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Range plan

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Pantone moodboard exercise

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current A/W trends

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Topshops brand values

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The eternal and international attraction of being a French girl with "the knack" has been a thread that has run through some of the major Parisian houses and their major "experiential" shows this season. Virginie Viard, in her first ready-to-wear outing since the passing of Karl Lagerfeld, followed suit with her practical breakdown of a Chanel wardrobe for a young woman. It was up in the air in one way: on a set evoking the gray, zinc-lined rooftops of the Rue Cambon; and down to earth in another: a contemporary girl's how-to instruction kit grounded in the heritage of Coco Chanel.

Up on the roof chez Chanel, a flat-heeled procession of leggy girls set out in tweed playsuits, tiny silk shorts, garçonne coatdresses, and little bell-shaped skirts. Where Lagerfeld might've thrown on funny, punning accessories, Viard's instinct was to strip back and emphasize the essentials of silhouette and tweedy Chanel textures in a relatable context-who could dare mimic his wit, after all?

She said in a press release that she'd drawn a connection between the rooftop scenery and the "atmosphere of the Nouvelle Vague"-the French New Wave cinema of the 1950s and 1960s, famous for portraying young actresses in the honest light of real life. Kristen Stewart's new biopic of the life of Jean Seberg had gelled that idea in her mind. At one point, an echo of Seberg's T-shirt and jeans (the actress's classic appropriation of French working-class style in Jean-Luc Godard's 1960 movie Breathless) inspired a neat casualization of a Chanel twinset as a Breton-striped cropped jacket and sweater with high-waisted cropped denims and a chain belt. On the other hand, wasn't it Coco Chanel who thought up that combination on the Riviera in the 1920s?

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Chanel Spring 2020 Ready-to-Wear Fashion Show

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The eternal and international attraction of being a French girl with "the knack" has been a thread that has run through some of the major Parisian houses and their major "experiential" shows this season. Virginie Viard, in her first ready-to-wear outing since the passing of Karl Lagerfeld, followed suit with her practical breakdown of a Chanel wardrobe for a young woman.

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Contrary to what you've heard about New York being the city known for head-to-toe black, this season's runways proved to be very bright. Following a summer of bright neon hues, New York Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2020's color trends included pastels as soft as pistachio green, baby blue, and orange sorbet. And as much as we love a Pantone color of the year, designers are the ones dictating the biggest color trends in fashion.

There's really no wrong time to sport dreamy pastel colors, but of course, it's only fitting for these shades to flourish in the spring. According to designers like Jonathan Simkhai, Tibi, and Area, cotton candy colors like mint green, pale pink, and lavender will soon be everywhere. And it's not just the runways displaying the shift in colors: the best street style from NYFW showcased cheery, hard-to-resist pastels, too. Whether you decide to try out a the trend in a monochromatic look, or with a pop of color thorough an accessory, it'll no-doubt instantly liven up any ensemble.

Even if you consider yourself the stereotypical New Yorker who can't seem to steer away from all-black outfits, this color trend just might be the antidote you need. Ahead, see the five pastel colors that took over NYFW.

Pistachio Green

You probably never thought green would become so sought-after in the fashion industry, but here we are. Just one season after slime green took over the runways, a softer trend emerges: Meet pistachio green, the newest take on the trendy color. For SS20, designers like Tibi and Ulla Johnson showed minty green dresses, while Priscavera gave a lesson on how to perfectly layer a simple pastel turtleneck under a flashy mini dress.

Orange Sherbert

Orange is most definitely the new black - well, at least according to the runways. Frankly, the color can be intimidating, but a pastel iteration of orange is easier to incorporate into any wardrobe. Dion Lee went full-force and mixed together multiple pastel orange shades into its runway look, while Jonathan Simkhai used the same shade, but with different materials in its ensemble. Tory Burch and Area went a more dressy route, splashing a muted version of the color on sleek dresses.

Baby Blue

Light blue could be considered a classic, as it will never really go out of style. Collina Strada had a ball with the color, incorporating it in every piece at its outdoor show this season. And Pyer Moss not only showed the lovely shade in its pleated dresses, but swiped it over the models eyes for a matching beauty look. Lastly, Adeam showed how to mix baby blue with neutrals by throwing a preppy blue cardigan over a collared beige dress, below.

Lilac

Purple screams spring, so unsurprisingly, it was seen all over the runways this NYFW. Area didn't hold back, the color made a loud appearance in a shapeless dress, metallic purse, and ruffled heels on the runway. Kate Spade showed how to mix lilac with contrasting shades like bright orange and beige. And Maki Oh made a case for the color, showing how to couple light and dark purple to create an eye-catching look.

Millennial Pink

Remember the millennial pink craze that arguably started when Glossier launched way back when? Well, it's making its way back into our closets. Whether you're a fan of the "girly" color or not, there's no denying pastel pink is a fresh shade to add into the mix. While Jonathan Simkhai showed it in a chic lace slip dress, Sally Lapointe included light pink in a structured suit and matching oversized hat. Lela Rose showed a head-to-toe version, too.

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Fashion's Next Big Color Trend Is *Very* Unexpected

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Contrary to what you've heard about New York being the city known for head-to-toe black, this season's runways proved to be very bright. Following a summer of bright neon hues, New York Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2020's color trends included pastels...

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Topman sales

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Topman SALES - 4 KPI's to complete (version 1).xlsb

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TOPSHOP has developed from its humble beginnings in the basement of a Sheffield department store to an icon of British style, beloved by students and celebrities alike. Nowadays the fashion chain has 440 stores across the globe, with 300 in the UK alone, and ships to over 100 different countries. Last week Leeds saw the opening of the high street giant's latest outlet. Situated within Trinity Leeds shopping centre, the 31,000 sq foot store, spread over 3 floors, boasts exclusive collaborations, limited edition ranges, vast make-up and accessories collections as well as the opportunity to enjoy a complimentary shopping service. In celebration of this fact, we're going to take a little look back at the evolution of the high street chain over the last 48 years...

1964: Sheffield department store launches its concession line by the name of 'Peter Robinson's Top Shop'. Aimed at younger shoppers, the store soon grew in popularity thanks to its innovative approach to fashion.

1965: The store expanded to the basement of the flagship Peter Robinson store in Oxford Circus

1970's: TOPSHOP and their counterpart TOPMAN enter the high street as stand-alone retailers for the first time.

1980: TOPMAN reaches profits of over £1,000,000 despite only having opened two years previously

1992: The largest fashion store in the world opens as TOPSHOP and TOPMAN, united in Oxford Circus.

1994: The iconic TOPSHOP flagship store is unveiled at 214 Oxford Street, London, where it still remains today.

2000: TOPSHOP.com is launched, beginning the brand's online presence which has since expanded to a Facebook page, a Twitter account with almost 450,000 followers and TOPSHOP Tumblr as well as an Inside-Out blog, providing fans of the brand with inspiration and styling tips.

2002: NEWGEN scheme begins with the aim of championing new designers. Over the years it's aided the careers of some of fashion's biggest names, such as Alexander McQueen, Christopher Kane, Louise Goldin, Marios Schwab and Jonathan Saunders.

2005: TOPSHOP's Unique collection becomes the first high street brand to show at London Fashion Week. To this day, it's one of the hottest tickets in the Fashion Week calendar.

2007: First of 14 historic collaborations with fashion icon Kate Moss, designed to emulate her envied sense of style. The sought after collection proved so popular that the Daily Mail reported a 10% increase in profits and provided the public with high end fashion at affordable prices.

2009: The first TOPSHOP flagship store opens outside the UK in none other than New York City and becomes an immediate success.

2010: The legendary partnership with Kate Moss comes to an end. Alongside her final collection Kate Iconic is launched, featuring her 10 most popular designs to date.

2011: Eagerly anticipated collaboration with J W Anderson hits stores.

2012: The second largest TOPSHOP store in the UK opens in our very own Leeds. The grand opening saw Pixie Geldoff take to the decks, eager shoppers queuing for hours and complimentary make-up treatments and manicures for visitors.

Now that we lucky Leeds lasses (and lads) have a new superstore conveniently at our disposal, there's no excuse not to snap up that new dress you saw online or those new shoes in the special collection, they're guaranteed to be in stock. Here's to 10% student discount, overdrafts and TOPSHOP's ever eminent style!

Becky Tipper and Kimberley Fishwick

Image: Rick Chung on Flickr. Used under a Creative Commons licence.

Read more:

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TOPSHOP: a history. A look behind the highstreet brand

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TOPSHOP has developed from its humble beginnings in the basement of a Sheffield department store to an icon of British style, beloved by students and celebrities alike. Nowadays the fashion chain has 440 stores across the globe, with 300 in the UK alone, and ships to over 100 different countries.

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Living for the moment, Aspirant Tribes know the look, music and lifestyle they want - and will spend big in order to get it! Attuned to what's happening in Leading Edge circles, it's about keeping up with what's cool but without all the hard work of creating it themselves. These Tribes will be found in Student Unions across the UK, from UE to Loughborough.

Social butterflies, they are spending summer holidays hitting the festival circuit - from Bestival and Secret Garden Party in the UK to Croatia's Outlook and Serbia's Exit festival. Whether it's the latest pop-up, food truck, concept store, art gallery or nightclub, they want to be the one to have seen it first - and post it on social media. Experience seeking drives the Aspirant segment, and introducing the newest fashion and music to their friendship group motivates Tribe members.

From the ubiquitous gap year alpaca jumper, to the MacBook Pro, Ugg boots and Hershel backpack, Aspirant Tribes are big consumers with strong brand affiliations. Brands trying to crack the Aspirants need to work hard to prove their cool credentials. They need to be in the right place, at the right time, with the right people - although appealing to them may be challenging, those who do are rewarded with surprising brand loyalty.

Trendies

Trendies are driven by beautiful things and beautiful people, Trendies love fashion and are always looking for the next big trend!

They're the biggest outwardly 'brand-me' Tribe - they're universally aspirational in fashion and music, both offline and online.The rise of Mainstream Brand Me behaviours and fast fashion means the Trendies are still going strong and are one of the biggest Tribes on the map in 2015. Their influence is if anything growing, as more and more Trendies lean towards vlogging and sharing their super-soft-focus, Instagrammable lives online - inspiring younger teens to live a perfect life.

Vloggers
Vloggers and Bloggers are at the heart of today's Tribal map - inspiring a whole generation how to live.
In 2012 Tumblr Kids joined the map - by 2015 Vloggers are one of the most familiar and famous Tribes in the UK. A catch-all Tribe to describe young people that are vlogging, blogging, tweeting and instagramming their lives, attitudes and values online; they aren't creating culture and new social norms (bar those with 1M+ followers!) but are having a huge impact on youth culture today.

New Casuals

New Casuals are football mad lads with a love of underground club music and understated fashion - but will move to the next thing once it becomes predictable...

