Showing posts with label London Fashion Week. Show all posts
Showing posts with label London Fashion Week. Show all posts

Sunday, 20 December 2015

graduate fashion week and fashion scout

If I do a new post, I loose the title links to posts in 2015, so here is a note on the top of an old post.\
It is about a government consultation ending 26th of January 2018
http://veg-buildlog.blogspot.com/2018/01/httpswwwgovukgovernmentconsultationspro.html
... is the start of a response to the migration advisory committee's request for evidence about the effects of overseas students on the UK. Anyone who has been an international student might want to write-in and say why the colleges with most international students seem to be the ones with the worst student feedback and in the most crowded parts of the UK.

At the moment, the questions themselves are near the bottom




Another explore into fashion subsidy: two events which get in the papers at the same time as London Fashion Week or just before
Funding is from subscribing fashion colleges, with extra sponsorship from London taxpayers alongside Goerge at Asda, Rimmal, and L'Oreal. The group have also been given ear-time by UK Trade and Investment and a select comittee at the House of Commons, who invited them in to give a presentation that was somehow meant to be in aid of the charity. UK Trade and Investment sent a witness to give evidence to a select committee, explaining how they subsidise fashionistas from this world to attempt export. Apparently the scheme often offers to pay bad debts by buyers, so it is a subsidy for the more canny and dodgy buyers in other countries rather than for anyone who pays tax in the UK.

Surprises to taxpayers in London and the UK

  1. One surprise is the name "Fashion Scout", previously used in the phrase "Vauxhall Fashion Scout" to suggest scouting for fashion from anyone, for example taxpayers who's money helps sponsor the show and are scouted in Vauxhall near where I live,  No. The emphasis is on fashion graduates.
  2. Another surprise is that the fashion colleges are so organised in presenting their degree shows to sponsors and journalists, rather than to clothes shops and shoe shops who have trouble getting on the mailing list or a chance to see a degree show. The charity accounts acknowledge two purposes - promoting the students and promoting the colleges - but don't say that students and their employment should be the priority which is silly. If the students do well, the next generation of students will find a course on unistats; there is no need push the name of the college in some vague way. Web sites already say whether a college is vibrant or renowned. That's already too much praise; facts need to say the course syllabus what happens to graduates in this trade were  applicants look for work skills.
  3. The third surprise - or it should be a surprise - is that the Mayor of London subsidises something a bit like a closed shop for a particular kind of graduate designer willing to present a "collection", rather than other taxpayers who might sell more or circulate more money through the economy. Someone with a clothes factory for example, maybe in Bradford or Leicester or Harringay, or some of their customers. No.
  4. "the Ethical Award ... was judged by Pants to Poverty owner Ben Ramsden. Excited by Rosie's work he said; "It's great to see a fresh vibrant perspective on ethical fashion"..  - quote from Gruaduate Fashion Week blog 2013
    This is someone who does not promote a welfare state nor UK production, although he says he has nothing against it.
These are some accounts for Graduate Fashion Week.
http://apps.charitycommission.gov.uk/Accounts/Ends20%5C0001044420_AC_20120731_E_C.pdf

The text on the accounts says the same as what's on the web site. It's a trust with trustees from about ten fashion colleges, and some sponsorship. The web site has about three times as many colleges listed. Trustees meet ten times a year and contract-out management to FSI Events Ltd. The purpose is supposedly to get work and PR for some college graduates, but I don't see the fairness in helping some and not others when all have paid the same, nor how it helps get work when there is no system of stalls to sell the clothes, or none that I know of, and no mail-out to niche market shopkeepers that might want to buy something. Or none that I know of, and I sell shoes for a living so I should know. I don't sell dresses or high fashion, so I might be missing something but it looks as though this event concentrates too much on getting press coverage and too little on selling clothes, a fault shared with London Fashion Week.



