Showing posts with label Centre for Sustainable Fashion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Centre for Sustainable Fashion. Show all posts

Sunday, 13 December 2015

what is ethical fashion

http://www.refashionawards.org/about/ethics This account links fashion teaching to the sudden outbreak of crassness in 2005. One example quoted in a Centre for Sustainability in Fashion textbook is of a dress designer who contacted fairtrade-certified suppliers in India because, for whatever reason, she didn't make dresses herself. They all turned her down. So she went to Bangladesh, got the dresses made, and used vaguer words to sell them. They were said to be "ethical" because they were woven by a firm like Remploy in Bangladesh, but the person's trade association, Ethical Fashion Forum, did zero to promote Remploy in the UK, which closed, so I don't think their idea of "ethical" was a good one.

Centre for Sustainability in Fashion

Centre for Sustainability in Fashion is a government quango paid-for by a grant from Nike and taxpayers' funding towards universities via the Higher Education Funding Council, although people in the UK have to pay to go to uni via the loan system; these people still get a grant and use offices from a landlord that has housed similar organisations - Own-it to promote use of IT law, Creative Connexions to promote Chinese factories to UK designers (yes, really), and a students union, language laboratory and photography teaching workshops. Those are the bits that students have to pay for via the student loan system. Centre for Sustainability in Fashion appears less crass than other projects funded the same way, but more crass in acting as "secretariat" to the "all party group for ethics and sustainability in fashion" in the House of Lords, led by someone that some government made a lord of course, which has no obvious funding but does have a treasurer.


The All Party Group for Ethics and Sustainability in Fashion began by crowding-out an existing all party group and one or two potential members or speakers, like Lord Sugar who tried to speak about better training for people in UK clothes manufacturing. It held a Westminster Hall Debate, based on the kinds of topics available in the House of Lords Library if you search "ethics" and "fashion". Then it started again with a second Westminster Hall debate, following the style and agenda of Futerra Communications

Futerra Communications


The technique is to use a phrase so vague that it begs a question, and then answer that question how you like.  There is also a lot of vague language so mind-numbing that you are softened up for a real whopper of a lie that passes un-noticed. Their blurb says that people made their own clothes in the UK up until the 1950s. True? Of course not but amongst all the rubbish it slips-past.

Futerra agency got a lot of commercial business from the UK government, with £165,000 turnover that year from one ministry at DEFRA. That's the one that ought to have kept up to date with badger biology and flood defences, but was used as a PR budget by government instead:
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/funding_futerra_funding_refashio#comment-51088

Ethical Fashion. What is ethical fashion?

----------------------------------------------------------

ETHICS AND FASHION

So what is "ethical fashion"?
Just like fashion, the term means different things to different people, from vintage clothing to paying a fair wage to cotton farmers.
In essence, ethical fashion represents an approach to the design, sourcing and manufacture of clothing which is both socially and environmentally sustainable.
Our timeline explores the relationship between ethics and fashion.

1950s: Fashion for the elite

Couture is king, and the burgeoning industry caters for the social elite by producing unique and luxury items. Everyday folk follow fashion by making their own clothes.

1960s - 1970s: Fashion for the people

With the advent of mass production, fashion suddenly becomes accessible to the public. Fashion houses and retailers set up production overseas to the developing world where labour costs are lower.

1970s: World fashion movement

The birth of the modern environmental movement combines hippy fashion and values has a major effect on culture, creating an interest in "world" fashion.
Shops spring up around the UK, selling ethnic style clothing and accessories sourced directly from producers around the world. Traidcraft and Oxfam start selling clothing and crafts to support communities. People purchase these for charitable reasons or because they like the product, not necessarily to be fashionable.
Pioneering brands such as Patagonia start to address environmental issues in textile production.

