Ethical Fashion

What's in a Name?

by Minh-Ha T. Pham

Published in The American Prospect (3 November 2011)

Urban Outfitters removes the word "Navajo" from its product line, but the cultural poaching is the same. Urban Outfitters removes the word "Navajo" from its product line, but the cultural poaching is the same.

Discursive Confusion over Sustainable Consumption: A Discursive Perspective on the Perplexity of Marketplace Knowledge

by Johanna Moisander

Co-authored with Annu Markkula, accepted for publication in Journal of Consumer Policy special issue "From Knowledge to Action -­New Paths towards Sustainable Consumption", edited by John Thøgersen and Ulf Schrader.

This paper works towards a discursive, practice-based perspective on explaining the “knowledge-to-action”–gap observed... more This paper works towards a discursive, practice-based perspective on explaining the “knowledge-to-action”–gap observed in the consumer policy–literature on sustainable consumption. Based on an empirical study that focuses on fashion and clothing markets, the objective is to elaborate on the nature and implications of the discursive polyphony that consumers face when striving for more sustainable consumption practices. Overall, it is concluded that part of the gap can be attributed to the discursive confusion that arises from a simultaneous existence of multiple, continuously changing and partly clashing discourses of sustainable consumption as well as the associated discursive struggle that consumers need to deal with when trying to make sense of their roles and responsibilities in sustainable development.

Ethical and Ethnical Fashion Cycle

by Ruhee Das Chowdhury

Being ‘Ethical’ and sustainable is certainly one of the most talked about issues in the Fashion Scenario in India... more Being ‘Ethical’ and sustainable is certainly one of the most talked about issues in the Fashion Scenario in India today. ‘Commitment to traditional techniques’, ‘locally sourced material’; reduced carbon footprint are some of the responses from the fashion fraternity on the definition of ethical fashion. It has been observed that Indian Traditional Textiles and Clothing are ‘ethical’ from most sustainability parameters. This paper studies the timeline of Indian fashion and clothing through the eyes of ‘Sustainability’. The observations made show that sustainability Indian Fashion is ‘Cyclic’ ‘Romantic’ and ‘Beautiful’.

Luxury Fashion: The role of innovation as a key contributing factor in the development of luxury fashion goods and sustainable fashion design.

by Angela Finn

Event Title: Fashion and Luxury: Between heritage and innovation. 13th Annual Conference of the International Federation of Fashion Technology Institutes.
Event Location: Paris, France.
Event Dates: 11th - 14th April, 2011
Event Type: Conference

Please Note: I am frequently asked to upload a copy of this paper so that people can read it....please note that I am only permitted to upload one copy of this paper and it is available here http://eprints.qut.edu.au/40985/

The pdf which is uploaded on academia.edu is a copy of the conference programme and not a copy of my full paper.

Luxury is a quality that is difficult to define as the historical concept of luxury appears to be both dynamic and... more Luxury is a quality that is difficult to define as the historical concept of luxury appears to be both dynamic and culturally specific. The everyday definition explains a ‘luxury’ in relation to a necessity: a luxury (product or service) is defined as something that consumers want rather than need. However, the growth of global markets has seen a boom in what are now referred to as ‘luxury brands’. This branding of products as luxury has resulted in a change in the way consumers understand luxury goods and services. In their attempts to characterize a luxury brand, Fionda & Moore in their article “The anatomy of a Luxury Brand” summarize a range of critical conditions that are in addition to product branding “... including product and design attributes of quality, craftsmanship and innovative, creative and unique products” (Fionda & Moore, 2009). For the purposes of discussing fashion design however, quality and craftsmanship are inseparable while creativity and innovation exist under different conditions.
The terms ‘creative’ and ‘innovative’ are often used inter-changeably and are connected with most descriptions of the design process, defining ‘design’ and ‘fashion’ in many cases. Christian Marxt and Fredrik Hacklin identify this condition in their paper “Design, product development, innovation: all the same in the end?”(Marxt & Hacklin, 2005) and suggest that design communities should be aware that the distinction between these terms, whilst once quite definitive, is becoming narrow to a point where they will mean the same thing. In relation to theory building in the discipline this could pose significant problems. Brett Richards (2003) identifies innovation as different from creativity in that innovation aims to transform and implement rather than simply explore and invent. Considering this distinction, in particular relation to luxury branding, may affect the way in which design can contribute to a change in the way luxury fashion goods might be perceived in a polarised fashion market, namely suggesting that ‘luxury’ is what consumers need rather than the ‘pile it high, sell it cheap’ fashion that the current market dynamic would indicate they want.
This paper attempts to explore the role of innovation as a key contributing factor in luxury concepts, in particular the relationship between innovation and creativity, the conditions which enable innovation, the role of craftsmanship in innovation and design innovation in relation to luxury fashion products. An argument is presented that technological innovation can be demonstrated as a common factor in the development of luxury fashion product and that the connection between designer and maker will play an important role in the development of luxury fashion goods for a sustainable fashion industry.

