Has anyone here bought Stella's pieces & worn them a bit? I buy/work secondhand and I have to say that I'm surprised to see how the "leather" accessories age - they crack & def look like faux. At that point, I believe it's more sustainable to simply invest in a quality leather that will last several decades and can be repaired.
-
Voting for 2024 theFashionSpot Awards has now closed. Thank you for your participation. Stay tuned for the results.
Fashion with a Focus Eco-Ethical-Organic-Sustainable-Enviromental
- Thread starter Hanne
- Start date
fashionista-ta
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jul 14, 2005
- Messages
- 17,330
- Reaction score
- 844
^ Thanks for that report ... very interesting! Her things are so expensive that I'd hoped they were technologically advanced, however ...
Has anyone tried fish leather? I have seen shoes ...
Has anyone tried fish leather? I have seen shoes ...
Melancholybaby
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Aug 25, 2011
- Messages
- 14,111
- Reaction score
- 1,519
Luxury’s Hidden Indian Supply Chain
For many years Dior, Saint Laurent and other fashion brands have been quietly using Indian embroiderers for their goods, depending on their expertise while offering little in the way of employment protection.
By Kai Schultz, Elizabeth Paton and Phyllida Jay
MUMBAI, India — At the top of a staircase covered in dirt and sequins, several dozen Indian artisans hunched over yards of fabric, using needles to embroider garments for the world’s most powerful fashion brands.
They sewed without health benefits in a multiroom factory with caged windows and no emergency exit, where they earned a few dollars a day completing subcontracted orders for international designers. When night fell, some slept on the floor.
They were not working for a factory employed by fast fashion brands: companies whose business model is premised on producing trendy clothing as cheaply as possible and whose supply chain issues came under scrutiny in 2013. That was when the deadliest garment industry disaster in history, the Rana Plaza factory collapse, killed more than 1,100 Bangladeshi workers.
Their products were destined for Dior and Saint Laurent, among other luxury names.
Unknown to most consumers, the expensive, glittering brands of runways in Paris and Milan also indirectly employ thousands of workers in the developing world. In Mumbai, scores of ateliers and export houses act as middlemen between the brands and highly skilled artisans, while also providing services like design, sampling and garment production.
As with fast fashion retailers, many luxury brands do not own all of their own production facilities, and instead contract with independent factories to make their garments or embroider them. And like fast fashion, they too have woken up to potential dangers with that system.
In 2016, a group of luxury houses introduced the Utthan pact, an ambitious and secretive compliance project aimed at ensuring factory safety in Mumbai and elevating Indian embroiderers. Among the signatories were Kering (owner of labels including Gucci and Saint Laurent); LVMH Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy (owner of Fendi and Christian Dior); and two British fashion houses, Burberry and Mulberry. The pact had an initial three-year timeline but was not legally binding.
Yet during visits to several Mumbai factories, and in more than three dozen interviews with artisans, factory managers and designers, The New York Times found that embroiderers still completed orders at unregulated facilities that did not meet Indian factory safety laws. Many workers still do not have any employment benefits or protections, while seasonal demands for thousands of hours of overtime would coincide with the latest fashion weeks in Europe.
Several factory owners said that membership in the pact meant investing in the costly compliance standards outlined by the Utthan pact, while brands simultaneously drove down what they would pay for orders.
“Given the product prices, there is a sense that the luxury brands must be doing it right, and that makes them immune to public scrutiny,” said Michael Posner, a professor of ethics and finance at the Stern School of Business at New York University. “But despite the price tags for luxury brand goods, the conditions in factories across their supply chains can be just as bad as those found in factories producing for fast fashion retailers.”
When contacted for comment, luxury brands that were Utthan signatories largely highlighted the broader improvements made by the implementation of the pact, rather than focusing on continuing issues and accusations.
“We recognize that the situation of some workers at the subcontracting level is still very far from satisfying today, and we are genuinely determined to strengthen the program with our fellow stakeholders, to speed up progress and to further improve the situation,” a Kering spokesman said in a statement.
A spokesman for LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the world’s largest luxury goods company, said in an emailed statement: “We take the allegations raised through your questions very seriously but are unable to comment without further details and a thorough investigation.”
A Different Kind of Special Relationship
Since the 1980s, luxury brands have quietly outsourced much of their embroidery work to India. The country is one of the world’s largest garment exporters, with a textiles market worth $150 to $250 billion, according to the India Brand Equity Foundation, a trust established by the Indian government’s commerce ministry.
India’s embroiderers, known by the Urdu word “karigar,” which means “artisan,” are among the best in the world. Formalized during Mughal rule, which spanned two centuries from the mid-1500s, karigars have passed their art form across generations.
Today they are largely Muslim men who migrated from rural India to Mumbai, where they are paid meager sums to work up to 17 hours a day, many in overcrowded slums. Few have access to education or public services, yet their work has value with fashion companies abroad.
Western designers have brought some of their most important embroidery work to India in recent years, including Alessandro Michele’s exuberant collections for Gucci, emblazoned with tigers and butterflies; Dior’s embellished saddle bags; and red carpet looks for Lady Gaga, Lupita Nyong’o and Jennifer Lopez, whose 2019 jungle print Versace dress was embroidered in Mumbai.
By 2019, India’s embroidery exports exceeded $230 million, a nearly 500 percent increase from two decades ago, according to the government’s commerce ministry.
But as scrutiny of supply chains grew after the Rana Plaza disaster, luxury brands became nervous about their ties to India, a country known for weak worker protections, where building collapses and factory fires regularly kill and maim garment workers, and Utthan, which takes its name from a Sanskrit word that roughly translates to “upliftment,” was established. At least seven Indian export houses — middlemen between local embroidery factories and international brands — also joined.
The project proposed sweeping changes to Mumbai’s factories by standardizing wages and improving workplace safety.
However, unlike with many luxury initiatives, including sustainability and ethical business practices, the brands did not publicize their involvement in Utthan. They did not mention it in their annual reports or corporate and social responsibility platforms, and some discouraged auditors from speaking about it. At least two signatories said they were asked to sign nondisclosure agreements.
The Utthan Pact
Managed by Impactt, a consultancy in London, the agreement delineated targets for Indian export houses, which typically have their own factories. But when deadlines are tight and the work orders exceed what their factories can produce, the export houses subcontract. They take embroidery work to small businesses like those visited by The Times, where wages are frequently paid in cash and facilities fail to meet safety codes.
According to a 2016 publication from Impactt that laid out Utthan’s requirements, within three years, every Indian subcontractor employed by signatories would be required to show progress in providing health and pension benefits to artisans. All factories would need fire extinguishers, a separate room for workers to sleep in and for bigger facilities at least two signposted exits.
To meet India’s labor laws, the Utthan pact also called for a maximum six-day week for artisans, a workday of no more than 11 hours — in line with the legal limit — and reduced overtime.
The state of Maharashtra, which includes Mumbai, has not stipulated a minimum wage for hand embroiderers. Instead, exporters typically use the government’s category for “highly skilled” workers (about $175 per month, excluding benefits). Utthan sets a salary of about $225, including benefits.
In the same publication that detailed these initiatives, Impactt said it would assess factories at least once a year.
To incentivize factories, the luxury signatories committed to working only with Utthan-compliant companies by the end of the second year.
“The endemic challenges in the sector clearly required substantial, long-term engagement,” Rosey Hurst, the founder of Impactt, said in an email, adding that Utthan was intended as a collaboration between brands and exporters.
But not every brand signed — Valentino and Versace place orders with the same export houses but do not work with Utthan — and not every export house thought it was a good deal, seeing it as a public relations exercise intended to shield luxury brands from liability.
Valentino declined to comment. In an emailed statement, Versace said it was “dedicated to conducting its operations on principles of ethical business practice and recognition of the dignity of workers.” The company added that if suppliers were found to be violating its code of conduct but “committed” to improving the situation, then it would generally continue to work with those suppliers as long as they were “honest and transparent.”
Holes in the Fabric
Maximiliano Modesti, the founder of Les Ateliers 2M, a Mumbai embroidery firm that works with Chanel, Hermès and Isabel Marant, said he was approached about joining Utthan in 2014, when the project was being developed.
Mr. Modesti passed. He thought the salaries were too low, and said that he paid his embroiderers up to 50 percent more than Utthan’s wages. And he thought it was strange that the pact called for adhering to India’s work hour limits, while it also acknowledged that those rules could be flexible when luxury brands needed pieces embroidered at the last minute.
Brands’ demands spike ahead of seasonal fashion weeks. While many workers actively seek extra work to earn more money, artisans said overtime beyond the Indian government’s limits is common, as is the use of subcontractors.
“The exporters are crushed by the luxury brands,” Mr. Modesti said. “The brands say, ‘You need to be cheaper. You need to be more competitive. You might lose orders next season.’”
But some export house managers that did join Utthan said they felt compelled to sign on because the project stipulated that many luxury brands would work only with compliant companies.
Further down the supply chain, where working conditions are worse, managers at several subcontracting factories said many of the project’s goals were still to be met.
The Times recently visited six subcontractors that collectively employ as many as a few hundred karigars, depending on orders. Managers at these facilities spoke on the condition of anonymity because they feared that clients could retaliate by pulling their business.
Three years after Utthan was introduced, the managers said few of their artisans received health benefits or a pension, and working hours regularly exceeded India’s legal limits. Every factory The Times visited lacked at least a few safety features mandated by Utthan and India’s Factories Act, which lays out the government’s requirements.
One manager said he was encouraged to lie to Utthan auditors. He said an exporter instructed him to temporarily move his artisans to a compliant factory when Impactt representatives visited.
The compliant factory was well ventilated and prohibitively expensive for the manager to rent, costing nearly $2,000 a month. The factory he managed was an attic-like space on the top floor of a residential building in a neighborhood packed with crumbling apartments.
“I was told not to tell anybody,” the manager said, as he showed The Times recent invoices for Gucci and Christian Dior, including one embroidery order for 15 black tulle dresses, which he said took 6,000 hours of labor to complete.
Another subcontractor manager said he spent about $30,000 moving to a factory that met Utthan’s terms, with an understanding that he would receive more business to offset costs. But maintenance fees at the new factory were expensive, the manager said, so he raised his fees. Then orders dried up.
“I was not getting business,” he said, as artisans around him worked on samples for Christian Dior. “They started giving orders to people who did the work for cheaper sums.”
Last year, the manager moved back to his previous factory, where, he said, some artisans sleep on-site and the six-room facility lacks an emergency exit. His superiors were initially upset, he said, but business picked up after he lowered his prices.
The Cost of Speaking Up
Utthan vowed to empower India’s karigars, but in interviews with more than a dozen artisans, many said it did not yet protect them. The artisans said managers took advantage of their lack of formal education and lack of union representation to withhold information about the worth of their embroidery.
“We are being exploited everywhere,” said Abdullah Khan, an artisan with more than 20 years of experience.
Last summer, Mr. Khan and about a dozen other artisans pushed for raises at the export house where they worked, an Utthan signatory that completes orders for Saint Laurent. Though Mr. Khan did not know it at the time, the factory’s artisans were being paid about 13 percent less than what Utthan required, according to a salary slip reviewed by The Times.