Fashion students know there are more fashion graduates than fashion jobs

There should be pressure from students to find out what guarantee of help is available on graduation, and how effective it is, because a lot of fashion graduates don't find work. Looking at accounts of what work they find and write-in on questionarres, it's seldon related to fashion courses. Students and potential students need to find a way to stop colleges promoting colleges and start promoting freelance work skills and employment to fashion students. To say "it's very competative", is not what a student should read tutors as saying in reviews of a course. I think a student wants to read reviews of tutors saying "it's impossible for most people to find a paid job with an employer in fashion, but we can show you how to find a hobby and a bit of freelance work with a web site and a stall and a sewing machine and if it takes-off it might lead to a career". That's the realistic statement I think students should report from good courses.

Looking at courses on unistats.direct.go.uk, and once you are used to using the site's drop down menus, it only takes a few minute to find out that a quarter of graduates from a lot of mainstream courses with "fashion" in the title do not go-on to work or study, with lower figures for University of Derby, University of East London, Bradford College and Wolverhampton University. Any student considering any of those colleges, or the mainstream ones like University of the Arts' London College of Fashion, should reconsider if there's no sensible offer of help to make and sell clothes at the end of the course. A chance to compete to pay to be in an event a bit like ballet display for an invited audience is not the same thing, and college reps sent to organisations like Graduate Fashion Week ought to think what helps their students work freelance rather than what attracts most column inches for an event and maybe helps get a job at M&S for one graduate.

Colleges further north, where workshop space is a bit cheaper, might have a bit more luck and set-up an alternative fashion week aimed at making sales for manufacturer-designers. The format could be more of a market for student and gradate stallholders than a catwalk show, most of the time, and be combined with help for students making their products or finding local workshops to make the products. Some system for funding fabric, thread, machine time, and stall space as part of the college service could help a lot. Stallholders might not want to work every day or give up other low-paid day jobs, but  £12,000 a year salary after graduation is typical for northern colleges like Wolverhampton or Bradford; colleges for teenagers can score £11,000, so a chance to do something independant and maybe earn almost as much on a stall could appeal. Students running stalls might get-over their well-known shyness to attempt any job other than designing; they might become more interested in pattern cutting which is better paid, or something like manufacturing. Whatever they choose, if it's freelance they're more likely to create work for other people as well as leaving the handfull of jobs like M&S buyer open for the hundreds of other people who graduate after fashion courses each year.

The colleges in more expensive areas score little better than colleges at the bottom of the list, with students from some University of the Arts fashion courses only writing £15,000 salary on a typical survey form a year after graduating. I don't know if that goes further in London than £12,000 in Bradford, but neither salary goes far.

If I get-around to looking-up any more unistats data on fashion graduate employment, I'll add it to this list.

Fashion Colleges on the Graduate Fashion Week web site

Followed by a course from that college with "fashion" in the title and link to stats
Then the proportion reporting that they're in work after six months, or the proportion in work or more study, and the average reported salary. The students who don't return the form are more likely, I guess, to be less employed and lower paid.

Bath Spa University - BA (hons) Fashion Design - 70% to 85% - £ unknown
Anglia Ruskin University : Cambridge School of Art - BA (hons) Fashion - 80% to 95% - £14,500
Cambridge School of visual and performing arts - "Fashion Design .. collaboration with Kingston " London"
Kingston University - BA (hons) Fashion -
Leeds College of Art (Leeds College of Art) -
University of the Arts - London College of Fashion
Manchester Metropolitian University - Manchester School of Art BA (hons) Fashion -
Northumbria University in Newcastle -
Northbrook College in Sussex -
Norwich University of the Arts
-
Nottingham Trent University
- BA (hons) Fashion Design -
Plymouth College of Art
-
Ravensbourne -
Southampton Solent University -
Sheffield Hallam University -
University for the Creative Arts Epsom and Rochester - BA (hons) Fashion - 95% or 100% - £15,000
University of Brighton, Faculty of Arts -
University of Central Lancashire -
University of Derby - BA (hons) Fashion - 30% or 40% (50% are "other") - £14,500
University of East London -
University of Hertfordshire - BA (hons) Fashion Design -
University of Huddersfield -
University of Leeds - BA (hons) Fashion Design -
University of Northampton -
University of Salford -
University of South Wales -
University of West London -
University of Southampton Winchester College of Art -