1980s - 1990s: Mass production and consumer backlash

Mass production swiftly gathers speed, and the first global brands emerge. By the mid 1990s stories of sweatshops hit the news headlines. No Logo by Naomi Klein is published in protest.
Consumer awareness of the plight of garment workers emerges, along with high profile campaigns targeting high street brands. Gap and Nike develop and publish ethical sourcing programmes.
A handful of fashion businesses, such as People Tree and Bishopston Trading, lead the way in targeting an alternative, niche group of consumers. This new market is not yet trend led.

1990s: The business of ethics

Corporate attention turns to business ethics. Becoming a good corporate "citizen" is the watchword and socially responsible sourcing rises up the business agenda. Meanwhile, in the UK, environmental issues are formally included in school and college curricula.
In response, the first mainstream brand to bring out an environmental range is Esprit with the launch of it's Ecollection in 1992. Gossypium and Katherine Hamnett are leading the way in researching and developing organic supply chains.

2000 - 2005: Ethical fashion takes off

By 2000, new fashion graduates are setting up labels with environmental and social goals.
The Millenium Development Goals on poverty, climate change, rapidly growing public appetite for "green", and this new generation of designers lead to the creation of the ethical fashion movement.
In 2004, the Ethical Fashion Forum launches in London, while the Ethical Fashion Show presents ethical fashion labels to major buyers.
And in 2005, Anti-Apathy brings together a top notch line-up of speakers, including Katharine Hamnett, live music and leading ethical fashion labels at London's first high profile ethical fashion catwalk.
Trends in consumer buying habits show that the market for fashion is polarising into two groups - low cost, "value" fashion and a growing group of consumers disillusioned by mass manufactured brands looking to buy unique and individual clothes and supporting creative new labels. High street retailers respond by bringing out "designer" ranges, stocking smaller brands and signing deals with designers and celebrities.

2006-2008: Ethical fashion goes mainstream

Small businesses started with the millenium are rapidly growing in size and profile, including Howies, American Apparel, THTC, Kuyichi, Terra Plana, and Ciel. Esthetica is launched at London Fashion Week in 2006 as the first ethical fashion section in a mainstream international tradeshow.
Big name designers start to develop ethical collections including Katharine Hamnett and Stella McCartney. Big retailers start to take the issue on board more seriously. Gap launches product RED in 2006. H&M, Next, Nike, Sainsbury's, Asda and M&S all stock organic/fairtrade ranges.
And consumers get involved through Swishing - a term coined by Futerra to describe glamorous clothes recycling parties.
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Monsoon the party donation and the embassy

Monsoon, the party donation, and the embassy

Monsoon donated £100,000 to the Conservative party in 2008 - 2009.

"In August 2012, our Prime Minister announced that UK Trade & Investment will provide strategic support for the [retail] sector, focused on helping the UK retail sector win more business internationally and securing more valuable investment in the UK" and in 2013, Monsoon had a stand at a UK-subsidised trade show in Malaysia, organised by UK Trade and Investment and introduced by the British High Commissioner who gave the quote above about this notorious company that buys its products in India to sell in Malaysia.

Monsoon sponsor Estethica at London Fashion Week

It looks as though Monsoon had to wait three years for a result: did they get anything in 2008-13?

£100,000 would get you access to the "bottom of the premier league", according to Peter Cruddas, then treasurer of the Conservative Party. Mr Cruddas has cleared his name but I can't google a full text of what he said - only the edited video. Monsoon also sponsor Etsethica at London Fashion Week, which might otherwise ask for more from UK Trade and Investment, so maybe Monsoon is middle of the Premier League? They're also founder members of Ethical Trade Initiative (which refused to sign some of their corporate documents like codes of conduct about ethical standards) and get a huge advert for a not-yet-existing range of artizanal products, presented as a "case study" like the teaching aids produced by Centre For Stustainability in Fashion. It shares the same style of layout, photos, and of quoting a case that has not yet happened, just like the case of Juste produced in earlier materials. The "case study" was presented by Ethcal Fashion Forum to its members.

