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I found I learned a lot from this project, as although I was already familiar with the Critical Path and ways businesses source their products, my further research helped me understand the processes behind their choices. Whether it is more important to receive product faster or have the lowest cost prices is often a choice buyers have to make. This has been one of my preferred assignments, however I believe the instructions could have been clearer as the use of "evaluate" within the guidelines led to me making the assumption that after the infographic we had to sum up all our points and our choices for them in an essay structure, which isn't the case in the exemplar pieces.

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I think I notice areas of improvement for myself from this assignment to incorporate in my final INP. I thoroughly enjoyed this project and think I preferred it to any other. I learned how to use photoshop and can say I will definitely continue using it in my day to day life. For my INP, I will focus on consistency throughout all my projects- learned by doing this Range Plan.

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RESEARCH PLANNING

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COMP SHOP RESEARCH BRANDS

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New Look - Womens, Mens & Teen fashion Online

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Free delivery options available - Shop the latest trends with New Look's range of women's, men's and teen fashion. Browse 1000's of new lines added each week.

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ZARA United Kingdom | New Collection Online

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Latest trends in clothing for women, men & kids at ZARA online. Find new arrivals, fashion catalogs, collections & lookbooks every week.

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PLANNING FABRIC SHOP VISIT

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PROGRESS ON FABRIC BOARD

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PRESENTATION REHEARSAL

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You've heard it all before: millennials are lazy, baby boomers are mega-rich and as for Generation Z, they see more of their phone screen than their own family.

But what do these different labels actually mean, and do any of the stereotypes attached to them contain any grains of truth?

Dr Alexis Abramson, an expert in what are known as 'generational cohorts', says we define generations because "when you are born affects your attitudes, your perceptions, your values, your behaviours."

This means that each of them has their own characteristics. Let's take a look at them.

The Silent Generation

This is the first defined generational group. It refers to those born between 1926 and 1945, so these are people who lived through World War Two. The name comes from an article in Time magazine from the 1950s, and alludes to the fact that the children of this generation were taught to be seen and not heard. According to Dr Abramson, this group are:

disciplined

value-oriented and loyal

interested in direct communication, so enjoy speaking in person as opposed to via technology

Baby Boomers

This is the only generation that's been defined by an official government body: The US Census Bureau (which is part of the country's Department for Commerce and is responsible for collecting data from across the US). They're so named because of the huge surge of births after World War Two. The group starts in 1946 and ends with those born around 1964, when the birthrate began to decline again. Dr Abramson says boomers are:

committed

self-sufficient

competitive (she thinks this may have something to do with how many of them there were)

Generation X

The Resolution Foundation thinktank defines Gen X as those born between 1966 and 1980. They grew up in a time when technology was advancing fast, but it wasn't nearly as readily available as it is today. Because of this, this generation straddles both the digital and non-digital world, and understands the importance of both. Dr Abramson says these people are:

Millennials (Generation Y)

This is the cohort you've probably heard the most about. It's not entirely certain where the generation starts and ends, but it's approximately those born from 1980 to 1995. They're often described as 'lazy' in the media and that they spend all the money they should be saving for a house on avocado toast, but they're also the first generation to be "digital natives", as Dr Abramson describes them. She thinks this makes them extremely self-sufficient, as they no longer have to rely on others to solve their problems or teach them things - they have the internet for that. Other defining characteristics include:

confident

curious

questioning authority - Dr Abramson thinks that this can be perceived quite badly by some of the older generations, who would be less likely to do so

Generation Z

There are a few conflicting ideas about where this generation starts. Pew Statistics says 1997, Statistics Canada says 1993, and the Resolution foundation says 2000. Wherever it really begins though, we can safely say this group is young, and has never known a life without tech. That might be why their alternative name (coined by American psychologist Dr Jean Twenge) is iGen. Some of their characteristics include:

Same but different

The important thing to note according to Dr Abramson is that while these separations can be useful, at the end of the day we are individuals. It's like with horoscopes: you may identify with one or two characteristics of being a Sagittarius or a Leo, but you won't ever fit your star sign's description exactly.

The same goes for cohorts, although as the stereotypes are given more prominence in the media, she notes that people in the different groups can "pigeon hole themselves into aligning themselves with those characteristics".

What they can help us with, as Dr Abramson explains: is "so that we know how and when to work differently with a group."

In other words, you wouldn't treat a 60-year-old the same way would a teenager, so having these cohorts gives us a rough idea of what different age groups might want and need.

Communication breakdown

Dr Abramson says the key difference between all of these cohorts are the different methods of communication they use. Where the silent generation and baby boomers had to rely on face-to-face relationships and are as a result more "engaged" in their real-life communities, the younger generations have social media for that, and create their communities online instead.

These differences have led to some animosity between the groups, which Dr Abramson describes as a "chasm" in communication methods. She says it can be felt everywhere, for example in the workplace. It can be really frustrating for older generations if they're used to asking someone a question in person, when younger generations prefer to just send a message.

But it can work the other way around too. Dr Abramson says that if a boss is struggling to understand tech that a young person finds easy, this can lead to immense irritation.

"The flip of this is younger people think older people are not adjusting to the digital world and to technology as quickly as they'd like them to, and are holding younger people back," she explains.

Working together

The key to overcoming these differences, according to Dr Abramson, is that "the younger folks can teach the older folks something and the older folks can teach the younger folks something".

She suggests "mentor-mentee relationships, downward and upward". Historically it's usually the older person holding the position of being a mentor. So for example, in a workplace an older person might take a young newbie under their wing in order to teach them what they know and give them a leg up in the organisation.

But in an age where people are growing up with tech that older generations are going to have to use, especially at work, that traditional approach needs to be chucked out the window, according to Dr Abramson. She adds:

"I think it actually goes both way now, because you have so much new and innovative products and services and deliverables out there that maybe people that have been working in an organisation for 20 years may not know."

The next generation

And soon, new kids will be on the scene: the next generation has been dubbed Generation Alpha by social researcher Mark McCrindle. They are young (the first will have been born in 2010) but they will eventually become a very large cohort in their own right.

Whilst not specialising in this group, Dr Abramson predicts they'll be family-oriented (as their parents will be Gen X and millennials, who she says are very engaged as parents) and more digitally savvy than any generation that comes before them. She also thinks this might be a generation where these labels start to lose some of their usefulness, adding:

"They are going into a whole new world where we're not labelling as much - we're not saying 'they're female and they're male', 'they're black and they're white', 'they're gay and they're not'... it's becoming more of an open society."

There's not much that can be said about them now, but it probably won't be long before Gen Alpha are hitting the headlines as much as millennials are today.

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Which generation are you? Millennials, baby boomers or Gen Z

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You've heard it all before: millennials are lazy and baby boomers are mega-rich. But what do these labels really mean and which generation are you?

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How Each Generation Shops in 2020 - Salesfloor

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Shopping habits of different generations.

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PRESENTATION

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FINAL FABRIC BOARD INFORMATION

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FINAL FABRIC BOARD

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Past wedding dress trends

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Previous wedding dress trends

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History of the dress

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While contemporary weddings are often a symbol of love and commitment between the bride and the groom, for most of history, weddings were more like a business deal in which two families joined forces for a beneficial arrangement or alliance. Wedding dresses, then, were chosen to present the bride's family in the best light, especially in terms of wealth and social status.

For most of history, brides rarely purchased a dress specifically for their wedding day. The bride would typically wear her finest dress to the ceremony, even if it was a dark color. In fact, many brides wore black during this time.

Only a few colors were avoided, such as green, which was then considered unlucky. Blue was a popular choice as it represented purity, piety and a connection to the Virgin Mary, plus the dark color easily hid stains and imperfections and could be worn again.

Though examples of brides wearing white can be traced back as early as 1406, the 1840 marriage of England's Queen Victoria to her cousin Prince Albert is considered the seminal white-wearing occasion.

Dripping with orange blossoms, her stunning white dress inspired thousands of common folk to follow suit. Almost a decade after the wedding, Godey's Lady's Book, one of the first women's magazines in America, declared that white was the most fitting hue for a bride.

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While contemporary weddings are often a symbol of love and commitment between the bride and the groom, for most of history, weddings were more like a business deal in which two families joined forces for a beneficial arrangement or alliance.

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Wedding dress introduction

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The history of the wedding dress is shorter than the history of weddings, and even shorter still than the history of marriage. An ancient Chinese myth contains one of the oldest known references to such a garment, and it goes something like this:

Once upon a time, in a green and misty country at the center of the world, there lived a clever dog who was also a dragon. Naturally, he was unmarried. This dragon-dog, named Panhu, was the servant of an emperor, who was at war with a fractious general. One day, the emperor proclaimed that any man who could bring him the head of his enemy would be given the hand of his daughter in marriage.