Hypebeasts

Urban and Skater inspired, US-rooted breed of New Casual - who love Hip-Hop and electronic, niche knowledge, luxury sportswear and limited editions.

Hypebeasts are a new breed of New Casual/Hipster- obsessed with the aspirational Urban lifestyle and the brands that go with it. With a thriving online culture, key icon products and their own language (Bump, OG, Grail, Wavey...) they are thriving - but bitchy too!

New Casuals
The New Casuals are unchanged on the map - think twenty-something, understated lads that consciously maintained low-key style from Norse, APC and Folk.
Their hate of hype and broadcasting their lives makes them polar opposites to the Hypebeasts! While they share a love of music, festivals, fashion and footy - the Hypebeasts are all about niche language, products and 'getting in there first'.

Hipsters
It's been a long time coming - but the Hipsters are firmly out of the Leading Edge, and are getting younger by the year.
Poor Hipsters! Since 2012, they took over being the vilified Tribe from the Chavs - synonymous with being 'try hard' and vacuous at a Tribal level, but receiving derision from wider British culture too (even your dad knows what a Hipster is in 2015!).

As authenticity became a key tenet of youth culture and the Hipster look was disseminated to teens via Primark; the iconic skinny jeans, glasses and obsession with Bergheim made the Hipsters a stereotype and an insult for the original Hipsters (most of whom have now aged out of the Tribes model).

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Living for the moment, Aspirant Tribes know the look, music and lifestyle they want - and will spend big in order to get it! Attuned to what's happening in Leading Edge circles, it's about keeping...

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WGSN analytics

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It has become a truism that, if you wait long enough, something unfashionable will end up being in fashion.

It has happened to tracksuits, socialism and Céline Dion. And, for better or worse, it has happened to puffer jackets - you know, the catch-all term for those water-resistant, ultrapractical "technical" coats you might tackle Everest in. Or at least Storm Erik.

Winter has turned into spring, but it still seems we are never more than 6ft from a puffer. They are on your dad, but also in Whitehall (Theresa May regularly emerges from Downing Street - looking broken - in one of two versions of the same £750 padded jacket, and last weekend wore a more generic black version to church). They are on TV, too: in the US, Russian Doll 's Alan wears a Uniqlo one under his coat; in the UK, antihero Alan Partridge's extraordinary - or "ludicrous", if you are the Daily Telegraph - yellow padded coat is uncannily similar to something Balenciaga showed last season.

It was a trickle at first. In 2016, Demna Gvsalia's first collection for Balenciaga featured a red padded jacket worn off the shoulder, in the style of Brigitte Bardot. Eyebrows were raised, but puffers appeared on the Balenciaga catwalk a year later and again the year after that. They were also in Topshop and Urban Outfitters. Late last year, Lyst, a search engine that tracks what people are buying according to clicks, reported a 59% year-on-year rise in searches. In February 2019, the rubicon was crossed: two puffers - one by the US outdoors brand The North Face and the other by the Italian company Moncler - were decreed second and sixth most desirable products in the world, respectively. For context, the most desired item was a pair of Nike trainers.

Charlie Barnett as Alan Zaveri in Russian Doll. Photograph: Universal Television/Getty Images

Lyst claimed it had something to do with "urban hiking", a trend from 2018 that brought fleeces and Gore-Tex into fashion - they appeared at Tom Ford, Burberry, Givenchy and Gucci. By Christmas 2018, even M&S was selling hiking boots. At the last round of autumn shows, puffers featured again on the catwalk, at Sacai, Chanel, Versace and Sportmax (for women) as well as at Fendi, Iceberg, Off-White and Cottweiler (for men). A spokesperson for Patagonia recently told Business Insider that sales have quadrupled in the past 10 years.

That this winter's surprise-hit garment was a rather banal, oversized, padded coat by Orolay, a brand that sells through Amazon, and that the bestselling item at Uniqlo for the past season has been an "ultra-light down" packable jacket, could be about the weather. But it could also be about something less tangible.

"A puffer's shape and look are powerful, but also plain and almost spartan - and there's power in riding that line," says Andrew Luecke, a fashion historian and the co-author of Cool: Style, Sound and Subversion, a history of youth subcultures. Frankly, it is less about who is wearing a puffer and more about who isn't.

A puffer from Sacai's autumn/winter 2018/2019 collection. Photograph: Victor Virgile/Getty Images

If the currency of hikingwear is its nicheness, then puffers have become a more wearable byproduct, the embodiment of one of those moments when fashion and function intersect. Take May's padded coat. She may have had a cold during the calamitous week of the no-deal dealing, but it wasn't chilly enough for her Herno coat, which is designed for "protective warmth", particularly given she wore it only from No 10 to her car. Patrick Fagan, a consumer psychologist at Goldsmiths, University of London, says it is about enclothed cognition and the idea that "what we wear has a profound psychological impact on how we behave". These coats are genderless and double up as armour against the weather - or the day's mood.

The padded jacket is relatively new, but has a varied history. In 1936, Eddie Bauer invented a quilted jacket insulated by goose down after contracting hypothermia on a winter fishing trip in Washington, setting the template for technicalwear. Two years later, the couturier Charles James designed an evening jacket that resembled a cropped quilt. He called it the "pneumatic jacket" and, according to fashion lore, predicted it would be a one-off. These were not the same coat and spoke to two different classes - indeed, the puffer/padded/quilted terminology is a little muddy - but they have the same DNA.

Michael Horsch, the product director at The North Face, calls the trend "outleisure". He says: " It's different to athleisure. This is stuff designed for survival in high mountains or difficult terrains, so with function in mind rather than fashion." He zeroes in on the Nuptse jacket, which is one of the best-known coats in fashion, on a par with Max Mara's camel coat. Large and cropped, this jacket has transcended trends, Horsch claims, to become "a cultural piece", like Levi's 501s or Timberland boots.

Horsch says the Nuptse jacket - which was designed in 1992 for mountaineering - began moonlighting as "urban kit" in New York. When lower-income families moved to housing projects in Queens, he explains, they found themselves crammed into small spaces accommodating several generations. "Imagine being a teenager in that environment," says Horsch. The only spaces in which to socialise were the communal areas outside, he says, which necessitated - as anyone who has experienced a New York winter knows - a proper coat. The Nuptse jacket became the uniform of a specific New York aesthetic, the origin of what we now call streetwear; it was the item of clothing that later aligned this Queens subculture with the mainstream. By the end of the 90s, it was being worn by many US rappers, popping up in videos for Method Man and LL Cool J.

The puffer's reprisal now seems obvious. After all, it is a coat favoured by winter-sport enthusiasts, who tend to be affluent. "The function attracts the wealthy, who imbue the puffer with lifestyle status, then other subcultures pick up on that," says Luecke. Padded jackets have their roots in the 90s, streetwear, rap and New York, but they are also unplaceable. You could see one on a woman in a Chelsea tractor, a new dad or a fashion student.

The North Face's bestselling Nuptse coat. Photograph: Edward Berthelot/Getty Images

Where they fit now comes down to how we interpret fashion. (It is unlikely the padded jacket has anything to do with Brexit - although a friend recently bought one because he was moving to Berlin for that reason). But there is something in flagging your allegiance to clothes traditionally worn outdoors. It is not simply that hiking and camping have a virtuous reputation - you hike, therefore you care about the environment. Brands such as Patagonia and The North Face are "genuinely ahead of the game on environmental issues", says Luecke.

Of course, this means parking the irony that an industry regularly accused of being one of the most polluting in the world - one that burns unused clothes - is behind a trend that send the opposite message. Patagonia went so far as to make a "Don't buy this jacket" advert, to encourage its customers to think before they buy.

If this all sounds spurious, fair enough. Chances are you wear a puffer because it is practical. Besides, much of it boils down to what psychologists refer to as "exposure": the more you see something, the more acceptable it becomes. My own puffer is red and enormous - too hot for the UK, even in winter - but I have worn it non-stop since November. When I put it on, I feel swaddled. Puffers can be seen as anti-fashion or accidentally fashionable, but if some trends can feel alienating then this is the opposite.

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How the puffer jacket took over the world

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Some trends can feel alienating, but the padded coat can be worn by anyone - from new dads to students and Theresa May to Alan Partridge

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WGSN | Creating Tomorrow | Trend Forecasting & Analytics

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Log in to WGSN's suite of industry-leading trend forecasting, analytics and consumer intelligence tools to remove risk and start empowering your decisions.

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As the final instalment on the month-long fashion circuit, Paris Fashion Week spring/summer 2020 had the last word on the trends set to rule next season. What's in store? A mood-lifting take on the very best of 1970s fashion, a reimagining of delicate lacework, and a celebration of the simple beauty of that most feminine of items, the bra.
Read more: Vogue's guide to spring/summer 2020 fashion trends Here are the seven key trends to know from Paris Fashion Week SS20: The trend: Seventies super-clash Where we've seen it:
Louis Vuitton, Paco Rabanne, Altuzarra
What you need to know:
Nicolas Ghesquière's soulful Louis Vuitton spring/summer 2020 show ended Paris Fashion Week to a standing ovation. The creative director's signature mix of 1970s tailoring and electrifying futuristic detail hit a euphoric note - think mesmeric print blouses in acid hues and trim trouser suiting. It's a timeless fashion agenda for the start of a new decade, where a saturated colour palette and popping florals (as seen at Paco Rabanne) are set to unleash an uncompromisingly optimistic outlook.

The trend: Bralets
Where we've seen it: What you need to know:
The trend for visible underpinnings has seen a wave of early '90s-esque bodycon return to the Paris catwalks. If you missed new Mugler creative director Casey Cadwallader's epic spring/summer 2020 show, here's your rundown. The American designer's architectural eye (which brought us Bella Hadid in a buttock-revealing bodystocking) has set the gold standard in knife-sharp tailoring for spring, while also making flounce feel modern. Most important of all is Cadwallader's unifying message on body-confidence. Cue the theatre of a ruched skirt and matching bolero paired simply with a black bralet.

The trend: Frills
Where we've seen it: What you need to know:
A theory posited by economist George Taylor in 1926 suggests that hemlines rise in line with soaring stock prices. Meaning that shorter skirts come into fashion during times of economic certainty; and that as stocks plummet, trends for longer skirting take hold. Perhaps in 2020, Taylor's theory ought to become the 'frill index' - the scale of the fluttering peplums and enormous ruffles that took to the Paris catwalks at Valentino, Balenciaga and Chanel, could mean more than first meets the eye.

