New Zealand’s ethical fashion companies for 2016 revealed: Who passed the test? The report was released to coincide with the third anniversary of the Rana Plaza factory collapse. The tragedy brought the often unsafe working conditions of the apparel industry to the forefront of the public consciousness, with many horrified consumers, investors and governments spurred into action. A Colmar Brunton survey the year following found the majority (90 percent) of New Zealanders want to buy ethically and socially responsible products. Child labour in the fashion supply chain Fast fashion has engendered a race to the bottom, pushing companies to find ever-cheaper sources of labour. That cheap labour is freely available in many of the countries where textile and garment production takes place. Sofie Ovaa, global campaign coordinator of Stop Child Labour, says: “There are many girls in countries like India and Bangladesh, who are willing to work for very low prices and are easily brought into these industries under false promises of earning decent wages.” A recent report (pdf) by the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO), and the India Committee of the Netherlands (ICN) revealed that recruiters in southern India convince parents in impoverished rural areas to send their daughters to spinning mills with promises of a well-paid job, comfortable accommodation, three nutritious meals a day and opportunities for training and schooling, as well as a lump sum payment at the end of three years.
Do we buy it? H&M's fast fashion has a cost beyond the price tag The fashion giant opens its first NZ store this week. Underneath the hype is a company with a chequered history. There’s a particular hysteria that seems to descend on New Zealand when an international brand comes to town. It may not be possible to slow down fast fashion – so can the industry ever be sustainable? The world of fashion has some major sustainability problems. By 2030, it is predicted that the industry’s water consumption will grow by 50 per cent to 118 billion cubic metres, its carbon footprint will increase to 2,791 tonnes and the amount of waste it creates will hit 148 tonnes. These predictions are in spite of significant progress being made by brands and retailers to minimise their impact.
Fast fashion doesn't have to be bad Last updated 05:00, April 29 2017 Supplied For a dedicated follower of fashion, it can be a big shift to consider op-shopping and upcycling. It's Friday morning and a night on the town with vino and friends is looking likely after a hard week at work. Why fast fashion is slow death for the planet Every morning when I wake up I am confronted by my fashion history. Mistakes, corrections, good buys, bad buys, comfort buys, drunk buys: they refuse to go away. This is because my wardrobe is opposite my bed, and the door, like a broken zipper, will no longer pull across to hide the tale of excess. In the cold light of day many of the micro trends I've "invested in" – T-shirts with chains, a one-shouldered jumpsuit, and other designer lookalike items – merge to form a type of sartorial wasteland.
Killer Clothing Was All the Rage In the 19th Century While sitting at home one afternoon in 1861, poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s wife, Fanny, caught fire. Her burns were so severe that she died the next day. According to her obituary, the fire had started when “a match or piece of lighted paper caught her dress.” At the time, this wasn’t a peculiar way to die. In the days when candles, oil lamps, and fireplaces lit and heated American and European homes, women’s wide hoop skirts and flowing cotton and tulle dresses were a fire hazard, unlike men’s tighter-fitting wool clothes.
Greenpeace warns against the waste of fast fashion, advocates "true materialism" — Quartz This is the last in The Vanishing University, a four-part series exploring the tech-driven future of higher education in America. Here are parts one, two, and three. “Not enough people are innovating enough in higher education,” gripes Larry Summers, the economist who served for five years as president of Harvard. Slow style vs fast fashion It seems we’ve got a ravenous appetite for fashion. Garments are more than a third cheaper than they were ten years ago, and the average woman owns more clothing now than at any other time in history. It’s all thanks to ‘fast fashion’, a revolutionary new production model that’s taken the industry by storm.