London College of Fashion and Fur

Someone asked London College of Fashion if they had a policy about the use of fur. There was no direct reply, so this one from veganline will do.

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ethics_4#comment-41586

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/body/univ... is the new contact page and London College of Fashion aren't great at admin jobs like forwarding an old email address to a new one.

I can answer the question on their behalf.

Ethics are an important part of the PR training which is taught at the college and practiced by some government-funded offices based in its buildings. The trick is to say "Ethical" at the beginning of the sentence, so that everyone things you mean their particular ethic, and then come-up with a really vague ethic like "sustainable" in the next breath, and only to talk about that. There has been great success in using this technique to increase help for sponsors in the fur trade, which you can read about here:

http://ecocred.me/2012/10/25/fur-fashion...

One of the groups based in our buildings - Own-it - has hosted a lecture featuring a young fur trade designer and how she managed to manufacture her designs out of dead animal fur in China without threat of copy write infringement, or prosecution from a UK manufacturers who she paid late. You can read more about her work on the own-it link below. The East Meets West lecture co-incided with another LCF project, Creative Connexions, and their lectures such as "Making it Ethically in China"; you can see that we do not just undermine the ethic of boycotting fur, but do so as a broader effort to undermine the ethics of a range of people.

http://www.own-it.org/knowledge/east-mee...

Some of our work is done in conjunction with other agencies. In the words of Ed Gillespie at Futerra Communications [footnote 1], ethical messages have to be about "agency", or what to do, "infrastructure", or how to do it, and "Social factors: We are communal, communicative animals at heart and what other people are doing around us really matters. There are multiple unconscious, subconscious and intuitive influences that affect our behaviours all the time. We instinctively mirror and echo the behaviour of others – what psychologists call 'social proof'."

Other agencies with overlapping staff or buildings are Own-it, an agency offering designers help with IP, Centre for Sustainable Fashion, which among other things offers admin. support (possibly public funded) to the All Party Group on Ethics and Sustainability in Fashion. A broader grouping is based at Rich Mix in London, and formally made up of two companies, Ethical Fashion Consultancy Ltd and Ethical Fashion Forum Ltd. You can read their lists of directors on Duedil.com [footnote 3]. The Ethical Fashion Forum web site lists Centre for Sustainable Fashion among its partners' pool (alongside Futerra Communications), and staff of Centre for Sustainable Fashion have organised government grants for projects managed by Ethical Fashion Forum. The forum (which is a web forum, not a democratic organisation) is often quoted in the media and so presumably has helped exclude more clear and less sanitised ethics from being reported. Another partner agency of Ethical Fashion Forum is Estethica at London Fashion Week, which has helped get Chinese Leather shoes reported as "ethical". Estethica and London Fashion Week are connected to a fashion colleges council, of which London College of Fashion plays a part.

It is hard to comment clearly on exactly who uses what money to influence reporting and production of fur products, given the network of agency names and people involved, some of them spending specific pieces of government grant money, possibly paid separately from the Higher Education Funding Council or Defra, and some of them presumably working on London College of Fashion salaries or using offices in the buildings. We also influence other colleges through Centre for Sustainability in Fashion by writing course materials and text books.[footnote 4]

I will attempt to illustrate the position with an example of a broad group of people, who appear influential, and who's position can be manipulated and made to appear disinterested in fur and animal cruelty, or UK manufacturing, or the need for a welfare state in Bangladesh, or democracy in China.

One of our staff have "been instrumental in setting up an All Party Parliamentary Group in the UK focusing on addressing issues related to sustainability and ethics in fashion", according to our web site.

The All Party Group has one member from the Lords who refused to wear an fur-topped robe and mentioned People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in her speeches [footnote 5]. There is no way that the chair of the committee could be unaware or unable to report on other ethics. She chooses not to. Her speeches suggest quite another consensus - the "social proof" mentioned by Futerra Communications (who happen to be members of Ethical Fashion Forum's partners' list) - in her speech a few weeks later to the Ethical Fashion Forum.
You can read excepts from her opening speech to a lords debate here, with annotations:
https://www.facebook.com/planB4fashion/p... (titled "you are invited to a master class in fashion PR]. You can read another of her speeches, given a few months later to a trade association, below and see how well she did at avoiding specific ethical choices like the use of fur.

I hope this gives you some background to London College of Fashion's ethical position on fur.

