Category Archives: Debt

Social Alterations// Slides

Nadira and I both promised to make the slides from our presentations at the FEI conference available online, and here they are, along with a slideshow of some of the images we captured from the event. I’ve reposted the videos of the presentations for convenience.

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

WATCH// Social Alterations @ FEI

Here are just two of the videos we took at the conference. We have more videos to come, so stay tuned for those.

The first video is of my Pecha Kucha talk. I’ll be posting the slides and my notes a little later on. Please contact us if you have any questions on the works cited in the presentation.

Social Alterations @ FEI from Social Alterations on Vimeo.

The Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) held the table next to ours during the Market Place on day two of the conference. We asked them what exactly responsible fashion meant to the EJF, and for their thoughts on why designers should care.

FEI Conference 006 from Social Alterations on Vimeo.

Pesticide Action Network (PAN) was also there, asking participants “what organic cotton means…..to me”. Pictured above is Nadira Lamrad (right) with her answer.

Social Alterations @ FEI

So here we are in London for the Fashioning an Ethical Industry Conference: Fast Forward. Today, Nadira and I will both be presenting at the conference, and with Katrine in attendance, this will mark the first time the SA team is all together in the same place at the same time!  

We will be doing lots of blogging and twitter (ing?) from the event, and will have our presentations uploaded later tonight for you to check out, so be sure to tune in.

Follow on twitter via @maryhanlon for that feed.

Wish us luck!

Predictions for the Future of Apparel Sourcing

To close off 2009, Clothesource released “The World of Apparel Sourcing: 2010-2012”. The report forecasts sourcing trends in over 60 countries. Here is a small summary of what the report covers:

“The World of Apparel Sourcing 2010-2012 looks at the trends that influenced apparel sourcing between 2007 and 2009 and reviews which of them are likely to change between 2010 and 2012. It then makes detailed forecasts for the net effect on apparel exports from over 60 countries in 2010, 2011 and 2012.” (Clothesource) Click here to download the Management Summary, and to purchase the report.

Recently, on their blog, Clothesource Comments, Michael Flanagan outlined “The Twelve (Probable) Laws of Apparel Sourcing from 2010 to 2012” (in twelve separate posts).

Here is just the beginning of each (probable) law of apparel sourcing, to wet your appetite and encourage you to read-up on them.

1. There are no new sourcing hotspots:

“Now as long as we’ve been commenting on garment sourcing, people have been   asking us what new hotspots are emerging. For years now, we’ve been saying there aren’t any. But there’s always a “what about…?” rejoinder. So – what about [click here to read more]”

2. For most emerging-market factories, it’s China (and Vietnam a bit), not the recession:

“Total clothing imports by rich countries fell 4.2% in the third quarter of the year. But from countries outside China, imports fell 9.8%. If China, Macao and Hong Kong together had kept their share of world trade in Q3 2009 at the 42.6% they held in 2008, their clothing exports would have fallen by just 4.2% [click here to read more]”

3. Global instability is bankrupting factories – recession or no recession:

“The real impact of the recession so far, though, has been on financially weak factories.

Each twist in constantly changing energy and raw material costs, and interest and exchange rates, weakens a new group of suppliers. An epidemic of delayed and dishonoured payments in the winter of 2008/9, together with reduced and cancelled orders, tipped many businesses over. Such fluctuations will still devastate undercapitalised businesses even if sales start growing [click here to read more]”

4. What recession didn’t kill, recovery won’t cure:

“Throughout the world since mid 2008, garment factories have been reportedly closing, and workers losing their jobs, at unprecedented rates. Naturally this has been blamed on the recession [click here to read more].”

5. China just did what it had to for garment exporters to survive. It’ll probably keep doing that:

“Through the recession, China changed its laws, offered hundreds of billions in credit for exporting businesses and changed its tax rebate system – all to keep its exporting companies alive. Its government showed unmatched determination to keep its garment exporters in business. Probably, we’ll see similar determination in the future [click here to read more].”

6. Sharper Asian operations have also undermined European and Central American competitiveness:

“The biggest sufferers from China’s growth at the end of this decade have been Europe’s and America’s neighbours [click here to read more].”

7. Prices seem to be forever falling:

“Pricing is the central issue in sourcing. And it’s often misunderstood.

Wholesale clothing prices have been coming down since Western manufacturers started moving their sourcing offshore [click here to read more].”

8. “Ethical” sourcing has to be properly understood:

“Everyone wants ethically-produced clothes. But few customers are prepared to pay for them [click here to read more].”

9. An economist’s “recovery” doesn’t mean demand increases:

“Though economists keep telling us there’s a recovery going on, few retailers would agree. And, if they’re honest, few emerging-market garment makers would either [click here to read more].”