Panhu was not a man, but being loyal and courageous he promised to become one upon vanquishing the enemy so he could marry the princess. He succeeded, changed into human form, and was engaged to the emperor's daughter. To make sure that the union was a lucky one, the empress dressed the princess in a beautiful phoenix dress and phoenix crown, and Panhu carried his bride off to live in the southern mountains. They were happy and had many children. When it came time for their own daughter to marry, a real phoenix flew out of a mountain and presented the girl with a colorful phoenix dress all her own.

Nowadays, whether we are referring to the voluminous white confections found in Western bridal magazines or the sleek red phoenix dresses with mythical roots that are still worn by brides in China today, the wedding dress has become its own kind of talisman. We tend to focus on color, with white being the preferred choice for brides in the West, from Norway to Argentina, and red being the more appropriate color for traditional Eastern brides, be they from South Sudan or Singapore. We ascribe meaning to these color choices, as if white could only suggest purity and new beginnings, while red could only signify life, luck, and celebration. But this has not always been the case, and the wedding dresses we hail as "traditional" are, for the most part, relatively modern, no matter where they come from.

Unlike swans, ospreys, coyotes, and termites, the primates known as Homo sapiens do not generally mate for life. While some of us naked apes may find one partner and stay with them forever, never straying, history tells us that it has not been the norm for our species. Nevertheless, marriage, a social technology, has sprung up in most societies and on every inhabited continent.

For the majority of its existence, marriage has been a worldly matter, having to do with the transfer of property, the creation and support of children, the tracking of bloodlines, and the control of women. For these reasons, it was usually a man-woman affair, regardless of a society's feelings toward homosexuality. But although there have been marriages throughout most of human civilization, this does not mean that there were weddings. There are, for example, no wedding ceremonies involving an exchange of vows in the Bible. Marriages were made official through the signing of a contract or some other means of formalized agreement, but a marriage was not generally considered to be a spiritual or even romantic occasion. And because there were no weddings, for a long time there could be no true wedding dresses, either.

While the peoples of ancient Sumer, Babylon, and Assyria celebrated romantic and erotic love in art and poetry, the question of marriage was far more transactional. Herodotus's Histories tell of the Babylonian marriage market, where each year the marriageable young girls were brought before a crowd of men who bid for them, like slaves, based on their beauty. The "most beautiful" were chosen as wives for the wealthy, while the "ugliest" women who did not sell were given away to commoners along with monetary compensation for their upkeep, like problematic farm animals.

One can surmise that the women of Babylon's marriage market were expected to look market-ready, so as to fetch the highest possible price (as well as, presumably, be sold into the most comfortable circumstances). Herodotus does not say what these women wore, but it's likely that someone tried to make sure they looked their best, like apples shined up for display in the apple cart.

In 1875 the British artist Edwin Long painted an interpretation of the scene, based on Herodotus's description as well as imagery from Assyrian artifacts. All the potential brides in Long's painting wear draped garments in cream or white, while the men bidding for them wear a mix of darker hues. But this color scheme has more to do with Victorian ideas of virgins and weddings and purity-associations that almost certainly did not exist in the ancient world-than any real historical precedent. Still, at certain times and in certain places, ideas about the kind of beauty or virtue that a new bride should possess have snagged on a story, a myth, a part of culture, or a famous marriage, and traditions and superstitions have precipitated. Over time, these precipitations have calcified into ceremony.

For most of history, even Western brides did not wear white.

For most of history, even Western brides did not wear white. In ancient Rome, where marriages were celebrated with parties and banquets-an important social event, if not a sacrament-brides wore long veils of deep yellow over a complicated six-part braided hairstyle. The yellow veil was described as being "the color of flame," and thus the brides themselves were like torches, bringing light and warmth to their new husbands' homes.

Ancient Athenian brides wore long violet or light reddish robes, cinched at the waist by a girdle that the groom was meant to loosen later, symbolizing the loss of her virginity. The marriage was made official by a feast, followed by a torch-lit procession that ferried the couple to the bridal chamber. Upon entering, an Athenian bride was given a quince fruit to bite into, like Persephone tasting the pomegranate seeds from the underworld orchards that bound her to her new husband, Hades.

A key theme of weddings is the symbolic passage from childhood to adulthood, from one distinct stage of life to the next. This is especially true for women, who pass from the virginal, springtime realm of girlhood into the fruitful maturity of married life, where they will be expected to produce children. In many cultures, the rite that jettisons young women into a new world of sex and motherhood is played out as a kind of death of her old self, complete with ritualized grieving and formal lamentations. At times, the clothes that brides wear have reflected these themes.

China may be the first place where brides were expected to wear a particular color. During the reign of the Zhou Dynasty some three thousand years ago, brides and their bridegrooms both donned sober black robes with red trim, worn over a visible white undergarment. The wearing of specific colors and designs was not reserved for weddings. Zhou rulers instituted strict clothing laws that dictated what could be worn, by whom, and when, based on profession, social caste, gender, and occasion. These rules were still in effect by the start of the Han Dynasty, around 200 B.C., when brides and bridegrooms still both wore black. The Hans were purportedly less strict in enforcing clothing edicts, but nevertheless prescribed that certain colors be worn at certain times of the year: green in spring, red in summer, yellow in autumn, and black in winter.

By the seventh century, during the reign of the Tang Dynasty, with clothing edicts further loosened, it became fashionable for brides to wear green to their weddings-perhaps as a nod to the springtime clothing of the previous Han period-while their bridegrooms typically wore red. A more relaxed social order led to more diverse and experimental fashions, with women wearing short dresses and even traditional menswear in their daily lives. The Tang Dynasty ruled during a period of much immigration and cultural influence that flowed from China to both Japan and the Korean peninsula, and the fashion influences from the Tang period can still be seen in some traditional Japanese and Korean bridal fashions today, both in color and in form.

In Japan, a bride often wears several kimonos of different colors throughout her wedding day. A Japanese Shinto bride wears white. Beginning in the fourteenth century, Korean silk wedding robes were red, green, and yellow. Much like Zhou- and Han-ruled China, traditional Korean fashions were also strictly regulated by color. Children and unmarried adults in Imperial Korea wore bright hues, whereas after marriage, men and women of this period both wore white or other neutrals until their old age. The very elderly wore white only, a color of mourning, and everyone was required to wear white for three years after the death of an emperor or a member of his family.

Traditional Korean brides were also expected to embody a common theme in bridal fashion throughout the world, which is the emulation of royalty. This is, in part, how Western brides came to wear white as well, and in turn, how a particular kind of white Western wedding dress began to colonize the weddings of the whole world.

A wedding dress for a first marriage in Europe and European-dominant countries is now usually white by default, and any woman getting married in another color does so as a deviation. But the ubiquity of this style is relatively recent, becoming de rigeur only by the middle of the nineteenth century, when Queen Victoria married Prince Albert in 1840. Before that, although brides did wear white when they could afford it, even the wealthiest and most royal among them also wore gold, or blue, or, if they were not rich or royal, whatever color their best dress happened to be.

The earliest recorded instance of a white wedding dress in Western culture is that of the English Princess Philippa at her wedding to the Scandinavian King Eric in 1406. She was dressed in a white tunic lined with ermine and squirrel fur. In 1558, Mary Queen of Scots wore white during her wedding to the soon-to-be King of France, despite the fact that white was a color of mourning for French queens at the time. For the next few centuries, white remained a popular but by no means obligatory color for royal weddings (Princess Charlotte, when she married Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld in 1816, wore an empire-waisted dress in metallic silver lamé). White dresses did not symbolize virginity or even purity, but rather were costlier and harder to keep clean, and thus communicated the status and wealth of the wearer.

Up until the middle of the nineteenth century, no woman, not even royalty, expected to wear her wedding dress only once and then never again-an idea that would have been absurd even for the very rich before the industrial revolution. Even Queen Victoria repurposed her own wedding dress and veil for subsequent use. If a non-royal woman did have a new dress made especially for her wedding, it was likely to become her new Sunday best, either as is or in an altered or dyed state, until she wore it out or the fashions changed beyond the powers of alteration. More often than not, a woman got married in the best dress she already owned.

All of this would change for Western brides after the marriage of Queen Victoria and the industrial revolution, thanks in large part to a few new technological advances, most notably photography and the spread of illustrated magazines.

Many Chinese brides will take part in an elaborate wedding photo shoot while wearing a Western white dress.

When Queen Victoria married her first cousin Albert, the German prince of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, she wore an opulent pale dress festooned with orange flower blossoms that was designed in the style of the day-a tight bodice that hugged the natural waist, and a voluminous, full skirt, held out from the body with crinolines and petticoats. While frequently referred to as white and painted so in portraits, the dress itself, now in the Royal Collection (minus its lace overlay), is really more of an ivory, or even a light pink-champagne, it might be called by a modern bridal catalogue. In place of a jeweled crown, the young royal wore a wreath of orange blossoms-a richer version of what a poor country girl might don for her own nuptials-and this further endeared the new queen to her subjects.