The trend: Bronzed metallics
Where we've seen it:
Celine, Balenciaga, Rochas
What you need to know:
Demna Gvasalia chose a circular room within Paris's Cité du Cinéma complex to unveil his spring/summer 2020 Balenciaga collection. The entirely blue space (carpet, drapes and seats were configured to match one another, all the colour of the EU flag) played host to Gvasalia's exacting suiting, slouchy leather co-ords and power-shouldered shift dresses. But it was the golden Ferrero Rocher-esque foil finish of an enormous bow-embellished evening gown that stole the show.

The trend: Full-look leather
Where we've seen it:
Alexander McQueen, Givenchy, Isabel Marant, Hermès, Balenciaga
What you need to know:
The luxury industry's continuing love affair with roomy full-look leather, plus innovative vegan alternatives, within its spring/summer collections hints at an increasingly seasonless approach. Clare Waight Keller's spring/summer 2020 collection at Givenchy delivered a wishlist of refined classics that also boast durability - her sumptuous leather looks included. The way to wear it now? Elegantly oversized, with enough room to accommodate a chunky knit underneath come winter.

The trend: Power shoulders
Where we've seen it:
Mugler, Balenciaga, Balmain
What you need to know:
In a nutshell, the '80s-style blazer you invested in two seasons ago is here to stay. Pad the shoulders of your vintage mac to tap the newly accentuated silhouette, and opt in to an unadulterated primary colour palette. The ultra-clean lines of 2020's vintage retake now spell out some of spring's most glamorous looks.

The trend: Lacework
Where we've seen it:
Loewe, Alexander McQueen, Isabel Marant
What you need to know:
Unlikely as it may sound, the age-old craft of open-web lace-making is leading one of spring/summer 2020's freshest trends. At Loewe, creative director Jonathan Anderson spearheaded the look from head-to-toe, with a delicately spun, co-ordinating trouser and dress duo. Likewise at Isabel Marant, the peekaboo fabric represented refined, modern day bohemia that was anything but antique.
More from British Vogue:

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7 Key Paris Fashion Week Trends To Know Now

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As the final instalment on the month-long fashion circuit, Paris Fashion Week spring/summer 2020 had the last word on the trends set to rule next season. What's in store? A mood-lifting take on the very best of 1970s fashion, a reimagining of delicate lacework, and a celebration of the simple beauty of that most feminine of items, the bra.

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Rave

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90's Rave: pure love, pure dance, pure revolution, pure drugs. How it all began.
A rave (from the verb: to rave) is a large dance party featuring performances by DJs and occasionally liveperformers playing electronic music, particularly electronic dance music (EDM). The music is amplified with a large, powerful sound reinforcement system, typically with large sub woofers to produce a deep bass sound. The music is accompanied by laser light shows, projected images, visual effects and fog machines. The word "rave" was first used in the late 1980s to describe the subculture that grew out of the acid house movement.
(c) Wikipedia.

90's Rave: the beaning

We live in the time when rave is the word that is only used when people want to describe a fierce party or to describe colors, styles and some types of electronic music. Basically, the word "Rave" became sort of a metaphor. But back in the days, it was the name for the revolution, not less than that.

In his autobiography Laurent Garnier's "Electrochoc" - the bible for any electronic music lovers, Garnier is telling the story how the dance scene rise from the early 1980s at London's Mud Club and Manchester's Hacienda. the first parties, which later bloomed into the rave culture and everything we know now, were born in the UK in the 80's.

The underground get-together's of acid-loving music-heads were being held in various unexpected locations out of the cities - abandoned warehouses, old plants and parking lots. People used to get information about locations by calling a phone number. They dressed up, took their friends and went to be free and dance.

The rave scene very much came from the Acid House scene of the late 1980s. Acid House being a derivative of house music which added a repetitive beat with elements of trance. Acid House has its origins in Chicago where the first supposed Acid House record was created.

Acid House continued to remain prominent throughout the 90's rave scene with the emblem and predominant logo of the culture being a yellow smiley face symbol which was commonly associated with Acid House

Acid house hadn't really made a big impact, until a group of four DJs (Paul Oakenfold, Danny Rampling, Nicky Holloway and Johnny Walker) took a trip to Ibiza to visit the acclaimed club Amnesia. They heard the resident DJ Alfredo blending records in the 'balearic' style, which fused together funk, soul, dance and a few Chicago acid tracks.

When Rampling returned to the UK, he threw an event to bring the spirit of Ibiza to the UK. 'Shoom' was held on December 5, 1987 in a fitness center in on Southwark Street. The party went all night; acid house blared on a sound-system provided by Carl Cox, and the crowd raved on the then-new drug ecstasy.

"I supplied the sound system for the first two Shoom club nights. Danny asked me to come down because he knew I was already into the music. This whole rare groove movement had lasted for years in London but it couldn't really go any further, whereas house music pointed the way forward". - Carl Cox

The third Shoom flyer featured the smiley face that became the defining symbol of acid house. This period became known as the Second Summer of Love.

"It was all one love, everyone together. Anyone can dance all of a sudden, freedom of expression. Dress down, not up. Converse trainers, smiley T-shirts - a sort of tribalism took over. Everyone was happy to be the same". - Pete Tong

For a 'raver' going to a rave was not just about the music, it was about the fashion. A mixture of neon colours, tye-dye, bum bags and the smiley face logo was the raver's trademark. It seemed a statement of standing out within the confines of a club and emulate the neon or strobe lighting of club scenes.

The Ravers used to live from a rave to a rave. The generation brought up by house music was somewhat similar to the hippie generation. They were free and all they wanted was peace, love and dance. The magic of the moment, when you hear the address and know that you will be there in a couple of hours with your friends, dancing to the magic sounds of acid house can not be compared to the way we party now.

"My own experience of Acid house past to present is having a great DJ, uplifting spirit, A good basement or warehouse underground space in the darkness with strobe lights & the crowed - as one, celebrating the 303 sound. No camera phones pointed at the d, just us together with the music melding into the sound" - Danny Rampling
Gary Chandler. Packard Plant party by Brian Gillespie in Detroit.
90's Rave: the UK Protests:

When rave culture took over the world, the UK youth had to fight for their right to party. Section 63 of the 1994 Criminal Justice Act was the law that made raving impossible. The law forbid gatherings and police was raiding the suburbs and outskirts of the cities, stopping any activities they considered suspicious. On one of the occasions a helicopter and an enforced squad were sent to stop a... birthday party in a house outside a city.

1994 protest to Section 63 of the Criminal Justice Act in UK.
More than 5000 people went to the streets in London to defend their right to dance. Here is a great documentary by Dazed about the UK rave culture:

90's Rave: The music

Acid house brought house music to a worldwide audience. The influence of acid house can be heard on later styles of dance music including trance, breakbeat hardcore, jungle, big beat, techno and trip hop.

Clubs like Shoom, Hacienda, Trip & the outdoor raves earned their place in history and helped dj's like Carl cox, Sasha, Josh Wink, Danny Rampling, A Guy Called Gerald, DJ Pierre, Chemical Brothers, Plastikman, Aphex Twin & others to become legends. the early raves during the first days the 90′, the acid music, the MDMA & the dancing crowed were just the opening shot of the new cultural movement that was spearing over Europe not just changing the way people danced but also spreading new winds in the minds of the young generation and its political views.

What started in the U.K was soon to connect Amsterdam, Berlin, Ibiza & Detroit & New York.

Generation X was born, the dance revolution started

Listen to this playlist of Acid classics

Listen to this playlist of 90's Electronic Music Hits

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90s Rave Culture & Acid House: the beginning of the revolution - Techno Station

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90's Rave: pure love, pure dance, pure revolution, pure drugs. How it all began. A rave (from the verb: to rave) is a large dance party featuring performances by DJs and occasionally liveperformers playing electronic music, particularly electronic dance music (EDM).

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Rave outfits have always been part and parcel of the scene. It has always had its own particular look as part of the crowd who followed it and, as with every scene, has changed and evolved as time has gone on. In fact, the rave and dance scene is so varied now that sub-genres have their own attire.

For those looking in from the outside, it would appear that rave outfits are nonsensical, stupid and outlandish. Whilst this may be the came in some instances, there are clearly defined pathways of how and why people end up dressing the way the do.

It's really important to understand that the fashion was an important part of the movement of raves and free parties as it was a step away from the cultural and societal norms. You weren't at these underground parties to look good or impress anyone. You were there simply to have a good time and escape the pressures and boredom of normal life.

What you also have to remember is that the rave scene exploded into the mainstream and youth culture in the mid 80's, fuelled by the discover and subsequent mass distribution of ecstacy. When you combine emotion and mind altering drugs with an ideology that can be acted upon through music, you're bound to get some pretty interesting and, dare I say, functional rave outfits.

In the 80's there wasn't so much a dress code for any of the free parties or underground raves. It was all new, but it tended to be people who were part of the travelling communities, hippie lifestyle or generally less concerned with their fashion than they were with their lifestyle. Remember that mainstream 80's culture was big hair, over-the-top outfits and tonnes of makeup.

Early 90's Rave Clothing

The early 90's rave outfits were brightly coloured, tie-dyed and covered in acid house smiley faces. As rave music became a lot more prevalent in mainstream music, there was a definite separation and promotion of the alternative night out. People who were going to raves wanted to show they were fun, happy and friendly people. Their clothing represented that.

The great thing about the early 90's rave gear was that it was also mostly functional. It was common place to see people wearing tie-dye shirts and bucket hats walking down the street so the fashion of the day was very much the in-fashion of the rave scene. Don't forget that very early on at the free party, largely disorganised start of rave culture, they were outside. People needed some protection from the elements so wearing next to nothing was not really an option, especially in the cold night air of the British countryside.

As time went on the criminal justice bill had dramatic ramifications on the locations of where raves could be held and so they had to become more organised and legitimate. This saw the rise of such legendary parties as Fatazia, Helter Skelter and clubs nights like Nude at The Hacienda and Shroom in Southwark in London. This brought the rave scene indoors which began to allow for more variety in clothing.

People were still taking a lot of ecstacy and the euphoric feeling combined with more sophisticated sound and light systems meant people were pushing for more psychedelic looks.

Enter the boiler suit.

The boiler suit came about from PA's like Altern8 and Dye Witness who wore actual hazmat suits during their sets. This was copied by ravers up and down the nation and all of a sudden became the archetypal rave outfit for the hardcore ravers in the mid 90's.

The masks people wore would usually be filled with vicks or other menthol substances to help open up the airways and enhance the effects of MDMA. The white gloves would give visual trails in the dark clubs from the lights in combination with the altered state of mind from the drugs.

Bum bags were widely used and were purely a practical thing. The boiler suits didn't have pockets which made it hard to store your money, keys and anything else you wanted to bring along. You will still see people using bum bags at festivals today. They aren't so much a throwback to the early 90's, more a simple and practical raving accessory.

Late 90's to Early 2000's Rave Gear

The 2000's saw a shift into a more wild and extravagant look that many people remember of their youth. Think of the Spice Girls on acid and you start to get an idea of what people were wearing at raves.

