MADE-BY is celebrating 5 years by partnering with ethical fashion company EDUN for a design competition. The contest will run in October, with the winning design (presented December 16th) will have created a limited edition T-shirt, sold online and through selected retailers throughout Europe. Partial proceeds will be donated to the Conservation Cotton Initiative (CCI), an initiative dedicated to helping farmers in Africa make the move away from conventional cotton, and toward pesticide-free organic cultivation.
Title: Sustainable Fashion Forum Location: Hong Kong Link out: Click here Description:
“Sustainable Fashion Forum (SFF) is an interactive half-day event for the fashion industry to come together and discuss a like-minded concern: The Sustainability of Fashion. The forum will address issues such as ethical sourcing, eco-friendliness, moving beyond green washing, what best practice means today, profitability and innovation.”
The Sustainable Fashion Forum is supported by Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production (WRAP).
Session 1: What is Sustainable Fashion?
Session 2: Is Sustainable Fashion Profitable?
Session 3: Who is Sustainable Fashion?
For more information on sessions and panellists, and to register online, click here.
Fashioning an Ethical Industry International Conference: Fast Forward will take place on the 2nd and 3rd March 2010. It will bring together educators, industry experts, academics and selected students to explore how fashion can be taught to inspire responsibility for the rights of the workers making our clothes.
Alongside our set programme of speakers with expertise in the industry, we will provide the opportunity for the presentation of academic research papers and for students to present their project or dissertation work at the conference.
Academic/Research Papers Papers are welcomed that address the following or related themes:
Social responsibility in the garment industry (with an emphasis on garment workers’ rights)
Teaching ethics within fashion education
Approaches to education for sustainable development relevant to fashion education
Students are invited to apply for the opportunity to showcase their project, design or dissertation work which addresses social responsibility in the garment industry. If you are a tutor please encourage your students to make a submission.
Academics and students interested in participating in this event should submit an abstract by 30th October 2009 of 500‐700 words to liz _at_ fashioninganethicalindustry.org (replace _at_ with@). For more information on submitting papers please see the attached PDF.
Thanks to Ethical Style for letting us know about Canadian designer Tal Dehtiar’s new shoe line, Oliberté. Oliberté claims to be the first footwear company to make urban shoes exclusively in Africa – based on Fairtrade principles. The shoes are made from locally sourced materials (leather and rubber) in West Africa (starting in January). Speaking on the issue of poverty in the continent, Dehtiar argues that “the only real way to alleviate poverty on this beautiful continent is to build a middle class that includes fair paying jobs.”
It will be interesting to see how this line develops. As of yet, there are no real details on the Fairtrade and/or environmental nature of its supply chain (i.e. wages or factory conditions- tanning leather is often associated with pretty nasty chemicals, as well as the harsh glues that may be used in assembly, etc.), as the company is not yet certified Fairtrade. I expect that more information on production will be made available on the website soon: Treehugger has reported that “[t]he company is working in partnership with factories to improve their environmental footprint. As they say: ‘we still have a long way to go, but we will continue to do all we can improve our materials, our production and our shoes.’ Oliberte will be supporting local training in the communities where they work.” Treehugger also reports that Oliberté is “consulting with the tanneries to meet environmental standards.” Thus, stay tuned for updates from this Canadian company.
One urban footwear company that has seemingly managed to maintain it’s foothold in Fairtrade manufacturing is Veja.
If you aren’t already familiar with Veja, be sure to check them out straight away. Asking the question “Is another world possible?” Veja uses and supports wild latex production in the Amazonia to fight against deforestation:
Veja soles are made of natural latex coming straight from the Amazon Forest in the Chico Mendes reserve. The Amazon is the only place on earth where wild rubber trees are to be found […] Their activity, which does not require putting down any tree, is a great way to preserve the world’s largest forest. Natural rubber is renewable and biodegradable, as opposed to synthetic rubber or plastic, which is produced by using fossil and non-renewable materials.