There's another group of colleges for the Samsonite International Catwalk Competition, but I don't know where to get employment figures for their graduates
AODLKA
Binus NorthumbriaIN
Shih Chien UniversityTW
B&D MoscowRU
IEDIT
FIT MilanIT
Colegiatura ColombianaCOL
NAFASGP
LISAA Mode ParisFR
FAD International AccademyIN
Accademia di Costume e ModaIT
PRATTUS
RMITAUS
Moteskolen AS Esmod Oslo
Centro Design Mexio


Related posts:
http://planb4fashion.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/rebalancing-economy.html - just a paragraph and a link to something about rebalancing the economy, which I can't remember if I've read:
http://www.cresc.ac.uk/medialibrary/workingpapers/wp87.pdf
http://veg-buildlog.blogspot.com/2015/10/boring-economics-teaching-is-interesting.html
http://pantstopoverty.org.uk
Blog on one page as a feed:
http://planb4fashion.blogspot.co.uk/atom.xml?redirect=false&start-index=1&max-results=500



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

Sunday, 13 December 2015

ethical fashion PR invented 2005

ethical fashion PR invented 2005

The meaningless phrase "ethical fashion" was invented in September 2005 in London, and searches peaked with news stories about ethical fashion shows for firms like Terra Plana




http://www.craftscouncil.org.uk/.../well-fashioned.../detail was another government-sponsored exibition of the usual suspects - Terra Plana for example - which our taxes helped show at
  • Crafts Council Gallery: 23 Mar to 4 Jun 2006
  • The City Gallery, Leicester: 15 Jul to 26 Aug 2006
  • The Design Centre, Barnsley: 7 Sep to 20 Oct 2006
  • City Museum & Records Office, Portsmouth: 4 Nov 2006 to 7 Jan 2007
  • Bilston Craft Gallery, Wolverhampton: 20 Jan to 3 Mar 2007
  • Estethica room at London Fashion Week, various dates starting 2005
http://planb4fashion.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/you-are-invited-to-masterclass-in.html says something about the formatting of an ethical fashion PR press release that's meant not to promote UK manufacturing but sell the competition from China instead. In other words to say it's "ethical" to close UK factories.

One of the techniques used to sell sweatshop products is to say that torture by Nike contractors and their autocratic states is better than torture by henchmen of the East India Company, who cut of the thumbs of rival loom owners. So: you see a speech my a rep from some far-eastern trade union about injustice there and think "at least she still has her thumbs: things are getting better". I think this is an unfair example of progress to pick. I don't know the source for the story, but if the East India Company still existed it would have its own PR office to rebuff claims from rival Nike.

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

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

Wednesday, 11 September 2013

UK Journalists paid by government to promote Chinese goods out of UK taxes

A government programme paid over £550 each in subsidised trips to sixty journalists & buyers every six months to report on shoes and clothes made overseas for London Fashion Week. MPs with shoe factories in their constituencies - Peter Bone in Wellingborough and Patricia Hewitt in Leicester East - did not write a single letter to protest..
Peter Bone MP is an accountant and MP for Wellingborough. His constituency has more shoe factories in it than anywhere else in the UK, but when the Sanders and Sanders factory was running-up to closure last year he showed no sign of knowing that the department for Business Innovation and Skills was subsidising the competition by sending buyers and journalists to report on glossy shows of Chinese shoes such as Terra Plana at London Fashion Week. If he did know that his constituents were paying taxes towards putting themselves out of work, he certainly didn't write a letter about it to the UK Trade and Investment, a ministerial agency which funds this joint scheme with London Development Agency. The department's only correspondence with him or the now-closed factory was a series of email tip-offs about export opportunities, such as overseas trade shows. They sent fifteen over about four years.Patricia Hewitt MP is MP for Leicester West, another shoemaking area with an unemployment rate of 13.8% . Equity Shoes was a major local employer until closure in January 2009, with a recent payroll of 200 and a 100 at closure. Like Sanders, it was a tenacious company - Sanders was a family trust and Equity was a staff co-op, so neither closed lightly. Patricia Hewitt had every reason to know about the scheme to put her constituents out of work because she had to sign for it: she was secretary of state for trade and industry (now the department for Business Innovation and Skills) between 2001 and 2005. She could have picked-up the phone during any of those years and asked

"why are we subsidising the competition?".

