Manon has worked across the sustainability communications industry, from sustainable fashion to CSR and now cleantech. With a background in communications and PR, Manon’s work focuses on promoting sustainable business practices and projects that benefit both communities and the environment. Anyone anywhere should be able to find out how, where, by whom and at what social and environmental costs their clothes are made. This requires greater transparency across fashion’s global value chain. Because more big brands have published their supplier lists in the past few years, several instances of human rights abuses in brands’ supply chains have been flagged and resolved. See a selection of case studies on pages 24 and 25 in the full report on how worker advocates have been using transparent disclosure to address abuses and hold brands to account.
In handbags, especially, the designer’s brand may be woven into the fabric from which the bag is made, making the brand an intrinsic element of the bag. In the 1960s and 1970s, fashion segments on various entertainment shows became more frequent, and by the 1980s, dedicated fashion shows such as Fashion Television started to appear. FashionTV was the pioneer in this undertaking and has since grown to become the leader in both Fashion Television and new media channels. The Fashion Industry is beginning to promote their styles through Bloggers on social media’s.
We also drive positive change through wider public awareness raising and education, lobbying governments, championing small and responsible designers, and building a network of activists around the world around a common vision. A lack of transparency perpetuates an exclusive system, where people are expected to trust brands who have continued to put profit and growth above all else. When brands publicly disclose information, it allows anyone to scrutinise their policies, hold them accountable for their claims and advocate for positive change. Transparency underpins transformative change but unfortunately much of the fashion value chain remains opaque, while human and environmental exploitation thrives with impunity. After 15 years in the public eye, Kardashian West has built her shapewear company, Skims, into a global brand valued at more than $1 billion—and her ambitions don’t stop there. The first “high fashion runway show entirely from home” just took place, complete with famous models and designers.
A stylish new generation of wearables that includes Ray-Ban’s Stories glasses, Oura’s sleek ring and Whoop’s subtle band has made smart accessories fashion must-haves. For the return to in-person fashion shows, designers from New York to Paris turned out celebratory clothes—bright windbreakers, mini skirts and second-skin jumpsuits. The “Curb Your Enthusiasm” star’s recent appearance at a New York fashion show and an HBO collaboration with the streetwear brand Kith have positioned him closer to the glittery fashion world.
Through research and studying the consumers’ lives the needs of the customer can be obtained and help fashion brands know what trends the consumers are ready for. Although the fashion industry developed first in Europe and America, as of 2017, it is an international and highly globalized industry, with clothing often designed in one country, manufactured in another, and sold worldwide. For example, an American fashion company might source fabric in China and have the clothes manufactured in Vietnam, finished in Italy, and shipped to a warehouse in the United States for distribution to retail outlets internationally.
Even though the terms are often used together, fashion differs from clothing and costumes — “clothing” describes the material and technical garment; “costume” has come to mean fancy-dress or masquerade wear. “Fashion,” by contrast, describes the social and temporal system that “activates” dress as a social signifier in a certain time and context. Philosopher Giorgio Agamben connects fashion to the current intensity of the qualitative moment and to the temporal aspect the Greek call Kairos, whereas clothing belongs to the quantitative, what the Greek call Chronos. Whereas a trend often connotes a peculiar aesthetic expression, often lasting shorter than a season, fashion is a distinctive and industry-supported expression traditionally tied to the fashion season and collections. Style is an expression that lasts over many seasons and is often connected to cultural movements and social markers, symbols, class, and culture (ex. Baroque, Rococo, etc.). According to sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, fashion connotes “the latest difference.”
3D printing technology has influenced designers such as Iris van Herpen and Kimberly Ovitz. As the technology evolves, 3D printers will become more accessible to designers and eventually, consumers — these could potentially reshape design and production in the fashion industry entirely. The benefits of primary research are specific information about a fashion brand’s consumer is explored. Surveys are helpful tools; questions can be open-ended or closed-ended.