The other odd thing about this is the zest that UK prime ministers have had for making speeches to introduce obviously stupid policies, like subsidising the expansion of a shop that sells Indian goods into Malaysia, and is well known for paying late and failing to meet its own hopes of "ethical" claims like paying the minimum wage in India. The shop's Irish arm was also in "examinorship" or administration until 23rd of June. So it isn't a good business partner to recommend to anyone else.

Monsoon handout in the style of Centre for Sustainable Fashion teaching materials, quoting a "case study" of something that has not yet happened.

This handout is very much like the London e-book, Growing Sustainable Economies, a collection of entrepreneurial case studies in Bangladesh and the UK, ed Hammond, L and Higginston, published by London College of Fashion. quoting things that might in future happen from the most active staff of Ethical Fashion Forum. Each one has "case study" written next to it, in hope of being quoted in some poor fashion student's essay.  Juste, the Ethical Fashion Forum's dress import business that never came to exist gets a long mention, Sari Dress Project by another Ethical Fashion Forum staff member gets another, alongside a new organisation which, as you can guess, is called Ethical Fashion Forum. "Project partners Department for Enterprise and International Development at London College of Fashion and BGMEA Institute of Fashion Technology give special thanks to the principal funders of this project, Development Partnerships in Higher Education (DelPHE), The British Council, United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), and the companies featured in this publication. (There are also logos from the Department for International Development on the page among others).

Monsoon's handout doesn't have an EU funding logo on it or Dfid backing, but it keeps the strange phrase "case study", as though someone in a fashion college is going to quote this stuff in an essay.

Case Study: Monsoon / SEWA. Head of Corporate Responsibility Olivia Lankester on Monsoon’s artisan heritage

Monsoon, much like fellow British retailer EAST, have artisan collaboration embedded in their brand heritage. Founded by Peter Simon in 1973 after an epic road trip across Asia, the earliest Monsoon collections comprised clothes made in Indian villages using vegetable dyes, hand-loomed cotton and block printing (Monsoon, 2013).

Though now a global brand Monsoon continues to value artisan skills such as beading and embellishment. Monsoon is a founding member of the Ethical Trading Initiative and has its own code of conduct for all suppliers, paying unexpected visits to factories to ensure standards are met. Alongside this Monsoon is involved in a number of community projects in Asia, including a project reviving the silk cultivation industry in Afghanistan to provide livelihoods for widows and vulnerable women
.
Though most production has now shifted to larger factories Monsoon still trade with some of their original and smaller suppliers. This creates jobs and develops local communities at a time when the  number of artisans in India has declined 30% over the past decade (DASRA, 2013). According to Olivia Lankester, Monsoon’s Head of Corporate Responsibility, “artisans in India increasingly ind it hard to make a living from their craft, many living on the poverty line and struggling to meet their basic needs. This has lead to a generational loss of craft skills and contributed to mass migration to urban areas.” Monsoon aims to tackle this through their commitment to supporting craft communities in India.

Launching this October, Artisan Trade is a range of clothing, accessories and gifts made in collaboration with Indian artisan co-operatives. ”Many artisan groups have incredible skill and beautiful product but very limited access to market. This is where we can help – while also providing technical support to help artisans upgrade and update their product offer.” Artisan Trade is an expansion and rebranding of the Monsoon Boutique range, which provides sorely needed market access for Indian artisans. If successful the range will provide sustained employment for women which will move them away from the poverty line and enable future social mobility and economic growth.