Fluffy boots, neon tank tops, string vests, day-glo paint, whistles and hair bands. The brighter the better. The rave scene was now a place to be seen and an element of alternative fashion came in to play. Girls wanted to look good and the guys were there to express themselves in ways that their day-to-day lives could let them.

The look was about wearing something small and sparkly and using the bright colours to enhance the night out. People were still doing a lot of ecstasy so the more neon and reflective the fashion, the better visuals that you would get from the lights and substances ingested.

Cyber wear became popular during the early 200's which took on a natural evolution from the fluffy boots and neon clothes. Glow sticks and dummies were part and parcel of the rave outfits that were worn. Again, the glow sticks enhanced the experience and the dummies were to help people stop grinding their teeth from all of the ecstasy that they had taken that night.

Mid to late 2000's Rave Clothing

From the mid to late 2000's rave outfits gradually toned down. The reason for this was that going to a drum and bass, hardcore, techno or other hard dance night became a more common occurrence. They weren't one off nights any more and were far more prevalent that they were 15 years earlier. These nights and events were put on with so much frequency that it was possible to go to one every weekend, anywhere in the country.

Whilst this can be seen as a huge victory for the movement and culture it certainly became the demise of the fashion within the scene.

So, what did rave gear look like in the mid 2000's? There were still elements of the neon and fluff, but it was far more toned down. People were going to raves in dedicated clubs and venues more often than they were in abandoned warehouses and fields. A dress code was starting to be imposed on the ravers.

You could say the street wear style started to move into effect here as people were simply wearing whatever clothes they would normally wear on the street. Jeans, tracksuits, hoodies and trainers could be seen at raves, which in turn became the normal attire. By this time, many of the people who were part of the original rave scene were moving on with their lives and had families to think about. The new party-goers were the younger generation who were being influenced by modern street and fashion styles.

Modern Day Rave Attire

What can you see at raves today? Well, much like the late 2000's you will see people wearing pretty much whatever they want. Most of the day-glo and neon is gone, you won't see much in the way of string vests or fluffy boots and it would appear that glow sticks and dummies are a thing of the past.

Long ago you could hear the sound of a whistle being blasted out, but that sound too has died out. What can be seen though are much more genre specific, artist and club line attire being worn. People who go to drum and bass nights will happily wear their favourite artists name on a shirt.

People are still taking all kinds of substances at raves as this goes hand in hand with the culture and experience (we don't condone taking any kind of illegal substances by the way, but you can't deny that it is still a huge part of many people's nights out).

Most people are going to raves to have a good time, that much has never changed. What we are also seeing is that people want something functional to wear as well as the ability to express themselves and show appreciation for the music they love to dance to.

There are also big differences in the kind of rave outfits that people will wear when going to a club versus when at a festival. Festivals tend to be in the summer outside. This means that it's usually hot and people will want to wear as little as possible. You will find girls wearing very short shorts, bikini tops and very little else. The guys will usually be in shorts and that's about it. A snapback here and there will be thrown in to keep the sun off.

You will, however, find people who make the return to the old days of rave fashion. They will wear extravagant outfits, bright colours and have loads of accessories with them. It's a festival so people want to display their excitement and enthusiasm for the event, but this doesn;t necessarily mean that they're heralding back to the early days of raving. It simply is a fun way for people to fit in with the scene.

How Rave Outfits Differ In America

Things are quite different across the pond. The Americans seem to be going through the late 90's early 200's phase with their rave gear. EDM is absolutely massive over there and several large festivals such as UMF, EDC and Coachella have big followings.

Both guys and girls use these events as opportunities to go as big and as wild as they possibly can, with tight and skimpy clothing being worn. Bright colours, neon body paint and anything unicorn looking are the preferred attire here.

This, we believe this is great. People are actively expressing themselves and showing love for a scene they wholeheartedly believe in. Say what you like about it, the Americans are loving their rave scene and embracing the fashion that goes along with it.

Pick Something For Your Next Rave

The rave outfits of yesteryear were bright, colourful and expressive. They helped to position the scene and grow it over a number of years. They were a source of identity and freedom as much as any other genre throughout history which in turn shaped the culture we know and love today.

Whilst we don't have any of the old school outfits or anything fluffy, we do have rave gear that you can express your love for any genre in. With festival season just around the corner, there are loads of items that you can proudly wear and rave in for many years to come.

Browse the range now and be part of our amazing culture and scene today.

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How Rave Outfits Have Evolved Over The Years - Amen Breaks

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Rave outfits have always been part and parcel of the scene. It has always had its own particular look as part of the crowd who followed it and, as with every scene, has changed and evolved as time has gone on. In fact, the rave and dance scene is so varied now that sub-genres have their own attire.

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Rave style has been evolving with the passing of time, while also maintaining the same themes.

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Jessica is a writer and editor from Long Island, New York. She has an unhealthy obsession with the beach, cats, Leonardo DiCaprio, over-priced coffee, and staged Instagram photos that look candid. She also genuinely loves kale. You can follow her on Instagram @jboothyy.

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The most popular denim trend the year you were born

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Denim history: 1800s - now. From flared jeans to colorful skinny jeans, here's how jeans and other popular denim trends have changed over time.

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Denim has survived decades of trend changes. From the 60s rocking bell bottom jeans to 2018's shredded trousers, denim has been restyled and remade throughout the decades. But which trends really lit up the fashion world? And where are those trusty denim jeans headed?
The origin of denim
In 1873, the blue jean was design to be durable workwear for labourers in America. But it wasn't until the 1950s when denim jeans exploded onto the fashion scene - seen as a rebellious statement. In the 1950s, the straight-legged jean was predominantly worn by males; actors and singers were the ones leading the rugged-look trend.

In the peace-and-love vibe of the 1960s, denim jeans embraced the hippie look. Women were now embracing the versatile trouser - it was all about casual styles, bell bottom flares and low-rise fits. The relaxed fit represented the culture at the time and jeans became a staple wardrobe item for everyone.

Denim jackets appeared in this time too, bringing with it a double-denim look. Stone washes and bright embroidery were also popular around this time - encouraging DIY denim and personalisation of jean pockets and jackets.

Backed by hefty sales volumes, designers were keen to experiment with the material. Denim skirts and vest tops became big in the 1970s with the celebrities endorsing the style, too.

Denim jeans hadn't, however, been particularly fitted or feminine before now. In 1980, interest in designer denim started to increase and premium brands began to emerge. Leg cuts became skinnier and more fitted, creating a feminine silhouette and a more tailored look for females. It was also around the 1980s when ripped jeans came into fashion and acid wash became popular - a trend that's toned down since then.

The 1990s saw even more denim trends hit the stores. The rise of hip hop encouraged men and women to wear baggy jeans, often revealing their underwear beneath. Thankfully, this trend didn't stay mainstream for long, but denim overalls and 'shortalls' have remained at the forefront of fashion, even today.

With the 2000s trend of showing your midriff came ultra low-rise jeans. Flared trousers also made a comeback, accompanied by a subtler version with the bootcut. Innovations, such as denim stretch technology, meant that skinny jeans were now skinnier than ever and sales from premium brands such as Citizens of Humanity soared.

Currently, skinny jeans are the most popular denim look, with an assortment of washes and fits available. Versatile, the skinny jean can be dressed up or down in male or female outfits.
This season's jeans
With the leaves turning red and orange around us, it looks like our jeans are following suit! This season sees women's straight cut jeans trading in its staple blue for a range of other colours and prints - will you be daring enough to rock snakeskin-print jeans?

The hems of jeans have also been changing up, bringing new details to a classic favourite. Split hems have been popular, adding an edge to a traditional skinny jean. We've also seen some lace embroidered hems that add a girly twist to the classic jean.

You can't go wrong with a denim jacket either. They're classic yet contemporary and complement the 'layering' trend of recent seasons. Pair with casual culottes and a printed tee, or a floaty summery dress for a stylish summer look.

Straight legs and turned up hems are a great look for men too. Styled with on-trend checked patterns, it's a contemporary twist on a classic look.

Fashion trends are always changing, so it is important to buy skirts you think will stay in style, or at least be in style frequently. One of the best choices is to buy denim skirts for several reasons. First, denim is very popular. You can also buy denim skirts in a variety of lengths and styles. They can be made to look appropriate for work by pairing them with dressy tops, but they are also great to wear when going out on the town. Another reason to keep denim skirts as part of your wardrobe is you do not have to pack them away at the end of a certain season. They are comfortable enough to wear at all times when paired with season-appropriate items like boots or jackets.
What's next for denim?
So, what can we predict for the future of denim trends?

One of the main focuses of denim development is on the wear and tear of the garment. This could encourage even longer-lasting denim and therefore one type of jean being fashionable across more than one era. There is also a focus on sustainable denim, as manufacturers try to use recyclable materials and create new blends and standalone fibres.

Style-wise, with denim it can be difficult to predict. But, we've seen the revival of the 1960s and the 1980s this season through a range of trends, so who knows what next season holds. Could it be the return of rhinestone pockets and bell bottom flares?

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Denim has survived decades of trend changes. From the 60s rocking bell bottom jeans to 2018's shredded trousers, denim has been restyled and remade throughout the decades. But which trends really lit up the fashion world? And where are those trusty denim jeans headed?

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Amsterdam - The Kingpins trade fair is back in Amsterdam from 10 to 11 April, bringing together industry professionals and showcasing the latest trends and innovations to hit the world of denim. As a fashion staple, denim continues to transcend gender, age, and class, and remains one of the fashion industry's most versatile, durable and sought after fabrics. But, just like with the rest of fashion, the denim industry continues to evolve alongside waves of shifting trends, changing customer expectations and advancing technologies. At this season's Amsterdam edition of Kingpins, FashionUnited took the opportunity to ask denim professionals what they think the industry might look like in ten years from now. Here's what they said:

Sustainability will be baked into the supply chain

"Sustainability will no longer be a trend - it will be embedded in the supply chain," Tricia Carey, director of global business development for denim at Lenzing, told FashionUnited. "We will continue to see the rise of conscious consumers with a deeper understanding of the worth of an item, and the industry will have to keep up with them." As consumers continue to become more informed about the importance of sustainability and transparency within the fashion industry, companies are being forced more than ever to meet increasingly high standards. But according to Carey, sustainability goes further than just focusing on the production stage of a garment - which is currently being improved through reducing the amount of energy, water and chemicals used in the process - the whole lifecycle of a garment needs to be taken into account. "Sustainable production is important, but we have to care about the garment all the way until the end of its life." According to Carey, in the next ten years we will likely see a huge increase in the focus on the longevity of garments, with customers willing to pay more money for better quality products with a longer lifespan.

