Top Fashion Labels Declared 'Substandard'

[justlooking]

sorry if this is in the wrong forum mods

Top fashion labels declared 'substandard'

From correspondents in Beijing
January 20, 2007 05:07pm
Article from: Agence France-Presse
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CLOTHES from some leading international fashion labels have been declared substandard in China with some containing large levels of a chemicals.
Quality control tests were conducted on garments from 40 labels for sale in Shanghai including luxury brands Armani, Burberry, Polo Ralph Lauren, ST Dupont and MaxMara, China's bureau of commerce and industry said.
Of the 59 garments and shoes tested, 25 were declared substandard with some having high levels of formaldehyde, unacceptable amounts of acid (pH) and poor dyes, the bureau said in a notice on its website.
All but one of the 25 garments were imported.
Formaldehyde can cause skin rashes, eye irritations, provoke allergies and cause respiratory problems and cancer, in extremely high levels, the notice said.
One garment contained twice the amount allowed under regulations, the notice said.
The results will spark concern among retailers and shoppers in China, the world's third-largest consumer of luxury goods after Japan and the United States.
About 250 million Chinese are expected to be able to afford luxury goods by 2010, according to leading French pollster the IPSOS Institute.
Other problems include erroneous labelling, with one garment saying it was 20 per cent cashmere, but tests discovered it contained just 1.7 per per cent.
The bureau said the clothes would be withdrawn and penalties imposed on the manufacturers.

 

[BaroqueRockstar]

thanks for the article!
i really hope they do something about this
although it's never happened to me, i hear horro stories once in awhile about clothes falling apart and pants ripping because the high acid levels destroy the material...

 

[it-boy's nature]

geeze,that's pretty horrible!!! i bet there are plenty of other labels with similar complications

who knew that could even happen?-not me

 

[Deleted member 7575]

whoa, very telling.

 

[shallow_waters]

Absolutely disgusting and unacceptable

 

[Ghost]

lol pay thousand dollars for all these

 

[Miss Dior Cherie]

That's horrid and slighty disturbing.

 

[Diorling]

Polo Ralph Lauren?

I definately believe that "cashmere blend" business, sometimes wool is softer.

 

[kevinnn]

Wow. That sounds horrible.

 

[thesiren]

yikes.

 

[Foxie-Pooh]

They really should do more studies like this and report the brands and items that are substandard so that people will be aware of these practices and avoid buying things from these companies...

 

[IdiotGirl]

Wow that's not cool..I guess I won't be buying from those labels for a while or actually until they change the situation.

 

[gius]

...with some having high levels of formaldehyde, unacceptable amounts of acid (pH) and poor dyes, the bureau said in a notice on its website.
All but one of the 25 garments were imported.
Formaldehyde can cause skin rashes, eye irritations, provoke allergies and cause respiratory problems and cancer, in extremely high levels, the notice said.

I wonder if it's this bad in luxury items, it will be even worse in lower end, mass-market clothes?

 

[PrinceOfCats]

If people can't tell for themselves then what does it matter?

 

[jennifer~]

I wonder how many chemicals a good dry-cleaning will add.

 

[Scott]

i wonder if that's just the bigger names with a bigger market with easier,cheaper manufacturing routes....

whilst,on the subject,not only what this does to our own body's,imagine the pollution that all contributes to the ever-so-decreasing climate....

 

[happyguy]

i am not at all surprised by this. The government should help the public be aware of such things. Like Scott said..imagine what this does to the climate. like it's not already bad enough. it's crazy!!!

i wonder if they'll publish the list of names. that ought to force companies to make it right. suppose they cut costs to make a higher profit. but at their customers expense...horrifying.

 

[elschic111]

interesting article...

you know, in school for intl business we learn that sometimes countries do funny things to interfere with trade as they see fit...i'm wondering if the chinese govt secretly wants to block some of the luxury goods...and is fudging some of the numbers. "all but one imported"...that is what caught my eye. it would be logical to think that they would want to encourage domestic production of luxury designer goods...and that they'd have to resort to means like this to get it. (i wouldn't put it past the chinese govt to do smth like this--with the way they censor internet access and such..but i'm not an expert) because while lots of clothing is produced in china, we all know they have a big intellectual property problem. and i'm sure a lot of luxury designers still do not want to have their clothing labeled "made in china." wonder if that is a little bit of what is behind this?

if someone who knows the production side of the industry could comment, i'd be really interested to hear if that is a possibility.

 

[zamb]

well, while i cannot tell whether the studies are true are not, it is interesting that is was done in China....... a country known for having a knack for producing cheaply made inferior Goods.
maybe it is a ploy to change its image and level the playing field.
I read something a while back, that said that often the results of a study can vary greatly, depending on who is doing the study, and who is paying for it.........

Also, in reality though, a lot of designer merchandise are really cheaply made, and sometimes the prices are really not justified, that why i have a greater respect for designers who would rather keep their business small. not advertise and spend huge amounts of money on shows.
reason being..... they can affort to do good quality work and sell it for reasonal prices and still be profitable , which is what the customers are looking for

 

[haoshcn]

interesting article...

you know, in school for intl business we learn that sometimes countries do funny things to interfere with trade as they see fit...i'm wondering if the chinese govt secretly wants to block some of the luxury goods...and is fudging some of the numbers. "all but one imported"...that is what caught my eye. it would be logical to think that they would want to encourage domestic production of luxury designer goods...and that they'd have to resort to means like this to get it. (i wouldn't put it past the chinese govt to do smth like this--with the way they censor internet access and such..but i'm not an expert) because while lots of clothing is produced in china, we all know they have a big intellectual property problem. and i'm sure a lot of luxury designers still do not want to have their clothing labeled "made in china." wonder if that is a little bit of what is behind this?

if someone who knows the production side of the industry could comment, i'd be really interested to hear if that is a possibility.

No, Chinese government has no desire to block the European luxury goods. It's impossible to do that either since the Chinese customers for European luxury goods also want genuinely made in Italy or France luxury goods. If I were a senior government official back in China, I would be much more interested in nurturing the local luxuxry labels with everything made in our own country rather than force Chanel or Fendi to transfer their production to here, that simply doesn't make sense.

I won't doubt those test results either since the most likely those are quite simple, straightforward routine tests done by labs of authority (I am a Ph.D.-educated scientist in the US myself). But why this whole substandard thing was suddenly exposed and became such a high-profile event on Chinese media, that's a different story. Some people said it's highly political-driven, and probably has a lot to do with EU's imposition of high tariff on shoes made in China last year, or maybe even EU's refusal to remove the arm embargo recently, so these European luxury goods makers just became the victims of the EU-China poltical frictions. I think that kind of explanation makes a bit sense. No matter what the real cause is, these tested products have quality issue, that's a matter of fact.