GUEST POST BY DARREN HOAD
The Current Global Climate
Small and medium-sized businesses are often unsung heroes of sustainability. At the same time, though, creative industries around the world are facing the challenges of globalisation. The relentless onslaught of deregulation through trade liberalisation and the end of agreements like the MFA (Multi-Fibre Agreement) in 2005, sounded the death knell for many small fashion and design businesses. Main St. USA and High St. UK have been flooded by cheap imports from resource rich and labour cheap economies in the developing world.
Competing With Disposable Fashion
In as little as 20 years the US apparel manufacturing sector has lost approximately 80% of its jobs, and it’s not hard to see why. How can the creative industries, the small-scale producer, the designer and manufacturer compete with jeans at £10 and t-shirts at £1 (that’s about $15 and $1)? Couple that with rip-off design and intellectual property theft, it means the loss of revenue for many cash strapped designers and creators.
For consumers, cheap clothing is often seen as a great opportunity to bag a bargain. But at what cost? Cheap clothes are cheap for a reason. They are often Continue reading
World Fair Trade Day is a global celebration of Fair Trade held each year on the second Saturday in May. Hundreds of thousands of people in over 80 countries participate.
Over the last few decades, market forces and cheap labor overseas have increasingly pushed U.S. garment production beyond our borders, to the point that a once thriving industry is reduced to a shadow of its former self. Yet there is hope. 
It is accepted wisdom that the path to economic advancement is paved by women. When women make money, they invest it in their families, their children, and their communities. When men make money, well, sometimes they don’t. Empowering women means empowering societies. I don’t mean to sound all first-world paternalistic (or maternalistic in this case) but it’s true. Women are just that awesome. 