It is not revealed what she said in the office when she was minister, but a recent freedom of information act request that she did not write a single letter on the subject of Equity Shoes to the department between 2005 and the end of January 2010, even after being tipped-off in November that the question was going being asked.

"We have completed a search of our electronic information management systems and we do not have any record of UK Trade & Investment having received letters from the MPs for Leicester or Rushden on the subject of UK shoe manufacturers. "

Published freedom of information requests & replies on Whatdotheyknow.com describe a scheme that UK Trade and Investment call the International Buyers Programme, funded over roughly four years and still in place.

"since September 2005, UK Trade & Investment have paid British Fashion Council £215,555. This funding is for the international buyers programme for London Fashion week. The aim of the programme is to bring the most significant and influential buyers and press to London Fashion week each season."

London Development Agency quotes "£120k more than budgeted for 2008/9 was spent on LFW support as funding was allocated to support the International Guest Programme to cover reduced funding from UKTI", but it still got "UKTI support during 2008/09" of £33,000. Some of the money may be counted twice as British Fashion Council is also sponsored by the Mayfair Hotel and British Airways "The official airline of London Fashion Week", which are both likely to have catered for these expenses-paid trips: ""The LFW International Guest Programme, supported jointly by LDA and UKTI, saw 60 key, targeted international press and buyers assisted in their visits to LFW, through flight subsidies and accommodation. These visitors are given welcome packs and are accompanied through their stay as they visit the exhibition, catwalk shows and showrooms. Feedback on media coverage generated and orders placed is collected after their visits."

Did the money achieve anything good?

There are attempts to quote outputs on the projects report to the London Development Agency, but the list omits manufacturers. The only figures broken down in any detail are figures of media coverage, reported by an agency paid for by British Fashion Council. And there are anecdotal quotes. It's not often that Vogue is quoted on Indymedia but we may even add to the list of outputs by repeating this quote:

""The Season London Shone" wrote US Vogue's Sarah Mower. "Who'd have thought that London would shine at its brightest during a crisis. London's Designers squared up to the fall with an exceptional out-flowing of creativity and polish ... that made Fall 2009 this city's most dazzling performance for years."

...ends. Sources:
"Record Figures for London Fashion Week"
 http://www.londonfashionweek.co.uk/news_details.aspx?ID=86

"AGREEMENT FOR FUNDING RELATING TO CREATIVE
SECTOR SUPPORT - DESIGNER FASHION Parties: LDA / BFC
Ref: 23300 QUARTERLY REPORT 2008/9: Q3&4 [biannual update]"
 http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/london_fashion_week_biannual_upd#comment-7716

"Consultation re closed UK shoe factories" information request and reply on Whatdotheyknow.com:
 http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/consultation_re_closed_uk_shoe_f_2#comment-8530

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leicester_West

Pictures of Equity Shoes buildings post closure:
 http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=40786
software too.

This blog is by a vegan shoe company called Veganline.com that sells vegan shoes boots & belts

Sunday, 8 September 2013

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.

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 .

Thursday, 5 September 2013

Disambiguation: Eddy Monsoon of Absolutely Fabulous is fiction; Monsoon is fact


Absolutely Fabulous - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Absolutely Fabulous - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolutely_FabulousAbsolutely Fabulous, also known as Ab Fab, is a British sitcom created by Jennifer Saunders, based on an original idea by her and Dawn French, and written by Saunders, who plays…

We pay taxes for Etsethica at London Fashion Week



We pay taxes to organisations that tell us what to think, such as Esthetica. In doing so we publicise Monsoon, who get a big credit as co-sponsors. There was something about Monsoon in the news which I shall look-up and post here.





British Fashion Council - Homehttp://www.britishfashioncouncil.co.uk/ British Fashion Council We are committed to developing excellence and growth in a sector that is a significant contributor to the British economy. We nurture, support and…

Fair access to subsidies

PlanB4fashion wants fair access to subsidies. London Fashion Week offered subsidised stallls for 3 shows starting February 2008 to Ethical Fashion Forum, who's first archived web page of October 2007 shows connections with other exibitors. EFF were also keen to turn-down members who might be troublesome.