Circular economy: repair, recycle, reuse and reduce

Rebecca Larsen, product development manager at House of Gold, the agency which homes denim mills Blue Diamond, In the Loop, and Jeanious Laundry, said that more focus will be put on creating a circular denim industry. "Sustainability is important but it's not enough. What really needs to happen is we need to close the loop. Instead of constantly producing more and more, we need to learn to reuse what we already have." The trend of the 4 Rs - repair, recycle, reuse and reduce - will likely continue to rise in the next ten years, according to Larsen. At Blue Diamond, for example, like many denim mills, collections are now being made using reused waste from the production process. Blue Diamond uses Refibra technology - a process that upcycles cotton scraps produced during textile manufacturing to create new garments. The increasing popularity of methods such as this could see an industry that, rather than constantly creating new garments and throwing them away, becomes a constant process of making, using, taking apart and reintroducing denim as a raw material back into the supply chain.

More vertical supply chains

"Sustainability is the only trend that matters," said Richard Tobin, vice president of sales and marketing at textile company Kaltex. "For younger generations it's particularly important. If we're going to leave a cleaner world for them, we have to do it now, so the next 10 years are particularly important." The full service Mexican owned company uses only American cotton, and supports the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) organization. The vertically integrated company has also been using Tencel fibers since 2000 when it first tested them in its men's denim, and has been running a water treatment facility since 1996, where all its wastewater is treated, tested and monitored. According to Tobin, vertical integration of companies in the denim industry will also become more commonplace in the next ten years. A trend that seems to be growing in popularity, vertical integration allows brands to attain a higher level of control over factors such as waste, water, chemical and recycling management.

Physical will move to digital

In the next ten years, digital technology could also have a much larger role in the denim design process. According to Gail van der Hoeven, creative brand strategist at Soorty, the prototype stage could potentially be eliminated completely. Soorty partnered with Amsterdam-based digital fashion house, The Fabricant, which uses film visual effects such as motion capture, 3D animation software and body scanning to create hyper realistic 3D animations of garments without physical prototypes having to be made - in effect saving time, eliminating unnecessary waste, and eradicating the need to transport samples.

While digital samples might not completely replace physical sample production, the benefit is that the former could help brands understand consumer tastes at an earlier stage in the production process. "As far as the industry is concerned, this is already happening," said van der Hoeven. "Consumers might take a little while to get used to the concept, though." Soorty showcased its first collaboration with The Fabricant, called C2C Gold, at the October 2018 edition of Kingpins, while The Fabricant also teamed up with Swedish brand Carlings in the same year for a digital clothing collection that sold out in a week.
Photo credit: FashionUnited

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What the future of denim looks like according to industry experts

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Amsterdam - The Kingpins trade fair is back in Amsterdam from 10 to 11 April, bringing together industry professionals and showcasing the latest trends and innovations to hit the world of denim. As a fashion staple, denim continues to transcend g

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Aside from the Civil War, the Great Depression was the gravest crisis in American history. Just as in the Civil War, the United States appeared-at least at the start of the 1930s-to be falling apart. But for all the turbulence and the panic, the ultimate effects of the Great Depression were less revolutionary than reassuring.

This was undeniably an era of extraordinary political innovation, much of it expressed in the reforms enacted by Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal and his administration's attempts to cope with the problems of poverty, unemployment, and the disintegration of the American economy. It was also a time when a significant number of Americans flirted with Marxist movements and ideas, as well as with the notion that the model for a more humane society could be found in the Soviet Union. Above all, it was a decade of cultural ferment, in which American writers, artists, and intellectuals experimented with new, more socially oriented forms of literature, painting, theatre, music, and mass entertainment.

Yet, paradoxically, the turmoil of the 1930s turned out to be predominantly conservative in its impact on American society. The Great Depression taught people of all social classes the value of economic security and the need to endure and survive hard times rather than to take risks with one's life or money. Moreover, faced with the spectre of totalitarian ideologies in Europe and Japan, Americans rediscovered the virtues of democracy and the essential decency of the ordinary citizen-the near-mythical "common man" who was celebrated in Roosevelt's speeches, Frank Capra's movies, and Norman Rockwell 's paintings. Thus, a decade marked by fundamental-even radical-social change ended for most with a reaffirmation of America's cultural past and its traditional political ideals.

By contrast, many American intellectuals in the 1920s, disillusioned by what they considered the pointless carnage of World War I, had shown little interest in politics or social movements. Nor did they display much affection for life in the United States. Indeed, most American novelists, poets, artists, composers, and scientists continued to believe, as they had since the 19th century, that the United States was culturally inferior to Europe. So, to learn the latest modernist techniques in literature, painting, or music, or to study the most advanced theories in physics or psychoanalysis, they assumed they had to go to London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, or Copenhagen.

But the stock market crash in 1929, the factory closures and spiraling unemployment of the early 1930s, and Hitler's takeover of the German government in 1933 forced many "expatriates" not only to return to the United States but to become politically engaged in their home country. During the worst years of the Great Depression, between 1930 and 1935, this engagement often took the form of an attraction to Marxism, the Soviet Union, and the American Communist Party.

Marxism seemed to explain persuasively the causes of capitalism's collapse, while also providing a vision of an alternative social order. The Soviet Union, the site of the first successful Marxist-inspired revolution, appeared by the 1930s to be a concrete embodiment of what many writers called (in characteristically pragmatic American terms) the socialist "experiment." In addition, from 1934 to 1939, the Soviet Union was the most uncompromising opponent of Nazi Germany, seeking alliances with Britain, France, and the United States and promoting a " popular front" partnership of liberals and socialists within the Western democracies to halt the spread of fascism in Europe and throughout the world. Nowhere did Moscow's desire for a broad antifascist coalition appear more genuine than in the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), when the Soviet Union was the only country besides Mexico to aid in any serious way the Spanish Republicans against the armies of Francisco Franco (supported by Hitler and Benito Mussolini).

Meanwhile, the communist parties in the United States and in western Europe gave intellectuals-as well as teachers, lawyers, architects, and other middle-class professionals-a feeling that they were no longer solitary individuals suffering from the failures of capitalism but belonged instead to a vibrant community of like-minded souls, in that they were participants in an international movement larger than themselves and that they were literally making history. For all these reasons Marxism, the Soviet Union, and the various national communist parties enjoyed a prestige and a popularity through much of the 1930s that they had never possessed in the 1920s and would never again enjoy after the Great Depression.

In 1932 the appeal of Marxism led 53 prominent American writers-including the novelists Sherwood Anderson and John Dos Passos, poet Langston Hughes, literary critics Edmund Wilson and Malcolm Cowley, philosopher Sidney Hook, and journalist Lincoln Steffens-to announce their support for William Z. Foster, the Communist Party's candidate for president. Although Dos Passos, Wilson, and Hook later became bitter critics of the Soviet Union's Stalinist regime, their initial enthusiasm for a socialist revolution indicated how compelling for intellectuals were the values and ideas of the left.

Perhaps no writer better reflected this new sense of social commitment than Ernest Hemingway. In 1929 Hemingway published A Farewell to Arms. The novel's Lieutenant Henry, like Hemingway himself a volunteer American ambulance driver in Italy during World War I, decides to flee the madness of the war and make a "separate peace." Here, desertion is seen as an act of sanity, even of heroism. Eleven years later, in 1940, Hemingway published another novel about war-in this case, the Spanish Civil War-called For Whom the Bell Tolls (the title was taken from John Donne's poem, which is itself a hymn to human fellowship). In this novel, Robert Jordan, another Hemingwayesque volunteer, serving with a band of anti-Franco guerrillas, is badly wounded but stays behind to defend a bridge, thereby protecting his comrades as they retreat. Jordan-unlike Lieutenant Henry-has found a cause worth fighting and dying for. And Hemingway's own strong identification with the Spanish Republicans, for whom he raised money and helped make a documentary film called The Spanish Earth (1937), was symptomatic of a political involvement that neither he nor his fictional characters would have undertaken a decade earlier.

Of course, not every Depression-era American writer was entranced by communism or the Soviet Union. The majority of intellectuals and artists, like their fellow citizens, were much more comfortable voting for Roosevelt than idolizing Joseph Stalin. Indeed, by the middle and late 1930s, a growing number of American intellectuals-many of them clustered around the literary and political journal Partisan Review-had become militantly anti-Stalinist even as they retained their sympathy for socialism, their new stance having formed as Stalin launched a series of show trials that sent his former Bolshevik colleagues to Siberian labour camps (or more frequently to their death in the cellars of prisons), as terror spread throughout the Soviet Union, and as stories began to circulate about the communists murdering Trotskyists and anarchists behind the Republican lines in Spain. Still, it was not until August 1939, when Stalin shocked the world by signing a nonaggression pact with his archenemy Hitler, that the Soviet Union and the Communist Party in the United States lost what was left of their moral authority with all but a few American intellectuals.

New forms of cultural expression

Novelists, poets, painters, and playwrights of the 1930s did not need to be Marxists to create works that dealt with the problems of the Great Depression or the dangers of fascism. Indeed, even many who were sympathetic to Marxism acted as "fellow travelers" without joining the Communist Party. Most writers and artists in the prosperous 1920s thought of themselves as members of a transatlantic avant-garde and as stylistic disciples of Pablo Picasso, James Joyce, or Igor Stravinsky. In the impoverished and desperate 1930s, they repudiated-as did Malcolm Cowley in his literary memoir of the 1920s, Exile's Return (1934)-what they now regarded as the escapism and self-indulgence of their modernist mentors. Given the political and economic calamities at home and abroad, they sought to focus on the plight of workers, sharecroppers, African Americans, the poor, and the dispossessed. Further, they wanted to communicate their insights in a language-whether literary, visual, or musical-that their audiences could easily comprehend.

This impulse led, in a variety of genres, to an aesthetic of documentary-style realism and of social protest. For writers such as Edmund Wilson, Sherwood Anderson, John Dos Passos, Erskine Caldwell, Richard Wright, and James Agee, fiction seemed inadequate in describing the disastrous effects of the Great Depression on political institutions, the natural environment, and human lives. So they joined with photographers and turned to journalism, as if their eyewitness portraits of desolate factories and American shantytowns, interviews with migrant workers and tenant farmers, and ubiquitous cameras could capture the "feel" and the essential truth of the Great Depression. Their yearning to record the pure, unadorned facts of daily existence, to listen to what Americans said about their plight, and to refrain from abstract theories or artistic embellishment was reflected in the titles of some of the books they wrote about their travels throughout the country: Wilson's The American Jitters (1932), Anderson's Puzzled America (1935), Nathan Asch's The Road-In Search of America (1937), Caldwell's You Have Seen Their Faces (1937), and Wright's Twelve Million Black Voices (1941).

