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.
More than half a million people from ethnic minority groups in the region have been coerced into cotton picking, according to a new report from Washington-based think tank the Center for Global Policy, which suggests the impact on the cotton supply chain of China’s controversial labour transfer scheme runs deeper than previously thought.
Xinjiang is a major cotton-producing region, accounting for 20 percent of global supply. But it is also the focus of international scrutiny over the alleged coercion of ethnic minorities into forced labour.
Earlier this month, the US banned cotton imports from the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, a paramilitary organisation that counts as one of China’s largest cotton producers. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said the allegations are “completely fabricated.”
How to best spend the large sums it will take to cut the fashion industry’s carbon emissions? The Apparel Impact Institute is launching a pre-vetted portfolio of climate solutions in an effort to better direct investment.
The brand’s hyperrealistic (but fake) animal heads sparked outrage this week, highlighting the increasingly delicate balance brands must strike between provocative marketing and shifting consumer values.
Shifting weather patterns are making shopping behaviour harder to predict, adding to inventory management challenges for brands and retailers.
The company faced questions about how rabbit felt, which is made from the animal’s hairs, fit with its no-fur policy.