Managers tried to fire the group of artisans after they approached Sachin Gole, a union leader in Mumbai with the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, a political party. Mr. Khan said their salaries were docked for every minute spent communicating with the union and that they were moved into another room at the factory. This was done, he said, so they could not interact with karigars who chose not to protest.
“The situation is very bad,” Mr. Gole said. “If artisans fight for their rights, they are terminated.”
In a phone interview, the factory’s manager denied that he had mistreated artisans and referred specific questions to Impactt, which said a labor dispute was under investigation.
Mr. Khan said a Utthan auditor was sympathetic when artisans told the auditor about the wage issues, but told him he could only speak to the factory’s manager. Eventually, the local government’s labor commission helped negotiate a severance package for karigars who wanted to leave, including Mr. Khan. The factory’s wages were ultimately increased, though they remained about 5 percent below Utthan’s benchmark, according to a fall salary slip.
For weeks, Mr. Khan said, factories would not hire him because he had sought out a union. He later found a job at a subcontractor that executes orders for one of the Indian exporters that helped create Utthan. But the past few months have exhausted Mr. Khan, who choked up as he sat for an interview on the floor of his small apartment.
“We are just trying to survive,” he said, as his 4-year-old son ran over and hugged him.
Trying to Do Better
Ms. Hurst of Impactt said that about half of the 2,810 artisans working for Utthan signatories were covered by employment benefits, and that Impactt was working on increasing that number. She said Impactt was investigating one case in which auditors were deceived.
“While we have seen some considerable improvements in health and safety and are making progress in pay and hours, we fully acknowledge there is still more work to do,” she said.
Burberry said that it worked with only two Indian exporters, with guarantees that they used in-house artisans as opposed to subcontractors for the orders it placed, and that they would continue supporting the pact. Mulberry said it had left the pact in March 2018 because of reprioritization of its business activities to leather goods.
The truth is, said Mr. Posner of New York University, “voluntary pacts between brands alone do not guarantee very much.”
Kering, which reported revenues of 15.9 billion euros in 2019, said 1,500 artisans had benefited from Utthan, and that 70 percent of embroidery products for Kering brands were now made by artisans on permanent contracts with benefits and a salary significantly above the minimum wage.
However, two weeks after The Times approached Kering with its reporting in Mumbai, the company said it planned to establish its own workshop in India to internalize “a significant part of the hand embroidery work” for its brands. A spokesman said the company would also continue to support the Utthan pact and work with external suppliers, and that compliance with the Utthan program would become a requirement for all suppliers in 2020.
Pankaj Attarde, a veteran embroidery consultant in Mumbai, said it was time the world knew the plight of India’s artisans and their extraordinary contribution to fashion.
“We need to bring transparency and fairness into the system if this industry is going to survive,” he said. “If compliance is about improving the lives of workers, why is Utthan secretive?”
nytimes.com
For many years Dior, Saint Laurent and other fashion brands have been quietly using Indian embroiderers for their goods, depending on their expertise while offering little in the way of employment protection.
By Kai Schultz, Elizabeth Paton and Phyllida Jay
MUMBAI, India — At the top of a staircase covered in dirt and sequins, several dozen Indian artisans hunched over yards of fabric, using needles to embroider garments for the world’s most powerful fashion brands.
They sewed without health benefits in a multiroom factory with caged windows and no emergency exit, where they earned a few dollars a day completing subcontracted orders for international designers. When night fell, some slept on the floor.
They were not working for a factory employed by fast fashion brands: companies whose business model is premised on producing trendy clothing as cheaply as possible and whose supply chain issues came under scrutiny in 2013. That was when the deadliest garment industry disaster in history, the Rana Plaza factory collapse, killed more than 1,100 Bangladeshi workers.
Their products were destined for Dior and Saint Laurent, among other luxury names.
Unknown to most consumers, the expensive, glittering brands of runways in Paris and Milan also indirectly employ thousands of workers in the developing world. In Mumbai, scores of ateliers and export houses act as middlemen between the brands and highly skilled artisans, while also providing services like design, sampling and garment production.
As with fast fashion retailers, many luxury brands do not own all of their own production facilities, and instead contract with independent factories to make their garments or embroider them. And like fast fashion, they too have woken up to potential dangers with that system.
In 2016, a group of luxury houses introduced the Utthan pact, an ambitious and secretive compliance project aimed at ensuring factory safety in Mumbai and elevating Indian embroiderers. Among the signatories were Kering (owner of labels including Gucci and Saint Laurent); LVMH Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy (owner of Fendi and Christian Dior); and two British fashion houses, Burberry and Mulberry. The pact had an initial three-year timeline but was not legally binding.
Yet during visits to several Mumbai factories, and in more than three dozen interviews with artisans, factory managers and designers, The New York Times found that embroiderers still completed orders at unregulated facilities that did not meet Indian factory safety laws. Many workers still do not have any employment benefits or protections, while seasonal demands for thousands of hours of overtime would coincide with the latest fashion weeks in Europe.
Several factory owners said that membership in the pact meant investing in the costly compliance standards outlined by the Utthan pact, while brands simultaneously drove down what they would pay for orders.
“Given the product prices, there is a sense that the luxury brands must be doing it right, and that makes them immune to public scrutiny,” said Michael Posner, a professor of ethics and finance at the Stern School of Business at New York University. “But despite the price tags for luxury brand goods, the conditions in factories across their supply chains can be just as bad as those found in factories producing for fast fashion retailers.”
When contacted for comment, luxury brands that were Utthan signatories largely highlighted the broader improvements made by the implementation of the pact, rather than focusing on continuing issues and accusations.
“We recognize that the situation of some workers at the subcontracting level is still very far from satisfying today, and we are genuinely determined to strengthen the program with our fellow stakeholders, to speed up progress and to further improve the situation,” a Kering spokesman said in a statement.
A spokesman for LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the world’s largest luxury goods company, said in an emailed statement: “We take the allegations raised through your questions very seriously but are unable to comment without further details and a thorough investigation.”
A Different Kind of Special Relationship
Since the 1980s, luxury brands have quietly outsourced much of their embroidery work to India. The country is one of the world’s largest garment exporters, with a textiles market worth $150 to $250 billion, according to the India Brand Equity Foundation, a trust established by the Indian government’s commerce ministry.
India’s embroiderers, known by the Urdu word “karigar,” which means “artisan,” are among the best in the world. Formalized during Mughal rule, which spanned two centuries from the mid-1500s, karigars have passed their art form across generations.
Today they are largely Muslim men who migrated from rural India to Mumbai, where they are paid meager sums to work up to 17 hours a day, many in overcrowded slums. Few have access to education or public services, yet their work has value with fashion companies abroad.
Western designers have brought some of their most important embroidery work to India in recent years, including Alessandro Michele’s exuberant collections for Gucci, emblazoned with tigers and butterflies; Dior’s embellished saddle bags; and red carpet looks for Lady Gaga, Lupita Nyong’o and Jennifer Lopez, whose 2019 jungle print Versace dress was embroidered in Mumbai.
By 2019, India’s embroidery exports exceeded $230 million, a nearly 500 percent increase from two decades ago, according to the government’s commerce ministry.
But as scrutiny of supply chains grew after the Rana Plaza disaster, luxury brands became nervous about their ties to India, a country known for weak worker protections, where building collapses and factory fires regularly kill and maim garment workers, and Utthan, which takes its name from a Sanskrit word that roughly translates to “upliftment,” was established. At least seven Indian export houses — middlemen between local embroidery factories and international brands — also joined.
The project proposed sweeping changes to Mumbai’s factories by standardizing wages and improving workplace safety.
However, unlike with many luxury initiatives, including sustainability and ethical business practices, the brands did not publicize their involvement in Utthan. They did not mention it in their annual reports or corporate and social responsibility platforms, and some discouraged auditors from speaking about it. At least two signatories said they were asked to sign nondisclosure agreements.
The Utthan Pact
Managed by Impactt, a consultancy in London, the agreement delineated targets for Indian export houses, which typically have their own factories. But when deadlines are tight and the work orders exceed what their factories can produce, the export houses subcontract. They take embroidery work to small businesses like those visited by The Times, where wages are frequently paid in cash and facilities fail to meet safety codes.
According to a 2016 publication from Impactt that laid out Utthan’s requirements, within three years, every Indian subcontractor employed by signatories would be required to show progress in providing health and pension benefits to artisans. All factories would need fire extinguishers, a separate room for workers to sleep in and for bigger facilities at least two signposted exits.
To meet India’s labor laws, the Utthan pact also called for a maximum six-day week for artisans, a workday of no more than 11 hours — in line with the legal limit — and reduced overtime.
The state of Maharashtra, which includes Mumbai, has not stipulated a minimum wage for hand embroiderers. Instead, exporters typically use the government’s category for “highly skilled” workers (about $175 per month, excluding benefits). Utthan sets a salary of about $225, including benefits.
In the same publication that detailed these initiatives, Impactt said it would assess factories at least once a year.
To incentivize factories, the luxury signatories committed to working only with Utthan-compliant companies by the end of the second year.
“The endemic challenges in the sector clearly required substantial, long-term engagement,” Rosey Hurst, the founder of Impactt, said in an email, adding that Utthan was intended as a collaboration between brands and exporters.
But not every brand signed — Valentino and Versace place orders with the same export houses but do not work with Utthan — and not every export house thought it was a good deal, seeing it as a public relations exercise intended to shield luxury brands from liability.
Valentino declined to comment. In an emailed statement, Versace said it was “dedicated to conducting its operations on principles of ethical business practice and recognition of the dignity of workers.” The company added that if suppliers were found to be violating its code of conduct but “committed” to improving the situation, then it would generally continue to work with those suppliers as long as they were “honest and transparent.”
Holes in the Fabric
Maximiliano Modesti, the founder of Les Ateliers 2M, a Mumbai embroidery firm that works with Chanel, Hermès and Isabel Marant, said he was approached about joining Utthan in 2014, when the project was being developed.
Mr. Modesti passed. He thought the salaries were too low, and said that he paid his embroiderers up to 50 percent more than Utthan’s wages. And he thought it was strange that the pact called for adhering to India’s work hour limits, while it also acknowledged that those rules could be flexible when luxury brands needed pieces embroidered at the last minute.
Brands’ demands spike ahead of seasonal fashion weeks. While many workers actively seek extra work to earn more money, artisans said overtime beyond the Indian government’s limits is common, as is the use of subcontractors.
“The exporters are crushed by the luxury brands,” Mr. Modesti said. “The brands say, ‘You need to be cheaper. You need to be more competitive. You might lose orders next season.’”
But some export house managers that did join Utthan said they felt compelled to sign on because the project stipulated that many luxury brands would work only with compliant companies.
Further down the supply chain, where working conditions are worse, managers at several subcontracting factories said many of the project’s goals were still to be met.
The Times recently visited six subcontractors that collectively employ as many as a few hundred karigars, depending on orders. Managers at these facilities spoke on the condition of anonymity because they feared that clients could retaliate by pulling their business.
Three years after Utthan was introduced, the managers said few of their artisans received health benefits or a pension, and working hours regularly exceeded India’s legal limits. Every factory The Times visited lacked at least a few safety features mandated by Utthan and India’s Factories Act, which lays out the government’s requirements.