10. Protectionist barriers are falling, and few are likely to be re-erected:

“The world trade in garments is largely about rich countries importing from poorer ones. And – quite contrary to widely believed myths – those rich countries have been dropping their barriers against apparel imports consistently for the past five years. How likely is that trend to reverse? [click here to read more]”

11. Entire countries’ apparel industries are currently under threat:

“Clothing manufacturing in surprisingly many countries is threatened by proposed changes in duty-free arrangements, or by political instability. And China’s growing strength is putting growing pressure on the viability of many others’.

A large group of countries remain competitive because they enjoy preferential duty concession in rich countries that their rivals don’t. But this competitive advantage is under heat from four directions [click here to read more]”

12. In the post-post-quota world, China’s currently got the edge:

“During 2009, garment sourcing moved from the post-quota world to the post-post-quota world. And many countries that seemed to do well when quotas first came off might be far less able to survive in tomorrow’s post-post-quota world [click here to read more]”

Of particular interest to SA, is (probable) law 8. According to Clothesource, consumer apathy toward ethical concerns within the supply chain can encourage corporations to turn a blind eye to human rights violations. While understanding that consumers have a role to play isn’t breaking news, Clothesource confirms two commercial reasons corporations should get behind ethics: happy workers and the cost of public scandals. Of course, the issues are more complicated than they seem…

Be sure to follow Clothesource to make sense of it all.

A New Approach to the Issue of Living Wages

Stitching a Decent Wage Across Borders[Worker sowing at home. India, 2009. © Ankur Ahuja/ Clean Clothes Campaign.]

One of the root causes of poverty wages in the industry is the power of global buyers to constantly relocate production in search of ever lower prices and better terms of trade. This power is used to exert a downward pressure on wages and conditions – labour being one of the few ‘production costs’ or ‘inputs’ that can be squeezed. 

The solution

The basic idea of the Asia Floor Wage is to put a ‘floor’ under this, thereby preventing this competition from forcing wages below poverty levels and making sure gains are more equitably shared along the supply chain. The Asia Floor Wage alliance have formulated a unified, regional demand for a minimum living wage which is decent and fair and which can be standardised and compared between countries. This regional collective bargaining strategy will unite workers and their allies from different Asian countries behind one wage demand. 

stitchwage-logosmall

The goal is to attain this standardised minimum living wage for workers across Asia through negotiations between garment industry employers and workers’ representative organisations, and with the mediation and support of governments, inter-governmental organisations and social movements.

The report constructed by the Asia Floor Wage organisation is available here.

Source: Asian Floor Wage

Social Alterations: Fibre Analysis

 

We’re working on developing some ready-to-use curricula for fashion/textile/apparel instructors and designers.

First up, is the Social Alterations “Fibre Analysis: Possible Social and Environmental Impacts.” Data for this document was aggregated from resources you will find in the “Works Cited” section, on the last page of the PDF. This document is licensed and protected through the Creative Commons, which basically means that you can use it wherever/whenever you want, assuming you do so within the guidelines outlined in the Creative Commons licensing for which this document is registered (see below).

This is only the beginning folks; Social Alterations has mandated itself to deliver online curriculum to aid in the development of socially responsible fashion design education.

You can get involved by joining the Social Alterations Forum to share your experience in socially responsible fashion design education.

If you have any questions, comments, concerns or requests please contact us.

Fibre Analysis by Mary Hanlon is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.

Click here to download the resource: Fibre Analysis, Social Alterations

An October to Remember// Upcoming Events

October will have you wishing you could be in more than one city at the same time.

If you find yourself in Paris, Chicago, Providence, Portland, Hong Kong, London or Seattle this October, be sure to check out these amazing events. Click on the event you are interested in on the Events Calendar and we should link you straight into the events homepage.

October

Also, if you are near London in Oct. Nov. or Dec., be sure to stay tuned into the London College of Fashion, for Clash! Creative Collisions in Fashion and Science.

Clash! Creative Collisions in Fashion & Science

 

Last but not least, if you have an upcoming event you think are readers would be interested in, be sure to drop us a line.

Social Alterations is now on Ning!

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You can use this space to share and upload curricula ideas, lesson plans, visual aids, research and projects, or to just discuss the current happenings in the industry with respect to social issues and environmental concerns, as well as the latest trends in socially responsible design.

 

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“See” you in the Forum! Oh…and don’t forget to pick up your Social Alterations Badge!

 

Visit Social Alterations

Social Alterations: Forum

How can education foster sustainable change toward socially responsible fashion and apparel design and manufacturing practices?

Social Alterations Forum

Social Alterations hopes to foster socially responsible fashion design education through aggregating relevant material that will inspire fashion/textile and apparel instructors, researchers, designers and design enthusiasts to get on board with thinking about consequence in the industry.

Sign up to the Social Alterations Forum if you’re interested in sharing and contributing ideas on curriculum, research, projects, materials, design, etc. with this community.