The most lyrical, and certainly the most eccentric, of these documentaries was Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (1941), with a text by Agee and pictures by Walker Evans. In order to illuminate the suffering but also the dignity of three sharecropper families in Alabama, Evans tried to photograph his subjects as objectively and as unobtrusively as possible. Meanwhile, Agee employed a variety of journalistic and artistic techniques: naturalistic description and dialogue, an almost anthropological itemization of clothing and household furniture, erudite discussions of agricultural problems in the deep South, autobiographical ruminations, religious symbolism, and intimate expressions of love for the families and rage at their misery. Though the book's prose was perhaps too convoluted for readers in 1941, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men was the precursor of what would later be called the " New Journalism," a highly personal style of reporting that influenced writers as diverse as George Orwell, Truman Capote, Tom Wolfe, and Norman Mailer.

Increasingly, Americans expected to be transported-through photographs, newsreels, or radio-to the scene of the latest calamity. The urge to convey the sights and sounds of the 1930s was also reflected in the emergence of public-opinion polling as a major (if still primitive) industry; in the "living newspaper" productions of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) Federal Theatre Project, which dramatized the headlines of the day; in government-sponsored documentary films such as Pare Lorentz's The River (1938) and The Plow That Broke the Plains (1936); in newsreels such as 20th Century-Fox's Movietone News and Henry Luce's March of Time; in the photography of Dorothea Lange and Margaret Bourke-White; and in Life magazine's reliance on photographs even more than on traditional print journalism to tell the authentic story of what Americans were enduring at the time.

This sensation of being present, at least vicariously, at a crisis may explain why Orson Welles's radio adaptation on October 30, 1938, of H.G. Wells's The War of the Worlds (1898) terrified so many listeners into believing that Martians had actually landed in New Jersey. The broadcast was done not as a play but in the style of a news story, with "announcers" breaking in for special bulletins, "reporters" delivering on-the-spot descriptions of the invasion, and "government spokesmen" (including one who sounded like FDR) issuing orders to troops and police. It was an event shared by millions of Americans, which is why it remains one of the most remembered events of the 1930s.

By the end of the decade, as Europe erupted into war, dramatic radio broadcasts took their cue from Welles's drama, and audiences grew to depend on a new type of foreign correspondent, such as Edward R. Murrow, who broadcast from Berlin, Paris, and the rooftops of London and brought the sounds of falling bombs and air-raid sirens directly into people's living rooms, documenting a global struggle more cataclysmic than even Welles could have imagined.

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Great Depression - Marxism and the Great Depression

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Aside from the Civil War, the Great Depression was the gravest crisis in American history. Just as in the Civil War, the United States appeared-at least at the start of the 1930s-to be falling apart. But for all the turbulence and the panic, the ultimate effects of the Great Depression were less revolutionary than reassuring.

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1930s Vintage Style Guide | Women’s Retro Fashion | House of Foxy

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Our helpful guide to wearable 30s style and fashion. From 1930s tea dresses to the bias cut evening gown.

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Is Turkey still worth it for apparel companies?

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Turkey can be an attractive location for the manufacturing of apparel and textile goods. Companies doing business in Turkey must keep in mind that certain challenges present can come with political and monetary costs.

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The selection of a given purchasing strategy is a central activity in risky environments. Single sourcing, a powerful approach in a stable environment, can amplify a firm's exposure to risk (e.g., supplier's default) in the presence of uncertainty. Multiple sourcing, however, presents higher costs due to the management of more than one supplier. A...

... strategic importance of single or multiple sourcing has been discussed extensively in the literature. Most of the studies have focused on the analysis of the pros and cons of the sourcing strategies, which are summarized in Table 1, and have proposed qualitative models of decision-making (Spekman, 1988;Ramsay and Wilson, 1990;Agrawal and Nahmias, 1997;Burke et al., 2007). Only few authors have proposed quantitative models that support decision-making in the presence of risk and uncertainty. ...

... the probabilistic differential benefits created by the option during T, are determined in cell E64; while the output of the model (that is, the net differential benefit of dual sourcing compared with single sourcing) is determined in cell E67: D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U 10 11 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 12 13 Random value of the variable "global default in the industry" 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 14 15 Random value of the length of the default period nє(1,m) 4 16 17 ...

... the probabilistic differential benefits created by the option during T, are determined in cell E64; while the output of the model (that is, the net differential benefit of dual sourcing compared with single sourcing) is determined in cell E67: D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U 10 11 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 12 13 Random value of the variable "global default in the industry" 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 14 15 Random value of the length of the default period nє(1,m) 4 16 17 ...

Monte Carlo simulations were performed to evaluate dose for possible treatment of cancers by boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT). The computational model of male Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) phantom was used to simulate tumours in the lung. Calculations have been performed by means of the MCNP5/X code. In this simulation, two opposite neut...

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Table 1 Advantages and disadvantages of multiple and single sourcing...

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Download Table | Advantages and disadvantages of multiple and single sourcing strategy. from publication: Choosing Between Single and Multiple Sourcing Based on Supplier Default Risk: A Real Options Approach | The selection of a given purchasing strategy is a central activity in risky environments.

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At Nike, we build long-term relationships with our contract manufacturing suppliers (suppliers) because we know having trust and mutual respect supports our ability to create product more responsibly, accelerate innovation and better serve athletes*. Over 90% of Nike footwear and branded apparel is made by factory groups that we have worked with for over 15 years.

Nike is growing with suppliers that share our commitment to sustainability and understand that empowered workplaces are productive, profitable and successful. We scale capability building programs, such as Worker Engagement, Culture of Safety, and Environmental Minimum Programs with suppliers that share our values. Learn more about these programs here.

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We focus on building long-term relationships with our suppliers. Because these are not transactional relationships, we work with our suppliers to elevate capabilities across environment, health, safety, and labor. This approach is good for workers, our suppliers, and for Nike.

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Nike has pushed the boundaries of sustainable innovation for decades. But what got us here won't get us where we need to go. We're evolving the playbook, transforming science fiction to science fact, at Nike's scale. We're not there yet, but we know where we're going-moving to zero and then beyond. We think of it as "Bloom Over Doom"-tenacious optimism, audacious innovation and collective action so we all, and this beautiful blue ball, thrive.

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We're committed to a better tomorrow for all athletes. Move to Zero is our journey toward zero carbon and waste to help protect the future of sport.

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As India aims to become a top manufacturing hub, India is on the threshold of major reform. India is poised to rank among the top three manufacturing locations by 2020. If you are considering locating or moving your manufacturing operations to India, there are many good reasons to do so.

India boasts a large engineer and factory worker population, respectable intellectual property protections, and easy access to English-speaking managers and executives. The upcoming legal and tax reforms and significant manufacturing infrastructure investments will only add to this list of goods reasons to manufacture in India. This article will briefly lay out the current Indian manufacturing landscape and explain the benefits and challenges of manufacturing in India.
Indian Manufacturing Landscape
During the past decade, the Indian economy focused on services rather than manufacturing. The Indian manufacturing industry was stagnant for many years, and for the 2013-2014 financial year showed a negative growth. Because of this, in 2014, the Indian Prime Minister launched the Make in India Campaign. The aim of the Make in India Campaign is to transform India into a global design and manufacturing hub. In pursuit of this, India is focusing on the development of its infrastructure, increasing and/or tailoring its talent pool to the needs of the manufacturing industry, attracting investment through aggressive foreign direct investment initiatives, and increasing the ease of doing business through legal and tax reform.

Below is a brief description of the major manufacturing hubs in India. Although all of the areas discussed below need significant infrastructure, including roads, rail, airports, and power and water improvements, most are already attracting significant investment, which will increase their manufacturing power and capacity.

Greater Noida (Uttar Pradesh) is India's best auto manufacturing hub. It's location and connectivity, on the outskirts of New Delhi, and consistent supply of resources have attracted big international companies such as Yamaha, Honda Siel Cars, and LG Electronics India.

Nashik (Mumbai), located approximately three (driving) hours northeast of Mumbai, has electrical engineering and auto components industries. This location is well connected to two roads and airstrips, but no airport.

Manesar, Haryana (Chandigarh), located about an hour (driving) southwest of New Delhi, is another favored auto manufacturing hub. It is well connected to roads and railway. Infrastructure reform is underway to increase its manufacturing power and capacity.

Hospet (Bangalore), located in south central India approximately five (driving) hours north of Bangalore, is a major steel and iron manufacturing hub. Hospet has recently attracted huge investment that will continue to grow its manufacturing power and capacity. Apple recently its decision to set up a manufacturing plant in Bangalore.

Aurangabad (Mumbai), located approximately six hours (driving) east of Mumbai, is the manufacturing hub for major healthcare, including pharma, and brewing companies.
Benefits of Manufacturing in India
Make in India Campaign: The Make in India Campaign means the Indian government is putting a high priority and lots of attention on the manufacturing industry, including significant investment and development. This will make India an even more attractive manufacturing choice, and alleviate some of the challenges listed below.

Familiar Legal System: The Indian commercial law system is based on British common law, which is most similar to the US legal system. Although there are some regulatory hurdles, a similar system makes it easier to understand for people from other common law countries (like the US).

Cheap Labor: Manufacturing labor is very cheap in India, even compared to China. In 2014 the average cost of manufacturing labor per hour was $.92 in India and $3.52 in China. While this cost seems much lower, you have to take into account the extra costs you will incur due to India's significantly worse and more expensive transportation, power, and water costs.

Availability of Labor: India has a huge labor force (nearly 500 million people), which includes unskilled workers as well as a rich talent pool of skilled worker, such as researchers and engineers, capable of lending cost-effective research and development support to manufacturing operations. Last year the Wall Street Journal reported that 12 million people enter the Indian labor market each year. Furthermore, India has the second largest English-speaking population in the world, behind the US of course.

High Quality Production: Most Indian factories produce high quality goods because they use high quality (Japanese) equipment and tools and they take pride in their work. Many Indian factories are family-run and well-known for the care and transparency of their work and business dealings. Unlike China, India does not carry the stigma of poor quality production.

Domestic Market: India has an attractive domestic market that will be easier to enter and compete in with in-country manufacturing operations. Even if this isn't your primary goal, it will open up a new market for you to take advantage of.
Challenges of Manufacturing in India
Power availability: Low power availability is a major drawback to manufacturing in India. Power is not generally available 24 hours per day, which can significantly decrease productivity and efficiency, and lower output rates. Furthermore, the power that is available is expensive.

Cost and Fragmentation of Transportation and Logistics: Transportation is expensive and slow in India. It can take weeks to get products to the coasts from some places in India. Furthermore, logistics are subpar. The upside is that the Indian government recognizes this problem in infrastructure and is working to fix it. Unfortunately, India ports are not used to their capacity, being close to the coast isn't necessarily an advantage.