One manager said he was encouraged to lie to Utthan auditors. He said an exporter instructed him to temporarily move his artisans to a compliant factory when Impactt representatives visited.
The compliant factory was well ventilated and prohibitively expensive for the manager to rent, costing nearly $2,000 a month. The factory he managed was an attic-like space on the top floor of a residential building in a neighborhood packed with crumbling apartments.
“I was told not to tell anybody,” the manager said, as he showed The Times recent invoices for Gucci and Christian Dior, including one embroidery order for 15 black tulle dresses, which he said took 6,000 hours of labor to complete.
Another subcontractor manager said he spent about $30,000 moving to a factory that met Utthan’s terms, with an understanding that he would receive more business to offset costs. But maintenance fees at the new factory were expensive, the manager said, so he raised his fees. Then orders dried up.
“I was not getting business,” he said, as artisans around him worked on samples for Christian Dior. “They started giving orders to people who did the work for cheaper sums.”
Last year, the manager moved back to his previous factory, where, he said, some artisans sleep on-site and the six-room facility lacks an emergency exit. His superiors were initially upset, he said, but business picked up after he lowered his prices.
The Cost of Speaking Up
Utthan vowed to empower India’s karigars, but in interviews with more than a dozen artisans, many said it did not yet protect them. The artisans said managers took advantage of their lack of formal education and lack of union representation to withhold information about the worth of their embroidery.
“We are being exploited everywhere,” said Abdullah Khan, an artisan with more than 20 years of experience.
Last summer, Mr. Khan and about a dozen other artisans pushed for raises at the export house where they worked, an Utthan signatory that completes orders for Saint Laurent. Though Mr. Khan did not know it at the time, the factory’s artisans were being paid about 13 percent less than what Utthan required, according to a salary slip reviewed by The Times.
Managers tried to fire the group of artisans after they approached Sachin Gole, a union leader in Mumbai with the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, a political party. Mr. Khan said their salaries were docked for every minute spent communicating with the union and that they were moved into another room at the factory. This was done, he said, so they could not interact with karigars who chose not to protest.
“The situation is very bad,” Mr. Gole said. “If artisans fight for their rights, they are terminated.”
In a phone interview, the factory’s manager denied that he had mistreated artisans and referred specific questions to Impactt, which said a labor dispute was under investigation.
Mr. Khan said a Utthan auditor was sympathetic when artisans told the auditor about the wage issues, but told him he could only speak to the factory’s manager. Eventually, the local government’s labor commission helped negotiate a severance package for karigars who wanted to leave, including Mr. Khan. The factory’s wages were ultimately increased, though they remained about 5 percent below Utthan’s benchmark, according to a fall salary slip.
For weeks, Mr. Khan said, factories would not hire him because he had sought out a union. He later found a job at a subcontractor that executes orders for one of the Indian exporters that helped create Utthan. But the past few months have exhausted Mr. Khan, who choked up as he sat for an interview on the floor of his small apartment.
“We are just trying to survive,” he said, as his 4-year-old son ran over and hugged him.
Trying to Do Better
Ms. Hurst of Impactt said that about half of the 2,810 artisans working for Utthan signatories were covered by employment benefits, and that Impactt was working on increasing that number. She said Impactt was investigating one case in which auditors were deceived.
“While we have seen some considerable improvements in health and safety and are making progress in pay and hours, we fully acknowledge there is still more work to do,” she said.
Burberry said that it worked with only two Indian exporters, with guarantees that they used in-house artisans as opposed to subcontractors for the orders it placed, and that they would continue supporting the pact. Mulberry said it had left the pact in March 2018 because of reprioritization of its business activities to leather goods.
The truth is, said Mr. Posner of New York University, “voluntary pacts between brands alone do not guarantee very much.”
Kering, which reported revenues of 15.9 billion euros in 2019, said 1,500 artisans had benefited from Utthan, and that 70 percent of embroidery products for Kering brands were now made by artisans on permanent contracts with benefits and a salary significantly above the minimum wage.
However, two weeks after The Times approached Kering with its reporting in Mumbai, the company said it planned to establish its own workshop in India to internalize “a significant part of the hand embroidery work” for its brands. A spokesman said the company would also continue to support the Utthan pact and work with external suppliers, and that compliance with the Utthan program would become a requirement for all suppliers in 2020.
Pankaj Attarde, a veteran embroidery consultant in Mumbai, said it was time the world knew the plight of India’s artisans and their extraordinary contribution to fashion.
“We need to bring transparency and fairness into the system if this industry is going to survive,” he said. “If compliance is about improving the lives of workers, why is Utthan secretive?”
nytimes.com
Melancholybaby
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Aug 25, 2011
- Messages
- 14,111
- Reaction score
- 1,519
^Another prime example of big conglomerates just paying lip service to environmental, fair trade etc. initiatives and then never following up on their promises. Disappointing but hardly surprising.
Benn98
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Aug 6, 2014
- Messages
- 42,529
- Reaction score
- 20,583
I'm amazed that Stella isn't paying more attention to the lifespan of her vegan leather. Just like Bottega Veneta need to make sure that they not only use leather, but the best quality, surely the same should apply to Stella's vegan leather. Especially since her brand is synonomous with cruelty-free fashion.
In other news....
Lacoste is the Latest Brand to Be Tied to Chinese Prison Labor
March 9, 2020 - By TFL
Hand-sewn gloves are among the latest items to be linked to factories scattered throughout a region in northwest China known for playing home to mass detention camps, where ethnic Uighurs and other Muslim minorities are reportedly forced to “learn Chinese and memorize propaganda songs” as part of a secretive – yet sweeping – “re-education” campaign. However, instead of being provided with the opportunity to “study Mandarin and learn trades,” as the Chinese government propaganda portrays the “voluntary vocational education centers,” the individuals who unwillingly inhabit these centers are tortured and forced to work, media outlets across the globe report.
A recent report from Agence France-Presse (“AFP”) – which cites the findings of Washington, D.C.-based labor rights group Worker Rights Consortium – reveals that the gloves that were constructed within the confines of these Chinese internment camp bear a distinctive marking: Lacoste’s famous alligator logo, linking the major French brand to China’s forced labor camps, where more than one million individuals have been detained over the past three years, often without the right to a trial, much to the criticism of international human rights activists and the media, alike.
A rep for Lacoste told the AFP that the company “prohibits the use of forced, mandatory, or unpaid labor of any type.” She further asserted that “the Chinese factory had been visited by [Lacoste-enlisted] auditors who interviewed workers and did not report any concerns,” something that Worker Rights Consortium has dismissed, with its executive director Scott Nova saying that “Lacoste and any other buyers should have known better than to trust auditors who interview workers on site, where they cannot speak freely.”
The reported link to Lacoste is not the first time that a major brand has been tied to the “rapidly expanding” camps in the Xinjiang region. The latest report underscores a larger issue – one that Washington, D.C.-headquartered Center for Strategic and International Studies director Amy Lehr characterizes as “state-encouraged forced labor and part of a much broader pattern of extremely severe human rights violation” – that has seen “everything from sportswear to pajamas” made in these carefully guarded detention camps find its way from Xinjiang into the U.S. and Europe.
In the spring of 2019, for instance, adidas, H&M, and Gap Inc. were among the companies whose names were connected to textiles at the end of “the long, often opaque supply chains that travel through China’s northwest region of Xinjiang,” according to the Wall Street Journal. “The gray yarn made by Huafu in Xinjiang goes to factories elsewhere in China and in Bangladesh and Cambodia that weave T-shirts for Hennes & Mauritz’s H&M retail chain,” two people familiar with the Swedish fast fashion giant told the WSJ. “The yarn also turns up in the supply chains of adidas and Esprit Holdings, although the brands don’t buy directly from Huafu, according to the companies.”
The news followed from headlines in late 2018, which uncovered that apparel orders made by North Carolina-based Badger Sportswear were being fulfilled by prisoners in internment camps on the Chinese mainland and then entering into the global supply chain. The garments in that case were sourced from Hetian Taida Apparel, whose chairman Wu Hongbo confirmed that the company does, in fact, maintain a factory inside a “re-education” compound in which it provides employment to individuals who have been deemed by the Chinese government to be “unproblematic.”
Still yet, those revelations came less than a year after consultant Peter Humphrey – who was jailed in Qingpu Prison just outside of Shanghai for two and a half years – spoke out about his incarcerated, telling the Financial Times in February 2018 that “the prison was a business, doing manufacturing jobs for companies.” Humphrey, who was ultimately deported from China, said that “he recognized well-known brands, including [but not limited to] C&A and H&M” as ones whose products were being made in the factory where he was forced to work. Spokesmen for H&M and C&A stated at the time that they had “not observed or been made aware of the use of prison labor” in their expansive and complex Chinese supply chains.
Reflecting on brands’ continued ties to manufacturers in the region, the Associated Press asserted that these instances “show how difficult it is to stop products made with forced labor from getting into the global supply chain, even though such imports are illegal in the U.S,” where legislation enables authorities to block imports that are suspected to have been made by way of forced labor from entering into the U.S.
The Fashion Law
Benn98
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Aug 6, 2014
- Messages
- 42,529
- Reaction score
- 20,583
So they've removed all the animal-based materials, and replaced it with ethical wool AND...........??? If you want to be transparent, give us a list of those toxic ingredients and other chemical nasties as well in order for us to get a clear picture of what you're using.
Hugo Boss Goes Vegan
The German brand has introduced its first suit without animal products.
By Jean E. Palmieri on March 12, 2020
Hugo Boss is showing a softer side.
The German brand has introduced its first completely animal-free men’s suit as part of its spring collection.
The suit is certified-vegan and sports the PETA-Approved Vegan logo indicating that it has been sanctioned by the animal rights group. It is made of certified organic European linen and is available in beige, dark blue and black for sale online and in stores.
“We are delighted to see that animal-friendly fashion is on the rise, and Boss is the first world-known premium brand to set this stylish milestone in men’s wear,” said PETA Germany vice president Harald Ullmann. “Kind people can now buy high-end business suits that are not only stylish and fashionable but also cruelty-free and sustainable.”
Most upscale suits are made from animal-derived materials such as wool, horsehair or silk. Dyes, glues and chemicals in clothing can also be animal-derived and have also been excluded from the new Boss suit.
Other fashion brands that use the PETA-Approved Vegan logo include Topshop and Esprit.
The suit, which retails for $895, is part of Hugo Boss’ Responsible Tailoring collection that produces pieces from traceable wool, which means it is supervised and tracked from farm to the final garment to ensure the highest animal welfare standards. The vegan suit also complements the brand’s previously launched vegan sneaker, which is made from pineapple leaves.
WWD
Hugo Boss Goes Vegan
The German brand has introduced its first suit without animal products.
By Jean E. Palmieri on March 12, 2020
Hugo Boss is showing a softer side.
The German brand has introduced its first completely animal-free men’s suit as part of its spring collection.
The suit is certified-vegan and sports the PETA-Approved Vegan logo indicating that it has been sanctioned by the animal rights group. It is made of certified organic European linen and is available in beige, dark blue and black for sale online and in stores.
