ORGANIC & FAIRTRADE FASHION DOING JUST FINE

Have you been looking over your shoulder wondering if that credit crunch has hit support for eco fashion? Then worry not. Good news comes in two forms from key opinion forming organizations.

A GlobeScan survey on Fairtrade support, commissioned by Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International (FLO) and ahead of celebrations for World Fair Trade Day 2009 on 9 May suggests Fairtrade certified cotton clothing is far from doom and gloom. Among the sample surveyed across fifteen counties, three quarters of shoppers still feel that companies should be going that one step further and ‘actively support community development in developing countries’ with nine out of ten people trusting the labels of the FAIRTRADE Certification Mark or North American Fair Trade Certified™. Despite the economy, 2008 sales overall were on the increase too, from 10% in the US to a whopping 75% in Sweden.

Binod Mohan, Chairman of the Network of Asian Producers and member of the FLO Board says, ‘We in Asia have faith in the consumer and their loyalty to buying Fairtrade products. For the shopper these are staple products; for the farmer in the developing world the purchase of Fairtrade makes a big difference and we know consumers realize this.’

Recent organic market reports from the UK’s Soil Association showed that the sales of organic certified textiles are also softening the blow of the recession. Sales forecasts are suggested to rise three times over by 2012, and sales exceeded a monumental mark of £100 million in 2008, with high street retailers M&S and New Look alone selling 3.4 million organic items.

Wearing the Talk about Ethical Fashion

After graduating from Duke in 2007, Rachel Weeks went to Sri Lanka on a Fulbright Scholarship to pursue her interest in ethical fashion, a subject she explored in her Women’s Studies senior honors thesis, “The Wonder Bra: Theorizing Globalization, Women’s Labor, and Consumption for Twenty-First Century Feminism,” a study of the intersections between fashion and academic feminism. But her interest in the topic wasn’t just academic.

While researching socially responsible apparel manufacturing in Sri Lanka, Rachel founded School House, LLC, a “people friendly” fashion collegiate apparel brand. The Fulbrighter joined forces with fashion designer Colleen McCann over the Internet, and together they are now launching a 54-product collection at a number of U.S. universities—beginning with Duke. School House’s factory partner, JK Apparel, is the first living wage factory initiative in Sri Lanka and is supported directly through the sale of School House products.

Rachel felt the first stirrings of what became School House when she and classmate Haley Hoffman were planning DukePlays: the Party, which the Duke Libraries hosted in February 2007. Rachel said, “…absolutely, the idea definitely came to me as a result of the DukePlays party.”

Working with the theme “tradition never looked so good,” Rachel and Haley mounted an exhibit for the party of iconic Duke images drawn from University Archives and created an array of party favors that also paid tribute to campus life through the decades. Even Rachel’s party dress was inspired by the “tradition” theme. She said,

The reaction to my vintage Duke t-shirt dress from both current students and alumni made me start thinking about the collegiate market and the opportunities there were to improve design, product range, etc. Our “Green House” collection dresses are inspired by that first dress—each one is crafted from “recycled” Duke t-shirts…

Photos by C. Stephen Hurst

The School House line will be introduced at Duke in a trunk show on Reunions Weekend. The trunk show will give fashionistas—and anyone loyal to Duke—an opportunity to learn more about the factory in Sri Lanka and the women who work there and see and buy School House clothes.

'Fair trade is a slow process'

Safia Minney

What is ethical fashion? It's a confusing term. Sometimes it's easier to define by what it isn't – and unfortunately that is most of what can be found on the high street. Unethical fashion means very very little transparency, accountability and knowledge of the supply chain. It means demands of very quick lead times and production turnaround. It means producers played off against each other. It means a wage that doesn't even afford the worker an adequate salary for two meals a day.

In spite of this, I'm a bit sceptical about the term ethical fashion. There's a tendency for people to include brands that are doing small initiatives but haven't necessarily embraced transparency or meeting genuine ethical standards and environment standards across their supply base. A company might be a member of the ETI – the Ethical Trading Initiative – but the ETI really lacks the teeth to ensure clothing for the high street is made in decent working conditions.

At People Tree we position ourselves as a fair trade fashion pioneer brand. I've always wanted to wear fair trade fashion, but when I started work at 17 everything was horrible! I used to buy pieces and try and make them beautiful on my sewing machine but it really was difficult. So I started working with a designer in Tokyo, and gradually built up skills from different women's organisations in Bangladesh, India, Zimbabwe, Nepal and Kenya.

It was when I started trying to produce clothing that was made in a 100% fair trade way that I started asking the question – what is fair trade fairer than? Through working with activists who were looking at labour rights issues for garment factory workers in India, Bangladesh and Nepal, we realized just how awful the working conditions really were. In India at the time child labour was still being used and often environmental pollution was completely undermining the basic human rights of the people who lived in these areas. Consequently we joined the activists in campaigning for change, looking for solutions and to trying to create a voice for those people whose rights were being undermined by the fashion industry.

It's a slow process. We work on building a supply chain through incredibly small disadvantaged groups. These are people with fantastic traditional skills like weaving or block printing, but no access to the market. They deserve that access, and they deserve a living wage. So we give them technical assistance and support to bring their products to the market.