London Fashion Week is funded by the Greater London Assembly (London Development Agency in 2007-8) out of European Regional Development Grant. In other countries like Portugal it is used to help local manufacturers co-operate, train and export.

UK government spends the money in a different way. Centre back at London Fashion Week is Gallahad Clark selling his "arguably more democratic" shoes made in China and centre forward is probably Elizabeth Laskar of Ethical Fashion Forum turning-down awkward members. The money is syphoned-off to promote Chinese factories rather than develop any region of Europe.

How to reduce poverty

PlanB4fashion wants government to realease more tax data to help people who produce trade directories in the UK; at the moment, you could have a factory a bus-ride away and not be able to find out what they make or the minimum order. There are plenty of wholesalers and consultants willing to help you get stuff from Bangladesh because the margin allows more people to be involved, but if you want to buy from the UK you have to do a lot of homework.
Fashion Capital | Ethical Manufacturing - Right Here in the UK - Ethical Manufacturing - Right Here in the UK ?... | Manufactur
Fashion Capital | Ethical Manufacturing - Right Here in the UK - Ethical Manufacturing - Right Here in the UK ?... | Manufacturhttp://www.fashioncapital.co.uk/News/25974-ethical-manufacturing-right-here-in-the-uk.html Leading the way is our very own FashionCapital factory based in North London. Due to increased demand in production the factory recently moved from 4,500 square foot which…

Redundancies and food poverty encouraged by fashion pundits

Last night on telly was a programme about food poverty in the UK and the difficulty of many people in the UK to afford meals from our run-down welfare benefits in a run-down manufacturing economy, broken down by unfair exchange rates, neglect, and lack of respect for the extra costs involved in making something in the fairer working conditions of the UK.

It would be easy to estimate the number of jobs lost in Leicester directly as a result of people like Ethical Fashion Forum and London Fashion Week and Estethica - often job lossses that they have engineered on money paid to them by Greater London Authority, Defra, or Department for Business, out of taxes paid for those who are being put out of work. One of the worst offenders Orsulanda de Castro is speaking at the moment to I am typing this rather than listen!

I just saw a slight glimpse of the world that I recognise overlapping with Ethical Fashion Forum's world when a guest speaker about closed-loop polyesters needing a larger investment than UK textiles mills could afford; about the way production management has usually been removed from college corriculums in favour of design or "fashion"; prioduction people are scarce at large company head offices. There was a great quote "production people are the brokers of fair relationships" in industry.

The difference between us is... (reply to Ethical Fashion Forum)

09.07.2013 18:06
Dear Tamsin Lejeune
the difference between us is on the "issues ... made in britain" page of your web site, at the bottom.
Made in Britain | Ethical Fashion Forum
Made in Britain | Ethical Fashion Forumhttp://www.ethicalfashionforum.com/the-issues/made-in-britainIt 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.


"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,

  1. 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

  2. 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

  3. 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

  4. 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.

  5. 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

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This was written in answer to a post to indymedia and to planB4fashion on 08.07.13
No reply has been recieved 05.09.13. The original post is quoted below
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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


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

plan B 4 fashion manifesto

4-point manifesto from the blog at https://facebook.com/planB4fashion .
Points 1 & 2 are about fashion production in the UK.
Points 3 & 4 are about reducing poverty in the far east - for example Bangladesh.

1.
UK government can help UK factories compete, by releasing tax data to say what factories exist.

Data could be made-up into trade directory by anyone who wanted to do the work as happens already with simlar data. Some companies would find ways of covering their costs and cross-selling other services. If not, perhaps a small grant of a volunteer effort could get good directories written.

Better trade directories are a very cheap way of re-balancing the UK economy so that it begins to pay enough taxes and employ enough people. Factories help money circulate around the UK, bringing taxes back into government, and creating jobs in run-down areas. Factories also have to be very lean to pay the costs of paying for a democratic welfare state with a UK living-standard and rents. They don't all have staff for sales or PR or tendering for contracts or submitting entries to competitions. Some don't even have office or reception staff. They need terse orders from well-informed customers who know exactly what the factory makes, the technique used, and maybe the minimum orders for free set-up or free UK delivery.