“We are delighted to see that animal-friendly fashion is on the rise, and Boss is the first world-known premium brand to set this stylish milestone in men’s wear,” said PETA Germany vice president Harald Ullmann. “Kind people can now buy high-end business suits that are not only stylish and fashionable but also cruelty-free and sustainable.”
Most upscale suits are made from animal-derived materials such as wool, horsehair or silk. Dyes, glues and chemicals in clothing can also be animal-derived and have also been excluded from the new Boss suit.
Other fashion brands that use the PETA-Approved Vegan logo include Topshop and Esprit.
The suit, which retails for $895, is part of Hugo Boss’ Responsible Tailoring collection that produces pieces from traceable wool, which means it is supervised and tracked from farm to the final garment to ensure the highest animal welfare standards. The vegan suit also complements the brand’s previously launched vegan sneaker, which is made from pineapple leaves.
WWD
fashionista-ta
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jul 14, 2005
- Messages
- 17,330
- Reaction score
- 844
^ I was just in Bottega Veneta this weekend, and IMO the quality of the leather has significantly changed/decreased in the small leather goods.
Benn98
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Aug 6, 2014
- Messages
- 42,529
- Reaction score
- 20,583
Bridget Foley’s Diary: A Chat With Stella
Stella McCartney talks about her concern for the environment — and team connections, creativity and cooking soup — in the age of COVID-19.
By Bridget Foley on April 22, 2020
“We’re all in this together” — a universal mantra of the coronavirus era. Sometimes that commonality is comforting in its more superficial aspects. Last week, when uncooperative English-country cell service put the kibosh on a no-visuals conversation with Stella McCartney, her p.r. went swiftly to un-planned B: Zoom. We settled in to chat equally undone, granted, with Stella flaunting a much better top, a sweatshirt from her collaboration with “We Are the Weather” author Jonathan Safran Foer. (Full disclosure: Before joining, I switched out of my Clorox-spotted, Bronx County DA sweatshirt, an artifact of a younger brother’s stint on my couch 25 years ago.)
While some people embrace the primp-up-at-home approach to quarantine, that’s not Stella’s thing. “I put makeup on for the first time in a month last week, when I had to do something,” she offers. As with most conversations these days with someone you haven’t spoken with recently, ours starts with “How are you coping?”
“I couldn’t be luckier,” Stella says, ever self-aware. “I’ve got a little bit of help here, which is a massive blessing. I can’t complain.”
Like millions of others, she is working through 24-hour household-running, juggling work, meals and homeschooling of her four kids, ages 15 to nine. Her day starts with Stella McCartney brand meetings — more frequent and of broader scope than before lockdown. While the kids are old enough that interruptions aren’t an issue, she goes into “tough-love” mode when it comes to school. Last week, English schools were still on Easter break, so she was anticipating readjustment this week. “They all go to different schools and each school has handled it in a different way. Some are more tech savvy than others,” she says.
As for cooking, Stella is top chef, but lately, she’s getting help. Because her work day starts early, she tries to think through each day’s meals the night before. But on this morning, she woke up to a surprise. “My daughter Bailey had already cooked tomato soup. I have to say, it was delicious,” she boasts. “It’s great, they’re getting into [cooking], I mean, they’re making fun of me because it’s, like, soup every day. I’m such a waste-not, want-not type, it’s at the core of everything in the brand and in my personality. Literally, I’m using everything. It’s great. That’s how I was brought up.”
To our primary purpose: a check-in on Stella’s business in the age of COVID-19, and what this particular Earth Day represents to her. I learned after we spoke that even from quarantine, she’s found a way to celebrate its spirit. Stella worked with Ocean Outdoor, the digital advertising company, to host a major screen takeover at London’s Piccadilly Circus. It launched on Tuesday and runs through Sunday at midnight, rotating a series of upbeat messages including “Mother Earth has started healing” and, captioning a photo of the Earth painted on Amber Valletta’s face, “For us, every day is Earth Day.”
WWD: I just saw Barry Diller on “Squawk Box” [on April 16]. He was not optimistic.
Stella McCartney: Well, f–king welcome to Stella McCartney, Bridget Foley.
WWD: Thank you. How are you feeling?
S.M.: I am very much split. I’m split between my personal emotions, and then obviously, I have a business to run. I’m living two lives right now. I’m the mother of four, I’m a wife. I’m cooking three meals a day and I’m loving it. I’m with my babies, and blessed to be in nature and not in the city. I’ve got my horse. So I’m fine in my solitude.
Then, obviously, there is a deep sadness for all of the lives that are lost and for what people are going through. I have a huge respect for the people on the front line here in England in the NHS and all of the emergency workers. That reality, the mindfulness of what other people are going through, and that we’re all connected in all of the same thoughts, which is a really heavy realization, not to be lightly dismissed. I am very aware of that. Then, there’s the side to me that employs hundreds and hundreds of people globally. Obviously, we are affected as a business, like every other business right now. I’m always wanting the business to do well because of what we stand for as much as anything, and also because I’m a businesswoman. But right now you think, “Wow, this is the first time we are all connected in so many ways.” That’s the important thing that sits on my mind.
WWD: It’s odd that that connection comes through isolation.
S.M.: Yes. I have a large family network so I’m not isolated that much on my own. The first couple of weeks were really interesting for me on a working level because in our industry, we work with teams, and we feed off each other creatively. I was trying to settle into working via device and using my teams in a different way. [Now] all of us are feeling connected. I’m more connected with teams globally than usual — “let’s meet with China; let’s meet with Japan,” bigger meetings with teams. I’ve enjoyed that and I want to carry through. One of the big questions here is how does this impact our lives going forward, when things get back to whatever the new normal will be.
I’m looking to my team a lot, also. Holistically, making sure my teams are OK mentally and emotionally. And that, normally, I don’t have time to do; [usually] I’m just getting involved in my day-to-day. But now I’m like OK, we need to have calls every week just to check in on everyone and see how everyone is feeling. I worry about people, just how they’re doing. My teams in Italy, they’re not allowed out, they’re allowed out to go food shopping and that’s it….I’m mindful of that, like how are you all doing emotionally and mentally because that’s hardcore, going out or not going out and looking out and seeing nothing there. That’s quite hard hitting. I’m not sure if any of us really know how that will affect us all.
WWD: Nuts and bolts, I’m sure the specifics vary from region to region.
S.M.: Yes. there’s one side that’s creative and there’s one side that’s very, very much responding to different regions and who is quarantined, who’s not. Obviously, we’re massively based in Italy, so it’s been a big conversation about what we can make, what we can’t make, what we can have access to. When you do work in a sustainable way, you have to work far in advance to be sustainable. I develop the majority of my fabrics far in advance, and I have such a deep commitment to my suppliers and to where we’re growing the yarn and the process and the entire circle-ness of it all. I try to remain respectful and loyal to X amount of [suppliers] because I know they’re my reliable source points.
WWD: Quarantining with family is very different from quarantining alone. But it still puts stress on work.
S.M.: I grew up in a creative household. And creatively, it was pretty much isolation. When The Beatles broke up we moved to a farm in Scotland, completely isolated. My mom and dad did an album; my dad did an album of McCartney, and I think it was his best work. It has been a massive impact on my life, that isolation, on how I think and how I live my life through my business, through my family, through my friendships.
The majority of my friends are artists or work in the creative fields, and the majority of them work in isolation; it’s just what they do. Name-dropping, I checked in with David Hockney, and he said, “I’m painting more than ever.” The birth [of] creation is a very insular moment. And then [creatives] go into a teamwork frame, if at all. So my dad will write an album on his own. When he has that creative birth, he will then take it to the next step, engineering it, producing it, art-working it, and ultimately it goes on tour in front of hundreds of thousands of people. So it’s sort of this journey….Our industry goes very quickly away from isolation in the creative sense and goes into teamwork. It becomes a production line, if you like.
WWD: It sounds as if you prefer a longer solitary creative process.
S.M.: I seem to be busier than ever because I’m doing more and more calls. This is taking me away from my creative process and isolation, so I’m trying to find a balance, which is at the core of everything we do at Stella McCartney. Maybe the answer to all of this is trying to find the balance.
WWD: Other designers have talked to me about the creative process being teamwork. It sounds as if your process still starts singularly.
S.M.: My name is on the door of the brand, so everything that it stands for has come from me at some stage in my thinking, from my belief systems and my creativity. And then the team around me, we all feed off each other and we all create from that starting point. In our industry we all complain about not having time. So I want to be respectful of that right now and [think of] how can we find that balance between teamwork and creating with your team and bouncing off of each other and all that stuff.
Even before all of this happened, I was already approaching spring like this. I was like, OK, how can we not buy new fabric for spring? How can we look at everything that we [have already]? I’ve done that for years. It’s the way that I work; it’s the way my mind works. What have we got in stock, how can we repurpose it? How can we give it a re-life or a rebirth? We did all the upcycling two seasons ago on the runway. How can we look at what’s in a warehouse somewhere? So it’s a really interesting moment for our brand.
WWD: What does your sweatshirt say?
S.M.: It says We Are the Weather. It’s my Jonathan Safran Foer collaboration. We Are the Weather — it’s very apt. It feels like most of what I’ve done seems apt right now. It seems like everything I’ve done in my career seems to be quite apt right now.
WWD: To that point, and going back to what you said a moment ago, do you think you’re a bit ahead of other brands fabric-wise?
S.M.: My viscose comes from sustainable managed forests. It took me three years to [develop it]. So once I’ve taken that long and it’s the only source I have, I then commit to it. I [now] have had to look at all the business, which I do anyway, but it’s more magnified. Then that goes into, can we have access to [product for] our e-commerce if [production] is all in Italy, and da da da. And what markets are opening up more than others, or which ones are going into isolation or coming out of isolation. We’re all doing the same thing I’m sure.
WWD: What differences do you find among the various global markets?
S.M.: Every single market is reacting differently. But what people are buying is what would be expected, much more home pieces, much more classics. We’re so lucky in that we have real iconic, timeless, staple pieces — the Falabella bag, for example, the Elyse shoe. It’s not dissimilar to what I’m sure a lot of brands are finding. Hopefully people will lean toward a more mindful culture now. To be a more conscious consumer more than ever, I hope, starts to have some kind of resonance with people. And I think that that’s what we represent in the industry.
WWD: It surprises me that people are shopping at all for clothes or accessories. You’re finding that people are shopping?
S.M.: They’re not shopping as much. I think the whole reality of this is buy less, care more. That’s the highlight for me, but it has always been the case. As I say, before when I was looking at doing spring, I was already thinking, why do we offer so much product? Waste is a big, big, big issue in our industry, and I am a massive fan of trying to reduce waste or do better with the waste that exists. I think we probably waste the least out of all the brands, we’re so mindful and careful. The challenge for me to my teams is how can we be better at our production and how can we be much more efficient. So we’re pretty on it.
