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Human Cost
Globalisation
Consumption
Sustainability

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Online manufacturers from China selling cheap goods online

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Online manufacturers from China selling cheap goods online

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Transparency and honesty about where they source their clothing from - anti slavery act featured on website

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Patagonia Footprint Chronicles: Our Supply Chain

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The Footprint Chronicles® examines Patagonia's life and habits as a company. Learn about our supply chain and our efforts to reduce or eliminate harm.

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Craft from war-torn countries

https://www.ishkar.com/en/

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From a small corner window display on London's Baker Street, Edmund le Brun and Flore de Taisne are trying to help the victims of war. Their pop-up shop, Ishkar, which is also online, sells crafts from conflict zones. Among the items on display are gorgeous hand-blown glasses in green, lapis lazuli blue and turquoise, intricate kilim rugs, fine-woven camel hair shawls, earrings and necklaces and knives.

Afghanistan has been at war for the past 40 years, so there are zero tourists, and no local market

The husband-and-wife team, both 27, came up with the idea for the business in Kabul, where they were living when they met. Edmund was working for Turquoise Mountain Foundation, the NGO founded by Rory Stewart, now a Conservative MP, which aims to preserve and restore old buildings and businesses. Flore, who grew up in Paris, was working as a consultant for aid agencies.

"My job was to set up craft businesses and find ways to grow them, so I was working closely with local artisans," says Edmund. "They're highly skilled, energetic entrepreneurs, which is impressive in itself, given the circumstances. But they have very few ways of connecting to market. Ishkar is a direct response to that, connecting talented craftsmen with people who have the money to buy their products."

In late 2015, as a trial run, Edmund and Flore ordered a batch of cufflinks made by craftsmen in Kabul, to sell as Christmas presents. They quickly sold out, so they set about sourcing a wider range for the website and pop-up, which launched earlier this year. When we meet, they are waiting on a shipment of 4,000 more glasses, and crossing their fingers that not too many will have shattered on the arduous journey from Kabul. The glassware is emblematic of what they want to achieve with the brand.

"Glass has been made like this in Afghanistan for 2,000 years," says Edmund. "But the country has been at war for the past 40 years, so there are zero tourists, and no local market because it has been swamped by cheap Chinese glass. There's only one traditional glass workshop left, which is where all our products come from." Part of the problem, he adds, is that for the local market, smooth, regular Chinese-made glass is more fashionable - and cheaper than the traditional styles. As well as supporting the craftsmen directly, a portion of proceeds from some of their lines goes to the Turquoise Mountain Foundation and other charities. They also partner with NGOs on the ground if appropriate.

"I know certain people might read about this kind of initiative and roll their eyes," adds Edmund, "but Ishkar is the result of three years' hard experience at the sharp end of development in Afghanistan."

The next phase of the business will be to source products from other conflict zones. They already have a small number of items from Syria, but the civil war makes it tricky to know exactly where the money will end up. The current focus is on Mali, where traditional businesses have been hollowed out by the civil war since 2012.

These places have incredible traditions of making, but their stories are not heard in the west

"The situation there is worse than in Afghanistan," says Flore. "Before the crisis, Timbuktu would receive 20-30,000 tourists a year. The craftsmen were relatively well paid, earning between €10-15,000 per year. But while they're highly skilled they are not educated, so as soon as that business stopped they were left with nothing. To sustain their families, many turned to militant Islamist groups or smugglers.

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'The situation here is worse than Afghanistan': cushions made from Malian textiles. Photograph: Richard Saker for the Observer

"Another difficulty in Mali is that the supply connections are really poor, so it's hard to get materials," she adds. Textiles are the Malian speciality, but here, too, local demand has dropped off. "When we went to see them they were making name bracelets, which we had no interest in," she says. "We had to ask them to show us the things they were making before: the high-quality embroidery, clothes and fabrics."

"These places have incredible traditions of making," says Edmund. "But their stories are not heard in the west, and people here have no access to them." With Iskhar, he and Flore hope to help change that.

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The pop-up crafts shop helping war-torn communities

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From a small corner window display on London's Baker Street, Edmund le Brun and Flore de Taisne are trying to help the victims of war. Their pop-up shop, Ishkar, which is also online, sells crafts from conflict zones.

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A Making evolution - Dichotomy of manufacturing

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A Making evolution - Dichotomy of manufacturing

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Manufacturers selling directly from China by setting up pop up businesses and selling online through social media, clothing so cheap it isn't even wearable.

Haul videos highlight the issues of buying cheap clothing online

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Romwe try-on haul! Is Romwe a scam? The super low prices and seemingly endless pages of items always seemed really sketchy to me. At the end of this haul video I decide if Romwe is a total scam or if it is legit.

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How many countries are in your wardrobe?

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New Brand of Retailers who are globally aware

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New Brand of Retailers who are globally aware

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The brand was established by Lizzie Harrison in 2007, and is run by an experienced team of local designers, researchers and communicators. As well as designing and making clothing we have an enormous wealth of experience in sustainable fashion design, textiles upcycling and local fashion systems. Lizzie Harrison and the Antiform team are available for lecturing, installation work, curatorial projects, undertaking research, consultancy, freelance design work, sampling and ethical production.