Veja also uses organic cotton, supports family agriculture and local cooperatives and uses ecological leather rather than chrome tanned leather (Veja has defined ecological leather as “chrome-free leather tanned with organic compounds only”). For more up-to date information on the happenings over at Veja, be sure to follow their blog.
Sidebar: Veja has just launched its first line of ethical bags, four years after introducing its trainers.
About these bags: organic cotton and leather tanned without chromium.
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.
“See” you in the Forum! Oh…and don’t forget to pick up your Social Alterations Badge!
The International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition was August 23rd. To mark the occasion, the ILO (International Labour Organization) has launched a new book on forced labour, titled “Forced labor: Coercion and exploitation in the private economy.”
You can download the book’s Executive Summary in English, Spanish or French, here.
More than 200 years after a slave rebellion in the Caribbean sparked a movement that eventually led to the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade, an estimated 12 million people around the world still work under coercion in forced labour, slavery and slavery-like practices. The ILO Special Action Programme to Combat Forced Labour is marking the annual International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition on August 23 with the release of a new, comprehensive series of case studies and policy recommendations on forced labour and modern slavery in the world today.
The book titled Forced labour: Coercion and exploitation in the private economy1 is based on more than six years of research and features case studies from Latin America, South Asia, Africa and Europe. It expands on the conclusions of the ILO Global Report on forced labour, entitled “The Cost of Coercion” published in May 2009, offering in-depth knowledge about deceptive recruitment systems, debt bondage and other forms of coercion, as well as fresh perspectives on law, policy and statistics.
1ISBN 978-92-2-122681-9, a co-publication by the ILO and Lynne Rienner.
How can education foster sustainable change toward socially responsible fashion and apparel design and manufacturing practices?
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.
Ethics have a high profile in the fashion industry today. Are you equipped, as a tutor or student, with the knowledge and skills to engage with these issues?
Fashioning an Ethical Industry (FEI) runs staff training and student workshops at schools, colleges and universities on themes related to working conditions in garment manufacture. Through our training events we encourage staff and students to critically examine different perspectives on workers’ rights and initiatives to improve conditions.
FEI training combines our extensive knowledge with a participatory educational approach, building on participants’ existing knowledge and experience and using a range of activities and different media such as films, role-play and presentations.
A new report out of the National Labor Committee today cites multiple human rights violations at the Muse Textile Ltd. garment factory in Al Hassan Industrial City, Irbid, Jordan.
Human Trafficking
Primitive Dorm Conditions
Substandard Food
Forced Overtime and Seven-Day Work Weeks
A Failure to Communicate
Check out the full report, as well as the Ministry of Labor Report from July 19th. These workers still have 11 months left on their contract. The NLC is calling for the factory to be brought up to international standards and Jordanian law of compliance immediately.
Oxfam Hong Kong has just launched a new guidebook for the garment industry titled Good Fashion: A Guide to Being an Ethical Clothing Company.
Although they encourage the use of the guidebook for educational use, as well as for research, advocacy and campaign purposes, be sure to notify them if you are going to use the guidebook so that they may assess its impact.
“As an active promoter of corporate social responsibility (CSR), Oxfam Hong Kong launches the first corporate social responsibility guidebook: Good Fashion: A Guide to Being an Ethical Clothing Company today. Good Fashion targets to support the garment sector in Hong Kong to further develop and implement CSR policy. In producing Good Fashion, Oxfam aims to raise awareness within the business sector on the importance of CSR and to encourage them to put CSR principles into practice.
The 71-page Good Fashion, which is divided into four sections, is a comprehensive guidebook containing practical tips for implementing CSR throughout the production process, such as merchandising and manufacturing. Good Fashion also includes CSR insights from various stakeholders, including workers, community organisations, union representatives, and other groups. Online resources and a simple checklist are also included for companies’ reference.”
You can download the full report in English (PDF) here.
The International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition was August 23rd. To mark the occasion, the ILO (International Labour Organization) has launched a new book on forced labour, titled “Forced labor: Coercion and exploitation in the private economy.”