Indeed, the British people so romanticized the relationship between Victoria and her prince consort, who were thought to embody an ideal of domestic bliss, that young women sought to copy her wedding costume in any way they could. There are no photos of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert on their wedding day, although a series of court photos taken fourteen years later, in 1854, when the royal couple were in their mid 30s, are frequently mistaken for wedding portraits because the queen appears in a light colored dress, veil, and crown of flowers. Still, illustrations of the queen on her big day were widely distributed.

The rise of photography, and of wedding portraits in particular, also went a long way in popularizing the white-wedding-dress trend. More than simply being the choice of a popular queen, white dresses looked good and stood out in the sometimes muddy-looking new black-and-white or sepia-toned photographic portraits. They looked distinct and provided a good background against which to showcase the beauty of the bride.

By 1849, women's magazines were already proclaiming that not only was white the best color for a wedding dress, but that it had in fact always been the best and most appropriate choice. In a bit of revisionist history, Godey's Lady's Book announced that "[c]ustom has decided, from the earliest ages, that white is the most fitting hue [for brides], whatever may be the material. It is an emblem of the purity and innocence of girlhood, and the unsullied heart she now yields to the chosen one." Victorian ideals of weddings, romantic love, and purity were projected backwards to rewrite the white dress as a symbol of innocence and virginity rather than wealth.

The trend caught on, and Queen Victoria's own 1840s-style wedding dress-the slim waist, the lace, the full nineteenth-century skirt over petticoats and crinolines-is still considered the most recognizable "wedding" silhouette. It is now considered the "classic" wedding dress all over the world. Even though the style was simply in keeping with every dress that Queen Victoria wore at the time, reflecting the quotidian fashion of the day, its otherness is now part of what makes the concept of a wedding dress so distinct. For many women, it is the only time that they will wear a dress like that, one in the style of the nineteenth century. Many Chinese brides will take part in an elaborate wedding photo shoot while wearing a Western white dress-sometimes even traveling abroad to Paris or New York for the sole purpose of taking these photos-even if she chooses to wear a traditional Chinese ensemble for her actual wedding ceremony.

Traditional African tribal wedding garb can still be found throughout the continent. The Ndebele people of South Africa, renown for the distinctive ringed jewelry worn to elongate the neck, still dress brides in a beaded train called a Nyoga that hangs from the shoulders onto the ground, trailing behind her in a sinuous, snakelike motion. ( Nyoga in fact means snake.) But in urban areas, and even some more pastoral ones, such as the Fransfontein region of Namibia, it has become more and more common for weddings to be planned in the Western style, with a big white dress, the groom in a tuxedo, a rented expensive car, and bridesmaids and groomsmen in matching attire. There, as in much of the rest of the world, weddings have become a focal point for conspicuous consumption. Not only is the bride expected to acquire a dress that she will never wear again, so are the members of her bridal party-stand-ins for a queen's ladies in waiting.

Although Queen Victoria's once global empire has since retreated back into the rainy isles from whence it came, the sun never sets on some version of her voluminous white wedding dress, which can be found on brides from Brisbane to Bangkok, Venice to Vladivostok.

The meaning of marriage, and what we expect from it, has changed drastically in the past two hundred years. Though many people still associate the occasion with a woman in a white dress and a man in a tuxedo, there has been a crack in the façade of traditional gender roles among heterosexual couples, and an increased recognition of the legitimacy of non-heterosexual ones. No longer simply a business arrangement between families, the vast majority of people who want to marry intend to do so for love. More than that, we have come to expect our spouses to fill a myriad of roles once occupied by family members, friends, extramarital lovers, and even religion-providing us with fulfillment, companionship, financial partnership, intellectual stimulation, emotional support, spiritual inspiration, and passion, all rolled into one. It's a tall order, and a leap of faith that I for one have found moving to behold whenever I've attended a wedding, no matter what the bride wore.

Correction: The original version of this story stated that there are no weddings in the Bible. Rather, there are no wedding ceremonies.

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A Natural History of the Wedding Dress - JSTOR Daily

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The history of the wedding dress is shorter than the history of weddings, and even shorter still than the history of marriage. An ancient Chinese myth contains one of the oldest known references to such a garment, and it goes something like this: Once upon a time, in a green and misty country at the center of the world, there lived a clever dog who was also a dragon.

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Impact of the industrial revolution on fashion

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with industrialization came busy factories

What has been the impact of industrialization on fashion today? There is no historical record of the name of the first woman to drape herself alluringly in the skin of an ancient beast, but she seems to have started something. Humans have been adorning themselves with clothing, paint, jewelry, and fabric ever since. She wanted to make a statement.

It is self-evident that until modern times all clothing was made from natural products. The skins of animals, their hair and wool were used to make garments of every kind. Plant elements like linen, cotton, and silk have also been available to humans for millennia.

The prehistoric artists pulled their materials into a corner and went to work with their pots of pigment, dye, and paint, printing early art forms. A few quills, a few feathers, and a few shells later, fashion was born. Early garments were typically made from simple shapes. Quite often, rectangles were draped and tied, held together with pins, or roughly sewn with needle and sinew.

The Skills needed for making and embellishing materials were several steps ahead of construction techniques. The early technicians learned to spin fiber, then weave or knit it into a fabric. It wasn't until the 14th century that the use of curved seams finally gave clothing a more fitted look. Buttons and laces which came later provided more sophisticated closures.

fashion in the 1800's came with status

Early Fashion:

Clothing continued to be almost exclusively handmade by individuals for their own use until the Industrial Revolution. In the 1700s, the lower classes made durable fabric clothing out of homespun fibers. They had neither time nor money to waste. Garments were patched, resized, remade, and handed down until there was nothing left to use.

The upper classes had access to luxurious imported fabric, intricate adornments and the labor of skilled artisans. Fashions became ostentatious, with hoops, wires and stays for the women and matching three-piece suits for the men. The impact of industrialization on fashion was coming to the forefront.

The fabric corset was part of a woman's wardrobe during the 1700s, but it was rather practical. It provided back support and gave the breasts a cheeky lift. It didn't interfere with breathing or comfort of the fabric at that time.

The Industrial Revolution:

The impact of industrialization on fashion changed everything. It ushered in the factory production of textiles and clothing. Machines could produce knitted and woven cloth that was a finer gauge than most women could produce with home methods. The invention of the sewing machine enabled the rapid, high volume manufacturing of fabric clothing.

Improved transportation at that time meant that clothing could be shipped cheaply and easily. Moreover, improved communication allowed women and men to see what was fashionable in their own country and abroad. All of these factors made manufactured fabric clothing desirable and widely available at an attractive price.

A number of interesting developments occurred in the world of fashion in the late 1800s. Corsets took on their familiar tightly laced hourglass shape, and mass-produced versions began to arrive in the stores.

At the same time, though, women began to be sporty. Their newfound interest in sports did not mesh well with tight fabric undergarments. Clothing made with more flexible fabric was needed.

haute couture

The Arrival of Haute Couture:

Haute couture made the biggest splash in the fashion pool of the 1800s. Introduced by Charles F. Worth, haute couture was born in Paris. Worth was the first to show a collection on live models, allowing private clients to choose a style and have it custom made to suit their bodies and their tastes.

This sort of handmade, bespoke clothing with unique adornments, custom fabric, and impeccable quality is still the standard of luxury today.

Fashion Today:

As fashion has continued to evolve into the 21st century, discussions of quality and craftsmanship have come to the fore. This was at a time when most every woman owned a sewing machine and knew how to use it. They often created beautiful, one-of-a-kind, fabric garments that could last for decades. The pendulum has now swung to a time when women embrace manufacturing. This impact of industrialization on fashion has affected our society tremendously. The general population now prefers to buy inexpensive, disposable clothing that allows them to follow the latest trend.

Recently, we have also seen a return of a timeless style. Women are again beginning to value quality over quantity. Some search for vintage couture in resale shops, some are learning to sew, and some are seeking out skilled tailors and seamstresses for bespoke apparel.

A few pieces, such as an embellished evening wrap, a tailored wool jacket or a perfectly fitted corset, will always have a place in any woman's wardrobe. These classic garments are worth the investment in fine fabric and skilled construction that come with custom tailoring.

The sophisticated woman knows the secret pleasure of wearing beautiful clothing that was made just for her. Inexpensively manufactured clothing has its place. But the firm fabric, soft linings, finished seams and exquisite fit of bespoke garments have undeniable superiority.

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The Impact of Industrialization on Fashion - Sultry Lady Corsets

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What has been the impact of industrialization on fashion today? There is no historical record of the name of the first woman to drape herself alluringly in the skin of an ancient beast, but she seems to have started something. Humans have been adorning themselves with clothing, paint, jewelry, and fabric ever since.

