Fashion Revolution Day 2015: the ugly truth behind the barcode

I feel bad. I have been neglecting this blog as I have been consumed with other aspects of my life: work, travels, spending quality time with loved ones. That said, I have never once given up on my mission to educate people I meet on this issue though I've also had to learn to hold back and be less aggressive in my approach.

A recently released report by Baptist World Aid Australia called "The Truth Behind the Barcode: Australian Fashion Report 2015" has prompted me to provide my perspective on the assessment especially considering that many of these brands are aggressively building their presence in Asia. 313 Somerset in Orchard Road, for example, easily houses half of the brands featured in the study. Fashion Revolution Day 2015 held on the anniversary of the Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh is another huge motivating factor. This report examines 59 apparel companies (219 brands) operating in Australia and assesses the efforts undertaken by these companies to protect workers in their supply chain from labour exploitation such as the use of child labour as well as highlight good practices within the industry. The assessment covers the entire supply chain from the management of raw materials, inputs to Cut-Make-Trim (CMT) manufacturing and covers four broad categories: policies, traceability & transparency, monitoring & training, and worker rights.

Based on the report, 22 out of the 59 apparel companies achieved A grades for policies which while very re-assuring, does not amount to much if they do not rigorously enforce these policies. Also, while slightly over half (52%) of companies are able to trace their suppliers at the CMT phase, the prevalence of  unauthorised subcontractors in this phase of production make it so much harder for clothing companies in particular global fast fashion chains with high volume and rapid turnover to closely monitor and track their supply chains. This fact is reinforced by the various case studies featured in the Human Rights Watch (HRW) report titled "Work Faster or Get Out:Labor Rights Abuses in Cambodia's Garment Industry'. The HRW report also highlights the issue of "coaching" whereby factory managers coached or threatened garment workers ahead of inspections to ensure only positive feedback are given to the inspectors. In fact, the report state that workers were " told to remove piles of clothes from their sewing machines and hide them....and underage child workers were hidden". So unless unannounced inspections are the norm, it is difficult to ascertain the effectiveness of these inspections in curbing human rights violations and instilling good labour practices.

Further down the supply chain, it only gets harder as evident by the Fashion Report which shows that only 25% of the apparel companies can fully trace their inputs and only a paltry 9% are able to trace their raw materials. A 2014 study carried out by SOMO and the India Committee of the Netherlands (ICN) entitled "Flawed Fabrics: The abuse of girls and women workers in the South Indian textile industry" examines labour exploitation experienced by girls and young women employed in the Tamil Nadu spinning industry in South India through a mix of desk research and on-the-ground interviews with 151 textile workers. The study found rampant human rights abuses including the use of forced labour and child labour, restricted freedom of movement, long working hours and the lack of labour contracts. As noted by the study, apparel companies monitoring and tracking efforts are generally limited to the CMT phase and do not focus on earlier production phases such as spinning, weaving and dyeing. The report subsequently recommends that clothing companies extend their supply chain responsibilities beyond end-product suppliers as supported by the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

Apart from the lack of traceability further down the supply chain, the amateur behavioural economist in me is interested in understanding the relationship between the pricing of apparels and the labour ethics of the brands. In order to do so, I have created a table to represent different categories of apparel price-point against the grades provided by the Fashion Report. It is important to note here that all the clothing companies which received F grades did not engage in the research process meaning that they could well be doing a lot more than what is publicly available to the study researchers.

 Apparel companies  price-point categories assessed against their labour rights management grades

Based on the table above, there appears to be very little correlation between apparel price-points and apparel companies' labour rights management. I say that with a grain of salt given the lack of scientific approach or rigorous methodology in my assessment. In fact, I was surprised that fast-fashion companies like the Cotton On Group and H&M performed considerably better than companies that retail mid to upper-mid range apparels like David Jones, Myer and the Oroton Group. But then again, numerous studies out there including one carried out last year by the Clean Clothes Campaign have proven that designer labels do not guarantee ethical supply chain. Neither do purchasing products made in established designer markets such as Italy as this fire outbreak in an illegal factory in Prato has underscored.

