Yearly Archives: 2011

Responsible Sourcing // The future is bright

The challenge of sourcing responsible material is a large barrier for many designers wanting to take steps toward responsible design. Thanks to initiatives and organizations such as the Centre for Sustainable Fashion’s Shared Talent India, Ethical Fashion Forum’s annual Spotlight on Sourcing Expo (more info. here), Offset Warehouse and Source4Style, however, the future is bright.

Here’s some more exciting news on the responsible sourcing front:

Working with the Centre for Sustainable Fashion, The Sustainable Angle will present the Future Fabrics Expo at London College of Fashion on November 29-30.

“With an emphasis on a high quality luxurious offering, diverse fabrics will be displayed in visual and tactile ‘stories’ to showcase the commercial potential and versatility of textiles from over 50 suppliers.” (The Sustainable Angle)

In October, Summer Rayne Oakes and Benita Singh took home a Cartier Women’s Initiative Award for Source4Style. Stay tuned to their site, as they gear up to launch Source4Style v2.0 in early December. In the meantime, here’s a preview:

Fair Wear Foundation awarded UN grant to support garment workers in India and Bangladesh

The Fair Wear Foundation (FWF) has been awarded a grant by the United Nations Trust Fund to End Violence against Women (UN Trust Fund).

Working in India and Bangladesh, the three year grant will be used by FWF and four partner organizations (SAVE and Cividep, in India, and the AMRF Society and Awaj Foundation in Bangladesh) “to implement innovative new strategies to reduce workplace violence against women in the garment industry.” (FWF)

“The benefits to women of a workplace without violence are clear and immediate, and an issue of respect for fundamental human rights.“ (Erica Van Doorn, Director of Fair Wear Foundation)

According to the Fair Wear Foundation, “[r]ecent research estimates that 60% of women in the garment industry have experienced some form of harassment, verbal abuse or physical abuse. Indiaand Bangladeshboth have legal frameworks to prevent and address workplace violence, however full implementation of these laws in the garment industry has been hampered by several factors, including the complexity of apparel supply chains.” (FWF)

To learn more about the FWF, check out their newly released 2010 annual report.

TEST YOURSELF// ETI- NORWAY launches new tool “A Practitioner’s Guide To Ethical Trade”

Does ethical responsibly apply to me? How do I start? How do I identify the risks in my supply chain? Can I really make a difference?

Here at SA we say that the answer to all the above is YES!

The idea of ethical and environmental practice can be daunting to many, however with the right tools the process of identification and implementation of ethical practices can be rewarding. Thus, help change the course of unethical practices in supply chains.

The Ethical Trading Initiative – Norway (ETI-Norway) recently launched “A Practitioner’s Guide To Ethical Trade”,a new tool to assist businesses implement tf ethical practices. Per Bondevik, Managing Director of ETI -Norway explains that:

“We have developed this guide in order to show that ethical trade is doable and that it also yields results,even for small and medium-sized enterprises. It’s really just a matter of getting started.”

Among many aspects the guide provides information and guidance about:

– Ensure commitment to ethical trade in the company and its supply chain

– Ensure company-wide commitment, plan and organise the work

– Communication with suppliers

– Risk assessment in the supply chain

– Purchasing Practices

– Collaborative approach to making improvements

– Measuring performance, reporting and communicating

– E stablish key performance indicators

– D ocument progress and challenges

– C ommunicate results and challenges

– Test yourself

The test your self section provides a simple yes/no questionnaire and is very useful in order to identify if ethical practices is relevant for you.

Whether you’re a tutor, student or a business professional, this guide gives a good explanation as to how ethical practices must be integrated and structured within an organisation and can be useful in education and as a tool to analyse how different companies work with such challenges within their value chain.

Source: ETI -Norway

VOICES // Imagining a common etiquette through responsible fashion

This post was written by Maya Kenova and Audrey Vincent, post-graduate students in the Applied Imagination course at Central Saint Martins and creators of Common Fashion and Fashion Etiquette Insider projects. In this post, they share their individual journeys toward responsible fashion design, marketing and consumption, harnessing creativity and imagination.

