Author Archives: Mary Hanlon

Wage Ladder, new online tool benchmarks living wages for garment workers

The Fairwear Foundation (FWF) has just launched Wage Ladder, an online tool and resource to assist brands, factories, trade unions and NGOs in their efforts as they work towards establishing and mainstreaming living wages for garment workers.

What exactly is a ‘living wage’? Click here to learn about recent developments on a living wage  from Nadira Lamrad.

Wage Ladder is currently programmed with data from Bangladesh, Bulgaria, China, India, Macedonia, Portugal, Romania, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine and Vietnam, but for all other countries, users may enter their own data into the system.

“While global garment supply chains generate enormous wealth, improving wages, has proven a challenge. Progress has stalled in discussions about what, exactly, constitutes a living wage. Sidestepping these discussions, FWF has developed a web-based tool that will help garment brands and factories to gradually improve workers’ wages.” (FWF)

Here’s a screenshot of Wage Ladder in action taken from the FWF Wage Ladder User Guide:

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 to comment upon the transient and disposable nature of fashion.” (CSF) Click here to view the entire series of performances.

“Lara Torres present’s the recordings/documentation of seven performances in a video screening. These videos are based in the creation of temporary clothes that are produced with the aim of being destroyed. They refer to the los[s] of the object and the documentation of this loss. The action of effacing the clothes leaves a trace (the seams) translating a strong relation with memory and forgetfulness.” (Lara Torres, An impossible wardrobe for the invisible: vimeo)


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ThinkLifecycle, by Alice Payne, is “a widely applicable content management system joining new and existing industry practices in order for companies to evolve towards a sustainable fashion industry.” (CSF)

“The ThinkLifecycle CMS grew from the need for sustainability to be a central concern within the mass market design process, rather than a tacked-on extra. Mass market fashion is affordable, accessible and democratic. However, it is based on a linear model of production where resources are extracted en masse, manufactured into garments and then sold to consumers, who rapidly dispose of them to purchase new product.” (ThinkLifecycle)

 

Congratulations to all the winners, finalists, organizers and participants!

 

Source: the CSF

Photo Credit: Alex Maguire, via the CSF

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.

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 

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 pillars:

  1. Taking a collaborative approach
  2. Worker organizing and freedom of association
  3. Examining commercial factors paying the cost
  4. 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.

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

LEARN // We Day introduces new teacher resources for pre-16 learners

Just in time for the new school year, Free the Children has launched an updated We Day website, showcasing their lesson plans for elementary and secondary school educators and learners.

Topics include the Millennium Development Goals, children’s rights, clean water, hunger, education and community mapping, among others.

This is what it’s all about—empowering educators to empower learners. Although the lessons and activities are not published through the Creative Commons, they are downloadable for free in PDF.

Here are some videos on child labour and globalization, presented by Dr. Jonathan White, Professor of Sociology and Political Economy at Bridgewater State University:

Will your students be participating in We Day this year? If not, these lessons will surely inspire them to want to get involved.

IMG cancels runway of Gulnara Karimova, daughter of tyrannical Uzbeck dictator

IMG has moved to cancel the September 15th runway show of Gulnara Karimova. What’s the big deal? Only that Karimova is the daughter of Islam Karimov…the President of Uzbekistan.

“Gulnara Karimova is a senior government official and daughter of strongman Islam Karimov whose regime is widely criticized for its brutal violations of human rights and for sponsoring forced child labor in the country’s cotton fields.” (International Labor Rights Forum, Press Release)

We’d like to thank the International Labor Rights Forum and others for taking swift action. In the very least, it may have drawn some much needed attention to the situation in Uzbekistan.

You can take action by rallying along side activists on September 15th from 11am to 1pm ET at Lincoln Center for a mock fashion show, illustrating the true face of Uzbek fashion. Join there Facebook page, here.

What a nightmare!

LEARN //Social Alterations / A Closer Look / Uzbekistan