So where does that leave us fashion-loving consumers? I guess at the end of the day, it's important that we all strive to make conscientious choices when we go for retail therapy. The first step to this would be to make an effort to learn about the story behind the barcode. So...who made your clothes?

Fashion Bloggers, Blogshops & Fast Fashion: The Rise of the Asian, Middle-Class Consumers

Handprint, a short film aimed at raising awareness of the challenges of 

garment workers and jewellery producers around the world. 

Several months ago, I attended a workshop called 'I Want A Fashion Blog' hosted by a famous local fashion blogger and her photographer friend. I have no intention of being a fashion blogger in the conventional sense. I wanted to be a fair trade advocate that writes about fashion.Why fashion? Because just about everyone I know associate fair trade with commodities such as coffee, sugar and tea. Not surprising since these fair trade products are easily available in the supermarkets though not as diverse as what one might get in a Western nation. The proliferation of trendy cafes that embrace the Third Wave Coffee Movement with its emphasis on direct trade with socially responsible farms also means that consumers here have greater access to ethically-sourced produce.

I am also motivated by the fact that most resources I found from books such as 'Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion' to online articles and lifestyle blogs articulate the issues surrounding fast fashion from a Western consumer perspective. They talk about how physical and cultural distances eliminate any empathy towards the exploited garment workers and ensures disregard towards the environmental impact of fast-fashion. Often, they also try to advocate for locally made fashion. But the problem here is I live in Singapore so these arguments don't necessarily apply. How I see it, these things are happening in my backyard and yet most are still oblivious to the situation.

More alarmingly, the rise of middle-class consumers across Asia and particularly China means that the level of consumption is set to rise dramatically in this part of the world. According to the UNDP's 2013 Human Development Report, two-third of the global middle-class will be found in Asia by 2030. Coupled with lower awareness of sustainability issues as compared to Western consumers, this is a potential recipe for social and environmental disasters.

Consumer expenditure growth (% change) clothing and footwear
Region	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017
Asia and Australasia	3.4	8.7	10.4	10.5	10.4
Western Europe	0.8	0.6	1.5	1.5	2.9
North America	2.3	3.2	2.9	3.0	3.3
Source: The Economist Intelligence Unit

Already, a wide variety of sources including this article from The Wall Street Journal have indicated a strong correlation between a rise in the Asian middle-class with the rapid expansion of fast-fashion retailers. An article from the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) details aggressive expansion plans across Asia by fast-fashion retailers such as Asos, H&M, Wal-Mart, Uniqlo, Gap and TopShop. The EIU article also provides a projection of consumer expenditure growth in the apparel sector across the world. The table above clearly shows that Asia Pacific is leading the pack with double digit growth forecast between 2015 and 2017.

To make matters worse, retail landlords in China are even aggressively luring fast fashion retailers to set up shops in their malls through lucrative deals such as waiving base rent in return for a percentage of the store's turnover. The success of international fast fashion brands have also encouraged Asian retailers such as the Metersbonwe Group to speed up their production process and inventory turnover thus contributing to existing problems that includes the pollution of Yangtze and Pearl Rivers.

Aside from fast-fashion retailers, high technology adoption across the region has also led to the growth of widely-read fashion blogs and blogshops that further fuel the demand for short-lived fashion fads. For the uninformed, a blogshop is an online retail business that leverages on blogging platforms such as Blogger, LiveJournal and WordPress to sell highly affordable products. It is an extremely popular retail platform in Singapore that allows thousands to make side incomes. According to Blogshopsingapore.sg, there were over 50,000 blogshops in 2011, the estimated average income of a blogshop is around S$1440 and the estimated retail price of a blogshop product is S$20. The website also wax lyrical about the advantages of blogshop shopping.