I think that now more than ever is the time to look at our industry and say, OK, the truck loads of fast fashion that are incinerated or buried. That’s $100 billion worth of waste a year in fibers, in resourcing. It’s crazy. There is just so much we don’t need. And I agree, I don’t think anyone needs to buy anything ever again. It’s how you repurpose. This is what I think all the time; this is not anything new for me. That’s why I’m [looking] to the classics that I’ve created, because they’re timeless. It’s how I approach the birth of design — by starting with, how can I create something that lasts somebody a lifetime, and then another lifetime after that? How can I design something that is so not relying on a trend so that it can be recycled or repurposed or resold or rented? How can I encourage all of that? I am so open-minded to all of that.
WWD: When you have that attitude about less is more and less is better, how do you keep on a growth path?
S.M.: There’s real growth. We’re not a massive, massive brand. Look, there’s always going to be brands, there’s always going to be products, you’re always going to want a mug for your cup of tea, and when your mug breaks, you’re going to buy another one, or you’re going to get bored of that mug and you’re going to go, “I want a new mug; I deserve a new mug.” That’s OK. It’s allowed, we’re allowed to consume. What we need to do is consume in a better way. And what companies have to do for the customer is make better and source better and be better brands. We are really f–king good at that at Stella McCartney. That’s a nice mug, Bridget. You’re allowed to buy yourself a new one in a week.
WWD: Thank you. From a craftsperson in Ireland.
S.M.: Exactly! Look, my way of thinking has always been, it’s allowed. You’re allowed to buy s–t, right? No one is going to stop buying s–t, but people are going to, I hope, buy more locally now, they are going to buy better, they are going to buy more online. That will reduce a lot of carbon in the air.
For me, I’ve always had this really difficult dilemma where it’s like, if I do things mindfully and ethically and environmentally, [does] that mean I’m not allowed to have a successful business? But I believe now more than ever that my business model should be more people’s business model. When everyone is doing things [mindfully] then fine, then we can have a non-growth conversation. But right now I need to set an example, I need to show people that you can have a healthy business, you can employ people, you can employ mills in Italy, you can work with farmers all over the world. You can create commerce in a more conscious way.
WWD: During these massive global quarantines, we’re seeing cleaner air and cleaner water; it’s been measured. But it has taken a total shut down and total isolation. So does that make you optimistic or pessimistic?
S.M.: I’ve been really optimistic that we’ve seen a dramatic reduction in a matter of weeks. Pollution — you could see the results really quickly. Obviously I never envisaged a shut down so dramatically.
WWD: No one did.
S.M.: More than ever now, we need to have these conversations, and we have to learn. [Otherwise] I think it is such a disservice to the suffering. I feel like every single person that has lost their life or lost a loved one from COVID-19, that cost and pain and suffering needs to see something good come of it. If the people in power can respect those lives lost with some kind of environmental respect and management and policymaking, then I feel like it’s not in vain. People have got to stop and ask, “What was the cost, and what can we do in a positive way [to honor] the pain that people have felt?”
WWD: Yet some public health protocols seem at odds with environmental protocols. We’re all washing our hands constantly, so we’re using more water than ever. Also, the return to single-use items. In New York State, the plastic-bag ban went into effect only a while ago, and it’s now suspended. And before it closed, Starbucks stopped accepting customers’ containers, at least temporarily.
S.M.: The single-use plastics — that’s where tech will come in. I’ve been looking for many, many years at things like that. We’ve been looking at a company making single-use items that are completely biodegradable. It’s now looking at single-purpose spoons and cutlery, because obviously, the world wants disposable spoons and cutlery. Look, water. We’ve done so many things over the years at Stella, just simple things like clever care such as a whole campaign around not dry-cleaning, not washing your clothes so much, turn your washing machine down, doing it less frequently. The amount of water we use just in the fashion industry — the facts are ridiculous. So outside of washing hands, there are ways to reduce water consumption, many, many ways. And that’s just everyday practice in pretty much every industry.
WWD: Do you see a dichotomy between the environment and the public health issue or do you think ultimately they come together in the big picture?
S.M.: Ultimately, they come together in the big picture. Ultimately, we’ve got to have some kind of respect for animals on the planet and we’ve got to stop the way in which we farm them and kill them and eat them because it’s a hotbed for disease. It’s not an industry that is healthy or pretty. I’m not isolating out a nation because I think the entire globe is guilty of how they farm and kill and manufacture animals. We have seen many diseases come of that. So, you know, it ain’t gonna go away until somebody looks at that predominantly. They are all connected. And I think it’s so interesting that it’s the conversation nobody is really having.
WWD: Why not?
S.M.: Because people don’t feel good about the fact that they kill billions of animals a year. There is a guilt attached to it. They don’t feel proud of it so they don’t want to talk about it. They know it’s wrong, and it’s hard to face that. We are all part of it. Well, I’m not part of it. But the majority of the planet is part of that conversation, and responsible. Again, I’ll be the glass half-full type where I say, “you don’t have to give it up completely if you can’t, but just reduce it and just buy it better.” Draw a line in how you consume. Set yourself goals, set yourself parameters that are better. Because it comes down to individuals. The individual consumption and demand will dictate what the ceo’s and the businesses invest in, what they buy into.
I’ve been working on my mom’s vegetarian food [company] since she passed away 22 years ago on Friday. She started it, what, 30, 40 years ago? She started a vegetarian, alternative food brand, and it is growing year on year. And I have never seen more competitors in a most exciting way. My mom would be so happy. She probably would have closed the business, seeing how many vegetarian alternative competitors there are now. That’s not because KFC loves chickens. It’s because they see that the consumer wants a vegan KFC. The biggest burger selling at Burger King right now is the Impossible Burger. This is due to customer change. This is the reaction to hopefully the new way of life.
WWD: Do you oversee your mother’s company?
S.M.: Well, the whole family does. We create the products, we create the range, I do the packaging, we look at the marketing. It’s a family brand..
WWD: That’s amazing. How long has it been?
S.M.: I don’t know the exact founding year. I need to look at it, actually; this reminds me. I want to put it on the packaging when we re-brand. [Linda McCartney Foods launched in 1991.]
WWD: You have stayed faithful to your upbringing, and the tenets you were raised on. Do your kids embrace the lifestyle that you live at home? Has any of them ever questioned it?
S.M.: Yes, they do. They are exactly how I was. But I think now there’s more people around [with similar views], although there’s still not a huge amount of vegetarians. Like, surprisingly, not all their friends are veggie. But it’s a much more well-versed conversation now. They are a lot less freakishly alone. But it’s very similar. I remember when I was really young, I’d say to my mom and dad, “why are we vegetarian? Why can’t I eat meat?” And they would say, “Well, you can eat meat because it’s an individual choice. But this is why we choose not to, because we don’t want to eat a dead animal.” My kids have asked me the exact same questions, and I give them the exact same answer. I’m like, “You are totally free to do what you want to do. I really respect your choice, but this is why I do it.” I see it through their eyes. Because when you’re part of a high-profile family that the world knows doesn’t eat animals, you don’t feel like you can go and sneak chicken Kiev on a weekend.
But at the end of the day, my kids — I believe very much that children are so beautifully connected to nature and they’re so innocent and they’re so pure and the minute you say to them, “Look, there’s a chicken alive and there’s a chicken deep fried. Do you want to eat it?” I mean, nobody wants to eat stuff if they see how it’s made. I don’t think anyone would eat it if they really saw how it got to their plate.
WWD: What do you think the lasting impact will be of COVID-19 on the industry?
S.M.: I don’t know what the lasting impact will be, if any. My biggest fear is that things will just get back to what we consider normal, whatever that is. But I think that the immediate impact will be thinking differently, I hope. I’m always trying to push myself and my teams. They laugh at me. I’m, “OK, so what are we going to do? How are we going to do this differently?” For me, if every single day I didn’t try and figure out how to come at something differently, I feel like I wouldn’t be able to do what I do.
I think that the entire industry now, and anyone in business now, has had to stop and say, “this is a moment I didn’t see coming. How am I going to be the one to think outside the box?” We are all competitive. We all want to win, and we all want to come up with great ideas. Right now people have got to push themselves and try to guess what might happen next. It’s a breaking of the norm as we have known it. I think if you are in fashion, you need to think that way every single day, regardless of the coronavirus. That’s our job. But there are obvious ways in which things will change. I think people are going to be much more cautious with their money. They’re going to invest more carefully, and they will buy in a different way, physically and emotionally.
WWD: Small picture, back to spring, a little more on your thoughts right now.
S.M.: We started working on spring, and then we paused. But I feel like at Stella we need to do something to [speak to] this moment and not just say, let’s just cancel everything until it’s over. For me, it feels like creatively we should be more inspired than ever to stand out. So I have been working on this little idea of individual pieces and individual gems, and being mindful of the two ends of the spectrum. I think some people will come back and go, “oh f–k it, I deserve to enjoy fashion for a second. I have been sitting in my flat in my pajamas for three months.” So I think there’s going to be [some people who want to shop].
Again, it comes back to working sustainably. I’m trying not to order new fabrics for [spring]. I’m just like, what have we got? We have fabrics that we buy in bulk because they are sustainably sourced. They are our go-to’s. We’re not like other fashion brands.
WWD: No, you’re not.
S.M.: I have a relationship with environmentally friendly suppliers. I have even created them in some instances. That’s the core value system of the brand, so that’s what we can go to. We’re lucky in that sense. It’s like saying I know that I can get my organic oat milk from this supplier, that’s not going to change. It’s just then left to me as to what I print on it this season or if I can embroider on it this season, which I probably can’t. I work like that anyway. My upcycled collection [fall 2019], those pieces all become limited editions. My final coat was like five seasons’ worth of prints sitting in a warehouse. So it shows that if you are sustainable as a business in fashion, you’re kind of ahead of the game when something like this happens. I’m not reliant on the same things that other people are reliant on because I am much more reliant on a sustainable source.
WWD: Your ethical premise becomes pragmatic business.
S.M.: Yes, and it becomes a supply chain conversation. I know there’s only two non-leather suppliers that I want to work with, with whom I’ve developed a soft non-leather or a faux fur. And so they are who I go to. I never start a season with, “let’s see 700 fabrics from Italy.” It’s not how I work. I’ve got my own little supply network. Over 60 percent of our environmental impact happens at the raw material stage, which means that this is where we have the biggest positive impact as well. If I didn’t use a fabric maybe in one season because it didn’t feel right, I don’t then sell it or chuck it away. I go, “OK, maybe I’ll use it next season.” It will sit somewhere and then I’ll reuse it.
WWD: How will this crisis impact the show system?
S.M.: I feel like we’ve been having that conversation for 20 years. Like, ugh. You know?
WWD: Yes. But do you think this is, finally, the essential reset button?
S.M.: I think maybe more the conversation is, it’s our job to come up with newness, come up with different ways of grabbing attention and reflecting the feelings, the thoughts of other people. We represent that in what we do. So there’s always got to be a new way of doing it. We all think that fashion shows are medieval. We all question how that works and if it needs to be done that way. It’s just always hard to find an answer on that one. This will [force the issue], for sure. Exciting new ideas will come out of this, for sure.