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Introduction of photography

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Photography has come a long way in its relatively short history. In almost 200 years, the camera developed from a plain box that took blurry photos to the high-tech mini computers found in today's DSLRs and smartphones.

The story of photography is fascinating and it's possible to go into great detail. However, let's take a brief look at the highlights and major developments of this scientific art form.

The First Cameras

The basic concept of photography has been around since about the 5th century B.C.E. It wasn't until an Iraqi scientist developed something called the camera obscura in the 11th century that the art was born.

Even then, the camera did not actually record images, it simply projected them onto another surface. The images were also upside down, though they could be traced to create accurate drawings of real objects such as buildings.

The first camera obscura used a pinhole in a tent to project an image from outside the tent into the darkened area. It was not until the 17th century that the camera obscura became small enough to be portable. Basic lenses to focus the light were also introduced around this time.

The First Permanent Images

Photography, as we know it today, began in the late 1830s in France. Joseph Nicéphore Niépce used a portable camera obscura to expose a pewter plate coated with bitumen to light. This is the first recorded image that did not fade quickly.

Niépce's success led to a number of other experiments and photography progressed very rapidly. Daguerreotypes, emulsion plates, and wet plates were developed almost simultaneously in the mid- to late-1800s.

With each type of emulsion, photographers experimented with different chemicals and techniques. The following are the three that were instrumental in the development of modern photography.

Daguerreotype

Niépce's experiment led to a collaboration with Louis Daguerre. The result was the creation of the daguerreotype, a forerunner of modern film.

A copper plate was coated with silver and exposed to iodine vapor before it was exposed to light.

To create the image on the plate, the early daguerreotypes had to be exposed to light for up to 15 minutes.

The daguerreotype was very popular until it was replaced in the late 1850s by emulsion plates.

Emulsion Plates

Emulsion plates, or wet plates, were less expensive than daguerreotypes and required only two or three seconds of exposure time. This made them much more suited to portrait photographs, which was the most common use of photography at the time. Many photographs from the Civil War were produced on wet plates.

These wet plates used an emulsion process called the Collodion process, rather than a simple coating on the image plate. It was during this time that bellows were added to cameras to help with focusing.

Two common types of emulsion plates were the ambrotype and the tintype. Ambrotypes used a glass plate instead of the copper plate of the daguerreotypes. Tintypes used a tin plate. While these plates were much more sensitive to light, they had to be developed quickly. Photographers needed to have chemistry on hand and many traveled in wagons that doubled as a darkroom.

In the 1870s, photography took another huge leap forward. Richard Maddox improved on a previous invention to make dry gelatine plates that were nearly equal to wet plates in speed and quality.

These dry plates could be stored rather than made as needed. This allowed photographers much more freedom in taking photographs. The process also allowed for smaller cameras that could be hand-held. As exposure times decreased, the first camera with a mechanical shutter was developed.

Cameras for Everyone

Photography was only for professionals and the very rich until George Eastman started a company called Kodak in the 1880s.

Eastman created a flexible roll film that did not require constantly changing the solid plates. This allowed him to develop a self-contained box camera that held 100 film exposures. The camera had a small single lens with no focusing adjustment.

The consumer would take pictures and send the camera back to the factory for the film to be developed and prints made, much like modern disposable cameras. This was the first camera inexpensive enough for the average person to afford.

The film was still large in comparison to today's 35mm film. It was not until the late 1940s that 35mm film became cheap enough for the majority of consumers to use.

The Horrors of War

Around 1930, Henri-Cartier Bresson and other photographers began to use small 35mm cameras to capture images of life as it occurred rather than staged portraits. When World War II started in 1939, many photojournalists adopted this style.

The posed portraits of World War I soldiers gave way to graphic images of war and its aftermath. Images such as Joel Rosenthal's photograph, Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima brought the reality of war home and helped galvanize the American people like never before. This style of capturing decisive moments shaped the face of photography forever.

The Wonder of Instant Images

At the same time that 35mm cameras were becoming popular, Polaroid introduced the Model 95. Model 95 used a secret chemical process to develop film inside the camera in less than a minute.

This new camera was fairly expensive but the novelty of instant images caught the public's attention. By the mid-1960s, Polaroid had many models on the market and the price had dropped so that even more people could afford it.

In 2008, Polaroid stopped making their famous instant film and took their secrets with them. Many groups such as The Impossible Project and Lomography have tried to revive instant film with limited success. As of 2018, it remains difficult to replicate the quality that was found in a Polaroid.

Advanced Image Control

While the French introduced the permanent image, the Japanese brought easier image control to the photographer.

In the 1950s, Asahi (which later became Pentax) introduced the Asahiflex and Nikon introduced its Nikon F camera. These were both SLR-type cameras and the Nikon F allowed for interchangeable lenses and other accessories.

For the next 30 years, SLR-style cameras remained the camera of choice. Many improvements were introduced to both the cameras and the film itself.

Introducing Smart Cameras

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, compact cameras that were capable of making image control decisions on their own were introduced. These "point and shoot" cameras calculated shutter speed, aperture, and focus, leaving photographers free to concentrate on composition.

The automatic cameras became immensely popular with casual photographers. Professionals and serious amateurs continued to prefer to make their own adjustments and enjoyed the image control available with SLR cameras.

The Digital Age

In the 1980s and 1990s, numerous manufacturers worked on cameras that stored images electronically. The first of these were point-and-shoot cameras that used digital media instead of film.

By 1991, Kodak had produced the first digital camera that was advanced enough to be used successfully by professionals. Other manufacturers quickly followed and today Canon, Nikon, Pentax, and other manufacturers offer advanced digital SLR (DSLR) cameras.

Even the most basic point-and-shoot camera now takes higher quality images than Niépce's pewter plate, and smartphones can easily pull off a high-quality printed photograph.

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Explore the Major Advances in the History of Photography

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Photography has come a long way in its relatively short history. In almost 200 years, the camera developed from a plain box that took blurry photos to the high-tech mini computers found in today's DSLRs and smartphones. The story of photography is fascinating and it's possible to go into great detail.

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Introduction of fashion magazines

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The icon indicates free access to the linked research on JSTOR.

If you're an American woman, there's a good chance your vision of femininity-how women should dress, talk, and act-owes something to Cosmopolitan or Sassy or some other magazine targeting a female audience.

The women's magazine as we know it-a lavishly illustrated celebration of consumption and beauty aimed at a popular audience-emerged in England in the 1870s. In a 1994 paper for the Journal of Design History, Christopher Breward explains how this new format grew out of shifting views of a woman's role in society.

Breward writes that the nineteenth century brought a new populist model to women's publishing, which had been, since the 1700s, an elite, literary affair. Better printing equipment, a falling newspaper tax, and rising literacy rates brought magazines to more households. The first popular interest British fashion magazine started up in 1806, but the 1870s and 1880s brought a new variety to the genre-graphics-heavy, with a focus on women's position in the public world. In 1875, there were 20 such titles. By 1898, there were 30.

One magazine explained that its features on fashion and decorating had "the aim of being useful to others, who are prevented by duties or distance from visiting those houses where the best of everything is to be seen." Breward notes that another, unstated purpose of the features was promoting advertisers' products. Either way, he writes, the central idea was building a "feminized consumer culture."

Breward writes that women of this era were navigating contradictions inherent in the way people understood the separate spheres of men and women. Women were portrayed as "pure angelic" wives and mothers without concern for material things, but they were also expected to communicate their families' social positions through their clothing and appearance.

In the 1850s and 1860s, women's magazines moralized about the need for women to embrace the role of homemaker. But by the mid-1870s, many of them were running stories that glamorized showy clothes and illustrations of beautifully dressed women in public spaces. Common scenes included women boarding a train or talking in groups at a café.

As department stores transformed fashion consumption in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, the magazines increasingly showed images of women shopping. The illustrations often depicted an elegantly dressed woman choosing from a variety of hats or accessories.

Breward writes that the journals "not only encouraged the act of public buying, but engaged the reader in a form of private surrogate shopping. For the 3d. price of a journal, women bought the opportunity to peruse a fantasy world which released them from the immediate pressures of home."

The magazines pushed their own form of male dominance-the idea that women should dress to please men-as well as the emerging notion of consumerism as a route to happiness. But they also offered a vision of freedom and independence that is still part of the appeal of today's women's magazines.

Resources

JSTOR is a digital library for scholars, researchers, and students. JSTOR Daily readers can access the original research behind our articles for free on JSTOR.

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The Birth of Fashion Magazines - JSTOR Daily

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Fashion magazines, which first emerged in the 19th century, bridged notions of femininity with an increasingly consumerist society.