VOICES // a feature space on SA where select community members are invited to share their journey in responsible design. What’s your story?

Maya Kenova

The moment I moved to London, the moment I discovered it had much more to offer in terms of sights and attractions. Tourists, as well as locals, enjoy the outside view of Buckingham palace as much as the inside experience of Primark. I witnessed this trend of people investing in their wardrobes every week and throwing clothes away after wearing them just a couple of times and I wanted to change this.

With no experience in Fashion Design, I knew I could not offer any well-designed, sustainable clothing solution. However, as someone who is deeply interested in understanding consumer behavior and motivations, I decided to tackle the problem from a psychological perspective. Therefore, my options were narrowed down to two: convince customers to decrease their levels of clothing consumption or make them reduce their disposal of their clothes.

Convincing people to buy less and voluntarily adopt a frugal lifestyle in this era of overabundance and overconsumption is extremely difficult. As a result of my investigation of people’s attitudes and buying behavior towards fashion in general, the focus of my research efforts shifted from encouraging people to buy less to making them attach greater value to their clothes.

“Through my work, I explore how digital media might increase our feelings of attachment to our clothes, strengthen our relationship with and reduce our disposal of them.”

With the rise of technologies, inviting self-reflection and supporting personal sense-making, I started investigating, designing, and evaluating different online methods of engaging the user in a meaningful personalization of apparel process. Through my work, I explore how digital media might increase our feelings of attachment to our clothes, strengthen our relationship with and reduce our disposal of them. I determined that customization, and ultimately consumption, can become a more meaningful and thought-provoking experience for the consumer. Therefore, I started developing different online customization tools, triggering self-reflection via thought-provoking questions and storytelling. Each online method represents different self-reflective activity and generates personalized visual outcome. What would happen if we could discover aspects of our personalities in the course of individualizing our garments? What if this personalization process could also let us leave an imprint of our personality on its visual outcome? Would this help us get closer to ourselves, become more attached to our possessions, and ultimately protect the environment from further pollution? My answer is Yes, Definitely!

Audrey Vincent

While studying for a degree in fashion marketing and management in France I barely came across the matter of ethics or sustainability. So, it is easy to imagine my surprise when I went to a seminar on sustainability in fashion during the Green Week organized by my university.

“When I finished my BA in Paris and started looking for opportunities, something felt kind of off, there was something missing in the fashion industry.”

I come from a quiet town near Versailles in Franceand in 2010 I graduated with a BA in Fashion marketing. While studying, I worked in various mass market sales jobs, few luxury stores and experienced working in product management, trend forecasting and buying through internships. When I finished my BA inParisand started looking for opportunities, something felt kind of off, there was something missing in the fashion industry. That’s when I decided to move toLondonwere there seemed to be more opportunities and open minds.

I enrolled at Central Saint Martins to do a Masters in Applied Imagination. With this Masters I had a great opportunity to work on a project of my choice and apply my imagination. After that seminar during the University’s Green Week, I had a breakthrough moment and discovered what fashion could be, and what it could do for people in the world. That’s why I decided to dedicate my research to sustainable fashion and to develop a project aimed to introduce the matter of ethical fashion to young individuals using creativity game and play in order to help them understand the benefits of slowing down fashion.

I believe that the responsibility lies on both sides: on one side consumers have to be briefed and prepared while on the other side the brands need to provide ethical products so that they can meet half way. I believe that it could be that simple. It might take time but I picked a side and started.

Project Links //

Fashion Etiquette Insider

Common Fashion

LEARN // Playfair 2012 Campaign launches new teaching resources

The Playfair 2012 Campaign has launched with new cross-curriculum teaching resources for learners aged 9-14.

“Lesson ideas and activities make links between different subjects including art and design, citizenship, English, geography and maths. By using this pack, pupils can develop their understanding of why decent working conditions are part of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals to end poverty, and take practical actions to help make the world a fairer place.” (Playfair 2012 Campaign)

We’ve reported on the campaign in the past, recommending teachers utilize this interactive online game in the classroom.