2.
UK government can change the fashion week that we pay for in taxes (through Greater London Authority and Department for Business' UK Trade and Investment).  It can insist that exhibitors are nominated by UK or European factories & display the names of the factories. This would get better value for UK taxpayers' money: UK taxpayers pay to promote employment amongst other UK taxpayers. UK taxpayers promote a clothing brand and a factory for the same budget that just paid to promote a clothes brand in the past; it's two results for the price of one.

Factory-vetted designers are probably reasonable to work with, from a factory's point of view.
At the moment London Fashion Week pays for extra coaching for designers who aren't businesslike - even some in the past who didn't have a way of making the clothes they put on show! There is an export guarantee system that insures their bad debts from overseas buyers,  who sometimes take advantage by not paying. So, in the worst case, a fashion week and UK Trade and Investment subsidy can promote a designer who is hard to work with, then pay the bad debts when the designer isn't paid, and put rival producers out of work because they're not in the PR business and get overlooked. An example is Equity Shoes of Leicester who were overlooked as ethical footwear producers while Terra Plana, who bought shoes from China, got the PR. Both are now closed.


For a long time there was only anecdotal evidence that London Fashion Week helped taxpayers. Now they have a 50 page "Value of Fashion" report in very small print which seems to show huge returns. We know from the Olympics' effect on London tourism that these reports are partly a sales pitch; they are not impartial. Read closely, the report admits the opposite of what the headline summaries say. Estimates of how money circulates are based on decades-old data about how many shoe factories existed in the UK, including many like Equity Shoes that have now closed. Most of the money circulates amongst people who could get other jobs in PR and fashion journalism. And no estimate is made of the cost of crowding-out UK apparel suppliers from the market.

3.
Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Indian & Chinese governments can reduce poverty.
The methods that worked in the UK 100 years ago were universal schooling and national insurance. Schooling for girls helped them become more assertive and reduced the rate of child birth. Pensions helped parents plan for old age without having to have as many children as they possibly could.

The first modern national insurance scheme was introduced in Germany, just before its industrial revolution.  It is not too early for Bangladesh to start one now.

The difficulty is how someone in the UK can effect government in Bangladesh, beyond a few factory checks or a fair-trade scheme. This is the next point.


4.
European and US government can change the tariffs that tax trade from countries without democratic welfare states like Bangladesh or China.
This helps people in Bangladesh as well as their cousins in Bolton. There is a consensus.
A formula for tariffs be worked-out over time.

  • More democracy earns a lower tariff - there is already a democracy index that could help this one get started.

  • More of a welfare state earns a lower tariff.

  • More human rights earn a lower tariff. And the reverse could also be true, so a country with more expensive exports because of the cost of a welfare state can still compete on price with China; the worst country no longer sets the market price for garment production.


Western governments are already trying to help eastern ones become more stable and better governed, if only to prevent the tide of misery reaching Europe in the form of wars and refugees. Search "Bangladesh" on gov.uk and find this...
"we are working with Transparency International Bangladesh and other civil society organisations to generate more debate between the government and citizens about progress in improving the providing services like health, education and legal services, and to beat corruption."

Unfortunately, western governments are also paying Bangladesh to keep its poor, with grants, development work and tariff-deals that depend on there being a lot of very poor people in Bangladesh. The rich in Bangladesh do very well out of this system. Their government even has enough free cash to pay for an export subsidy in a country that gets aid from the UK. Factory owners now get some free training for their staff paid by the UK taxpayer. With luck, the firm consistent pressure of conditional tariffs would change their minds and the way they run government. If not, the tariff system would raise some money towards the 0.7% that UK taxpayers pay in aid, to pay for Pakistani healthcare when the Pakistan government only pays 0.8% on health.

Plan A for fashion - in case anyone wonders what plan A was


What was plan A?



27 June 2013 at 15:39

Why plan B 4 fashion? (or what was plan A?)