Ethical fashion: the human stories driving a fashion movement

by Angela Finn

This paper examines and compares two stories, the novel Helen Fleetwood (Elizabeth, 1841) and the film China Blue... more This paper examines and compares two stories, the novel Helen Fleetwood (Elizabeth, 1841) and the film China Blue (Teddy Bear Films, 2005), in relation to the Ethical Fashion movement. In 2005, more than 50 designers from around the world took part in The Ethical Fashion Show in Paris. This movement dictates that designers ensure that their garments are produced in an ethical manner, rather than support the ‘sweatshop’ environments of some industrialists determined to make a profit at the expense of workers rights. The momentum of the Ethical Fashion movement suggests that it is possible for fashion to be ethical, desirable and profitable in the 21st century. In 1841, after extensive research, Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna (using the pseudonym Charlotte Elizabeth) began to write about the atrocities of the factory system in industrialised England. Her novel, Helen Fleetwood, is one of the earliest examples of this kind of work, providing the reader with an extensive insight into the life of English factory workers in the mid-19th century. The story is about the Widow Green and her orphan dependents who are led, through circumstance, to leave their rural home and take up employment in the cotton mills of Manchester, with the hope of having an independent existence. Instead they discover the realities of factory life – extremely long hours, unsafe conditions, poor wages and a steady decline into extreme poverty. In his film China Blue (Teddy Bear Films, 2005), director Micha X. Peled tells an alarmingly similar tale set in 21st century China. This ‘docu-drama’ (a recreation from actual interviews and diary entries) tells the story of ‘Little Jasmine’ who leaves her family’s farm to pursue an independent life in Southern China’s manufacturing district. It is not long before the realities of modern factory life are revealed to the teenage ‘heroine’ – crowded dormitories, long working hours, arbitrary fines and wages that do not compare with those of workers in the Western world. While much of the human story remains unchanged, there have been significant improvements in technology and safety in the last 165 years that result in the reality that not all clothing manufacture is performed in ‘sweatshop’ conditions. After a recent visit to a manufacturing plant in China, consultation with peers in the industry and having worked in the Australian fashion industry for many years, the author compares these stories with her own experiences.

Full circle: the future of sustainable fashion manufacturing in New Zealand

by Angela Finn

Place of Publication: London
Publisher: The Centre for Learning and Teaching in Art and Design (CLTAD)
Publication Title: International Foundation of Fashion Technology Institutes (IFFTI) 2009 : Fashion and Wellbeing
Number of Chapters: 1
Page Range: pp. 342-352

This paper was co-authored with Dr Joan Farrer and extends the work of Finn's honours dissertation entitled: Fashion Manufacturing in New Zealand: Can design contribute to a more sustainable fashion industry? The paper is published in the conference proceedings.

Many fashion businesses in New Zealand have followed a global trend towards inexpensive off shore manufacturing. The... more Many fashion businesses in New Zealand have followed a global trend towards inexpensive off shore manufacturing. The transfer of the production of garments to overseas workers has had consequences for the wellbeing of local businesses, fashion designers and garment makers. The gradual decline of fashion manufacturing also appears to have resulted in a local fashion scene where many garments look the same in style, colour, fabric, cut and fit. The excitement of the past, where the majority of fashion designers established their own individuality through the cut and shape of the garments that they produced, may have been inadvertently lost in an effort to take advantage of cost savings achieved through mass production and manufacturing methods which are now largely unavailable in New Zealand. Consequently, a sustainable local fashion and manufacturing industry, with design integrity, seems further out of reach. This paper is focussed upon the thesis that the design and manufacture of a fashion garment, bearing in mind certain economic and practical restrictions at its inception, can contribute to a more sustainable fashion manufacturing industry in New Zealand.