New resource materials include:

10 lesson plans
14 activity sheets
4 colour photo cards
a DVD

Educators can order material directly from the campaign, or download the education packages, activity cards and pamphlets.

The campaign coalition is made up of Labour Behind the Label, the Trades Union Congress, the International Textile, Garment & Leather Workers Federation, the International Trade Union Federation, the Clean Clothes Campaign, Maquila Solidarity Network and Clearing the Hurdles.

Source: @playfair2012

Urgent | Knit a Sweater for a Penguin!

Seriously...how cute is this!!

UPDATE: Sweaters for Skeinz have reached critical mass! If your still keen to knit a sweater, contact the organizations directly (information below) to make sure they are still in demand.

Here’s the update from Skeinz: “we do have crital mass of jumpers – but don’t worry if you have just completed yours – still send it in to us as we will keep stocks available for the Wildlife Rescue Team to draw from if required.”

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As you may have heard, there’s been a devastating accident and subsequent oil spill off the coast of Tauranga in New Zealand. This is pretty devastating as the environmental impact is huge! Sometimes in these situations, it feels like since we’re so far away, all we can do is watch totally helpless! But, it turns out, there is something we can do. There’s been a call by Skeinz.com for people to help the blue penguins affected by the oil spill by knitting them some little sweaters. Apparently, the sweaters help keep the penguins warm while they recover from the health impacts of being coated by toxic oil. It also help to stop them from preening themselves thereby preventing them for ingesting said oil. Once they’re strong enough, the sweaters are removed and the penguins are washed using a mild detergent.

So, if you know how to knit and have other friends who know how to knit, or you’re taking a knitting class or are a member of a knitting club…or anything along those lines…why not have a knitting party!! What a great way to spend a Sunday brunch! Merino and mimosas 🙂

And just to help you along, here are a few patterns and instructions:

Skeinz Newsletter

Penguins Foundation

Etsy Blog

Once you have your sweaters collected, you can forward them to

1. Skeinz at the following address:

M  PO Box 3123, Onekawa, Napier, New Zealand
D  5 Husheer Place, Onekawa, Napier,
P 06 843 3174       F 06 843 3090   M 021 899 396
E  nzyc@designspun.co.nz  or info@skeinz.com

2. Penguins Foundation at the following address:

C/- P.O. Box 97 Cowes

Victoria Australia

3922

Phone: +61 3 591 2800

Other than the links above, also check out Grist.org, Audubon Magazine, and Gawker.com.

Special thanks to our friend Kathleen Matthews for bringing our attention to this story on facebook.

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 5^th 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 pillars:

Taking a collaborative approach
Worker organizing and freedom of association
Examining commercial factors paying the cost
Rolling it out: developing a route-map for sustaining a living wage

“The fact is that workers do speak out to demand better wages. At best they are often ignored; at worst they are persecuted, threatened, dismissed or harassed. Companies must do more to ensure respect for trade union rights in the quest to provide a living wage for garment workers.” (Labour Behind the Label, Let’s Clean Up Fashion 2011: Pg. 1)

Readers who have followed LBL’s LCUF reports in the past will likely be surprised to see Gap Inc. with such a low score, considering the company received one of the highest grades in the 2009 report. According to LBL:

“Gap plans to work on developing good management and human resource systems with suppliers, which are needed. However, Gap supplied no evidence of plans to translate this work into real wage gains for workers. More worryingly, it states its intention to focus mainly on the achievement of compliance with minimum wages. This shift seems to suggest Gap has given up any plans to work towards providing living wages to workers in its supply chain altogether. We hope this isn’t the case.” (Labour Behind the Label, Let’s Clean Up Fashion 2011: Pg. 28)

LBL has created on online petition calling on Gap and H&M to do more. Click here to take action.

For readers on twitter who’d like to spread the word, here are some suggested tweets via LBL:

Which highstreet brands are doing most to improve pay & conditions for workers? Find out from Let’s Clean up Fashion: http://bit.ly/lcuf2011

Who’s ethical on the highstreet? Find out in the NEW edition of Let’s Clean up Fashion: http://bit.ly/lcuf2011 @labourlabel

Enough to feed your family – too much to ask? Gap & H&M seem to think so. Take action to ask them to reconsider: http://bit.ly/r3zw2O

Click here for company profiles and scores, and here for advice from LBL on where to shop.

