for how to use them, and provide a background to the wider Playfair 2012 campaign calling for a fairer deal for garment workers producing sportswear and branded goods for the Olympics.” (FEI)

Title: Teacher and Tutor Training: Step into her Shoes
Location: London
Link out: Click here
Start Time: 16:00
Date: 2010-05-26
End Time: 18:00

Janette Crawford, who runs one of our favourite blogs, fashion loves people, has shared a wonderful interview she had originally done for KCFreePress.com. The interview is with Liz Bohannon, founder of Sseko Designs, an organization working to provide women with tuition money they need to attend college in Uganda through social enterprise.

I encourage you to head over to fashion loves people straight away to check out the full interview.

I wanted to share this video clip with you here, as a source of encouragement. Liz Bohannon speaks passionately on the power of social enterprise in creating sustainable change—her dedication and optimism is so inspiring! Click here for more videos from the interview.

Sseko Designs: Creating sustainable change from Janette Crawford on Vimeo.

Thanks Janette for sharing this with us!

“The design by Ruben @ Buro RuSt combines with the more than readable texts by Anne Lally combine to create an innovative, attractive description of the FWF approach to improving labour conditions in garment supply chains. In hardback or paperback.” (FWF)

Image: FWF’s focus (image from the Fair Wear formula, (c) Buro RuSt

If you aren’t already familiar with the Fair Wear Foundation, an international verification initiative dedicated to enhancing workers’ lives, take a minute to check out their guiding principles:

Supply chain responsibility = realising that the Code can only be fulfilled when sourcing companies, as well as factory management, actively pursue practices that support good working conditions.
Labour standards derived from ILO Conventions and the UN’s Declaration on Human Rights = basing FWF’s Code on internationally-recognised standards which have been set through tri-partite negotiation.
Multi-stakeholder verification = verification processes developed through multi-stakeholder negotiation, and involving experts from diverse disciplines and perspectives in FWF verification teams.
A process-approach to implementation = paying special attention to the means (i.e. building functioning industrial relations systems over time) in order to achieve the end (i.e. sustainable workplace improvements).
Involvement of stakeholders in production countries = engaging local partners in shaping FWF’s approach in a given region or country.
Transparency = keeping relevant stakeholders informed of FWF policies, activities, and results; publicly reporting on member company efforts to fulfil FWF requirements.

For more information on this publication, and others, contact info@fairwear.nl

Thanks to everyone who offered feedback, we were so grateful for your considerations. Please, keep let’s keep the conversation going!

Be sure to contact us with any questions!

Social Alterations @ FEI from Social Alterations on Vimeo.

CSR Trends in China’s Apparel Supply Chain from Social Alterations on Vimeo.

Find more photos like this on Social Alterations

Earlier this month SA had the pleasure of interviewing David Goldsmith from The Swedish School of Textiles and Parsons, Eleanor Dorrien-Smith from PARTIMI, Kat Ross and Larissa Clark from the Environmental Justice Foundation, Carolina Gomez-Aubert from Lunamano, and Sophie Koers from the Fair Wear Foundation.

We asked them for their take on responsible design, and why they think design students should care.

Responsible Design: Why should design students care? from Social Alterations on Vimeo.

What does responsible design mean to you, and why do you think design students should care?