It used to be thought that

  • Fashion will be fashioned in the far east along with everything else from ships to computers.
    This wasn't really a thought based on statistics or such. Just an every-day observation that seemed inevitable until countries like South Korea and Japan got similar living standards to the UK and still had a lot more indiustry. How do they do it? Their governments didn't fiddle their exchange rates and are much more interested in industry.

  • European jobs could come from financial services & invisibles (invisible clothes for example),
    because we are so much better and cleaverer and smarter with all our sophistication (sarcastic).
    To be fair, the new middle class in the far east are suckers for Western brands because they represent something vaguely good, but it seems silly to rip them off by selling them sweatshop goods as a symbol of the free civilised west. The next generation will choose differently.


Since the banking crisis, banks have cut-back service jobs as have walk-in retailers.
The currency manipulation that made countries like the UK look rich in the 1980s-2000s now has to be reversed, so that more things can be made here again. Fashionistas might not be very interested in monetary policy, but it's a label for rigging exchange rates so that imports look cheap and there can be less inflation. An odd policy to keep in place for 30 years, but that was the policy. It's probably not on the syllabus at fashion college.

A compromise view is that posh things can be made in Europe but cheap things must be made in the far east for high street chain stores. But there are other niche-markets than posh. The shoes worn by ballroom dancers who dance after the political party conferences in Blackpool are often made in the UK and sold for lower prices than branded alternatives made in the far east. The problem is the cost of advertising a brand and distributing it on a high street, as well as manufacturing. Now that people are buying online and may be more savvy about brands, there is a chance to promote shoes made in the UK.

Western people were different to eastern people and should not poke their noses into corruption or bad government by rich elites (who could arrest any eastern people who poked nose). In the UK it's hard to know if any one person believed the first part of this, but it's easy to see that westerners did not want to poke their noses into the politics of Bangladesh or Paikistan or India or China.

More trade might lead to a trickling-down of wealth, of human rights, welfare rights & democracy  If not, it was thought to be post-colonial nose-poking to have an opinion.
It was not the business of facebook readers. It was the business of people getting very wealthy in the far east.

If western people are much the same as eastern people, and wealth usually needs a push to trickle-down to to most of us, then there are policies to sort out on the western side, because that is where the consumer money is as the moment. Maybe in a hundred years it will be in the east. In business, it is always good to build-up good will in case someone else is making the decisions in a few years' time! So my recommendation is to keep everyone happy by writing happiness tariff laws, leading to good will and happiness all-round.

Tuesday, 3 September 2013

http://www.vogue.co.uk/news/2010/10/12/applications-open-for-lfw


Ethics of Estethica


If anyone really understands the ethics of Esthetica, please send them on a postcard or write them on our facebook page!




Applications for LFW’s most coveted schemes are now open




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



Taxes via UK Trade and Investment subsidise London Fashion Week



UK Trade and Investment subsidises London Fashion Week

The link says it all.

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

Taxes from Greater London Authority subsidise London Fashion Week

180274_370079949765095_1958872834_n[1]

[written as a note 13.5.13]

This appeared to be a post saying that taxes from the Greater London Authority subsidise London Fashion Week, but it's got garbled. Most of the blog posts on a single page are visible from the link below.



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

Fashion Week subsidy for the UK, not China

Fashion Week subsidy for the UK, not China. A proposal

The circulation of tax money spent on London Fashion Week should benefit more taxpayers and help rebalance the economy. The money should not just go to big business, London service industries, and Chinese factories. Think of this like a manifesto idea.

Current estimates of where the money goes are based on decades-old figures about how many factories make things in the UK. Now there are less. Other money circulates to PR agents, photographers, and the London parts of international fashion operations. These do not help to rebalance the economy towards the regions and manufacturing.

How?
UK factories should nominate and have their names quoted


Reference requests. Subsidise only the fashion companies that can get a reference from a UK or European factory.

Publish the names of these factories during the fashion week.

Hold the event in Leicester or some town with clothing factories in it and cheap hotels, rather than an expensive and over-crowded town like London.

Who?
Taxpayers pay London Fashion week via the Department for Business and Greater London Authority

London Fashion Week is subsidised by the Department for Business, The Department for Culture, and the Greater London Authority who pay a trade association called British Fashion Council to organise it.

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