As for your specific questions

"Do you have an ethical policy in place? If yes, can be accessible?"
There will be a corporate document somewhere on ethics but we probably photocopied one from our bank and anyway it would have to take the detailed points above into account, so it won't say anything much.

"Do your college use fur on your courses? If yes, would you please state of which animals?"
It depends who is willing to sponsor us. Also, our courses have bad reviews and a relatively small amount of staff support, so I imagine that students drop-out. If the previous crop of students left-over some fur, all the better.

"Do you use products not tested on animals on your "cosmetics" courses?"
That's a technical question and, although we are a technical college, we don't have a track record of detail; we closed most of our technical courses down and assume that the cosmetics are made in China where they can write what they like on the label without anyone finding them out.

If you have any other questions about the work of London College of Fashion or its courses, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

PlanB4fashion
https://facebook.com/planB4fashion
answering in the absence of comment from London College of Fashion

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Footnote 1: Ed Gillespie at Futerra Communications gives fashion PR advice
http://www.pimpmycause.org/content/infor...

Footnote 2: "Since meeting in 2009, the CSF and Baroness Young quickly established a rapport of shared goals and energy focusing on the promotion of ethical fashion at a parliamentary level. The All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Ethical Fashion held its preliminary meeting in 2009 and we were proud to be announced as the secretariat. We will continue to develop activities for the APPG in 2010, bringing together a mix of industry innovators and politicians to further debate the issues."

Footnote 3: Ethical Fashion Consultancy Ltd & Ethical Fashion Forum Ltd directors
https://www.duedil.com/company/05916585/...
https://www.duedil.com/company/05906505/...

Footnote 4: "We have worked with the Higher Education Academy since 2008, when we were commissioned to research and write the report Volume 4.0: Green Collar Graduates for the Fashion Industry. We are currently delivering a further project for the HEA for Art, Design and Media under the theme of education for sustainable development, working with three undergraduate courses at London College of Fashion to develop toolkits for teaching sustainability in fashion."

Footnote 5: Baroness Young of Hornsey could not have helped hearing of other ethics -
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/lords/?gid... straightforward uncontroversial speech from Baroness Parminter [http://www.theyworkforyou.com/peer/baron..., fellow member of the all party group, speaking at its motion debate on 19th of March 2013

Link to this

John Robertson left an annotation (28 July 2013)

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/lords/?id=... - There was another debate on ethical fashion in the lords, before their lordships were coached in what to say and it was more interesting. Lord Suger suggested incubator factories set-up in empty space with an emphasis on training.

Baroness young mentioned fur!

I haven't worked-out how to find-out whether government ministers and ministries did anything in response to any of the speeches.

Link to this

John Robertson left an annotation (10 August 2013)

https://facebook.com/planB4fashion -

This is a blog that about the fashion punditry industry, including London College of Fashion's role in a thing called Graduate Fashion Week which charges shopkeepers to attend rather than inviting them to attend. So quite likely, a LCF student would be permitted or encouraged to use fur, but not find any punters to sell it to after graduating. Graduate Fashion Week combines some degree show work from these colleges, although I know deMontford Uni also runs its own in Leicester and the others may have their own as well.

Arts University College at Bournemouth
Bath Spa University
Birmingham City University
Bradford College
Carmartthenshire College
Cleveland College of Art and Design
Colchester School of Art
De Montfort University
Edinburgh College of Art
EsMod Berlin
Istituto Marangoni
Kingston University
Limerick School of Art and Design
Leeds College of Art
Liverpool John Moores University
Manchester Metropolitan University
Middlesex University
Northbrooke College Sussex
Northampton University
Northumbria University
Norwich University of the Arts
Nottingham Trent University - School of Art
Plymouth College of Art
Ravensbourne
Southampton Solent University
University of Sunderland
University for the Creative Arts, Epsom
University of Central Lancashire
University of Derby
University of East London
University of Huddersfiled
University of Leeds
University of Lincoln
University of Salford
University for the Creative Arts, Rochester
University of Wales, Newport
University of West England
University of West London
University of Westminster
Wiltshire College Salisbury
Winchester School of Art

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more specific ethics

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/lords/?gid=2013-03-19a.561.0 This lord notes specific ethics - not just the trick of saying "ethical / sustainable" to avoid mentioning cruelty-free fashion, fairtrade, or made in the UK. She welcomes "the commitments from the Business Secretary in support of the UK textile manufacturing industry [...] to future-proof the industry and to support sustainable and ethical fashion." So lords can say this, but Lola Young had nothing about UK manufacturing or very specific ethics in her opening speech nor in her speech to Ethical Fashion Source Summit a month or two later: none of the 2,000 words of it were about UK manufacturing.