Fun Find | Vintage Chinese Fashion Magazine

Ling long Magazine Covers Issue 81, 1933 C.V.Starr East Asian Library at Columbia University

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 from 1931-1937. You may already know that Shanghai, and other cities in the ‘Orient’ were pretty happening places in the 1920s and 30s [check out the video below for proof].

This magazine was the woman’s guide to it all! It “was popular during a time of dramatic material, social, and political change in China.” Specifically the era after the end of dynastic rule and into the upheaval of the Republican Era. This collection provides a glimpse into the then newly ‘modern’ China through the magazine’s discourse on the ‘modern’ Shanghai woman in this period of change. The magazine addressed these changes with openness asking the reader to decide what is the definition of a ‘modern’ woman by providing them with contrasting points of view. As the website states:

Ling long Magazine Back Cover Issue 32, 1931 C.V.Starr East Asian Library at Columbia University

“In many ways, Shanghai’s New Woman was little different from her global counterparts; she bobbed her hair and challenged gender boundaries just like they did. Yet she was also born in a particular modern Chinese context full of contradictions. Reformers idealized the New Woman as free and liberated, an example of China’s break from her oppressive and conservative past. Critics of the New Woman, however, suggested that her excessive consumption and unrootedness represented the dangers of unbridled modernity and foreign influences.

The Ling long woman epitomized the Shanghai New Woman. She lived in both the fantasy world of popular culture and on the streets of everyday Shanghai. Photographs in the magazine ranged from glamorous movie stars to the actual authors of articles, and from society ladies to students. Just as the Ling long woman had multiple identities, the magazine called her a variety of both Chinese and English names: xin nuxing and xin nuzi (new woman); xiandai nuzi (contemporary woman); modeng nuxing (modern woman, modern girl, girl of this age, and girl of today).”

This is such a great resource for all sorts of fields from social science to design to advertising to linguistics. There are some English translations of articles on the website. But, it is a lot of fun to just peruse the magazines for the fashion trends and old ads. It’s interesting to notice some differences and similarities between the Eastern and Western models and movie stars. For example, I noticed that there’s a lot less smiling from the Chinese women than the Western women [at least in the magazines I looked at]. The website also provides a great list of resources for people interested in learning more about the Shanghainese woman in that era.

This is definitely a fun find!

Where Are These Child Labourers Working?

Today, we’re playing a game. Read the clues and try to figure out the location before you get to the end of this post.

In this country, children between the ages of 12 and 18 are legally allowed to work long hours in all sorts of hazardous conditions as long as the job is classified as agricultural work. If the farm is classified as a ‘small’ farm, children of any age can work as hired labourers.

Some of the most common jobs include:

picking fruits and vegetables
picking tobacco
hoeing cotton and weeding cotton fields

Some common job-related hazards include:

using sharp farm implements such as knives and chainsaws
operating heavy machinery such as tractors and grinders
pesticide exposure
sexual harassment and violence
exposure to extreme temperatures
repetitive motion injuries
unsanitary conditions
extremely long workhours sometimes without a day off during peak seasons

This country’s Department of Labour estimated that 3% of agricultural workers are children however, this is a flawed measure since it does not include children below the age of 14. Other estimates are as high as 9% of agricultural workers, however, this also does not include undocumented or subcontracted workers and workers working on their own family farms. Farms in this country rely on subcontractors to provide an estimated 15% or more of their workers. These labour contractors mediate the relationship between the growers and the workers. Therefore, the growers often have no contact with their subcontracted labourers. The growers pay a lump sum to the labour contractors who often manage all issues related to wages, transportation to job sites, and pay deductions.

Up to 40% of farm labourers are migrants that move with the seasons. Farm labourers are also ‘overwhelmingly poor’. These patterns of migration and poverty drive many adult labourers to ask their children to work alongside them. The impact on the child’s education can be significant. In some cases, because of the migration with the seasons, children may leave school in early spring and return in the late fall missing a few months each year. One third of child farm labourers drop out of school altogether.