As with fast fashion retailers, blogshops rely heavily on high stock turnover and low cost garments for their business model. Blogshop owners usually source cheap clothing from the region or City Plaza, a fashion wholesale mall although increasingly many owners have taken on the role of designer to give themselves an edge in the competitive blogshop-sphere. Given their unsustainable retail model, I wanted to research on the social and environmental impacts of blogshops. There were none. Instead, what I found were glowing articles praising the entrepreneurial spirits of these blogshop owners such as the blogshop couple that own MGP (My Glamour Place) that reportedly makes S$30,000 a month in 2011 selling dresses that retail for about S$30.

Returning back to the workshop, I was curious if anyone would raise the issue of ethical fashion or whether I had the guts to raise my hand and disrupt the workshop by asking the blogger if she ever thought of the hidden costs of fast fashion but I thought better of it. As much as I'd like to, I could tell they had put in a lot of effort to organise the workshop and it would be terrible of me to ruin it. That said, I hope that - even if the possibility is remote - some of the girls I met at the workshop might come across my blog and re-think their fashion stance and embrace the ethical fashion ethos.

Beautiful Clothes, Ugly Reality: Cambodian Garment Workers Turned Models to Fight for Rights

Garment factory workers model clothes for the 'Beautiful Clothes, Ugly Reality' fashion show in Phnom Penh.
Photo courtesy of Nicolas Axelrod/Roum

Two weeks ago, the Workers Information Centre (WIC), an organization striving to improve working conditions for women garment workers, held a fashion show in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. However, the women donning these clothes were not your usual 6 foot-tall, waif-like models. Rather, the fashion show engaged the very same people who toiled under deplorable conditions and paltry wages to model the clothes they make for well-known, global brands to spotlight the social injustice facing them.

The aptly themed 'Beautiful Clothes, Ugly Reality' fashion show serves as a platform to highlight the huge income disparities between garment workers and apparel brand owners as well as to advocate for a living wage and better working conditions for these workers. Garment workers in Cambodia not only face poor working conditions and low pay but also live in fear due to violent government clampdowns that have killed five garment workers. Ruom Collective, a Cambodian-based social journalism platform, provides an excellent coverage of the fashion show including the issues facing these garment workers.

The Workers Information Centre is a partner organisation of the International Women's Development Agency (IWDA), a Melbourne-based NGO that I support. Above is a video made by IWDA to educate consumers on the unfair and often exploitative treatments of Cambodian garment workers, of which 90 percent comprises of women. It serves to highlight the good work carried out by WIC to empower women garment workers in Cambodia by helping them fight for a fairer wage and working conditions.

According to reports carried by just-style and Shanghai Daily, global brands including H&M, GAP and the Inditex Group (Mango, Zara etc.) have indicated that they support higher minimum wages for Cambodian garment workers. As consumers with voting rights i.e. purchasing power, let's hold these highly-profitable labels accountable for the promises they have made.

Blueprint: Supporting Emerging, Ethical Designers

Forty Red Bangles

Several weeks ago, I visited BLUEPRINT an annual fashion trade show that showcases emerging and established Asian designers as well as international brands looking to enter the Asian retail markets. Obviously, my primary purpose was really to suss out new ethical labels that are making a difference to their communities and the world at large. I'm happy to report that I've found several stylish, sustainable brands gracing the 5th Edition of the event.

One of the brands I was looking forward to check out was Forty Red Bangles, a socially conscious fashion brand from India that sells a wide-range of products from organic apparels to upcycled accessories from the House of Wandering Silk as well as handmade toys. They also have an adorable kids line called Four Red Bangles that sells kurta pyjamas made from certified organic cotton and printed with low impact GOTS certified dyes. Since I have so many friends with young ones, I can foresee Four Red Bangles being a major source of gifts for their kids.

The story behind the brand fascinates me. Ramona Saboo, the founder of Forty Red Bangles, hails from Australia and migrated to India after marriage and has since moved to Singapore. The name Forty Red Bangles was inspired by the forty red and white bangles traditionally worn by Indian brides as a symbol of luck and safety. For Ramona, the bangles represent the connection between her past and her future. The brand was established as a way for her to showcase the beauty of India's craftsmanship and design with sustainability in mind.

