This free introductory, extensively researched guide to ethically sourcing fashion from India, aims at small(er) ethical designers during the first stage of their efforts.
London Fashion Week 02/2011 - Day 3: Sourcing ethically is all about knowledge. It's primarily about livelihoods and survival, beyond the 'Human-Rights factor'.
On February 9th 2011, the Fairtrade Labelling Organisation successfully launched the Fairtrade Gold Standard. The UK is the first market where FT gold is available.
Interview with Shazia Saleem, a London-based couture fashion designer, who specialises in hand woven textiles & works in cooperation with Varanasi brocade hand weavers.
The European wool industry has all but disappeared. Recently however, a grassroots trend is emerging. Mini mills now cater to small hold breeders, which turns wool source more transparent then ever.
What 'ethical' business trends can we see across the globe. In this double post, we look at what the trends in fair trade are, and what we can infer from them.
Part 1: What we probably know.
Historically, fair trade has pitch to and sold thanks to consumers' guilt. A grave mistake as the currently ongoing consumption trends show. Quality, exclusivity is what has survived the economic downturn best.
The coastal areas of Eastern Japan, while largely unaffected by the grade 9 earthquake from March 11th, 2011, was thoroughly washed away by the tsunami following the quake. Now that the recovery efforts are under way, also fashion companies and fashion related projects contribute their share. An overview of what is happening on the ground to-date.
The issue of wages in the fashion supply chain is a never ending story: the paid wages, the unpaid wages, those that suffice, or not, for a livelihood. tackles this issue in a very thorough, and at the same time visionary way by laying out a practical frame work for a Fair Wages
The 'Everything must go' exhibition, that took place from January 20 to 22, 2012, introduced the wider public to the details of the global value chain for discarded clothing. Drawing from the results of 5 years of research, the numbers and facts are staggering, and intriguing at the same time.
Report by Jacqueline Shaw from Africa Fashion Guide, on a recent visit to The Gambia and the textile history and techniques she encountered during her stay.
Where and how was 'ethical fashion' invented? Who played key roles in the past? And where are we at and where are we going? A retrospective analysis that also looks into the future.
Julius Walters of Stephen Walters & Sons is a ninth generation weaver of a family business founded 1720. This is the company that wove the silk for the Queen’s coronation robes and for Princess Diana’s wedding dress.
Are natural perfumes the panacea for sustainability in the fragrance industry? Are there good sides, not only bad ones, to synthetics ingredients in perfumes? And what about health impacts? A brief overview of the most important issues.
Perfumery can be a dirty business. In this interview with Marina Barcenilla, founder and creative perfumer of Glastonbury-based The Perfume Garden, we investigate the company's approach to ethical and vegan ingredient sourcing.
In the briefest of time, Bottletop's iconic bags have not only made into the limelight of fashion weeks supported by VIP, but their business model and approach has earned the organisation a shortlisting for the Observer Ethical Awards 2012, the British 'Green Oscars'.
J&R Designs in Homerton is a small factory in London's East End, the only remaining of its kind, run by the Persaud family, and which specialises in hand crafted quality leather handbags manufacturing. A portrait.
The developments in the British Midlands of the industrial revolution have coined the textiles industry possibly like no other.
It was is this area that we find the roots to the modern textile industry, including case studies that (nearly) could be dated from our modern times. From archives and historical records the industrial revolution left behind in the area, we can gain many an insight that will trigger a simple ‘déjà-vu’ when taking note of news about textile factories from the Far East that with regularity hit our headlines.
Can marketing be ethical? Far too many times I am asked this question or come across people who strongly believe that marketing simply cannot. Actually, still today, for many, marketing is evil. I think that this conviction is the result of two main factors.
Resting the case for innovation.
“Globalization presumes sustained economic growth. Otherwise, the process loses its economic benefits and political support.” (P. Samuelson). There is an evident illogic, impossibility, of the traditional 'economic growth' lemma.