NOTE: On Monday, Stella’s p.r. Arabella Rufino sent word of the screen takeover at Piccadilly Circus. Asked why she planned the initiative at a time when there are so few people on the streets to take it in, Stella sent a thoughtful reply. “For the first time in history, we can truly measure the damage done by human activity,” she wrote. “Will we go back to the norm, or will we give Mother Earth the respect and time she deserves to continue healing — so that these city centers with their huge screens can be seen through unpolluted air? I hope we can learn from this moment of pause and that nature can reclaim its rightful focal place in our lives. My message is a gentle, loving reminder: Every day is Earth Day.”
WWD
Stella McCartney talks about her concern for the environment — and team connections, creativity and cooking soup — in the age of COVID-19.
By Bridget Foley on April 22, 2020
“We’re all in this together” — a universal mantra of the coronavirus era. Sometimes that commonality is comforting in its more superficial aspects. Last week, when uncooperative English-country cell service put the kibosh on a no-visuals conversation with Stella McCartney, her p.r. went swiftly to un-planned B: Zoom. We settled in to chat equally undone, granted, with Stella flaunting a much better top, a sweatshirt from her collaboration with “We Are the Weather” author Jonathan Safran Foer. (Full disclosure: Before joining, I switched out of my Clorox-spotted, Bronx County DA sweatshirt, an artifact of a younger brother’s stint on my couch 25 years ago.)
While some people embrace the primp-up-at-home approach to quarantine, that’s not Stella’s thing. “I put makeup on for the first time in a month last week, when I had to do something,” she offers. As with most conversations these days with someone you haven’t spoken with recently, ours starts with “How are you coping?”
“I couldn’t be luckier,” Stella says, ever self-aware. “I’ve got a little bit of help here, which is a massive blessing. I can’t complain.”
Like millions of others, she is working through 24-hour household-running, juggling work, meals and homeschooling of her four kids, ages 15 to nine. Her day starts with Stella McCartney brand meetings — more frequent and of broader scope than before lockdown. While the kids are old enough that interruptions aren’t an issue, she goes into “tough-love” mode when it comes to school. Last week, English schools were still on Easter break, so she was anticipating readjustment this week. “They all go to different schools and each school has handled it in a different way. Some are more tech savvy than others,” she says.
As for cooking, Stella is top chef, but lately, she’s getting help. Because her work day starts early, she tries to think through each day’s meals the night before. But on this morning, she woke up to a surprise. “My daughter Bailey had already cooked tomato soup. I have to say, it was delicious,” she boasts. “It’s great, they’re getting into [cooking], I mean, they’re making fun of me because it’s, like, soup every day. I’m such a waste-not, want-not type, it’s at the core of everything in the brand and in my personality. Literally, I’m using everything. It’s great. That’s how I was brought up.”
To our primary purpose: a check-in on Stella’s business in the age of COVID-19, and what this particular Earth Day represents to her. I learned after we spoke that even from quarantine, she’s found a way to celebrate its spirit. Stella worked with Ocean Outdoor, the digital advertising company, to host a major screen takeover at London’s Piccadilly Circus. It launched on Tuesday and runs through Sunday at midnight, rotating a series of upbeat messages including “Mother Earth has started healing” and, captioning a photo of the Earth painted on Amber Valletta’s face, “For us, every day is Earth Day.”
WWD: I just saw Barry Diller on “Squawk Box” [on April 16]. He was not optimistic.
Stella McCartney: Well, f–king welcome to Stella McCartney, Bridget Foley.
WWD: Thank you. How are you feeling?
S.M.: I am very much split. I’m split between my personal emotions, and then obviously, I have a business to run. I’m living two lives right now. I’m the mother of four, I’m a wife. I’m cooking three meals a day and I’m loving it. I’m with my babies, and blessed to be in nature and not in the city. I’ve got my horse. So I’m fine in my solitude.
Then, obviously, there is a deep sadness for all of the lives that are lost and for what people are going through. I have a huge respect for the people on the front line here in England in the NHS and all of the emergency workers. That reality, the mindfulness of what other people are going through, and that we’re all connected in all of the same thoughts, which is a really heavy realization, not to be lightly dismissed. I am very aware of that. Then, there’s the side to me that employs hundreds and hundreds of people globally. Obviously, we are affected as a business, like every other business right now. I’m always wanting the business to do well because of what we stand for as much as anything, and also because I’m a businesswoman. But right now you think, “Wow, this is the first time we are all connected in so many ways.” That’s the important thing that sits on my mind.
WWD: It’s odd that that connection comes through isolation.
S.M.: Yes. I have a large family network so I’m not isolated that much on my own. The first couple of weeks were really interesting for me on a working level because in our industry, we work with teams, and we feed off each other creatively. I was trying to settle into working via device and using my teams in a different way. [Now] all of us are feeling connected. I’m more connected with teams globally than usual — “let’s meet with China; let’s meet with Japan,” bigger meetings with teams. I’ve enjoyed that and I want to carry through. One of the big questions here is how does this impact our lives going forward, when things get back to whatever the new normal will be.
I’m looking to my team a lot, also. Holistically, making sure my teams are OK mentally and emotionally. And that, normally, I don’t have time to do; [usually] I’m just getting involved in my day-to-day. But now I’m like OK, we need to have calls every week just to check in on everyone and see how everyone is feeling. I worry about people, just how they’re doing. My teams in Italy, they’re not allowed out, they’re allowed out to go food shopping and that’s it….I’m mindful of that, like how are you all doing emotionally and mentally because that’s hardcore, going out or not going out and looking out and seeing nothing there. That’s quite hard hitting. I’m not sure if any of us really know how that will affect us all.
WWD: Nuts and bolts, I’m sure the specifics vary from region to region.
S.M.: Yes. there’s one side that’s creative and there’s one side that’s very, very much responding to different regions and who is quarantined, who’s not. Obviously, we’re massively based in Italy, so it’s been a big conversation about what we can make, what we can’t make, what we can have access to. When you do work in a sustainable way, you have to work far in advance to be sustainable. I develop the majority of my fabrics far in advance, and I have such a deep commitment to my suppliers and to where we’re growing the yarn and the process and the entire circle-ness of it all. I try to remain respectful and loyal to X amount of [suppliers] because I know they’re my reliable source points.
WWD: Quarantining with family is very different from quarantining alone. But it still puts stress on work.
S.M.: I grew up in a creative household. And creatively, it was pretty much isolation. When The Beatles broke up we moved to a farm in Scotland, completely isolated. My mom and dad did an album; my dad did an album of McCartney, and I think it was his best work. It has been a massive impact on my life, that isolation, on how I think and how I live my life through my business, through my family, through my friendships.
The majority of my friends are artists or work in the creative fields, and the majority of them work in isolation; it’s just what they do. Name-dropping, I checked in with David Hockney, and he said, “I’m painting more than ever.” The birth [of] creation is a very insular moment. And then [creatives] go into a teamwork frame, if at all. So my dad will write an album on his own. When he has that creative birth, he will then take it to the next step, engineering it, producing it, art-working it, and ultimately it goes on tour in front of hundreds of thousands of people. So it’s sort of this journey….Our industry goes very quickly away from isolation in the creative sense and goes into teamwork. It becomes a production line, if you like.
WWD: It sounds as if you prefer a longer solitary creative process.
S.M.: I seem to be busier than ever because I’m doing more and more calls. This is taking me away from my creative process and isolation, so I’m trying to find a balance, which is at the core of everything we do at Stella McCartney. Maybe the answer to all of this is trying to find the balance.
WWD: Other designers have talked to me about the creative process being teamwork. It sounds as if your process still starts singularly.
S.M.: My name is on the door of the brand, so everything that it stands for has come from me at some stage in my thinking, from my belief systems and my creativity. And then the team around me, we all feed off each other and we all create from that starting point. In our industry we all complain about not having time. So I want to be respectful of that right now and [think of] how can we find that balance between teamwork and creating with your team and bouncing off of each other and all that stuff.
Even before all of this happened, I was already approaching spring like this. I was like, OK, how can we not buy new fabric for spring? How can we look at everything that we [have already]? I’ve done that for years. It’s the way that I work; it’s the way my mind works. What have we got in stock, how can we repurpose it? How can we give it a re-life or a rebirth? We did all the upcycling two seasons ago on the runway. How can we look at what’s in a warehouse somewhere? So it’s a really interesting moment for our brand.
WWD: What does your sweatshirt say?
S.M.: It says We Are the Weather. It’s my Jonathan Safran Foer collaboration. We Are the Weather — it’s very apt. It feels like most of what I’ve done seems apt right now. It seems like everything I’ve done in my career seems to be quite apt right now.
WWD: To that point, and going back to what you said a moment ago, do you think you’re a bit ahead of other brands fabric-wise?
S.M.: My viscose comes from sustainable managed forests. It took me three years to [develop it]. So once I’ve taken that long and it’s the only source I have, I then commit to it. I [now] have had to look at all the business, which I do anyway, but it’s more magnified. Then that goes into, can we have access to [product for] our e-commerce if [production] is all in Italy, and da da da. And what markets are opening up more than others, or which ones are going into isolation or coming out of isolation. We’re all doing the same thing I’m sure.
WWD: What differences do you find among the various global markets?
S.M.: Every single market is reacting differently. But what people are buying is what would be expected, much more home pieces, much more classics. We’re so lucky in that we have real iconic, timeless, staple pieces — the Falabella bag, for example, the Elyse shoe. It’s not dissimilar to what I’m sure a lot of brands are finding. Hopefully people will lean toward a more mindful culture now. To be a more conscious consumer more than ever, I hope, starts to have some kind of resonance with people. And I think that that’s what we represent in the industry.
WWD: It surprises me that people are shopping at all for clothes or accessories. You’re finding that people are shopping?
S.M.: They’re not shopping as much. I think the whole reality of this is buy less, care more. That’s the highlight for me, but it has always been the case. As I say, before when I was looking at doing spring, I was already thinking, why do we offer so much product? Waste is a big, big, big issue in our industry, and I am a massive fan of trying to reduce waste or do better with the waste that exists. I think we probably waste the least out of all the brands, we’re so mindful and careful. The challenge for me to my teams is how can we be better at our production and how can we be much more efficient. So we’re pretty on it.
I think that now more than ever is the time to look at our industry and say, OK, the truck loads of fast fashion that are incinerated or buried. That’s $100 billion worth of waste a year in fibers, in resourcing. It’s crazy. There is just so much we don’t need. And I agree, I don’t think anyone needs to buy anything ever again. It’s how you repurpose. This is what I think all the time; this is not anything new for me. That’s why I’m [looking] to the classics that I’ve created, because they’re timeless. It’s how I approach the birth of design — by starting with, how can I create something that lasts somebody a lifetime, and then another lifetime after that? How can I design something that is so not relying on a trend so that it can be recycled or repurposed or resold or rented? How can I encourage all of that? I am so open-minded to all of that.
WWD: When you have that attitude about less is more and less is better, how do you keep on a growth path?
S.M.: There’s real growth. We’re not a massive, massive brand. Look, there’s always going to be brands, there’s always going to be products, you’re always going to want a mug for your cup of tea, and when your mug breaks, you’re going to buy another one, or you’re going to get bored of that mug and you’re going to go, “I want a new mug; I deserve a new mug.” That’s OK. It’s allowed, we’re allowed to consume. What we need to do is consume in a better way. And what companies have to do for the customer is make better and source better and be better brands. We are really f–king good at that at Stella McCartney. That’s a nice mug, Bridget. You’re allowed to buy yourself a new one in a week.