Why does one lord in the all party group for ethical and sustainable fashion talk more sense than another?

Why does the first Lord go-along with the idea of Esthetica which has taken taxpayers' money to promote Chinese leather shoes?

Baroness Parminter 7:45 pm, 19th March 2013

My Lords, on entering this House in 2010 I wore fur-free "non-ermine ermine". However, I am not just passionate about cruelty-free fashion, so I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Young, for securing this debate and for chairing with such pizzazz the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Ethics and Sustainability in Fashion, of which I am proud to be an officer.

Sustainability, green, eco, organic and ethical are increasingly a part of the fashion conversation. That is to be welcomed although I am not sure everyone has the same view of sustainable fashion. Is it a timeless, classic handbag I can pass on to my daughter-the opposite of the cheap, disposal fashion epitomised by Primark? Is it a dress made from locally sourced materials, with limited transport and a light carbon footprint, or is it a Fairtrade cotton t-shirt produced in a factory where the needs of employees are taken into account?

The London College of Fashion defines "sustainable" as "harnessing resources ethically and responsibly without destroying social and ecological balance".

I like that definition; it does not go so far as to pin it down but allows the creativity of individuals to flourish as they interpret what it could mean for their business. As the impacts of climate change hit harder, with resource constraints and more severe weather, we need the clothing industry to develop the necessary resilience to satisfy the colossal appetite for clothing sustainably. The commitments from the Business Secretary in support of the UK textile manufacturing industry are very welcome but more needs to be done to future-proof the industry and to support sustainable and ethical fashion.

Sadly, 20 years after the first child labour and labour standards scandals in our high street fashion chains, we still face the same problems. Clearly, current audit approaches are failing. They rely too much on cheap, bribable inspectors. It is analogous with food supply chain issues, reflecting huge pressures to reduce costs combined with an "unlikely to be found out so don't worry" mentality. Some companies are trying hard to address these issues. One is BBC Worldwide, which refuses to rely on third-party certification and makes its own unannounced checks of its suppliers, has credible and enforced sanctions and promotes its speak-up line to managers and workers in supplying factories.

However, spot checks alone will not address all issues. The fires in a number of Bangladesh factories just before Christmas highlight a problem of ethical culture. During the audits the fire doors were open but when the fires happened they were locked. We need companies such as the GoodCorporation, which argues powerfully to encourage debate about ethics and culture in factories, to move away from blame, to push managers and to take more responsibility for standards.

We also need more opportunities to showcase best practice, such as the Estethica at London Fashion Week and the RSPCA's Good Business Awards, which have supported the development of animal-friendly clothing policies. Can the Minister say what plans the Government have to address this and to help give companies advice and support as they develop the standards to take on the ethical and sustainability issues, and to provide more platforms to share best practice?

We need also to focus on clothing, from creation right through to disposal. With around £140 million-worth of used clothing going to landfill each year, we urgently need to address the issue of reuse, exchange and disposal of clothes. I was therefore very pleased to see that the Government's consultation on waste prevention, launched last week, identifies clothing as one of the priority areas for action. We have come a long way with compassionate fashion, largely thanks to powerful campaigning by organisations such as PETA. Opinion polls show that 95% of Britons would never wear real fur and top designers including Vivienne Westwood, Ralph Lauren and Stella McCartney leave fur out of their designs. Even on the high street, icons such as Topshop, H&M and New Look are fur and exotic-free.
Green is not the new black; it is not just another trend to come in and go out with the seasons. I applaud the work of the all-party group with partners in industry and government to develop a new space for fashion which respects the need for social and ecological balance and can help create more British jobs.

