Fashion with compassion

Fashionista loves a birthday and now that London Fashion Week is over, what better way to celebrate the weekend than to toast another fashion milestone? Fashionista has celebrated the birthdays of some well known and long established English brands but on this occasion wants to celebrate the first birthday of a small but fabulous independent fashion retailer based in the Oxfordshire market town of Thame. So Fashionista congratulates joint owners Nicola Noakes and Angela Good who bravely launched their business Freerange when others were closing their doors for good.

So what is Freerange? To use Nicola and Angela's own words, "it is a fresh faced fashion retailer offering a range of ethically sourced, stylish clothing and lifestyle products for men and women who care about the world around them, strive for a better one and to still want to look fabulous".
When asked by Fashionista to describe Freerange, Angela said that the aim was to prove that the words 'fashion' and 'eco friendly' truly do go together by establishing a personal shopping experience against a backdrop of eco friendly, ethical and stylish clothing.

A year on, the business is already well established locally and its online store is improving by the season - this means that you don't have to live nearby to visit. Freerange prides itself on dealing with companies who produce good looking, wearable, covetable collections whilst ensuring any impact on the environment is as minimal as possible - including amongst others Ciel, Bailey, Amana, Kuyichi, People Tree, Stewart and Brown, Lowie and Ivana Basilotta.

Angela and Nicola are not alone in the fashion world to find that relationships with suppliers can be trying - and in a recession perhaps more so. But on a positive note it is heartening to learn that some suppliers have been really supportive to this fledgling business.

So as we hear more news about green shoots - and even green fields - from the financial commentators, Fashionista is glad to hear that on the high street there is some positive news and something to celebrate. Hopefully, the story of Freerange's first happy year will encourage others to be brave and not only enter the wonderful world of fashion retailing but also encourage all fashionistas to embrace ethically sourced fashion.

Fashionista is thinking green . . . . .

Ever open to new initiatives, Fashionista has been inspired to consider going "green". And, of course, she is far from alone and certainly not the first to recognise that "green is the new black". Today's news that luxury giant LVMH is taking a minority stake in Edun, the ecological and ethical fashion label, has caught Fashionista's attention. Edun has a fascinating pedigree - launched in 2005 by Bono, the Irish lead singer of the rock band U2, and his wife and now partially owned by the world's biggest owner of luxury brands. Will the other luxury brand giants follow, Fashionista muses? Certainly there is an ever increasing list of ethical fashion labels to choose from and it seems that there is also an increasing consumer interest in the ethical stance of clothing manufacturers. So, Fashionista plans to investigate and report on green issues in the fashion world on a regular basis . . . . and will be interested to see if other fashion groups follow LVMH's lead.

Ethics of outsourcing: not just Tesco's problem

In "Keep ethical trading in fashion", a letter to The Guardian newspaper, veteran radical lawyer Benedict Birnberg raises concerns regarding leading UK retailer Tesco's plan to launch its own-label online clothing store, as reported in Drapers. While recognising the attraction of this proposal for Tesco customers he writes:

"My concern, however, is with its outsourced garment workers in the developing world. Following War on Want's Fashion Victims report in December 2006, based on research in Bangladesh, and with the publicity generated by your publication of a letter from me, as a Tesco shareholder I was able to move a resolution at its 2007 AGM mandating the company to pay its workers a living wage; 20% of shareholders either voted for the resolution or abstained".

After citing some chilling figures drawn from a fresh War on Want investigation, he continues

"... the culture of fast fashion changes and aggressive buying practices of UK retailers put extreme pressure on suppliers, and hence workers, to produce more garments in less time; not surprisingly, War on Want found that Bangladeshi workers work up to 80 hours a week and most worked 10 to 14 hours a day, six days a week, well in excess of the official standard working week.

In the global downturn, UK retailers who maintain employment in the developing world are to be congratulated. But not if the price paid means such gross exploitation of their workers. I challenge Tesco to abide by its Ethical Trading Initiative obligations to pay its outsourced employees a living wage".

Fashionista notes that the ethics of outsourcing, like the economics of the fashion industry itself, have a global dimension to them. While Tesco competes with other retail and online fashion traders in the UK and its other market, poverty-stricken Bangladesh competes with other economically disadvantaged nations for the right to secure the outsourced work; within Bangladesh itself the garment workers' employers fight to secure the right to supply the Tescos of this world, knowing that harsh local employment conditions and a vast pool of available labour will help ensure that even the meanest contract remains profitable for them. While Tesco and its shareholders recognise the problem, and War on Want describes the reality which results from it, the solution requires more focused attention and more resolve than any one trader can bring to bear.