WWD: Thank you. From a craftsperson in Ireland.
S.M.: Exactly! Look, my way of thinking has always been, it’s allowed. You’re allowed to buy s–t, right? No one is going to stop buying s–t, but people are going to, I hope, buy more locally now, they are going to buy better, they are going to buy more online. That will reduce a lot of carbon in the air.
For me, I’ve always had this really difficult dilemma where it’s like, if I do things mindfully and ethically and environmentally, [does] that mean I’m not allowed to have a successful business? But I believe now more than ever that my business model should be more people’s business model. When everyone is doing things [mindfully] then fine, then we can have a non-growth conversation. But right now I need to set an example, I need to show people that you can have a healthy business, you can employ people, you can employ mills in Italy, you can work with farmers all over the world. You can create commerce in a more conscious way.
WWD: During these massive global quarantines, we’re seeing cleaner air and cleaner water; it’s been measured. But it has taken a total shut down and total isolation. So does that make you optimistic or pessimistic?
S.M.: I’ve been really optimistic that we’ve seen a dramatic reduction in a matter of weeks. Pollution — you could see the results really quickly. Obviously I never envisaged a shut down so dramatically.
WWD: No one did.
S.M.: More than ever now, we need to have these conversations, and we have to learn. [Otherwise] I think it is such a disservice to the suffering. I feel like every single person that has lost their life or lost a loved one from COVID-19, that cost and pain and suffering needs to see something good come of it. If the people in power can respect those lives lost with some kind of environmental respect and management and policymaking, then I feel like it’s not in vain. People have got to stop and ask, “What was the cost, and what can we do in a positive way [to honor] the pain that people have felt?”
WWD: Yet some public health protocols seem at odds with environmental protocols. We’re all washing our hands constantly, so we’re using more water than ever. Also, the return to single-use items. In New York State, the plastic-bag ban went into effect only a while ago, and it’s now suspended. And before it closed, Starbucks stopped accepting customers’ containers, at least temporarily.
S.M.: The single-use plastics — that’s where tech will come in. I’ve been looking for many, many years at things like that. We’ve been looking at a company making single-use items that are completely biodegradable. It’s now looking at single-purpose spoons and cutlery, because obviously, the world wants disposable spoons and cutlery. Look, water. We’ve done so many things over the years at Stella, just simple things like clever care such as a whole campaign around not dry-cleaning, not washing your clothes so much, turn your washing machine down, doing it less frequently. The amount of water we use just in the fashion industry — the facts are ridiculous. So outside of washing hands, there are ways to reduce water consumption, many, many ways. And that’s just everyday practice in pretty much every industry.
WWD: Do you see a dichotomy between the environment and the public health issue or do you think ultimately they come together in the big picture?
S.M.: Ultimately, they come together in the big picture. Ultimately, we’ve got to have some kind of respect for animals on the planet and we’ve got to stop the way in which we farm them and kill them and eat them because it’s a hotbed for disease. It’s not an industry that is healthy or pretty. I’m not isolating out a nation because I think the entire globe is guilty of how they farm and kill and manufacture animals. We have seen many diseases come of that. So, you know, it ain’t gonna go away until somebody looks at that predominantly. They are all connected. And I think it’s so interesting that it’s the conversation nobody is really having.
WWD: Why not?
S.M.: Because people don’t feel good about the fact that they kill billions of animals a year. There is a guilt attached to it. They don’t feel proud of it so they don’t want to talk about it. They know it’s wrong, and it’s hard to face that. We are all part of it. Well, I’m not part of it. But the majority of the planet is part of that conversation, and responsible. Again, I’ll be the glass half-full type where I say, “you don’t have to give it up completely if you can’t, but just reduce it and just buy it better.” Draw a line in how you consume. Set yourself goals, set yourself parameters that are better. Because it comes down to individuals. The individual consumption and demand will dictate what the ceo’s and the businesses invest in, what they buy into.
I’ve been working on my mom’s vegetarian food [company] since she passed away 22 years ago on Friday. She started it, what, 30, 40 years ago? She started a vegetarian, alternative food brand, and it is growing year on year. And I have never seen more competitors in a most exciting way. My mom would be so happy. She probably would have closed the business, seeing how many vegetarian alternative competitors there are now. That’s not because KFC loves chickens. It’s because they see that the consumer wants a vegan KFC. The biggest burger selling at Burger King right now is the Impossible Burger. This is due to customer change. This is the reaction to hopefully the new way of life.
WWD: Do you oversee your mother’s company?
S.M.: Well, the whole family does. We create the products, we create the range, I do the packaging, we look at the marketing. It’s a family brand..
WWD: That’s amazing. How long has it been?
S.M.: I don’t know the exact founding year. I need to look at it, actually; this reminds me. I want to put it on the packaging when we re-brand. [Linda McCartney Foods launched in 1991.]
WWD: You have stayed faithful to your upbringing, and the tenets you were raised on. Do your kids embrace the lifestyle that you live at home? Has any of them ever questioned it?
S.M.: Yes, they do. They are exactly how I was. But I think now there’s more people around [with similar views], although there’s still not a huge amount of vegetarians. Like, surprisingly, not all their friends are veggie. But it’s a much more well-versed conversation now. They are a lot less freakishly alone. But it’s very similar. I remember when I was really young, I’d say to my mom and dad, “why are we vegetarian? Why can’t I eat meat?” And they would say, “Well, you can eat meat because it’s an individual choice. But this is why we choose not to, because we don’t want to eat a dead animal.” My kids have asked me the exact same questions, and I give them the exact same answer. I’m like, “You are totally free to do what you want to do. I really respect your choice, but this is why I do it.” I see it through their eyes. Because when you’re part of a high-profile family that the world knows doesn’t eat animals, you don’t feel like you can go and sneak chicken Kiev on a weekend.
But at the end of the day, my kids — I believe very much that children are so beautifully connected to nature and they’re so innocent and they’re so pure and the minute you say to them, “Look, there’s a chicken alive and there’s a chicken deep fried. Do you want to eat it?” I mean, nobody wants to eat stuff if they see how it’s made. I don’t think anyone would eat it if they really saw how it got to their plate.
WWD: What do you think the lasting impact will be of COVID-19 on the industry?
S.M.: I don’t know what the lasting impact will be, if any. My biggest fear is that things will just get back to what we consider normal, whatever that is. But I think that the immediate impact will be thinking differently, I hope. I’m always trying to push myself and my teams. They laugh at me. I’m, “OK, so what are we going to do? How are we going to do this differently?” For me, if every single day I didn’t try and figure out how to come at something differently, I feel like I wouldn’t be able to do what I do.
I think that the entire industry now, and anyone in business now, has had to stop and say, “this is a moment I didn’t see coming. How am I going to be the one to think outside the box?” We are all competitive. We all want to win, and we all want to come up with great ideas. Right now people have got to push themselves and try to guess what might happen next. It’s a breaking of the norm as we have known it. I think if you are in fashion, you need to think that way every single day, regardless of the coronavirus. That’s our job. But there are obvious ways in which things will change. I think people are going to be much more cautious with their money. They’re going to invest more carefully, and they will buy in a different way, physically and emotionally.
WWD: Small picture, back to spring, a little more on your thoughts right now.
S.M.: We started working on spring, and then we paused. But I feel like at Stella we need to do something to [speak to] this moment and not just say, let’s just cancel everything until it’s over. For me, it feels like creatively we should be more inspired than ever to stand out. So I have been working on this little idea of individual pieces and individual gems, and being mindful of the two ends of the spectrum. I think some people will come back and go, “oh f–k it, I deserve to enjoy fashion for a second. I have been sitting in my flat in my pajamas for three months.” So I think there’s going to be [some people who want to shop].
Again, it comes back to working sustainably. I’m trying not to order new fabrics for [spring]. I’m just like, what have we got? We have fabrics that we buy in bulk because they are sustainably sourced. They are our go-to’s. We’re not like other fashion brands.
WWD: No, you’re not.
S.M.: I have a relationship with environmentally friendly suppliers. I have even created them in some instances. That’s the core value system of the brand, so that’s what we can go to. We’re lucky in that sense. It’s like saying I know that I can get my organic oat milk from this supplier, that’s not going to change. It’s just then left to me as to what I print on it this season or if I can embroider on it this season, which I probably can’t. I work like that anyway. My upcycled collection [fall 2019], those pieces all become limited editions. My final coat was like five seasons’ worth of prints sitting in a warehouse. So it shows that if you are sustainable as a business in fashion, you’re kind of ahead of the game when something like this happens. I’m not reliant on the same things that other people are reliant on because I am much more reliant on a sustainable source.
WWD: Your ethical premise becomes pragmatic business.
S.M.: Yes, and it becomes a supply chain conversation. I know there’s only two non-leather suppliers that I want to work with, with whom I’ve developed a soft non-leather or a faux fur. And so they are who I go to. I never start a season with, “let’s see 700 fabrics from Italy.” It’s not how I work. I’ve got my own little supply network. Over 60 percent of our environmental impact happens at the raw material stage, which means that this is where we have the biggest positive impact as well. If I didn’t use a fabric maybe in one season because it didn’t feel right, I don’t then sell it or chuck it away. I go, “OK, maybe I’ll use it next season.” It will sit somewhere and then I’ll reuse it.
WWD: How will this crisis impact the show system?
S.M.: I feel like we’ve been having that conversation for 20 years. Like, ugh. You know?
WWD: Yes. But do you think this is, finally, the essential reset button?
S.M.: I think maybe more the conversation is, it’s our job to come up with newness, come up with different ways of grabbing attention and reflecting the feelings, the thoughts of other people. We represent that in what we do. So there’s always got to be a new way of doing it. We all think that fashion shows are medieval. We all question how that works and if it needs to be done that way. It’s just always hard to find an answer on that one. This will [force the issue], for sure. Exciting new ideas will come out of this, for sure.
NOTE: On Monday, Stella’s p.r. Arabella Rufino sent word of the screen takeover at Piccadilly Circus. Asked why she planned the initiative at a time when there are so few people on the streets to take it in, Stella sent a thoughtful reply. “For the first time in history, we can truly measure the damage done by human activity,” she wrote. “Will we go back to the norm, or will we give Mother Earth the respect and time she deserves to continue healing — so that these city centers with their huge screens can be seen through unpolluted air? I hope we can learn from this moment of pause and that nature can reclaim its rightful focal place in our lives. My message is a gentle, loving reminder: Every day is Earth Day.”
WWD
Benn98
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Aug 6, 2014
- Messages
- 42,529
- Reaction score
- 20,583
Really enjoyed the interview with Stella not because she sounded as excitable as a toddler jacked sugar, but because she makes a valid point about how our tradition of farming and consuming animals is indirectly tied to this pandemic.
What I found a little annoying, other than the mild sales pitch for her brand that she dropped throughout, was the hypocrisy. You can't lecture about sustainability and the high street when you still run pre-fall and resort lines, still do a collection with Adidas who may have fairly sound sustainability creds, but still thrive on aggressive consumerism. Sweep in front of your own door first.