Monsoon Boutique not only provides a sales channel for craftspeople, it also focuses on upcycling Monsoon’s fabric offcuts by using them to produce items such as quilts, aprons and childrenswear. All profits are donated to the Monsoon Accessorize trust which provides grants to artisan co-operatives such as SEWA (Self Employed Womens Association). SEWA is an embroidery co-operative in Delhi that over the past four years has received funding from Monsoon for a new embroidery centre, training programmes for women, a micro-credit programme and an education programme for children.
Rather than work through an intermediary Monsoon have always worked directly with Indian suppliers to design and produce their products. A team in Delhi are on hand to provide technical support, training and advice to producers, which Olivia feels makes a “huge difference” to the success of the operation. When necessary Monsoon have linked artisan co-operatives with larger suppliers to help with operations such as sourcing, packaging and testing requirements. Although not yet launched, Monsoon’s Artisan Trade has good prospects as an expansion of Monsoon Boutique. Their 40 years of experience working with artisans means Monsoon are well placed to bring such products onto the marker as the range already has a deined niche among Monsoon customers. The first Artisan Trade collection has taken 9 months from concept to delivery. Monsoon already have a well established network of suppliers which would help shorten the lead time on the range of artisan clothing for such a large market. The success of Monsoon’s community work is extensive, helping 10,000 disadvantaged women and children every year (Monsoon, 2013). The Artisan Trade line will not only provide employment for these women but proits from sales will be reinvested into community projects to create livelihoods and provide healthcare, education and shelter.
Photos:
Traditional hand block printing in India
Artisan Trade supplier, quilting cooperative
Yasmin Le Bon, visiting Monsoon Artisan Trade supplier Photography: Sam Faulkner

Below: Monsoon's offices in West London. Photography: Google Street View

Expensive car cordoned outside Monsoon's offices
PlanB4fashion is a link to this ethical fashion blog on a single long page
This blog is by a vegan shoe company called Veganline.com that sells vegan shoes boots & belts
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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

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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 ()

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 ()

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



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


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Sunday, 8 September 2013

Correction: there was a debate "supported by..."

http://www.britishfashioncouncil.com/news/197/Tax-Breaks-for-Eco-Fashion-Businesses "This call for action follows this week’s RE: Fashion Summit and the recent British Fashion Council’s Estethica debate [^] on the promotion of ethical fashion and consumer engagement.  The campaign, supported by Monsoon, Vivienne Westwood, Edun, George at ASDA, From Somewhere and London College of Fashion’s Centre for Sustainable Fashion, calls on all parties to recognise that to effect change, sustainability and ethical fashion also needs to make commercial sense."

So European regional development money is not investing in my future or my region, as the label on Centre for Sustainable Development says, but on a press release by taxpayer-funded people asking for them to be exempt from tax. Along with their other sponsors, of course, who make things in other parts of the world.

"RE: Fashion Summit", is just the usual suspects under another name. This is Ethical Fashion Forum's web site: "Launched the RE:Fashion Awards- the official awards for ethical fashion, creating a platform for best practice across the supply chain. Held the RE:Fashion summit bringing together industry leaders and initiated the RE:Fashion manifesto, setting out sustainability parameters and targets for the UK industry." The link is to a google for "RE:Fashion manifesto", which finds two references, both on the Ethical Fashion Forum web site.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="240"]European Union - Investing in your Future Centre for Sustainable Fashion is paid for by the European Regional Development Fund 2007-13[/caption]


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Monsoon called for tax breaks on itself, after doing this to others...

What Monsoon said after a debate calling for tax breaks:
"We need ethical fashion to become part of the mainstream if the industry is to play its part in a more sustainable future" - Peter Simon,Chairman

What Monsoon suppliers say about being paid by Monsoon
Anonymous on Drapers' record | 27 February 2013 9:17 am
"We have worked with Monsoon in the past. The ruthlessness has always been there... unfortunately this is not a "one of a kind" example from the High Street."

Anonymous on Drapers' record | 8 June 2013 11:05 am
"Drapers should investigate Monsoon more carefully they have now asked each supplier to fill out a costing form to show how much they are making. They want a detailed breakdown of overheads and % profit! This along with their terms of payment and discount makes them one of the most unattractive retailers to work with.

I always thought it was a partnership supplying a retailer but Monsoon are incredibly ruthless and someone needs to speak up and investigate."This is a press release promoted by Monsoon.

PRESS RELEASE

Industry Calls for Tax Breaks for Eco Fashion Businesses

Harold Tillman, Chairman of the British Fashion Council is spearheading a campaign that will incentivise fashion businesses to work in a more sustainable way and to make eco fashion more affordable and accessible to consumers.