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transcribed from Whatdotheyknow and Hansard by Veganline.com for vegan shoes online

You are invited to a masterclass in fashion PR for big business

1. TACTIC ONE:
   Say the meaningless "ethical" word and then the quite vague "sustainable" word very quickly afterwards. That way you sound agreeable but can avoid talking about organic, vegan, or fairtrade fashion, and if you want you can avoid talking about the politics of China or Bangladesh and importing goods from those countries on a 0% tariff. Example:
   "I am particularly grateful to colleagues on the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Ethics and Sustainability in Fashion for their hard work".
2. TACTIC TWO
   Pretend that all apparel manufacturing is done in the third world, so that you can compare conditions between one bad place and another rather than with conditions in the UK and other democratic countries with welfare states and good human rights records. This rules-out any mention of local jobs being lost as clothes are imported from China, and makes discussion of whether a welfare state paid for by garment factories seem rather distant and irrelevant.
   "Fashion today is both global and local, and even much of the produce of many of our high-profile "heritage" British brands, such as Burberry, Aquascutum and Crombie, is often all or mostly made outside the UK. The global nature of the fashion industry means that it is imperative that we work with colleagues internationally"
3. TACTIC THREE
   Make up some figures suggesting that the fashion import company which runs a chain-store and imports the clothes is the real beneficiary to the UK economy, helping money circulate right around the UK to create jobs growth and taxes.
   "Despite the high level of garment manufacture carried out overseas, the estimated value of UK-manufactured clothing and textiles in the UK was £8.1 billion in 2011, and the overall estimated export value of UK clothing and textiles was £7.3 billion" (source probably The Value of Fashion report commissioned by British Fashion Council from Oxford Economics)
4. TACTIC FOUR IS VERY SIMILAR TO TACTIC ONE
   Start talking about UK manufacturing very broadly, without mentioning recession, jobs, defecit between tax and spending, poverty, voters, food-banks, factory closures, and then suddenly introduce ethics-sorry-I-meant-other-issues and divert discussion to the other issues. So fashion is "within the BIS [Department for Business] agenda because of the manufacturing element [...] in November last year, Business Secretary Vince Cable promised government support to breathe new life into UK textile manufacturing as a study revealed that the cost gap with Asia is narrowing. Can the Minister tell the House how far such plans have gone and the extent to which sustainability and ethics in fashion is a priority consideration?"
5. TACTIC FIVE:
   Try to get another department to handle fashion than the Department for Business. Defra will do.
   "Will the Minister undertake to set up a meeting with me and other Members of both Houses on the APPG to discuss how we can best help to support the development of this part of the fashion sector? We need to get a commitment to develop practical, effective strategies across the different departments for realising the potential of rethinking how we "do" fashion. Because of its experience with the Sustainable Clothing Action Plan, Defra is perfectly placed to broker and animate the necessary discussions."
    
6. AND FINALLY A MESSAGE FROM...
   "the British Fashion Council's Esthetica Showcase at London Fashion Week", sponsored by Monsoon. So if their lordships think that debating is dull and irrelevant to anything, it sounds as though real people believe all this stuff. Ask anyone about Esthetica Showcase sponsored by Monsoon, and maybe thay'll say "you politicians aren't popular, but now I know that you're helping Esthetica Showcase sponsored by Monsoon instead of talking about tax and jobs and the welfare state, I know you're one of the good ones". (made-up quote).

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planB4fashion In their words:"SOURCE MASTERCLASS: Communicating Sustainability
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planB4fashion
Inquiry into All Party Groups - News from Parliament
The new Committee on Standards launches an inquiry...
http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/standards/news/inquiry-into-all-party-groups/ unfortunately I missed the deadline for trying to think of something to say about all party committees. I don't know what I would have said. Volunteer juries to monitor videos and report what they believe to be claptrap?

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The Ethics and Sustainability in Fashion all party group

House of Commons - Register Of All-Party Groups as at 24 July 2013: Ethics and Sustainability in Fashionhttp://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmallparty/register/ethics-and-sustainability-in-fashion.htmTo work with the fashion industry to: develop political solutions that address issues such as the environmental impact of excessive consumption; assess what the key issues are… Centre for Sustainable Fashion, part of the London College of Fashion, acts as the group’s secretariat, with assistance from Made-By.

Two odd things.

First, the group has no obvious funding but it does have a treasurer. They do not have to declare their accounts and I know of no public accounts for them.

Second, the group reads a script very similar to that put-out by Futerra Communications. They tried taking an independant line when first set-up, with a speech put together from the House of Lords Library, but then they had a second westminster hall debate making speeches in the more usual format. The one that slithers from the vague word "ethical" to the pale word "sustainable" while you're not looking; the one that answers its own question "what is ethical fashion?", and the one that hasn't heard of a welfare state as a way of reducing poverty, and the one that pretends manufacturing is impossible in the UK and that instead we taxpayers benefit hugely from the chains of expensive shops with all their warehousing and PR that we all enjoy in our shopping centres.

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Planb4fashion is a blog by Veganline.com which is a vegan shoe shop