Working in a truly fair trade way means no short turnarounds – it takes a minimum of six months to bring a product from design to market. In mainstream fashion, producers don't get paid until they deliver. Small groups just don't have the financial resources to work like this – and in larger factories the producers will be exploited, working at a lower wage to create the working capital for that particular factory. Paying a fair trade wage means paying half up front, and paying more for the product itself.

Fair trade production isn't easy. The biggest problem is cash flow – although we're held up as a very successful model it took us eight years to break even in Japan and we haven't yet in Britain. Because we make advance payments there is a huge financial burden on the company, and despite lots of talk, there just isn't yet the 'patient capital' (investors looking for a long-term return - both morally and financially) to invest in companies like People Tree. The technical assistance and training we provide is also a financial burden. It's an integral part of what we do, but we have to pay those people a salary!

One of our proudest projects is Swallows in North Bangladesh. This is a women's group of 200 artisans ranging from weavers to tailors. The last 18 months have seen an increase in their incomes by 50% due to expanded product development and design using their traditional skills. We've taken them to visit other tailoring units and even bought some of their producers over to the UK to meet customers. In rural Bangladesh it's hard for people to understand fully what the average 32 year old in London wants to wear, how she lives. They've learned why fitted clothes are important, and seen how fashion retail looks in London – quite different, obviously, to Bangladesh.

It has given them the tools to really become part of the fashion industry and to feel that they are very much in control of the traditional process. That is what's really important.

Lindsay Lohan's ethical fashion shoot

Lindsay Lohan has posed in a selection of vintage clothing, in her new role fronting ethical fashion campaign Visa Swap.

Making quite a departure from her previous advertising shoots for high-end designers such as Miu Miu and Donna Karan, Lohan only wore second-hand clothing during the shoot, proving you don't have to spend a fortune to look stylish.

Commenting on her appointment, the Mean Girls star said, 'The concept of swapping clothes, getting something for nothing and refreshing your wardrobe appeals to everyone. Ethical stories continue to dominate the news agenda and it's great when fashion projects benefit charities.'

The event takes place this month in London's Covent Garden, and encourages shoppers to swap unwanted clothing. It is in association with clothing charity TRAID.

The Future of Fashion is Ethical

Over the course of the last year or so, I’ve noticed an increasing amount of advertising that touts fashion apparel as organic; moving forward, it will also be "ethical." By definition, ethical fashion is "fashion that has been made, worn and passed on in a way that looks after people, animals, and the environment."

And it seems that there are several big names out there that are championing the cause. BBC is one of them, recently rolling out an online ethical fashion magazine titled "Thread." Being produced by BBC Learning, the online magazine is aimed at the 16 to 30 year-old crowd, because, as designer Katherine Hemnett cites, "young people are really interested in these issues."

What exactly qualifies as an "ethical fashion" issue? Everything from the environmental footprint created by clothing manufacturing and the impact of the fashion industry on human and animal rights to educating shoppers on why choosing ethical and organic makes a difference in the world’s future.

And of course, the celebrity crowd is already on the bandwagon too with supporters like Scarlett Johansson, Brad Pitt, and actress Lindsay Lohan who is reportedly collaborating with Visa to sing the praises of ethical fashion. In addition, the team will be launching a campaign that will give people an incentive for turning in unwanted designer fashions - the idea being that they can then go shopping for new, "ethical" fashion.

Speaking of shopping for ethical fashion, it does come with a sizable price tag in most cases. After all, we’re not talking about clothing that’s being pounded out by factory workers stuck under sewing machines for 14-hours a day, seven days a week. However, if you’re socially conscious, you’re probably going to be willing to open your wallet for it.

And it you need a little push in the right direction, even after watching the videos and reading about deplorable working conditions that are written about over at Thread, you can always shop offline at Oxfam.

The charity group, has just launched its first high-fashion boutique in Westbourne Grove, London to coincide with World Fair Trade Day. Selling a range of second hand designer items such as Prada and Gucci at bargain prices, it makes ethical fashion shopping easy on your budget.

Whether you’re in London or not, be sure to take advantage of BBC’s online fashion magazine. The site promises to "show you how to get the look you want in an eco-glam way through a unique mix of affordable fashion, exclusive videos, photo galleries, and thought-provoking features."

courtesy www.fashion-fox.com

Ready To Wear: Ethical Fashion?

Fashion, we all know, is about rather more than just frocks. With this in mind, the strange juxtaposition of two events in the British capital last Thursday provided food for thought. On the one hand, a substantial part of London's Victoria was cordoned off to allow the hugely privileged creature that is the core Chanel customer to attend that label's first ever fashion show in this country without having to rub shoulders with anything so unsightly as a member of the general public, say. On the other, outside branches of Topshop countrywide, War On Want were encouraging students - probably that high street institution's core customer - to protest against what it describes as the store's "exploitation of workers" in the developing world. "The 1.2 billion dividend for Sir Philip Green, who owns UK retailer Topshop, was enough to double the salaries of Cambodia's whole garment workforce for eight years," read a press release issued by that pressure group.