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The timeline of the wedding dress

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In the 1910s, many brides wore floor-length, floaty dresses in which they could move more easily. As Bridal Guide points out, dancing at weddings became custom during this era, with dances like the turkey trot coming into fashion.

Wedding dresses were typically simple in the 1930s, with figure-skimming silhouettes, high necklines, and long sleeves.

"Thinking of my mother's dress, and she got married in the '30s, she didn't have a ball gown," Urshel said. "It was kind of like a more slim, silk dress."

Brides who couldn't afford silk would wear rayon dresses to achieve a similar look, according to Refinery29.

Ball gowns with huge skirts dominated bridal fashion in the '50s.

Back then, "a bridal dress was a bridal dress‚ and it did not cross over the line," Urshel said. "It also meant that many girls, even if they normally wore simple sportswear clothes, when it came to bridal they became very fussy."

Urshel mentioned Jackie Kennedy's wedding dress - which she said Kennedy "hated" and was "made like a lampshade" - as an example of the kind of style that was trendy at the time.

"Right around the '90s, people start asking for sleeves," Urshel said. "They were getting really tired of strapless."

The 1990s also saw the introduction of a more modern, flirty silhouette from the American designer Lazaro. The tight-fitting dress "looked like kind of a tango dress," and featured an assymetrical ruffle.

"I don't think he even knew that he was onto a silhouette that now is just the main silhouette in the whole store," Urshel said of Lazaro.

Just as brides had pretty much forgotten about sleeves, "lo and behold there was the wedding of Kate Middleton, and she had long sleeves."

Urshel credits the return of sleeves in the 2010s to the Duchess of Cambridge's Sarah Burton dress. She said that Kleinfeld even made a replica version of the dress, and though customers initially showed little interest in it, the store redesigned it four years later, and it was a best-seller. "With bridal, it takes a while" for trends to take hold, she said.

Now, brides feel comfortable to wear a range of sleeves. "What's interesting right now is that there are short sleeves, there are long sleeves, and there are blouson sleeves," Urshel said.

Urshel noted that the gap between everyday fashion and bridal fashion has started closing in recent years, with wedding dress styles becoming much more varied. Brides have started caring more about how their dresses reflects their individual personalities, she said.

"There are so many choices right now," she said. "When I go through the alterations department, it's just so incredibly exciting to see every girl's dress is something totally, totally different."

Weddings Bridal fashion Fashion

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How wedding dresses have evolved over the last 100 years

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Insider previously spoke to Mara Urshel, the co-owner of Kleinfeld Bridal, to learn about the biggest trends in bridal fashion over the past century.

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What happened in the 1920s?

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The 1920s, the Roaring Twenties, in Britain

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The 1920s or the Roaring Twenties was the decade of boom and bust, of flappers and playboys, jazz and the Charleston, Bertie Wooster and the Great Gatsby, the General Strike and Wall Street Crash.

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The flapper dress

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The Great Gatsby New Year's Eve Party at The Square Club promises to be a riotous shindig. Perhaps its time to start preparing your outfit? To get you started, we've gathered a few ideas of what to wear and where to find it.

F. Scott Fitzgerald's character Jay Gatsby is an icon of his age, and his parties are legendary. The 1920s were a time of great social innovation. Flying in the face of the Prohibition Era ban on alcohol in the USA, in the decade between the two World Wars people were partying more than ever before! Women in particular were feeling free to explore.

For the first time, many girls were cutting their hair short, going to parties unaccompanied, wearing more practical clothing - like trousers - smoking and drinking, listening to jazz... things previously only seen as acceptable for men. And fashion followed these trends.

The 20s was the decade that Hollywood really started to bring movies to the masses. For the first time, being an entertainer became a desirable position in society - performers were making a lot of money, and girls were the stars of the show. The glamorous costumes of showgirls and Broadway stars got an airing on the silver screen. Girls dressing to impress would want to imitate them.

Outfits

Womenswear: Flappers

The go-to dress style of the 1920s is the 'Flapper.'

Originally an insult, 'flapper' became a badge of honour for young girls who just wanted to have fun. The Flapper dress is short and loose, short-sleeved or sleeveless, and never much longer than knee length - which was super short in those days. They can be adorned with lace, sequins, cutaways, patterns or tassels.

LittleBlackDress have a great selection of 'Gatsby Flappers' that are perfect for a classy 20s party, but also wouldn't look out-of-place in a modern setting. Style Inspiration: Daisy Buchanan (The Great Gatsby, Warner bros 2013)

Menswear: The Lounge Suit

Men in the 1920s wore suits for everything.

But the 20s saw the birth of menswear as we know it today, so the suits are familiar styles - especially the slimmer fitting suits that were popular in the post-war period and the first half of the 1920s. For a Black Tie event like the Great Gatsby New Year Party at the Square, there are two main options for men.

The Evening Dress

Not everyone was dressing like a Flapper. Certainly not the more distinguished ladies

Classic evening wear never goes out of style. For 20's fashions think loose, long sleeved long dresses and ball gowns, velvets and silks with dropped waistlines, sequins, appliqué and pleats. Colours were on the toned-down side of things, by modern standards.

Have a look at VintageDancer for a range of ideas on how not to be a Flapper.
Geezers: Gangsters & Gatsby
First, there's the gangster, or lounge suit. Whether you want to go American - like Al Capone, Bugsy Malone or Boardwalk Empire or British, like the Peaky Blinders - is up to you. Gatsby would have had all kinds of riff-raff at his Shindigs.
Women in Men's Clothing
Secondly, the classic tuxedo. It's a timeless look. Think James Bond - or Leonardo DiCaprio as the Great Gatsby. Nailing that 1920s look and feel is all about how you accessorise.

Many of the women's clothing styles of the 1920s are very casual, especially by historical standards. If you don't feel dressy enough in a flapper, why not turn your eye to the guys' styles?
Style inspiration: Marlene Dietrich
Who said Black Tie was just for boys? Fashionable gals would be seen in shirt and tie, sportswear, trouser suits, and gents' formal wear - like tuxedos. These were playful acts of rebellion, and would have caused a bit of a stir at a public event.
Heels
Shoes

The 20s saw a footwear revolution for the ladies. The new trend for shorter dresses meant that the whole world could see a gal's feet. So all kinds of style-over-comfort designs started appearing.
Brogues
"

Like we said: men in the 1920s wore suits for everything. This style of brogue were actually considered 'sports shoes,' but they go great with a gangster suit. Though of course, if you were wearing a tux you'd wear black.

Hats
Ladies: Turbans & Headwraps Gentlemen: The Flatcap/ Longshoreman Hat Gentlemen: The Panama or Fedora
To look the part at any civilised shindig, one simply must have a hat, old sport.

Accessories

Accessories can really make an outfit. Some of these will solidify a 1920s vibe. More or less, everyone in the 20s wore some kind of hat, all of the time. Though not indoors, please.

A tuxedo could be from any era - but a tux with a pocket-watch chain and a bowler hat, with a funny little moustache... you're starting to look 20s already! For parties, girls would balance out their their short hair and casually cut dresses with adornments - like headbands or hair nets with feathers and jewels.

Vintage in Bristol

Try Uncle Sam's Vintage, on Park Street, for C20th American shoes and clothing.

Hair for Men

British Barber Company - traditional barbers' in Clifton.

Hair for Women

Vintage Stylist Esme Walton at Betties & Baldwins

Our Great Gatbsy NYE party at The Square was one to remember, and our party this year is set to be EVEN better. Check it out

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The Great Gatsby New Year's Eve Party at The Square Club promises to be a riotous shindig. Perhaps its time to start preparing your outfit? To get you started, we've gathered a few ideas of what to wear and where to find it. F.

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The mini skirt

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From super-short python dresses that came down the runway at Gucci to the pastel quilted minis at Miui Miu, one thing's for sure: Fall fashion is all about thinking short-and we mean very short.

While today it's easy to take for granted that hemlines rise and fall based on the whims of designers rather than political statement, that wasn't always the case. In fact, the miniskirt had pretty controversial origins.

If anyone should be credited with pioneering the mini it would be British-designer Mary Quant, who told the New York Daily News this year: "A miniskirt was a way of rebelling." The Quant definition of a mini: The bottom edge of the skirt must hit roughly halfway up the thigh, and fall no more than four inches below the butt.

Here, a look back at how one of fall's biggest trends came to be in the first place.

5400-4700 B.C: Think miniskirts were born during Britain's Youthquake in the 1960s? Think again. Archaeologists have uncovered figurines in Europe dating from between 5400-4700 B.C. dressed in miniskirts. This isn't the only very early example of a miniskirt, either. Ancient Egyptian frescos depict female acrobats wearing miniskirts.

1926: Cut forward a few hundred years, and hemlines began rising in earnest during the 1920s with the advent of the flapper, but it was the entertainer Josephine Baker who made waves with a miniskirt made of bananas during performances of the "Folies Bergère" in Paris.