This call for action follows this week’s RE: Fashion Summit and the recent British Fashion Council’s estethica debate on the promotion of ethical fashion and consumer engagement. The campaign, supported by Monsoon, Vivienne Westwood, Edun, George at ASDA, From Somewhere and London College of Fashion’s Centre for Sustainable Fashion, calls on all parties to recognise that to effect change, sustainability and ethical fashion also needs to make commercial sense.
Maybe they want to get the money back that they donated to a political party. Everybody knows that multinationals channel payments through different countries and claim that the profit was made in the one with the lowest tax - Luxemburg for example - but Monsoon wants to save the costs of putting the money through somewhere like Luxemburg and to take the tax break right here in the UK. Oh here is a bit more about ethical fashion.
Monsoon Accessorize has been ‘named and shamed’ by the government for failing to pay the minimum wage.

The retailer was found to have owed £104,508 to 1,438 workers - putting it at the top of a list of 115 companies published today.

Monsoon said the failure occurred between 2011 and 2013 because of its policy of offering staff discounts upwards of 50% on its clothing, which they are encouraged to wear to work.
For a proportion of its 5,000 UK store employees the discount was mistakenly deducted from their wages, bringing them below the minimum wage threshold.

The issue came to light when HM Revenue & Customs reviewed Monsoon’s payroll system.
Staff parking space outside the Monsoon office .
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Thursday, 5 September 2013

£225 buys an exclusive view of ethical fashion

in their own words... slideshow for the summit


07.07.2013 17:45




























Ethical Fashion Forum's slideshow to promote the £225 event

planB4fashion
mail e-mail: brittaniabuckle@yahoo.co.uk

In their own words... Ethical Fashion Forum


07.07.2013 17:50



In their own words... Ethical Fashon Forum's Source Summit
In their own words... Ethical Fashon Forum's Source Summit


In their own words... Ethical Fashion Forum

facebook.com/planB4fashion
mail e-mail: brittaniabuckle@yahoo.co.uk
- Homepage: http://planb4fashion.blogspot.co.uk/



there was a link from sustainable-fashion.com but it's down just now


08.07.2013 07:42
There was a link from sustainable-fashion.com but it's not online just now. The Centre for Sustainable Fashion at Dray Walk in London was part of University of the Arts' London College of Fashion. It worked within the industry and so was constrained in talking about tariffs or governments, but did have an influence in training fashion students and offering consultancy. To see the story in their own words click below

 http://web.archive.org/web/20120625170857/http://www.sustainable-fashion.com/about-csf/team-profile/our-story/

http://www.sustainable-fashion.com/
- Homepage: http://www.sustainable-fashion.com/



tweets will use the hashtag #sourcesummit


08.07.2013 14:05
tweets will use the hashtag #sourcesummit

planB4fashion #sourcesummit
- Homepage: https://www.facebook.com/planB4fashion



Response from the Ethical Fashion Forum


08.07.2013 19:13
Dear Indymedia,

I am a fan of what you do and what you stand for. As Managing Director of the Ethical Fashion Forum, I am writing to give our side of the story on the Ethical fashion Forum and the SOURCE Summit.

We are a small not for profit organisation, absolutely committed and dedicated to better practices in the fashion industry. You quote £225 as the price of attending the SOURCE Summit- in fact our prices started at £65, and we are also live streaming the event - free for people to attend from anywhere online. However, we are determined to be heard with this event- and that means running it in a higher profile way. You can't do that without any money- even if you run an event at cost, which is what we are doing.

As a forum for collaboration in the industry, we have always been inclusive- by bringing together individuals and businesses from every part of the industry , we are able to get constructive debate going, and this has catalysed some very effective partnerships and initiatives. There is no question that the majority of the industry is not doing enough to address the appalling conditions for workers that remain endemic in many parts of the world. There are organisations whose remit it is to campaign against this and expose the companies that are not doing enough about it- this is important, and it needs to continue.

