The Manifesto of a Hummingbird: . 13 + 1 ways to make a stance for responsible business and leadership.
Algha Works are Britain’s last metal spectacle frame manufacturer, operating from Fish Island - close to the 2012 Olympics' site - for the past century. A portrait.
Uncertainty is widespread in the cotton market: Textile Exchange published organic cotton production figures. The current Farm & Fiber Report shows a drastic decrease. Simon Ferrigno on the current developments of the organic cotton sector and about his predictions for the future of the eco fashion market.
Cork is one of the most sustainable natural materials extant. Portugal supplies about two thirds of the world's cork, but the increased use of plastic bottle stoppers for wine, instead of cork, poses a threat to the country's industry. This post presents some data around cork and describes the bigger picture. The follow up post will look at how innovative uses of cork find application in fashion.
Already early last year the Swedish Fast Fashion retailer H&M announced the placement of test orders for garments from Ethiopian and Kenyan suppliers. And they're not even the first ones: Retailers such as Tesco and Walmart seem to have gone down that lane already some time ago.
Italy. Known for the style of its inhabitants, the quality and sharp cut of its suits, the inventiveness of its fashion designers, the quality of its fabrics. Yet, if we were to talk sustainability in textiles and fashion, what is going on on the ground?
Parents complain about the prices of school uniforms. Yet - are they also considering that too cheap a price may actually ... get them school uniforms for their children, made by children of that same age?
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.
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 design stage is usually the longest, most expensive and riskiest part of the chain. Additionally, research has shown that at least an estimated 80% of a product's environmental (and to a lesser degree also social) impact is locked at the design stage into a product. By integrating the product design with the supply chain, companies can compress non-value adding time and costs in their supply chains, increase responsiveness and mitigate supply chain risks – while simultaneously managing (improving) their sustainability performance without added costs or efforts.
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.
Mid last year, an interesting campaign piece was delivered to my mailbox: London based Offset Warehouse launched a capsule collection of T-shirts retailing at £4.99 (app. Euro 6, plus P&P). Now, the point is, that even if these T-shirt were sold through a major retailer, they would hardly have retailed at more than £10 - and this at a vastly superior quality then is often case.
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.
The quality of governance is one of the key ingredients why projects, companies, and even governments fail in their tasks. It is also the key ingredient to achieve results, buy-in and participation. It is for this very reason that good governance was seen early on as one of the fundamental success factors for the Social Labor Convergence Project (SLCP).
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.
On September 12 to 14, I attended the European Business Ethics Network (EBEN) yearly conference in Lille, France. The theme of this year’s edition was ‘License to Operate’.
I and my colleague Ilaria Pasquinelli, both presented a research paper, focused on sustainability and value generation in the fashion industry, and the status quo of knowledge on sustainable consumption habits respectively.
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'.
In Tunisia, like across most of the Maghrib region, textiles, their significance and methods of production remain a firm part of the country’s identity and history. A portrait.
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.
Anna Grindi was coveted dress maker from Tempio Pausania, a town in northern Sardinia. And enchanted by the possibility of cork for fashion. Her obsession lead to the development of cork fabrics that today are the foundations to her very successful company Suberis, turning over millions of Euros. A portrait.