1950s: While the hot fashions following WWII were all about the full skirt that hit below the knee, the miniskirt began to make appearances in science fiction films like "Flight to Mars" and "Forbidden Planet."

1962: The earliest direct reference to the miniskirt came from Wyoming newspaper The Billings Gazette describing the miniskirt as a controversial item in production in Mexico City. In the piece, the miniskirt was described as stopping eight inches above the knee.

1964: If anyone should be credited with pioneering the miniskirt it is British designer Mary Quant. Quant opened what became the iconic boutique Bazaar in 1955 on King's Road in London's Chelsea neighborhood. Inspired by the fashions she saw on the streets, Quant raised the hemline of her skirts in 1964 to several inches above the knee, and the iconic miniskirt was born. She named the skirt after her favorite car, the Mini.

Quant wasn't the only pioneer of the miniskirt at the time. French designer André Courrèges began experimenting with hemlines as well in the early 1960s, and he began to show space-age dresses that hit above the knee in late 1964. Because both designers had something to do with the miniskirt, a debate has raged on for decades as to who actually invented it, though Quant famously said, "It wasn't me or Courrèges who invented the miniskirt anyway-it was the girls in the street who did it."

Regardless who who technically invented it, supermodel Twiggy became the unofficial poster child at the tim for the miniskirt look.

1965: The miniskirt continued to have a banner year in 1965. Model Jean Shrimpton caused a stir when she wore a miniskirt with no stockings, hat, or gloves to the Melbourne Cup Carnival in Australia. The mini also got a boost when Yves Saint Laurent debuted his famous and very short "Mondrian" dresses.

1966: Paco Rabanne launched plastic chain-mail miniskirt in 1966, followed by the throw-away minidress. The mini was officially a high fashion statement.

1967: Goldie Hawn's "Laugh In" debuted on TV, inspiring girls around the U.S. to don miniskirts and minidresses copying her signature mod style.

1968: Fully cementing the trend, Jackie Kennedy chose a short white pleated Valentino dress when she married Aristotle Onassis.

1969: With political tensions high because of the Vietnam War, the fashion pendulum swung, becoming increasingly nostalgic, and hemlines fell back down to the ankle in a style called the "maxi." Hemlines hadn't been so long since 1914.

1974: The 1970s weren't good to the miniskirt, but Debbie Harry, who began frontingBlondie in 1974, helped to revive the miniskirt, regularly wearing it on stage. The mini, favored by punk acts at the time, was reinvented in black leather and PVC.

1982: The rah-rah (or ra-ra) skirt began having a major moment in the 1980s, originating from cheerleading uniforms. The Oxford Dictionary noted this as the first successful miniskirt revival and the rah-rah skirt even appeared on the cover of Time magazine in 1982.

1984: Madonna wowed the crowd at the MTV Video Music Awards, rolling around the stage in a white tulle minidress resembling a wedding dress. Virginal it was not.

1990s: Julia Roberts set a fashion trend wearing a shorter than short skirt and thigh high boots in "Pretty Woman." Also, throughout the decade, miniskirts were incorporated into the wardrobes of working women thanks to the influence of TV shows like "Melrose Place" and "Ally McBeal."

2000s: Miniskirts got a boost in the aughts thanks to stars like Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, who wore theirs with midriff-baring tops.

2009: In recognition of Quant's impact pioneering the miniskirt, the Royal Mail in the UK released a stamp in homage to her signature design.

2014: Proof that it is only a matter of time before what is old is new again, runways were awash in mini-skirts, particularly minis inspired by swinging 1960s. Gucci, Raf Simons at Dior, and Hedi Slimane for Saint Laurent all had mini fever. "My haute couture was all legs, legs, legs," designer Giambattista Valli told the Wall Street Journal, describing his most recent haute couture collection.

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A History of the Miniskirt: How Fashion's Most Daring Hemline Came To Be

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From super-short python dresses that came down the runway at Gucci to the pastel quilted minis at Miui Miu, one thing's for sure: Fall fashion is all about thinking short-and we mean very short. While today it's easy to take for granted that hemlines rise and fall based on the whims of designers rather than political statement, that wasn't always the case.

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With a score of 63% I believe I still have a lot of interview techniques to learn in order to be chosen over other candidates in an application process. I have basic skills and knowledge but can improve greatly on these by further reading and requirements of candidates by brands advertising jobs.

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Fast fashion

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Clothes shopping used to be an occasional event-something that happened a few times a year when the seasons changed, or when we outgrew what we had. But about 20 years ago, something changed. Clothes became cheaper, trend cycles sped up, and shopping became a hobby. Enter fast fashion, and the global chains that now dominate our high streets and online shopping. But what is fast fashion? And how does it impact people, the planet, and animals?

It was all too good to be true. All these stores selling cool, trendy clothing you could buy with your loose change, wear a handful of times, and then throw away. Suddenly everyone could afford to dress like their favourite celebrity, or wear the latest trends fresh from the catwalk.

Then in 2013, the world had a reality check when the Rana Plaza clothing manufacturing complex in Bangladesh collapsed, killing over 1,000 workers. That's when consumers really started questioning fast fashion and wondering what was the true cost of those $5 t-shirts. If you're reading this article, you might already be aware of fast fashion's dark side, but it's worth exploring how the industry got to this point.

What is fast fashion?

Fast fashion can be defined as cheap, trendy clothing, that samples ideas from the catwalk or celebrity culture and turns them into garments in high street stores at breakneck speed to meet consumer demand. The idea is to get the newest styles on the market as fast as possible, so shoppers can snap them up while they are still at the height of their popularity, and then, sadly, discard them after a few wears. It plays into the idea that outfit repeating is a fashion faux pas, and that if you want to stay relevant, you have to sport the latest looks as they happen. It forms a key part of the toxic system of overproduction and consumption that has made fashion one of the largest polluters in the world. Before we can go about changing it, let's take a look at the history.

How did fast fashion happen?

To understand how fast fashion came to be, we need to rewind a tiny bit. Before the 1800s, fashion was slow. You had to source your own materials like wool or leather, prepare them, weave them, and then make the clothes.

The Industrial Revolution introduced new technology-like the sewing machine. Clothes became easier, quicker, and cheaper to make. Dressmaking shops emerged to cater for the middle classes.

A lot of these dressmaking shops used teams of garment workers or home workers. It was around this time that sweatshops emerged, along with some familiar safety issues. The first major garment factory disaster was when fire broke out in New York's Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in 1911. It claimed the lives of 146 garment workers, many of whom were young, female immigrants.

By the 1960s and 70s, young people were creating new trends and clothing became a form of personal expression, but there was still a distinction between high fashion and high street.

In the late 1990s and 2000s, low-cost fashion reached its zenith. Online shopping took off, and fast fashion retailers like H&M, Zara, and Topshop took over the high street. These brands took the looks and design elements from the top fashion houses and reproduced them quickly and cheaply. With everyone now able to shop for on-trend clothes whenever they wanted, it's easy to understand how the phenomenon caught on.

How to spot a fast fashion brand

There are some key factors that are common to fast fashion brands:

Thousands of styles, which touch on all the latest trends.

Extremely short turnaround time between when a trend or garment is seen on the catwalk, or in celebrity media, and when it hits the shelves.

Offshore manufacturing where labour is the cheapest, with the use of workers on low wages without adequate rights or safety, as well as complex supply chains with poor visibility beyond the first tier and of subcontracting.

Limited quantity of a particular garment-this is an idea pioneered by Zara. With new stock arriving in store every few days, shoppers know if they don't buy something they like they'll probably miss their chance.

Cheap, low quality materials, where clothes degrade after just a few wears and get thrown away.

Fast fashion's impact on the planet is huge. The pressure to reduce costs and speed up production time means that environmental corners are more likely to be cut. Fast fashion's negative impact includes its use of cheap, toxic textile dyes-making the fashion industry the second largest polluter of clean water globally after agriculture. That's why Greenpeace has been pressuring brands to remove dangerous chemicals from their supply chains through its detoxing fashion campaigns through the years.

Cheap textiles also increase fast fashion's impact. Polyester is one of the most popular fabrics. It is derived from fossil fuels, contributes to global warming, and can shed microfibres that add to the increasing levels of plastic in our oceans when it's put through the wash. But even "natural fabrics" can be a problem at the scale fast fashion demands. Conventional cotton requires enormous quantities of water and pesticides in developing countries. This results in risks of drought and creates huge amounts on stress on water basins, as well as competition for resources between companies and local communities.

The constant speed and demand means there is also increasing stress on other environmental concerns such as land clearing, biodiversity, and soil quality. The processing of leather also impacts on the environment, with 300kgs of chemicals being added for every 900kg of animal hides tanned.