Community development is a major part of Forty Red Bangles philosophy.They work with small artisan communities in India as well as non-governmental organisations. They are heavily involved in projects that focus on the empowerment of marginalised women such as the Sambhali Trust in Jodhpur and Gramshree in Gujarat. These organisations provide women, especially those from the lower-caste, with the means to achieve financial independence as well as preserve traditional skills and craftsmanship.

Clockwise, Zariin Jewelry, Betel Life and Kolombiana

Apart from Forty Red Bangles, several other ethical brands that also caught my attention at the trade show includes Zariin Jewelry, Betel Life and Kolombiana. Zariin Jewelry sells semi-precious jewellery fairly made by Indian artisans with a portion of the proceed for every piece of jewellery sold going to the SOS Children's Villages India. Betel Life from Taiwan, on the other hand, sells eco-friendly slippers made of betel leaves which creates jobs for Taiwanese farmers as well as Taiwanese aboriginal weavers. Meanwhile, Kolombiana sells tribal bags handmade by artisans from indigenous communities across South America to provide them with means of livelihood and allowing them to preserve their hand weaving traditions. Kolombiana also has a brick-and-mortar shop in Haji Lane so drop by their store when you're in the Kampong Glam district.

Fair Trade Finds: Boutiques at The Pit Building

Clockwise: AsiaAmour, Bisous La and Baliza Shop

Boutiques Singapore is a biannual shopping event geared towards the expatriate community. For its 2014 spring edition, it featured over 100 independent vendors that sell original designs as well as artisanal goods made from all over the world. Most importantly for me, it is probably one of the few boutique fairs in Singapore that feature a wide-range of fairly traded goods from apparels to home decor. Fair trade vendors present at the fair include: AsiaAmour that sells classic, tropical resort wear fairly made by Cambodian seamstresses; Bisous La that sells accessories and home decor items made by craftsmen across South East Asia; and Baliza Shop that sells Bali and Ibiza inspired resort wear.

Colourful tassels made by the children at Ladli. Photo courtesy of Baliza Shop.

Gema Santander, a spunky, petite Spanish lady runs Baliza Shop and she enthusiastically told me that all the products are made in Ladli, a vocational training program for street children in Jaipur, India. Children as young as ten assemble the tassels whereas older kids are tasked with the sewing. Without Ladli, many of these kids are left to fend for themselves and have to resort to begging, child slavery or prostitution. Ladli is run by i-india, an NGO that provides education, artisan training, nutrition, healthcare, counselling and accommodation for these street children. Baliza currently reinvests all its profits to develop and promote its production at Ladli.

I bought a kaftan from Baliza Shop for my upcoming Mediterranean trip (my sad wardrobe is mostly filled with work clothes) and I have to say I am very impressed by both the quality and unique design patterns, made through traditional techniques of hand dyeing and printing. The last time I bought a kaftan was over a year ago through the Victoria's Secret website and was very disappointed with the quality. It was flimsy and crumpled easily, only supermodels like Miranda Kerr can carry it off.

To buy from any of the above mentioned retailers, you can subscribe to their facebook pages to receive the latest news on their upcoming events. If you're lucky, you can also set up appointments to visit their showroom.

Fair Trade People: The Fashion Context

A Wall Street Journal Ad by Zady, an ethical online retailer

Last Saturday was like any other weekend for shopping obsessed Singapore. But in other parts of the world, various activities were organised to celebrate World Fair Trade Day, an annual event initiated by the World Fair Trade Organization. Closer to home, a competition was held at Mitra Bali Fair Trade to promote fair trade and better working environment.

This year's theme was 'Fair Trade People' and aimed to celebrate everyone involved in the social movement. So I thought it would be good to take this opportunity to delve deeper as to why I support fair trade and ethical fashion. 