Full Circle: a collection of prototypes

by Angela Finn

This exhibition engages with one of the key issues facing the fashion textiles industry in terms of future... more This exhibition engages with one of the key issues facing the fashion textiles industry in terms of future sustainability: that of the well being of fashion industry workers in Australia and New Zealand (people). This collection formed the basis of my honours dissertation (completed in New Zealand in 2008) which examines the contribution that design can make to sustainable manufacturing; particularly design for local production and consumption. An important aspect this work is the discussion of source, the work suggests that the made in China syndrome (in reference to the current state of over-consumerism in Australia and New Zealand) could be bought to a close through design to minimize waste and maximize opportunity for ‘people’: in this case both garment workers and the SMEs that employ them. The garments reflect the possibilities of focusing on a local approach that could be put into practice by a framework of SMEs that already exist. In addition the design process is highly transferrable and could be put into practice almost anywhere with minimal set up costs and a design ethos that progresses at the same pace as the skills of workers. This collection is a physical and conceptual embodiment of a source local/make local/sell local approach. The collection is an example of design that demonstrates that this is not an unrealistic ideal and is in fact possible through the development of a sustainable industry, in the sense of people, profit and planet, through adoption of a design process model that stops the waste at the source, by making better use of the raw materials and labour involved in making fashion garments. Although the focus of this research appears to centre on people and profit, this kind of source local/make local/sell local approach also has great benefits in terms of environmental sustainability.

Conscience Clothing: Polarisation of the Fashion Textile market.

by Kim Fraser

Co-authored with Dr Joan Farrer.  Published in Textiles - Quarterly magazine of the Textile Institute, Vol. 2009, No. 1, p. 10-13.

It is 2018 in a clothing store called Shop One, an automaton greets you, and a scanner beam checks your vital signs... more It is 2018 in a clothing store called Shop One, an automaton greets you, and a scanner beam checks your vital signs and size. It says ‘co-creation and customisation this floor, emotion and intelligent clothing first floor, track and trace swap shop third floor and artisanal collections penthouse.’ This is the fashion experience for generation ‘C’, children of the digital world where brands no longer dictate. They will be in Control, part of the local and global Community they will innovate and Co-Create products with business, expecting the supply chain to be transparent and to ‘do the right thing’. Sustainability, or people, profit, planet will be part of the bedrock of a Cradle to Cradle fashion textiles system.

Adjacent Shop Two has mountains of colour and trend merchandise from global factories. Huge ‘how to wear it’ virtual fashion projections line the walls and holograms march the catwalk. Buy one get three free, proliferate in natural fibre fabrics, ‘rent a look’ is popular. Mobile phones tell what to buy, what suits, how much and what size. Parallel examples of ‘fiction’ fashion retail illustrate the emerging polarisation of the industry and consumer shift, which is already taking place on every high street and in every mall.

The oil and water separation of the industry is now underway as customers experience a lack of trust in brands, choice fatigue, disenchantment with the patriarchal approach of retailers employing dated qualitative research methods, cynical smokescreen of fair and ethical trade and spurious sustainability claims or ‘green wash’. Fashion consumers are changing, innovators or ‘innosumers’ (Farrer and Fraser 2008) are taking control, customising and co-creating products demanding information and forcing change. Dr Joan Farrer RCA, Director Textile + Design Lab, Associate Professor AUT University, and Kim Fraser, Department of Fashion, AUT University, Auckland, New Zealand take a look at where designers, manufacturers, retailers and consumers place themselves in the polarised fashion textile industry of the future.

ReDress-ReFashion As a Solution for Clothing (Un) Sustainability

by Kim Fraser

Published master’s thesis. AUT University, Auckland, New Zealand

The primary aim of this practice based project is to promote debate and alter perceptions of second-hand materials and... more The primary aim of this practice based project is to promote debate and alter perceptions of second-hand materials and ReFashion concepts. The work is positioned between the developed world business model extremes of overproduction, and over-consumption, in clothing manufacture.
Practical work which represents 80% of this thesis, pitches discarded clothing as an untapped commodity. The investigation poses questions and possibilities with respect to applying the ReFashion concept to a potential business model. By developing prototypes through deconstruction and reconstruction processes, reflection upon current practices of the secondary textile industry has been possible, highlighting ReFashion as a potential ‘Materials Recovery’ process.
The second outcome for the research is to provide contextualised information for the fashion manufacturing industry and government agencies, in order to develop innovative applications for new markets.