Labor Productivity: Labor productivity is lower in India than many competing manufacturing countries. Labor productivity is lower because of India's lag in production planning, supply chain management, transportation, and maintenance. You should also be aware that there are some extended Indian holidays (festivals and celebrations), which can cut into the manufacturing productivity.

Intellectual Property Protection and Enforcement: Like China, IP protection and enforcement is expensive and high risk in India. Although India ranked lower than China in the 2016 International Property Rights Index , they both ranked in the bottom of the third quintile. Another challenge with IP rights in India is that India is currently going through some significant IP reforms, which make things more complex and, at least for now, uncertain.

Choosing where to manufacture is an important business decision that requires significant research and consideration. Selecting the wrong manufacturing location or specific factory because you are busy, in a hurry, or don't have the right resources can cost a lot of unnecessary time and money. The benefits and challenges discussed above should be considered and given the appropriate weight based on your business and manufacturing needs. Because India is going through significant reform, investment, and development, when considering India, keep in mind your long-term goals and the long-term potential of the Indian manufacturing industry.

Globig is here to help with your business expansion needs around the world. Join Globig today for free business resources and expertise, and through our Marketplace, access to vetted attorneys and experts around the world.
Related Articles and Content You Might Like: The Pros and Cons of Manufacturing in China Podcast: Post Colonialism, Culture, and How to Do Business in India 6 Ways to Do Business in Other Countries Without Setting Up an Office or Entity

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The Benefits and Challenges of Manufacturing in India

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As India aims to become a top manufacturing hub, India is on the threshold of major reform. India is poised to rank among the top three manufacturing locations by 2020. If you are considering locating or moving your manufacturing operations to India, there are many good reasons to do so.

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Pros and cons table of Bangladesh textile and apparel industry

Since its inception in 1970, Bangladesh textile and apparel industries have gone through tremendous growth and have become one of the leading global exporter of RMG.

Infrastructure is a great challenge that is facing Bangladesh textile and apparel industry and this has a negative bearing on the RMG industries growth. These include utilities, port facilities and road networks. This is seen by congested roads, limited inland transport alternatives etc.

The industry contribute immensely in the Countries GDP (13 % of the GDP and 75% of the export) thus making it the leading industrial sector.

Aspects of supplier performance and work force supply such as an expectation of increase rates labor cost and skill, capability and capacity gap.

Bangladesh as an emerging hot spot for RMG has a number of advantages which include aspects of price and capacity. The price levels are competitive and quality levels especially in value and entry level-mid market products. Because of the development in wage, it is expected that Bangladesh price will still remain highly competitive in the future (Verma, 2002).

High dependence on imported raw materials can also be viewed as a major risk. This leads to an increase in fabric lead time for wovens.

With a capacity of 5000 RMG factories which employee almost 3.6 million workers and this put it a head of countries such as Indonesia Vietnam and Cambodia

Aspects of political and economic stability also affects of sourcing in this industry in Bangladesh.

Favorable trade policies e.g. duty free import of import of garments from Bangladesh also put the industry on high pedestal.

High scrutiny by Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and Corporate Social Responsibility stakeholders (CSR) with regards to compliance e.g. environmental compliance.

Pros and cons table of Pakistan textile and apparel industry

It contributes 11 % of Pakistan Gross Domestic product (GDP) more so in 2004-2005. And represent 46 % of the entire manufacturing sector and employs 35 % of Pakistan industrial labor force (Nordås, 2009).

Low growth performance of cotton production is one of the major cons in Pakistan textile and apparel industry. This is majorly attributed to severe pest infestations. As stated by Abernathy, Volpe and Weil (2006), the major challenge facing Pakistan in cotton production is controlling cotton viruses and other pests.

The cotton based commodities from this industry make 60% of the export and it is a major source of income for most rural households.

Government intervention in the price, trade, and market system is another con of Pakistan textile and apparel industry. Some of these controls have prevented the private sector engagement in the cotton business

Pakistan is a global player in textile and apparel related products and the industry play a great role in reducing the level of poverty in the rural Pakistan.

As in Bangladesh, aspects of political and economic stability also affects of sourcing in this industry in Pakistan.

Infrastructure is also a great challenge that is facing Pakistan textile and apparel industry and like in Bangladesh, this has a negative bearing on the RMG industries growth. These include utilities, port facilities and road networks. This is seen by congested roads, limited inland transport alternatives etc.

References

Abernathy, F. H., Volpe, A., & Weil, D. (2006). The future of the apparel and textile industries: prospects and choices for public and private actors. Environment and Planning A, 38(12), 2207.

Nordås, H. K. (2009). The global textile and clothing industry post the agreement on textiles and clothing. World Trade Organization (WTO).

Verma, S. (2002). Export competitiveness of Indian textile and garment industry. Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, Working Paper, (94).

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Pros and Cons Table of Bangladesh and Pakistan Textile and Apparel Industry - Premium Assignment Help

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Pros and Cons Table of Bangladesh and Pakistan Textile and Apparel Industry Pros and cons table of Bangladesh textile and apparel industry Pros Cons Since its inception in 1970, Bangladesh textile and apparel industries have gone through tremendous growth and have become one of the leading global exporter of RMG.

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Five years ago, Asma Khatun pushed through the crowds that had formed around the Rana Plaza building, determined to see the destruction with her own eyes.

Deep cracks had appeared in the eight-storey building outside Dhaka the day before. That morning, workers who had been producing clothes sourced by major international brands had begged not to be sent inside. Managers would not relent. More than 2,000 people filed in. Some time before 9am, floors began to vanish and workers started falling.

Rana Plaza took less than 90 seconds to collapse, killing 1,134 people. Unions called it a "mass industrial homicide". Standing in the rubble, Khatun promised to quit her job in a nearby garment factory. "Even if I don't have any other work, I won't do it."

Revulsion over Rana Plaza forced brands and retailers to act. The full list of companies who were sourcing clothes from the building remains unclear, but had previously included Primark, Matalan and others. About 250 companies signed two initiatives, the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, and the less constraining Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety. Both were designed to improve safety dramatically in 2,300 factories supplying western brands. Both complete their terms this year.

Few dispute that the Accord and Alliance worked. "I think right now, of the developing countries with a ready-made garment sector, Bangladesh is the safest," says Rob Wayss, executive director of the Accord.

Progress is less obvious for workers in at least 2,000 factories that do not supply major western brands, and are inspected either by the Bangladesh government, or not at all. Union activity across the sector remains stifled. And, analysts ask, how sustainable are the improvements? What happens when the Accord and Alliance end?

Khatun never did quit. She has worked in garments since the age of 11, one of successive generations of Bangladeshis brought out of poverty, marginally, by an industry that now employs close to five million people, earning the lowest wages of any garment workers in the world.

Yet some things have changed in the factory where she works. "The owners are careful about safety nowadays," she says. "If we complain, they take action."

Facing the threat of being cut off by western buyers, thousands of factory owners have invested in fire doors, sprinkler systems, electrical upgrades and stronger foundations, eliminating more than 97,000 identified safety hazards in facilities covered by the Accord alone.

The Natural Denims Ltd factory, which is covered by an international initiative to improve workers' conditions in Bangladesh. Progress on safety has been fast, watchdogs say. Photograph: Michael Safi/The Guardian

Fewer factories could now be labelled "death traps", says Scott Nova, the executive director of the Worker Rights Consortium, an independent labour group. About 71 workers died each year in fire and building collapses in the years before Rana Plaza. In the years since, it is about 17 people annually, according to a report from New York University's Stern Centre.

Brands are being held accountable. Two major multinationals agreed to pay million of dollars in December and January after global unions accused them of failing to compel suppliers to fix their factories.

In one sense, progress has been fast. "Bangladesh has made up what it took factories in the US and UK 60 years to accomplish," says James Moriarty, executive director of the Alliance.

But both initiatives are also way behind schedule, mostly due to sheer stubbornness on the part of factory owners. "Major, life-threatening concerns remain outstanding in too many factories and need to be fixed urgently," concluded a recent Accord update.

Workplaces covered by the Accord and Alliance are also just half the picture. More than 1,500 factories, producing for markets such as Russia and Turkey, receive inspections from the Bangladesh government alone.

Less than 15% of these have fixed even half outstanding safety issues in the past five years, according to the International Labour Organisation. "In terms of the actual progress made in these factories, it's a black hole," says Laura Gutierrez, from the Worker Rights Consortium.

Mohammad Ibrahim, a union leader who was beaten and jailed for 60 days after being accused of organising protests over pay. Photograph: Michael Safi/The Guardian

Thousands more workers still labour in sub-contracting workshops. How many people these workshops employ, and under what conditions, is unknown.

Trade union activity, which surged in the three years after Rana Plaza, is slowing. Last year, the number of new unions registered fell to the lowest levels since before the disaster. The events of December 2016 have had a chilling effect.

That month, as factories rushed to complete Christmas orders, thousands of workers walked off their stations, demanding their first pay rises since 2013.

A few days into the protests, Mohammad Ibrahim, a union leader, was called to a meeting by police. "Senior officials want to talk to you," he says he was told.

At the police station, his hands were bound and he was beaten. One officer, who Ibrahim says was kinder, approached him out of the earshot of the others. "Just don't run," he told him.

That night, Ibrahim says he was driven to a forested area, untied and told to sprint. Bangladesh police are frequently accused of shooting suspects dead and claiming they tried to flee arrest. Ibrahim refused.

"I was in jail for 60 days," he says. "I slept near a toilet. Other leaders were tortured in front of me."

Bangladesh has repeatedly attracted the highest censure from the ILO for failing to protect trade unions. "Our opinion is that you cannot really have safety if the voice of the workers is not recognised," says Tuomo Poutiainen, who oversees the Asian garments sector for the ILO.

All but two of the charges against Ibrahim were dropped last year after brands including Zara and H&M boycotted an industry conference in Dhaka, in protest at the treatment of workers and crackdown on unions. With competition growing from garment sectors in Vietnam and Ethiopia, threats by western buyers hold more sway than ever.

But factory owners complain the brands want it both ways, pressuring factory owners to invest in safety upgrades, but still relentlessly pushing for lower prices. The amount western brands pay for men's cotton pants, for example, has fallen by an average 13% since Rana Plaza, according to research from Penn State University.

"Now the brands come and question us over minimum wages," says Rubana Huq, whose Mohammadi Group is one of the country's largest manufacturers. "Excuse me, where does that come from? Who's going to pay the extra?"

Ensuring safe factories stay that way will be the next challenge. Both the Alliance and Accord are trying to work with Bangladesh in some capacity after their terms expire.

"The government is not ready at this time to take over and regulate factories at a satisfactory level," says Wayss, the Accord chief. The Alliance director, Moriarty, agrees: "It's still early days for the government."

But both face resistance. A plan for the Accord to monitor factories until 2021 has been temporarily halted by the Bangladesh high court. A similar scheme by the Alliance is still the subject of fraught negotiations.