I lived in Australia for close to a decade, initially to study and eventually to work before returning to Singapore at the end of 2010. The Singapore I left and the Singapore I came back to were world's apart. The scenery had changed dramatically, what with Marina Bay Sands and the Downtown Core permanently altering the skyline of the CBD area. 

Orchard Road, Singapore's shopping mecca, had also undergone a drastic transformation with new malls such as ION Orchard and Somerset 313 dotting the swanky, tree-lined streets and older malls, evidently threatened by the new entrants have undergone major facelifts to lure in well-heeled customers.   

Now, what has this got to do with fair trade you say? Along with the dazzling array of designer brands, many fast-fashion retailers including H&M, Forever 21 & Cotton On have also set up shop in Orchard Road. Working in Orchard Road, I often observe white-collar workers leaving the office midday for lunch and returning back with a shopping bag or two. Mindless consumption, that's what it has become. Because the apparels are so affordable these days that shopping is no longer consigned to a weekend workout but rather a lunch pit-stop. I myself, have been guilty on several occasions though luckily not frequent enough to be consumed by it.  

Coming back to fair trade,I used to buy fair trade products for the feel good vibe; knowing that somewhere, someone in the third world is benefiting from my tokenistic purchase. But as I sought to educate myself further on this issue, I was not only saddened by the exploitation within the retail industry but more horrified by the fact that we as consumers are perpetuating the socio-economic divide and environmental degradation solely through our consumption habits and lifestyles. 

You know how most of us complain about how the rich gets richer while the poor gets poorer? How our bosses are overpaid when we do most of the work? You know what? We're equally as guilty. By choosing to buy goods sold by high-street labels with little regards for human rights, we are making a decision to line the pockets of billionaires such as Zara's founder Amancio Ortega Gaona rather than ensure the poor farmers and workers are paid a living wage that enable them to buy nutritious food, pay their children's school fees etc. 

Now, I can fully understand how difficult it can be for consumers fed on a diet of fast-fashion to adjust their mindset and pay more for their apparels. I'm also painfully aware of the fact that there are many whose livelihoods depend on these retailers. My simple suggestion is that we could all strive to be more thoughtful and responsible consumers. Minimise any unnecessary purchases and question the ethics of the products at hand before parting with your money. Think quality not quantity. 

Revisiting Fashion Revolution Day and the incident that triggered this movement - the Rana Plaza collapse in Bangladesh - shed further light on the plight of garment workers. 'The Shirt On Your Back', a moving interactive produced by The Guardian, uses video footage, compelling images and revealing info-graphics to create a powerful, multi-layered narrative on the human cost of the garment industry. A ticker tape runs throughout as a sobering reminder on the paltry wages of these garment workers as compared to the massive revenues made by UK retailers on the back of their labour. I took close to 28 minutes to watch the entire interactive and in that timeframe, Mahmuda (the interactive's protagonist) would have earned 48 pence whereas UK retailers would have made £2060k in sales.

Above is another short documentary featured in the New York Times called 'The Deadly Cost of Fashion'. It seeks to draw the connections between apparel brands sold in New York to the clothing tags found in the rubble of the Rana Plaza collapse. Connections that are all but lost to consumers when they purchase their apparels in well-lit, beautifully designed stores. Companies and brands link to Rana Plaza include Joe Fresh, Benetton and Mango. 

Even a year after the incident, many survivors and victims' families have yet to receive adequate compensations. Not only that, it seems that very little have changed in the working conditions of garment workers as exemplified by the mass fainting in Cambodia and continued instabilities in Bangladeshi factories. 

To show your support, you can sign the Clean Clothes Campaign petition to urge retailers to pay garment workers a living wage. And obviously, buy fair:)

Help Anna: Style It Forward

Have any gently-used designer apparel and accessories to give away? If so, head to the Hilton Hotel between 29 May and 1 June to donate them as part of Club 21 Cares initiative. The donations will be used to fund the Singapore Committee for UN Women's Help Anna campaign through its charity sale. The campaign serves as part of its wider initiative on ending violence against women across the region.