Tag Archives: China

Designer, Punk and Activist, Dame Vivienne Westwood

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Designer, Punk and Activist, Dame Vivienne WestwoodA few hours ago, I didn’t know a whole lot about Vivienne Westwood and now I’m totally fascinated.  This woman defies all description, but I’m going to try to explain her anyway.

This is a woman that, when she received the Order of the British Empire from Queen Elizabeth in 1992, didn’t wear underwear and was photographed with her hoo-ha out at Buckingham Palace.

Designer, Punk and Activist, Dame Vivienne WestwoodThree years earlier, she’d appeared as Margaret Thatcher on the cover of Tatler with the caption “This woman was once a punk.”  Thatcher was reportedly less than pleased.

Is she eccentric?  Just a tad.  Is she talented? Without a doubt.  A true artist (as in Continue reading →

I’m invincible with my Baggu bag!

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Baggu:
1. The Japanese word for “bag”
2. An awesome company located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn that makes sustainable reusable bags in many shapes and colors.

Im invincible with my Baggu bag! I visited the Baggu headquarters a few weeks ago, and just last week purchased my very first Baggu bag: the backpack in coral.

Im invincible with my Baggu bag! Continue reading →

Repairing the World with a New RECYCLED Textile

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Did you know?
15 – 20% of all fabric is thrown away from the cutting room floor

First, you take cotton scraps from the cutting room floor and sort them by color.  Then, you grab some post-consumer plastic bottles.  You melt everything down, combine it, and mulch it into a new, colored fiber that is a blend of recycled polyester and recycled cotton.  Voila:Repairing the World with a New RECYCLED Textile

That’s the recipe for the textile that goes into Repair the World Apparel, a brand created by Mark Heiman in 2008.  He and his partner Alan, who had met through various philanthropic ventures they participated in over the years, were both baby boomers looking to make a difference.  Mark had years of experience in the textile industry, holding several patents for medical textiles, and Alan Continue reading →

The Changing Landscape of the Global Garment Industry, Post-MFA

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The Changing Landscape of the Global Garment Industry, Post MFAAs someone relatively new to learning about sustainability and the global garment industry, I was blissfully unaware of this thing called the Multi-Fibre Arrangement (MFA) until I read Kelsey Timmerman’s book Where Am I Wearing? a few months ago.  After that, I started to see those three letters all over the place (and no, I wasn’t researching fine arts graduate programs).  Turns out, it was an agreement put in place in 1974 and ended in 2005, the existence of which, and now lack thereof, affects the lives millions of garment workers around the world.

The MFA, in a nutshell, was an agreement that restricted exports of textiles to developed countries (US, Canada, and the EU) from developing countries (China, et al). Since 1974, import quotas had been applied to 73 countries in the global South, mostly in Asia, but starting in 1995 they were phased out.  The quota system was abolished completely in 2005, drastically changing the game for garment-producing countries.

So what happens now?

Well, production shifts based on competitive factors.  The fear in 2004 was that basically everything would move to China because of its infrastructure, abundance of raw materials, and cheap labor.  And it’s true, Chinese textile exports did skyrocket.  In 2000, 13% of US textile imports were from China, and in 2010 that number was 39.7%.The Changing Landscape of the Global Garment Industry, Post MFA

So how do the other countries compete with China? Continue reading →

China does Eco Fashion?

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China does Eco Fashion?

China, not known as an exemplary caretaker of its natural resources, or, for that matter, of its human resources, has just joined the dozens of other countries across the globe with cities that feature Eco Fashion in their annual Fashion Week shows.  Shanghai’s Fashion Week featured  China’s first Eco Fashion closing show.

P1.CN, China’s first private social network aimed at the country’s affluent class, organized the show.  According to SIX Magazine – a great resource for all things eco-fashion – P1.CN has recently become the first major company in China to re-position itself as socially-responsible with its new platform,E Fashion – Beauty of Change, where E Fashion stands for Exceptional, Ethicaland Eco. 

For more info, read SIX’s coverage here.

If China is at all serious about eco fashion, it’s also got to address gross violations of international labor standards in its garment factories.  Sustainable fashion = eco AND ethical. But bravo for baby steps!