Our remit is to work with companies, offering them the tools, access to information, inspiring and motivating their staff, building connections and fostering collaboration across the sector, in order to meaningfully improve standards and conditions.

We recently launched a Call to Action on Bangladesh, and it has had a very wide response from the professional fashion sector:  http://source.ethicalfashionforum.com/article/bangladesh-240413-never-again-join-the-industry-in-a-constructive-response

We would be very interested to work with you, PlanB4fashion, and take on board your ideas.

We would also absolutely welcome speakers from the European Parliament to this and other events. Panel speakers do not pay to attend- they do normally ask for expenses if travelling though- so, as a social enterprise, we do need a business model for our events! Which means charging a fee to attend. Our fees are a fraction of the event fees of other mainstream industry events. If anyone has bright ideas on how we can run an event like this without charging fees to delegates, they are most welcome!

Finally, we really welcome the voices of the readers of Indymedia at SOURCE Summit- attend online, FREE of charge, by registering here -  http://source.ethicalfashionforum.com/article/live-stream-registration-source-summit-2013

Hoping to connect with you there, and welcoming you to join the debate,

Tamsin Lejeune
Managing Director
Ethical Fashion Forum and SOURCE
 events@ethicalfashionforum.com





Tamsin Lejeune
mail e-mail: events@ethicalfashionforum.com
- Homepage: www.ethicalfashionforum.com



The difference between us is on your "made in england" page


09.07.2013 18:06
Dear Tamson Lejeune
the difference between us is on the "issues ... made in britain" page of your web site, at the bottom.
 http://www.ethicalfashionforum.com/the-issues/made-in-britain

"trade in garments and textiles has created a springboard for industrial development all over the world- with Britain and America being amongst the first to benefit followed by the “Asian Tiger” economies of Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea, and more recently, China and India. Producing garments or components of garments outside of the UK to sustainable standards can assist development in some of the poorest communities in the world, create sustainable livelihoods and reduce poverty for thousands of people."

I think that national insurance, secondary schools, hospitals, accesss to justice, and votes should happen before or during an industrial revolution and be forced to happen.

Votes, for example, happen in Taiwan and Hong Kong but not in China. People in China have been waiting rather a long time, I think, and are unlikely to get universal pensions or healthcare until they have votes. It's an odd country because the single child policy has forced wealth to spread a bit - there is not the population explosion that's happened in Bangladesh.

Thinking of other ways to reduce a population explosion, I think that pensions, healthcare and health education, contraception, and girls' secondary schools all help; if girls are more assertive and there is less pressure to have children to look after you in old age, then the population might not explode so rapidly. People in Bangladesh have been waiting rather a long time national insurance, given that the UK had a National Insurance Act in 102 years ago in 1911. The prime minister of the UK could simply have telegrammed the Viceroy of Inda, Lord Hardinge, (pictured if the upload works) and floated then idea but apparently it didn't work like that. I don't think that Bangladesh or Pakistan are going to change any time soon while some people in the country do very well out of their neighbours being poor. There is even enough money in government for an export subsidy, but not enough for a heath service. There is a risk that Bangladesh could loose market share if other countries do not introduce a national insurance system too. Cheap labour, and the flow of aid, both happen when there are a lot of poor people.

"It is only by raising standards and wages outside of the UK that the UK garment production sector will again be in a position to compete on equal terms with production in what are currently low wage economies."

