The Business of Fashion
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
"Low Wages, Unsafe Conditions and Harassment: Fashion Must Do More to Protect Female Workers" (The Guardian)
"While approximately 80% of the world's garment workers are women, the number of women heading the 15 largest mass-market apparel companies on the Fortune 500 list is zero."
"'I Don't Like Setting Targets' — How Primark Plans to Forge Its Own Path for Ethical and Environmental Change" (Business Green)
"According to Lister, the firm's low prices are not achieved through artificially depressing worker's wages and eroding supply chain standards, as some critics allege, but through a combination of volume buying, zero advertising, and tight margins."
"How Cotton Recovery is Changing the Game for Sustainable Fashion" (Triple Pundit)
"I:CO has created a closed-loop system in which textiles and shoes can be recycled and remade into new products."
"The Modelling Industry Laid Bare" (CNN Style)
"Models themselves are now arguably more vocal than ever through social media, and industry bodies have been making decisive moves in various areas of concern. But what about those behind the scenes?"
"Can the Throw-Away Fashion Industry Lead a New Trend Toward Sustainability?" (Thomson Reuters Foundation)
"'Whatever industry that is not sustainable, including fashion, will lose its market share because consumers will be more and more aware.'"
A study published this week found traces of cotton from Xinjiang in nearly a fifth of the products it examined, highlighting the challenges brands face in policing their supply chains even as requirements to do so spread to raw materials from diamonds to leather and palm oil.
Overconsumption and fast fashion have become easy targets for brands flexing their climate-friendly attributes. Consumers may agree with the message — but take issue with a self-righteous tone.
Traces of cotton from Xinjiang were found in nearly a fifth of samples from American and global retailers, highlighting the challenges of complying with a US law aimed at blocking imports that could be linked to forced labour in China.
The fashion industry continues to advance voluntary and unlikely solutions to its plastic problem. Only higher prices will flip the script, writes Kenneth P. Pucker.