The speed at which garments are produced also means that more and more clothes are disposed of by consumers, creating a huge amount of textile waste. In Australia alone, more than 500 million kilos of unwanted clothing ends up in landfill every year.

As well as the environmental cost of fast fashion, there's a human cost.

Fast fashion impacts garment workers who have been found to work in dangerous environments, for low wages, and without basic human rights. Further down the supply chain, there are the farmers who may work with toxic chemicals that can have devastating impacts on their physical and mental health, a plight highlighted by the documentary The True Cost.

Animals are also impacted by fast fashion, by the toxic dyes that are released in waterways and the microfibres that are often ingested by ocean life. When animal products such as leather and fur are used, animal welfare is put at risk. Numerous scandals reveal that real fur, including cat and dog fur, is often being passed off as faux fur to unknowing shoppers. The truth is that there is so much real fur being produced under terrible conditions in fur farms, that it's actually become cheaper to produce and buy than faux fur!

Finally, fast fashion can impact consumers themselves, encouraging the "throw-away" culture because of both the built-in obsolescence of the products, and the speed at which trends are produced. Fast fashion makes us believe we need to shop more and more to stay on top of trends, creating a constant sense of need and ultimate dissatisfaction. The trend has also been criticised on intellectual property grounds, with some designers alleging that their designs have been illegally mass-produced by retailers.

Who are the big players?

Many of the retailers that we know today as fast fashion big players, like Zaraor H&M, started as smaller shops in Europe around the 1950s. Technically H&M is the oldest of the fast fashion giants, having opened as Hennes in Sweden in 1947, expanding to London in 1976, and before long reaching the States in 2000.

They are then followed by Zara, which opened its first store in Northern Spain in 1975. It's when Zara landed in New York at the beginning of 1990s, that people first heard the term "fast fashion". It was coined by the New York Times to describe Zara's mission to only take 15 days for a garment to go from the design stage to being sold in stores.

Other big names in fast fashion today include UNIQLO, GAP,Primark, and TopShop, but while these brands were once seen as radically cheap disruptors, there now are even cheaper and faster alternatives, like Missguided, Forever 21, Zaful, Boohoo, and Fashion Nova. Thankfully, there are ethical alternatives worth your support.

Is fast fashion going green?

As an increasing number of consumers call out the true cost of the fashion industry, and especially fast fashion, we've seen a growing number of retailers introduce sustainable and ethical fashion initiatives such as in-store recycling schemes. These schemes allow customers to drop off unwanted items in "bins" in the brands' stores. But it's been highlighted that only 0.1% of all clothing collected by charities and take-back programs is recycled into new textile fibre.

The real issue with fast fashion is the speed at which it is produced, putting a huge pressure on people and the environment. Recycling and small eco or vegan clothing ranges (when they are not only for greenwashing) are not enough to counter the "throw-away culture", the waste, the strain on natural resources, and the myriad of other issues created by fast fashion. The whole system needs to be changed.

Is fast fashion in decline?

We are starting to see some changes in the fashion industry. The anniversary of the Rana Plaza collapse is now Fashion Revolution Week, where people all over the world ask "Who Made My Clothes?". Fashion Revolution declares that "we don't want our clothes to exploit people or destroy our planet".

Millennials, the drivers of the future economy, may have not be catching the fast fashion bug. Some have argued that this generation has "grown too clever for mindless consumerism, forcing producers to become more ethical, more inclusive, and more liberal".

There is also a growing interest towards moving to a more circular model of textile production, reusing materials wherever and whenever possible. In 2018 both Vogue Australia and Elle UK have dedicated entire issues of their magazines to sustainable fashion, a trend being taken up each year by more and more big names.

What can we do?

At Good On You, we love this quote by British designer Vivienne Westwood, "buy less, choose well, make it last." Buying Less is the first, so creating a capsule wardrobe is something well worth considering on your journey.

Choose Well is the second step, and choosing an eco-friendly fabric is complex as there are pros and cons to all fibre types, but we have countless material guides to help you, such as denim, linen, cotton and more.

Finally, we should Make it Last and wear our clothes until they are worn out!

Here are our favourite brands giving fast fashion the flick and embodying a slow, circular, sustainable way of wearing:

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Clothes shopping used to be an occasional event-something that happened a few times a year when the seasons changed, or when we outgrew what we had. But about 20 years ago, something changed. Clothes became cheaper, trend cycles sped up, and shopping became a hobby.

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Are low key weddings the way forward?

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The Rise Of The Low-Key Bride: Alternative Wedding Outfits, Charity Donations And Last-Minute Dresses

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What do weddings look like in the age of coronavirus? More brides are opting for low-key weddings and alternative wedding dresses. Read more on Grazia.

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Trend forecasting-WGSN

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Future inspiration

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5 Things To Know About Molly Goddard's Joyful SS21 Collection

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British Vogue takes a closer look at Molly Goddard's spring/summer 2021 collection, featuring her launch into bridal, building on knitwear but still plenty of frou-frou dresses.

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The future of weddings

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What will the brides be wearing in 2021? Wedding trends | Perfect Venue Manager

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Flyers can enhance or disguise certain parts of the body that we are insecure about, and they also give a lot of volume! If there's a trend we have to mention, it's going to be volume. Whilst we have seen it before, mainly on top of the base of the dress...

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The future and virtual weddings

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Over one third of couples with weddings scheduled through October 2020 are considering having virtual weddings, according to Zola, a wedding planning and registry company.

Since gatherings are restricted due to the pandemic, new virtual wedding services are helping couples broadcast their celebrations, and the industry is growing rapidly.

Many in the industry believe virtual weddings will remain even after the pandemic - one company, LoveStream, has received inquiries for October 2021.

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Rivka Holzer spent years running weddings with hundreds of guests as an events manager at a New York City catering company. That changed when the pandemic hit.

"We worked as far as we could into mid-April, and then our boss had a Zoom call with us and told us that we were furloughed," she said. "There were no hard feelings there, of course, because there were no weddings."

Seeing the rising popularity of livestreamed events, she began reaching out to videographers on Facebook to explore starting a virtual wedding-planning business instead.

"Pretty much everyone in the events industry either had to pivot or shut down," she said. "It was just starting to happen that people were livestreaming their weddings. It was not what it is right now back in March and April. It was really just on the cusp. And I thought, 'This is really going to be the new thing.'"

The wedding industry has adopted a digital model, and demand from couples is growing

Like many industries, the wedding industry has been forced to reshape and adapt during the pandemic. Members of the industry have relied more on technology to work remotely, leading to the launch of new services providing virtual experiences.

In a survey of 12,000 couples with weddings booked through October 2020, over one third (37%) are now considering virtual weddings, according to Zola, a wedding planning and registry company.

"That told us that virtual weddings are something that our couples want," Emily Forrest Skurnik, Zola's director of communications, told Insider. The company launched a Virtual Events feature in July - in its first week, over 1,500 virtual events were created.

Alicia Mae, CEO of ILE Events, said she's seen an even higher percentage of virtual weddings in her business.

"I would say out of the whole scheme of 100% of weddings, maybe 20% were virtual before," she said. "And now you see the spike, where it's more like 75, 80%. So it's very, very high in a short period of time."

Even when large gatherings are possible again, wedding planners foresee livestreaming will stay

"I think virtual will become a piece of every wedding in the future, even long past this pandemic," said Samie Roberts, co-founder of LoveStream, a wedding streaming service. "You always have a grandparent who isn't able to make it, or a pregnant friend, or any of those things. I think that now that there's a way to have a virtual piece of a wedding, it will become more of the norm."

Roberts and her husband and fellow co-founder, Ryan Roberts, know the situation all too well: Hurricane Irene kept a third of their guests from attending their wedding in 2011.

"We'd lost a third of my guests - my grandparents, aunts and uncles, things like that," Ryan Roberts said. "So when this [pandemic] hit, we knew, OK, people are still going to want to celebrate with their guests, even if they can't be there. So how do we think about it differently?"

The couple created Bustld, a digital wedding planning tool that uses an algorithm to match couples with vendors, and they launched LoveStream specifically for virtual weddings. The company offers three tiers of services, ranging from $350 to $1,350. Samie Roberts estimates they've run about 40 weddings since April, with more booked into next year.

"I think a lot of people, for the fall, were kind of expecting things to change, and not a lot of things have," she said. "So we're starting to see people adding that virtual portion on now for the fall, and even into 2021. We've talked to people for as far as October 2021."

Skurnik of Zola said wedding planners are making streaming options part of their recommendations now, and she doesn't think that's going to change.

"I do think that coronavirus is going to change the way that people get married for a while," she said. "As opposed to the 2019 trend that we saw, which was phone-free weddings, I think that we're definitely going to see phones at weddings in the future, and we're definitely going to see things like virtual weddings in the future. It's a 180 to that entire trend."