Both adult and child farm workers are often not paid the minimum wage. In some cases, children are paid less than their adult counterparts, in other cases, a legal loophole provides exception for small farms and farms paying a piece-rate [which encourages unsafe work practices since safety equipment often hampers work speed]. Furthermore, overtime pay is not required for agricultural workers.

This country is not mentioned in the US DoL’s List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor despite the fact that the legal loopholes for farm work create, reinforce and support conditions which are in clear violation of the ILO’s convention for the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labor (no. 182 adopted in 1999). ‘Child’ in this convention is defined as all persons under the age of 18 and the worst forms of child labour includes “work which, by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out, is likely to harm the health, safety, or morals of children (Article 3(d))”. This country was one of the first to ratify this convention and has been very active in promoting and instituting the convention worldwide.

Did I mention that this country is one of the top producers of cotton this year? Most of its cotton is exported to major clothing producers including China [the top destination], Turkey, Mexico, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.

Did you guess where? Watch the video to find out:

The Harvest/La Cosecha – Promotional Trailer from Shine Global on Vimeo.

Shocked? So was I!

For more info, check out the following:

Human Rights Watch: Fields of Peril

A lot of the information in this post is summarized from this report. Thanks to Human Rights Watch for their continuous and unwavering commitment to this issue. This report contains a lot more information that I barely touched upon with enormous detail on the plight of these child farm workers. They also have first hand accounts of the working conditions the children must endure. This report is a must-read if you are interested in learning more about this issue.

Cynthia Castaldo-Walsh’s post on NotGoodEnough.com

This is an excellent overview of the legal loopholes in the Fair Labor Standards Act (1938) which allow for these conditions. She also gives a brief description of changes proposed in the Children’s Act for Responsible Employment. This bill was introduced in 2009 and is still being churned through government machinery. You can track what’s happening with the bill here and here.

Mike Elk’s post on In These Times

This post discusses the proposed revisions to federal law by the Department of Labor to better protect child farm workers. In particular, Elk points out how slow the process has been but he does also draw attention to the next resource in the list.

The Department of Labor’s proposed changes

The DoL’s proposed changes to federal law are up for public comment until November 1st and can be found here.

60 Minutes did a short (11 minute) segment about a family weeding cotton in the Texas plains. I strongly suggest it as a way to draw students into a debate on these issues:

[please keep watching beyond the ad in the first few minutes, I promise it’s worth it!]

The Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs Children in the Fields Campaign

The Harvest/La Cosecha: The Story of the Children Who Feed America

Special thanks to Grist.org for bringing this issue to our attention. It really made us think about our preconceptions. Sometimes, just because something is “American [or Canadian] made” doesn’t necessarily mean it is responsibly made. Growers may be fulfilling their legal obligations, which is part of their responsibility, yet they are under enormous pressure to provide products at low prices giving them incentive to maintain and perpetuate this system of labour. At the same time, we, as consumers, are also part of the problem by constantly demanding low-priced commodities. But, these low prices do not reflect the real costs of production. These issues are very complicated. There is no easy answer. At the end of it all, someone, somewhere along the line still has to pay the real cost in one way or another.

ATTEND // Sustain – Fashion/Textile Tutor Conference, Fashioning an Ethical Industry

“Ethics are on the agenda. Those involved in fashion education need to be teaching the next generation of industry players – fashion students – about the social and environmental impact of the industry so they can find creative and innovative solutions in the fashion industry of the future.” (Fashioning an Ethical Industry)

28th September 2011 – 10.30 – 3.30
Impact Art’s new Eco-chic Shop, 45 High Street, Glasgow

This conference for fashion & textile tutors will feature industry and academic speakers and will provide those involved in fashion education:

with background information to ethics in the industry
ideas and resources for integrating ethics into your teaching practice
opportunities to network and share experience, resources and ideas with other participants

TO BOOK YOUR PLACE, please email: info@fashioninganethicalindustry.org with your full university and contact details.

Source: FEI

Social Alterations

An education lab for responsible fashion