Also, love her mum's vegan sausages but the burgers are wafer-thin and taste rubbery.
What I found a little annoying, other than the mild sales pitch for her brand that she dropped throughout, was the hypocrisy. You can't lecture about sustainability and the high street when you still run pre-fall and resort lines, still do a collection with Adidas who may have fairly sound sustainability creds, but still thrive on aggressive consumerism. Sweep in front of your own door first.
Also, love her mum's vegan sausages but the burgers are wafer-thin and taste rubbery.
fashionista-ta
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jul 14, 2005
- Messages
- 17,330
- Reaction score
- 844
She doesn't seem to be aware of growth areas for her brand ... wrt the quality of the faux leather, something I've run into in the past (with Lanvin hardware, some years ago) is that a lot of people don't seem aware of quality issues because they're not using products intensively. I switch bags after months, not days, and so if there's an issue, I'll find it. If you have so much that things are mostly just sitting in your closet, you won't see the quality issues.
Benn98
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Aug 6, 2014
- Messages
- 42,529
- Reaction score
- 20,583
Yes! This should actually be a cardinal rule for consumers. Especially when it comes to artisanal and luxury goods. You have to be able to justify the price through quality and how durable a product is.
I wonder what the handbag influencers and reviewers make of her goods, or are they as biased as everyone else? Because I've stopped reading reviews and user comments after discovering that most are quietly sponsored or planted.
I use the same handbag until it falls apart to be honest! I saved up for a new one from The Row & can already tell it will last me YEARS of daily use. Their prices are shocking but I'd rather pay for the quality & invest in repair services. It's also non-descript enough to avoid the trend trap.
fashionista-ta
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jul 14, 2005
- Messages
- 17,330
- Reaction score
- 844
^ That's good to hear 
Some of the exotic bags have car-like pricetags ...
(If you like investment dressing, you might like the 4-5 piece French wardrobe thread in Personal Style ...)
Some of the exotic bags have car-like pricetags ...(If you like investment dressing, you might like the 4-5 piece French wardrobe thread in Personal Style ...)
Not Plain Jane
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Mar 3, 2010
- Messages
- 15,422
- Reaction score
- 719
"Our reckless actions have burned the house we live in. We conceived of ourselves as separated from nature, we felt cunning and almighty.”
"most of the collection is crafted in 100 per cent regenerated nylon created from recycled ECONYL® yarn, which is formed from waste materials such as abandoned fishing nets and carpets. Other components of the Off The Grid collection are crafted from recycled materials and more sustainable alternatives such as metal-free tanned leather, recycled polyester thread and linings, recycled brass, recycled gold and palladium hardware coating, and solvent-free adhesives. Leather scraps from the collection are also recovered and upcycled as part of the Gucci-Up programme. "
Gucci’s Latest Campaign Stars Lil Nas X and Jane Fonda
THIS -- it makes me happy. Whether you love the direction of GUCCI's style or not, this is the right direction for the fashion industry.
Hugs dear Fashion-spotters - hope you're all keeping well! 
Last edited:
lauralynn025
le monde est à moi
- Joined
- Jun 6, 2020
- Messages
- 316
- Reaction score
- 333
"Our reckless actions have burned the house we live in. We conceived of ourselves as separated from nature, we felt cunning and almighty.”
"most of the collection is crafted in 100 per cent regenerated nylon created from recycled ECONYL® yarn, which is formed from waste materials such as abandoned fishing nets and carpets. Other components of the Off The Grid collection are crafted from recycled materials and more sustainable alternatives such as metal-free tanned leather, recycled polyester thread and linings, recycled brass, recycled gold and palladium hardware coating, and solvent-free adhesives. Leather scraps from the collection are also recovered and upcycled as part of the Gucci-Up programme. "
Gucci’s Latest Campaign Stars Lil Nas X and Jane Fonda
THIS -- it makes me happy. Whether you love the direct of GUCCI's style or not, this is the right direction for the fashion industry.
I love that fashion is starting to move toward this direction!! There are definitely so many ways to be eco-friendly, but still create amazing pieces as well!!
Niu DaVinci
Member
- Joined
- Jul 9, 2020
- Messages
- 4
- Reaction score
- 0
I have some sketches and 3D models of really creative high fashion purses, handbags and backpacks, can you mention to me a few who are environmentally conscious or Fair Trade so I can try to collab with them?
Benn98
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Aug 6, 2014
- Messages
- 42,529
- Reaction score
- 20,583
Via Peta UK, another victory for the animals. 
And to those who don't agree with this, please click on the link below and look at the gruesome and distressing images! Then let's talk again.
Great News! Carolina Herrera, Paco Rabanne, Jean Paul Gaultier, Nina Ricci, and Dries Van Noten Ditch Exotic Skins
Great News! Carolina Herrera, Paco Rabanne, Jean Paul Gaultier, Nina Ricci, and Dries Van Noten Ditch Exotic Skins
Posted by Margarita Sachkova on July 6, 2021
PETA is celebrating after luxury fashion company Puig – owner of labels Carolina Herrera, Paco Rabanne, Jean Paul Gaultier, Nina Ricci, and Dries Van Noten – confirmed it will stop selling items made from the skins of snakes, crocodiles, and other exotic animals.
The family-owned Spanish company, which says it “aims to leave a better world for the next generation”, has assured PETA that “steps have already been taken to no longer use exotic skins” at its CH Carolina Herrera sub-brand, meaning the crocodile and python accessories currently available will be its last.
Snakes and Alligators Aren’t Handbags
Behind every item made out of exotic skins is an animal who endured a violent, bloody death.
PETA has released several exposés of the exotic-skins industry, revealing rampant cruelty. A recent PETA Asia exposé shows the horrific way pythons are killed for their skin. The python’s mouth and anus are closed off with rubber bands, and workers cut a hole in either the snake’s head or tail to insert a hose and then inflate the animal with an air compressor, causing them to suffocate to death.
Alligators are commonly kept in fetid water inside dank, dark sheds until they’re slaughtered. Their necks are hacked open and a metal rod is shoved up into their brains, often while they’re fully conscious. At just a year old, ostriches, who are killed for their skin and feathers, are transported by lorry to abattoirs, where workers flip them upside down, stun them, and slit their throats.
Public Health Hazard
The exotic-skins industry also poses a significant public-health risk: experts warn that these unsanitary and crowded conditions are the perfect breeding ground for viruses such as the one that caused the COVID-19 pandemic – believed to have originated in a live-animal market similar to the farms exotic skins come from.
Who’s Next?
Puig’s brands join a growing list of top designers and retailers – including Calvin Klein, Chanel, Victoria Beckham, Paul Smith, Selfridges, and Mulberry – which have all banned the sale of exotic skins.
We applaud Puig’s compassionate decision and encourage other brands to follow its example. We’re calling on other leading fashion brands, such as Louis Vuitton, Hermès, and Prada, to ban exotic skins. Will you join us?
And to those who don't agree with this, please click on the link below and look at the gruesome and distressing images! Then let's talk again.
Great News! Carolina Herrera, Paco Rabanne, Jean Paul Gaultier, Nina Ricci, and Dries Van Noten Ditch Exotic Skins
Great News! Carolina Herrera, Paco Rabanne, Jean Paul Gaultier, Nina Ricci, and Dries Van Noten Ditch Exotic Skins
Posted by Margarita Sachkova on July 6, 2021
PETA is celebrating after luxury fashion company Puig – owner of labels Carolina Herrera, Paco Rabanne, Jean Paul Gaultier, Nina Ricci, and Dries Van Noten – confirmed it will stop selling items made from the skins of snakes, crocodiles, and other exotic animals.
The family-owned Spanish company, which says it “aims to leave a better world for the next generation”, has assured PETA that “steps have already been taken to no longer use exotic skins” at its CH Carolina Herrera sub-brand, meaning the crocodile and python accessories currently available will be its last.
Snakes and Alligators Aren’t Handbags
Behind every item made out of exotic skins is an animal who endured a violent, bloody death.
PETA has released several exposés of the exotic-skins industry, revealing rampant cruelty. A recent PETA Asia exposé shows the horrific way pythons are killed for their skin. The python’s mouth and anus are closed off with rubber bands, and workers cut a hole in either the snake’s head or tail to insert a hose and then inflate the animal with an air compressor, causing them to suffocate to death.
Alligators are commonly kept in fetid water inside dank, dark sheds until they’re slaughtered. Their necks are hacked open and a metal rod is shoved up into their brains, often while they’re fully conscious. At just a year old, ostriches, who are killed for their skin and feathers, are transported by lorry to abattoirs, where workers flip them upside down, stun them, and slit their throats.
Public Health Hazard
The exotic-skins industry also poses a significant public-health risk: experts warn that these unsanitary and crowded conditions are the perfect breeding ground for viruses such as the one that caused the COVID-19 pandemic – believed to have originated in a live-animal market similar to the farms exotic skins come from.
Who’s Next?
Puig’s brands join a growing list of top designers and retailers – including Calvin Klein, Chanel, Victoria Beckham, Paul Smith, Selfridges, and Mulberry – which have all banned the sale of exotic skins.
We applaud Puig’s compassionate decision and encourage other brands to follow its example. We’re calling on other leading fashion brands, such as Louis Vuitton, Hermès, and Prada, to ban exotic skins. Will you join us?
dior_couture1245
Fat Karl
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2006
- Messages
- 9,225
- Reaction score
- 4,753
So looking forward to the day when we’re all just in potato sacks! Soon, that’ll be all that’s left that’s allowed!
But…but...the poor potatoes, though!
Granted…I am not THRILLED about the particularly gruesome way in which many of these animals are killed (was is always this way??). I would prefer a more humane way of killing them. But I am still completely pro-fur and leather. Nothing you can say or show me will change my mind.
Hate me, I don’t care.
But…but...the poor potatoes, though!
Granted…I am not THRILLED about the particularly gruesome way in which many of these animals are killed (was is always this way??). I would prefer a more humane way of killing them. But I am still completely pro-fur and leather. Nothing you can say or show me will change my mind.
Hate me, I don’t care.
dior_couture1245
Fat Karl
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2006
- Messages
- 9,225
- Reaction score
- 4,753
BTW - eco friendly fashion is purely a marketing strategy. There is absolutely nothing “sustainable” or “eco” about what brands do now.
The only way fashion could ever be “eco” or “sustainable” would be to go back to an industry model like it was in the 20’s, 30’s or 40’s before RTW. Couture garments made custom of the highest quality for individual clients who kept these clothes for generations, also demanding and ensuring a large and stable job market for skilled laborers to make these clothes…and the rest of us who couldn’t afford Couture learned to get by making our own clothes or purchasing what we could afford and when.
Anything less than that is fluff and a waste of time.
The only way fashion could ever be “eco” or “sustainable” would be to go back to an industry model like it was in the 20’s, 30’s or 40’s before RTW. Couture garments made custom of the highest quality for individual clients who kept these clothes for generations, also demanding and ensuring a large and stable job market for skilled laborers to make these clothes…and the rest of us who couldn’t afford Couture learned to get by making our own clothes or purchasing what we could afford and when.
Anything less than that is fluff and a waste of time.