Of course, the Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld, today the grandest couturier still practising his craft, is unlikely ever to be strapped for cash. His income too would presumably keep a large proportion of the developing world in a manner to which it is not accustomed. Having said that, the more obviously elitist concern is, debatably, more politically correct than the democratic one, particularly in this instance.

Lagerfeld was in London, of course, putting on his annual Maisons d'Art collection, an event specifically designed to show-case the work of the atelier which provide the finest hand-crafted embellishment to all the great names, the embroiderer Lesage, the boot maker Massaro and the feather specialist Lemarie among them. Chanel has what might best be described as a special relationship with these workshops, having bought them outright five years ago now in order to preserve them not to mention the strictly unionised jobs of the skilled craftspeople involved, at least some of whom supplied the late Coco herself.

More broadly, for those bored of the rapacious pace of even the designer fashion industry today, investing in Chanel may be a shrewd move. As the unprecedented number of extraordinarily well-dressed clients at last week's presentation went to prove the label remains quintessentially chic, classically elegant and may be adapted to suit extremely diverse tastes, ages and body sizes.

There must be a downside, surely? But of course. Chanel, by almost any standards, is hugely expensive and there are therefore only very few who can reasonably consider buying it. A single piece from this great Gallic institution may be more precious than an entire high street collection, however. The rest of the world might have to make do with less rarefied designs but that doesn't mean we can't dream or indeed be mindful that these also come at a price.

Ethical Wedding; I do: Tying the knot is getting greener

Economic woes may be causing the appetite for expensive white weddings to crash, but at least one form of wedding is blossoming: the green variety. In tune with a thriftier climate, today sees the doors open on the UK's first major wedding show dedicated to brides and grooms wanting to minimise the environmental impact of their big day, and is just one sign of the rising trend.

Billed as the Eco Chic Wedding & Home Show, the event in Birmingham follows a flurry of new books, suppliers and gift lists on the subject of green unions amid reports from churches and wedding planners of a growing interest in the concept.

Though there is no hard and fast definition of a green wedding, typical conscientious celebrations include a focus on low carbon transport — horse-pulled wagons to gas-powered Bentleys — and local produce — organic beers to British cider.

"A green wedding is one that truly reflects the values of the couple by being conscious of consumption — from the venue to the dress and the reception decorations — and being aware of your carbon footprint," said Rosie Ames, the founder of Green Union, a website that puts couples in contact with sustainably minded suppliers.

"The British public are becoming more environmentally conscious, so it makes sense that this awareness will trickle down to all areas of their life including their wedding day," said Kate Haines, the show's organiser.

Wedding venues have noticed the trend. The Church of England, which is running a two-year project to make its churches more enticing for weddings, reported that it has begun receiving requests for couples wanting a sustainable special day. One such couple was Jessica Randall and Joseph Carrick, who held their wedding in St. George's Church, London, to enable guests to travel via public transport. "We also honeymooned in the UK to reduce our carbon footprint and had a gift list with Oxfam Unwrapped," added Randall.

Organisers behind the National Wedding Show, the UK's biggest wedding event, said they had seen a move towards "ethical" gift lists akin to the advent of goats for Africa and other philanthropic gifts at Christmas. Charities including Cancer Research UK, Oxfam and NSPCC all exhibited for the first time at its Olympia show last month .

The past year has even seen four books published on the subject. "Almost every wedding magazine has had a green feature this season but, unlike previous years, it has lost its alternative 'druid' factor. It's now seen as very in vogue to have organic champagne," said Jen Marsden, author of the Green Guide to Weddings.

Websites catering for the rising interest have also enjoyed a boost in traffic, with the Ethical Weddings site reporting a six-fold increase in traffic between January 2007 and January 2009. An online poll by You And Your Wedding magazine suggested 22.6% of 745 respondents thought about green issues when planning their wedding.

With the credit crunch biting and the average cost of a wedding hovering just under £20,000, according to Confetti.co.uk, there are also signs that more newlyweds are opting for UK honeymoons. The eco travel site Responsibletravel.com said it experienced a 144% increase between 2007 and 2008 for honeymoons in the UK, a trend it attributed to cost-cutting and avoiding the carbon footprint created by traditional long-haul destinations.

But not everyone is convinced couples are always putting sustainability first in their planning. "I've noticed over the past two years that clients are asking about the provenance of food, questions such as: where do you source your meat and cheese?" said Kelly Chandler, a wedding planner for the Bespoke Wedding Company. "But it seems more out of curiosity and a desire for a 'feel-good' factor, because it hasn't ever been a deal-breaker when venues aren't sourcing locally."

The terms "green wedding" and "ethical wedding" appear to have originated in the UK. Data from Google's Insights for Search service shows that searches for "green wedding ideas" have mushroomed by over 5000% in the past five years, with the UK outstripping the US and Australia by a wide margin for queries on the subject.

Perhaps the surest sign green weddings are going mainstream is that TV companies are sniffing around green weddings. Dragon's Den researchers are reportedly scouting the Eco Chic Wedding & Homes Show today looking for exhibitors to go head-to-head with Peter Jones and company.