The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, a powerful body for factory owners, wants both initiatives gone as soon as possible. "They did a lot for us," says Siddiqur Rahman, the association's president. "But if you want to teach me something, five years is enough time."

Inevitably, the onus for safety in Bangladesh's garment factories will soon return to the government. Whether it is able, or willing, to enforce the new standards will decide the real legacy of Rana Plaza.

"A fully renovated, safe factory could go back to being unsafe overnight," says Gutierrez, the labour advocate. "It is scary to imagine that things could go back to business as usual."

Additional reporting by Mushfique Wadud in Dhaka

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Rana Plaza, five years on: safety of workers hangs in balance in Bangladesh | Michael Safi and Dominic Rushe

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Five years ago, Asma Khatun pushed through the crowds that had formed around the Rana Plaza building, determined to see the destruction with her own eyes. Deep cracks had appeared in the eight-storey building outside Dhaka the day before. That morning, workers who had been producing clothes sourced by major international brands had begged not to be sent inside.

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How is the ever-changing retail landscape affecting the affordable luxury sector?

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Before we start with the measuring, lay down the jeans on a flat hard surface and smooth out any wrinkles. Once that is done, follow the below steps:

Jeans / Pants measurement example with areas

1. WAIST: For measuring the waist first button the jeans up. Next spread the jeans flat on the surface, and remove any fullness and wrinkles from it.

2. FRONT RISE: With the jeans buttoned up, spread the jeans on the floor or table; next remove all wrinkles, and measure this region by starting from crotch seam spot to the spot of the waistband.

3. HIP: Measure across the hip area, this is in most cases 1 1/2 inches below the zipper.

4. THIGH: Starting at the crotch seam and ending 1-2 inches below the hip area.

5. LENGTH: With the jeans buttoned up, spread the jeans on a table, floor or any other flat surface, with outseams on both corners. After removing all wrinkles and any fullness, measure the length from the top of the waistband.

6. KNEE: Next remove any wrinkles and fullness if present. Measure across the knee area.

7. INSEAM: Having the jeans buttoned up, spread the jeans on a surface flat. Now measure the inseam gap from the crotch, at the spot where the front and back seams meet, exactly where, depends on the length you desire ultimately.

8. LEG OPENING: Now in the last step follow the same pattern as the previous steps, that is spread the jeans on a flat surface e.g. table or floor. After removing any fullness or wrinkles, start measurement beginning from one side of the leg opening to the other side of leg opening.

Take all measurements lying flat. Do this on a clean floor or table. Hanging clothes can stretch as you measure and if you have them on a dress model of a different size this can skew your measurement.

Use a flexible tape measure at least 36″ long. Don't try to take clothes measurements with a standard 12″ ruler you'll end up with an inaccurate measurement. If you have no tape measurement handy and this is somewhat of an emergency, you can always download a printable measuring online.

Measure twice! If you don't get the same measurement both times try again.

Record measurement to the nearest ¼ inch. Anything more specific is irrelevant but remember lying flat measurements are generally doubled (e.g. lying flat waist of 12.5″ can be understood as a 25″ waist) so a ¼ inch could make a difference.

Take measurements when you're taking photos. Trying to measure as your listing at your desk ends up taking a lot more time and energy moving back and forth between tasks.

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Before we start with the measuring, lay down the jeans on a flat hard surface and smooth out any wrinkles. Once that is done, follow the below steps: 1. WAIST: For measuring the waist first button the jeans up. Next spread the jeans flat on the surface, and remove any fullness and wrinkles from it.

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Sports fabrics are technical materials which help to keep the wearer comfortable during exercise. The type of fabric required will depend upon the intensity of the exercise and the activity. Yoga clothing should use fabrics with good stretch ability for easy movement which will likely require the fabric to be of a knitted construction. Apparel for long distance running will keep the wearer in good comfort if it has excellent moisture wicking properties to enable sweat to transfer from the inside to the outside for the garment. Performance clothing for outdoor sports in the winter or snow sports ought to use breathable fabrics with very good insulating properties.

Sport fabric properties

Thermal Insulation

Fabrics with good thermal conductivity are not good insulators, therefore these fabrics will be cooler to wear. Air is one of the worst conductors of heat which is why the more still air a fabric can trap, the warmer it will keep you.

Wicking

Wicking is the transport of moisture through a fabric. Moisture can pass between fibres, yarns and through the fibre itself. The ability for moisture to pass through a fabric will depend on the fabric construction and the fibre type. Synthetic fibres tend to dry quickly and are the most commonly used fibre in athletic wear now.

Water Vapour Transmission

When high intensity exercise takes place, sweating will occur to evaporate heat off the skin. If clothing is not breathable than there is nowhere for the moisture to escape. This causes moisture to build up inside the garment and on the skin resulting in the body getting hotter. Another consequence is when exercise decreases and heat stops being generated from the body, the moisture (which is less insulating than still air) will then increase heat loss rapidly, especially in a cold environment. From this we can conclude that clothing needs to prevent rain and wind from getting in but at the same time allow moisture from the inside to escape out. This process is known as water vapour transmission and fabrics which are able to do this are known as waterproof breathable fabrics.

Sports fabrics

Lycra

Lycra is Du Pont's brand name for elastane. It is a synthetic fibre which is always combined with another fibre in a fabric. Lycra is not used as the majority fibre for the reason being that even a small amount (as little as 2 percent) can provide considerable stretch and give fabric a better drape. Lycra is renowned for its ability to be stretched four to seven times its original length and will still return to its normal state and length when released. Other admirable properties of Lycra include its resistance to sunlight, sweat and improvement of comfort, ease of movement and shape retention when used in a fabric. Lycra by itself looks like a continuous filament, yet actually contains lots of tiny filaments put together, which are made up of stretchy and rigid molecules to make it both soft and strong. Elastane can also be used in sportswear for compression garments which are used to improve blood circulation, reduce lactic acid and DOMS and it can also be used to help hold a garment up. When considering buying Lycra, heavier weight Lycra fabrics will be less see-through when stretched. We supply Lycra fabrics including an 80% Nylon, 20% elastane fabric (KBT117) in lots of brilliant colours. Another fabric we have which is very similar but not as shimmery is PBT (polybutylene terephthalate) (KBT6278). This is a type of polyester with stretch and tactile properties very similar to Lycra. It is also resistant to salt water, chlorine and colour fading which is why this fabric is suitable for swimwear.

Mesh

Mesh is a fabric which includes a certain amount open spaces; a typical mesh is about 85 percent material and 15 percent holes although different mesh fabrics will vary in weight and hole size. Mesh is beneficial in sportswear as it provides good comfort and stretch and allows air to circulate and reach the skin meaning that it is ideal for ventilation areas of a garment, especially for places where heat accumulates very quickly such as on the back. Featured below is our airtech polyester mesh fabric (KBT6215), ideal for sportswear. Both are the same fabric but with slightly different hole shape.

Neoprene

Neoprene is a foam like synthetic rubber made from polychloroprene chemicals. It doesn't fray, is a good insulator and is water resistant. There are two types of neoprene: open cell and closed cell. Closed cell neoprene is cheaper and is the most common type; it consists of nitrogen filled separated bubbles and allows a small amount of water to pass through which is heated by the body. This type of neoprene is lined and is suitable for people who will stay continually active in the water so that body heat continues to keep the layer of water inside the suit. For very cold conditions and for activities where there is waiting around, open cell neoprene is the appropriate option. Open cell neoprene is raw (unlined), softer and more flexible than closed cell which is rigid and strong. Open cell is made up of interconnected air spaces and works by clinging tightly to the body. It can contain up to 98% still air inside it giving good insulation to weight properties. Open cell is more insulating and depending on the thickness and type, can be used for deep sea diving and for staying in the water all day.

Neoprene is used for water sports and is now very fashionable for casual sporty type clothing and swimwear. Our neoprene (KBT6984) is 2mm thick and the front and back of the rubber is covered with a polyester and spandex material.

Waterproof

Water resistant fabrics are used in outdoor sports to protect from weather elements. If a fabric is waterproof then it is likely to be wind resistant also. Some fabrics are water repellent meaning that they do not allow the ingress of only a certain amount of water. If a fabric can resist a water pressure of at least 13,000 pascals then the fabric can be classed as fully water proof. PU coating is one way of waterproofing a fabric and is suitable for jackets and tracksuit bottoms.

Below is one of our lighter weight water resistant fabrics. This 100% polyester 4oz fabric (KBT1859) has a polyurethane coated back and is ideal for water proof clothing such as raincoats and jackets.

Micro fibre

Micro fibre fabrics are essentially fabrics made from extremely fine fibres. A fabric can be classed as a microfibre if its fibres have a linear density of less than 1 denier. You can make a comparison of how fine this actually is when you think of how thin 15 denier tights are and therefore how small 1 denier is in comparison; also a micro fibre is 100 times finer than a human hair! Micofibre fabrics are usually made from polyesters, polyamides or polypropylenes; they are made from manmade fibres because they are so small that natural fibres cannot be this small. The fineness of the fibre means that many more fibres are needed to make up a yarn. Microfibre fabrics make useful luxury sport fabrics due to their all round brilliant properties including being lightweight, having a luxurious drape and are breathable whilst still being resistant to rain and wind. You can order a sample of our polyester microfibre fabric (KBT7706) which is ideal for trench coats and sports jackets.

Waddings

These are nonwoven materials made from synthetic continuous polyester filaments and able to trap air between the many fibres. Waddings keep a high air content trapped thus providing superb thermal insulation from the cold. You will find it used between the outside fabric and the lining fabric of a garment. Our water resistant quilted fabric (KBT5655) has synthetic wadding quilted to a water resistant outer fabric, when constructing a garment from this material a lining fabric of your own choice can be used for the inside. We also stock waddings by themselves including 2oz, 4oz and 6oz.

Sports fleece

There are a few variations of fleece which come in different weights and have different naps, some longer or more textured than others. The fabric pile traps a lot of still air making it an insulating fabric. Fleece fabrics are used in sportswear often for tracksuits, hoodies and zip tops. The fabric does not fray making it very easy to sew (unless it is extremely thick) and the grain line runs parallel to the selvedge. Two of our fleece fabrics, practical for sports clothing include (KBT5673) which is a tightly knitted fabric with some 'give' to it and has a fine brushed nap. Another is the hoodie fleece fabric (KBT6745) which is similar but slightly stretchier and has a moderately softer and thicker nap.
Have you used any of our fabrics for sportswear? Comment below to tell us what you think!
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Sports fabrics are technical materials which help to keep the wearer comfortable during exercise. The type of fabric required will depend upon the intensity of the exercise and the activity. Yoga clothing should use fabrics with good stretch ability for easy movement which will likely require the fabric to be of a knitted construction.