If you are convinced that there should be national insurance or high tariffs built-in to the prices of clothes from Bangladesh, then we can agree on this last paragraph. And such a large change of position would prompt you to re-write the first part of the page as well,

- stating that goods made in welfare states are more expensive for good reason, offering better conditions for their workers than a fairtrade scheme. You might become interested in
- how people who live in welfare states can seek-out goods made in them, which will probably be by mail-order rather than high street chainstores. An example is the one that your "made in Britain" swing tag logo came from, which has since had to lay-off its staff. You will want to
- criticsise London Fashion week for the way it puts UK factory workers out of work by offering free PR to companies like Terra Plana which made its shoes in China and made rediculous claims. You would
- explain how companies in South Europe now, or the UK in 1979-2009, were devistated by whimsical changes of exchange rate dictated by central banks rather than the goods market. That's why their designs are mainstream and their sales methods geared to particular markets.
- mention how the UK needs a rebalanced economy to pay the taxes that pay for a welfare state, now that payments from financial services have dropped by billions.

I'm sure you would want to do some of those things if we agreed with each other.

Meanwhile, I'll type another draft of your "issues/made-in-britain" page in case you can use it for the moment as you're busy with a trade show, and Bangladesh is the hot topic at the moment rather than Middleton or Rushden or Rossendale or Nottingham or Hinckley or Northampton.
regards
John Robertson

John Robetson, blogging as planB4fashion
mail e-mail: brittaniabuckle@yahoo.co.uk
- Homepage: https://www.facebook.com/planB4fashion



dear indymedia?


09.07.2013 22:59
Oh dear, you claim to be a "fan of indymedia" but start your comment "dear indymedia" as if addressing a single organisation, without understanding that indymedia is a platform.. rofl

anonymous



China "arguably more democratic" than the UK: who approved that?


10.07.2013 14:29
From Ethical Fashion Forum's "founding members" page...
 http://web.archive.org/web/20130116191704/http://www.ethicalfashionforum.com/about-eff/founding-members

"Terra plana is a shoe company focused upon innovative, sustainable shoe design.Terra Plana uses a variety of eco friendly materials ... ... ..."

From Ethical Fashion Forum's "business leaders" page ...
 http://newentrepreneurs.ethicalfashionforum.com/business-leaders/foundation-agency

"Jules went on to set up Inside Out agency working with hemp pioneers THTC along with a variety of other innovative brands.

Jules has been joined at Foundation by ethical fashion consultant Rosie Budhani, who will head up the PR and marketing division of Foundation, Rosie also has extensive experience in mainstream and ethical fashion and most recently ran the PR department for award winning ethical shoe brand Terra Plana."

From Ethical Fashion Forum's "founding members" page...
 http://web.archive.org/web/20130116191704/http://www.ethicalfashionforum.com/about-eff/founding-members

"From Somewhere

From Somewhere is a designer womenswear brand. From Somewhere collections are made from left-over fabric from garment factories which would otherwise be discarded."

"Filippo Ricci and Orsola De Castro, founders of From Somewhere, are dedicated to promoting and facilitating sustainable practices in fashion, and were responsible for initiating the Estethica exhibition which is now an established part of London Fashion Week, as well as a number of other projects in the sector."

------------------------
Conclusion: the claim about China "arguably more democratic" was made on Terra Plana's web site from 2008, while they were getting taxpayer-funded PR from part of London Fashion Week, called Estethica. Both the Terra Plana company and the company of the person who manages Estethica, Orsola De Castro's "From Somewhere", were founder members of Ethical Fashion Forum. Orsola De Castro also worked for a year or so as a Director of Ethical Fashion Forum. And the PR agent for Terra Plana, Rosie Budhani, gets a promoted on the Ethical Fashion Forum's site amongst "New Entrepreneurs". So the editor who allowed this brand to be shown, the brand itself as a company, and the PR agent they had at the time, all get promotions on the Ethical Fashion Forum web site.

planB4fashion
- Homepage: https://www.facebook.com/planB4fashion



You are invited to an ethical fashion PR masterclass


27.07.2013 16:52
 https://www.facebook.com/planB4fashion/posts/399762653463491 is a link to a fake checklist of techniques to make Chinese and Bangladeshi imports sound more ethical and UK-made clothing harder to talk about. Well the list is fake, but the quotes are real.

Ethical Fashion PR Masterclass
- Homepage: https://www.facebook.com/planB4fashion/posts/399762653463491

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