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The question of who is Making is an interesting one, as we could all be considered makers. What divides and categorises the making processes we use depends on the maker, the context and the reason behind it

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The question of who is Making is an interesting one, as we could all be considered makers. What divides and categorises the making processes we use depends on the maker, the context and the reason behind it

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Digital Ageing

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This video was captured at the King Pins show in Los Angeles on January 10, 2012. As an alternative to the traditional wash based finishing that is common in the textile industry, this new technique, using lasers and digital mapping, can turnout a a custom pair of jeans in about 2 minutes.

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Institute for Global Labor and Human Rights

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IB Geography Economic Interactions and Flows Pre-U Geography Paper

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Issues in Globalisation: How Fair is Fashion? (Preview)

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For more information please go to: http://www.pumpkin-interactive.co.uk/collections/geography/products/issues-in-globalisation-how-fair-is-fashion DUR: 26 mins. YEAR: 2011. KS 3-5 Using the international fashion industry as a case study this resource asks: what is globalisation, what are the causes, and what is the role played by TNC's.

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The human cost

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Institute for Global Labor and Human Rights

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Niall Ferguson Lectures on Globalisation

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TURKEY - Textile workers in Istanbul have been making stonewashed jeans in hazardous conditions for years, and many have contracted an incurable disease called silicosis. FRANCE 24 went to meet the victims and uncovered a scandal that no one wanted revealed.

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Fast Fashion with a Conscience

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What happened next?After the Rana Plaza Collapse

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What happened next?After the Rana Plaza Collapse

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Sustainable style: will Gen Z help the fashion industry clean up its act?

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From 'Clothes to Die For' documentary - notes

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From 'Clothes to Die For' documentary - notes

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Worst industrial disaster of 21st century - 1135 people killed, many thousands injured.

What has changed in Dhakar since 2013 - apart from slight increase in wages, but still low for Bangladesh, and more thorough building inspections.

Making conditions as a result of corruption and profiteering

Hide underage girls from buyers

Corners being cut in building manufacture

"At war with our bodies' to meet targets and stay awake.

Issue lie with retailers would only need a small increase to  pay workers properly

Victim has to amputate her own arm

The minimum monthly wage for garment workers in Bangladesh is $68, compared with about $280 in mainland China, which remains the world’s biggest clothes exporter.

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What materials and technologies do we use to make things?

What equipment do you use?

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•How many of you watched the documentary 'Clothes to Die For?'

•Have you ever thought about who ‘makes’ your clothes?

•Do you care?

•How did it make you feel as:

1.A consumer?

2.A designer/maker?

•What part of the programme had the most impact on you?

•Will it change or influence your behaviour as a consumer/designer?

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In this week’s lecture you will be asked to begin writing a positioning statement on ‘What am I making now?’. A positioning statement is a piece of writing about what you think and what you are doing at a particular point in time. You are now six weeks into your course and are hopefully beginning to think about new ideas and ways of working. This task intended to get you thinking about: your preconceptions about coming to university, what you have learnt so far, what you are doing/making in the studio and where you think this will progress going forward. You are advised to complete this task in your own time after the seminar as a point of reflection for future reference (particularly towards the ‘Contextualising My Practice’ reflective writing assignment in Term 2). Questions you might consider are:

– What are you making now?

– What have you learnt since starting uni?

– What are you looking forward to making in the future?

– What do you see yourself making for your final degree show at this stage?

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Liz Collins Knitting Nation - anti sweatshop protests

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Liz Collins Knitting Nation - anti sweatshop protests

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Roberts explores how knitting becomes a manner to resist stereotypes and to challenge the constructed systems of visual and material culture. (Buscek, 2011)
"Knitting Nation" explores aspects of textile and apparel manufacturing, laying bare the process of making machine knitted fabric. The project functions as a commentary on how humans interact with machines, global manufacturing, trade and labour, iconography, and fashion.

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This is "Knitting Nation Liz Collins-Vimeo" by The Tang Museum on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

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‘Slow Objects’ is an exhibition that brings together the work of three outstanding artists who each explore the relationship between material and process, time and transformation.

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Vanessa Billy, Edith Dekyndt and Erin Shirreff | Programme | Common Guild

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Making the most of materials

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Additional reading - Talk about slow revolution

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Additional reading - Talk about slow revolution

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Protest and Change - Petitions to change the law.  http://labourbehindthelabel.org/campaigns/shoes/

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Protest and Change - Petitions to change the law.  http://labourbehindthelabel.org/campaigns/shoes/

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Shoe production is a growing global industry. The scale of the shoe industry is immense, with over 24 billion pairs of shoes produced last year alone, equating to 3 pairs of shoes per person, 87% of which are made in Asia. There is increasing demand from consumers in Europe and the USA, as well as in producer countries such as India and China.

Systemic human rights abuses pervade the global shoe industry, from poverty pay, long working hours and denial of trade union rights to significant risks to workers' health and the environment through harmful chemicals and dyes. The shoe industry, very much like the garment industry, operates under a veil of secrecy.

An almost total lack of transparency allows exploitation to continue apace with the growth of the industry.

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Shoe production is a growing global industry. The scale of the shoe industry is immense, with over 24 billion pairs of shoes produced last year alone, equating to 3 pairs of shoes per person, 87% of which are made in Asia.

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Does the value or meaning of an object change depending on who has made it?