In response, businesses are developing new technology to make it easy - and fun - for couples to plan and celebrate their wedding day

LoveStream, for example, offers a customized website that can include a live chat, virtual guestbook, Spotify playlist, or specialty cocktail recipe. It also has a production team to control video feeds, switching between camera angles or featuring a remote guest's reading for a ceremony.

Another company, Wedfuly, makes events interactive: Coordinators cut between virtual and in-person guests giving speeches. They host group dances, spotlighting guests grooving in their living rooms the way a jumbotron highlights members of the crowd at a basketball game. They place guests into Zoom breakout rooms that function as reception tables.

"A lot of people came to us when the pandemic first hit and said, 'We're just going to do our ceremony,'" Wedfuly's founder and CEO, Caroline Creidenberg, told Insider. "And we would be like, 'No, but you can do all this other stuff and make it so fun.'"

Wedfuly's base rate of $1,200 covers a wedding coordinator who emcees the event. Add-ons include equipment rentals, photo slideshows, and, one-on-one meetings for "technically challenged user support."

Creidenberg, a software engineer, launched Wedfuly, a wedding-planning service, in 2017, but pivoted the business to host virtual weddings in April. They ran 300 events in their first three months, and have 300 more planned. Since April, Wedfuly's staff has swelled from two people to 16.

"We always tell our couples that just like any wedding, this is your day," Creidenberg said. "Add your personality, add your stories and games. Whatever you think accurately represents you as a couple, let's try to bring it into the virtual world."

As the events change, so does the role of the wedding planner

Alicia Mae, the CEO of ILE Events, has already added virtual wedding coordination to her roster to help oversee the more technical aspects of running a livestreamed event.

"How are you supposed to be getting married, making sure the stream is online, and making sure everybody's set up?" she said. "And then you have, you know, your aunt calling, [saying] 'I can't log in!' ... It's those little things that can frustrate a couple in that moment, if they don't have somebody who they can offhand that to."

As for Rivka Holzer, after she was furloughed, she teamed up with a videographer to start a high-end virtual wedding planning company, Stream My Dream, which Holzer describes as offering a virtual "red carpet experience" reminiscent of an E! broadcast from the Oscars.

"Like everything in the wedding industry, you can go super scaled back or super scaled up, and I wanted this to be the very scaled up version of live-streaming," Holzer said. "I wanted it to be very grand. There are a bunch of options for doing Zoom weddings DIY, but I wanted this to be the opposite of that."

Stream My Dream ran its first wedding in June and has booked more weddings into the fall. They're still scaling up, but like many in the field, Holzer predicts that virtual wedding services will soon become as mainstream as hiring a photographer.

Some industry professionals think the pandemic brought a much-needed 'shakeup'

Despite the upheaval over the past six months, the changes are not necessarily a bad thing, according to Creidenberg.

"I think it's the shakeup that the industry needed to realize that the royal wedding is not attainable for everyone, nor is it the dream of everyone," she said.

"Technology has democratized so many other aspects of our world," she continued. "Zoom is free, so you could literally have a wedding for free. It's so cool that it's totally shaking up this weird industry that was tied to money and social status."

Virtual weddings are a relatively new phenomenon, but they've changed the way people plan and attend weddings for good. Wedding streaming companies continue to add new features and tweak their offerings, each with their own distinct philosophy about what a virtual wedding looks like.

Is it an interactive Zoom dance party or a one-sided stream? What platform is best suited for technologically challenged guests and a seamless viewing experience? How can the scattered attendees of virtual weddings feel connected to the couple and each other? One thing is certain: As the wedding industry moves online, there will be more ways to say "I do" than ever.

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Virtual weddings are becoming the norm during the pandemic, and wedding planners think they're here to stay

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Over one third of couples with weddings scheduled through October 2020 are considering having virtual weddings, according to Zola, a wedding planning and registry company. Since gatherings are restricted due to the pandemic, new virtual wedding services are helping couples broadcast their celebrations, and the industry is growing rapidly.

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Is the future sustainable?

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As a longtime champion of environmental causes and sustainable fashion, Tonne Goodman-legendary stylist, former fashion director, current sustainability editor-has always been my North Star on what to buy, where to buy it, when to buy it, and how to wear it. It doesn't hurt that she is one of the chicest women I've ever met, and I idolize her personal style as much as I do her work for both Vogue and our planet. With Tonne's book, Point of View, coming out last year, we thought a joyful way to talk about the future of fashion would be to look back to some of Tonne's greatest shoots for Vogue and breathe new life into the looks by shopping them out from sustainable brands. This is a celebration of timelessness-good style is forever, as are great wardrobe basics-and we already know Tonne's edit will stand the test of time.

THEN:

"This shoot was all about the alter ego. The clothes all related to one another, two sides of the same coin fashion-wise," Tonne says looking over the main fashion story of Vogue's January 2012 issue. The picture we've landed on is of Amber Valletta and Shalom Harlow in their finest whites amid a field of flowers, which is giving me and Tonne serious wedding vibes. "Amber and Shalom hadn't worked together in awhile. We were in Long Island, you can see a greenhouse in the background, and we stumbled upon this amazing garden. They came together in this moment to become one of the most divine couples ever," Tonne states, delightedly.

NOW:

Summer is nearly over and while weddings have greatly changed in shape and form due to Covid-19, celebrating friends and family is still very much on the agenda and this image has us in the mood for love. Bridal looks, and weddings in general, don't often conjure up thoughts of sustainability. Wedding dresses are often viewed as something you wear once and stash away. But, in this new world of digital weddings, we think it's a great time to re-think attire as much as the event. With online platforms like Matches and Net-a-Porter launching bridal capsules from some of our favorite ready-to-wear designers, bridal is more accessible and modern than ever. This image, which might not have started as a wedding shoot, is the perfect example of finding a modern, white look you love whether it's a sharp suit, a romantic dress, or a Zoom-ready top. And if you aren't getting ready to tie the knot, these crisp, bright pieces are the perfect end-of-summer pick-me-ups for any - and many - big days ahead.

Diving into Matches' bridal capsule, we instantly fall for this modern, romantic sustainable wedding dress from Germanier - a leader in fashion's upcycling space. This upcycled satin and crystal-embellished gown with perfectly-placed soft ruffles, is ready for a party. Pair with these not-too-silver, not-too-gold classic flats, from Aera - a brand that not only strives to use the most eco-friendly friendly materials for their shoes but also scientifically measures each pair of shoes for their environmental impact, and then commits to offset said impact by 110 percent.

This forever-suit comes direct from Stella McCartney, a pioneer in both ethical and sustainable fashion. A part of Net-a-Porter's bridal capsule collection, wear it as a suit or separates to your wedding and then far, far beyond! It's a great alternative to a sustainable wedding dress without loosing the eco-friendly part.

Last but not least - the jewelry. Monica Viander's newly-launched collaboration, with Doina Coibanu, features 100 percent recycled materials and future heirlooms, like this modern intertwined eternity band. Equally timeless is Anna Sheffield's vintage-inspired, engagement-ready ring, which is made from recycled gold and conflict-free stones.

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These Sustainable Wedding Looks Are Love at First Sight

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As a longtime champion of environmental causes and sustainable fashion, Tonne Goodman-legendary stylist, former fashion director, current sustainability editor-has always been my North Star on what to buy, where to buy it, when to buy it, and how to wear it.

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Emerging technologies

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Virtually 'Try-On' 20 Wedding Dresses In Minutes

Magic Mirror is popular among the wedding boutiques, facilitates brides-to-be in searching for their 'dream gown' and alleviating some of the physical and mental stress faced during the gown hunting process. With over 20 unique gown designs that vary silhouettes, necklines, fabric and embellishments for virtual 'try-on', what would normally take days could potentially only take hours.

Virtually 'Try-On' 20 Wedding Dresses In Minutes

Magic Mirror is popular among the wedding boutiques, facilitates brides-to-be in searching for their 'dream gown' and alleviating some of the physical and mental stress faced during the gown hunting process. With over 20 unique gown designs that vary silhouettes, necklines, fabric and embellishments for virtual 'try-on', what would normally take days could potentially only take hours.

Magic Mirror for Wedding Boutiques

This slides pack highlights the key selling points of Magic Mirror to wedding boutiques and how can it improves the gown hunting experience, helping brides-to-be in finding the right dress to wear for their big day.

Intelligent 3D Body Scanning

Using Kinect to detect the features point of the body such as shoulders, chest, waist and legs, Magic Mirror is able to take the body measurements in a matter of seconds, ensuring each dress design to fit perfectly over the body.

3D Virtual Gown Fitting Experience

Combining with 3D body scanning technology, 3D product models are scaled to virtually fit onto shoppers' body within the live video feed. This allows shoppers to see the virtual fitting in 360° view, even the folds of the fabrics as they twist and turn, giving them a solid idea on what styles will potentially look the best on them, without the trouble of changing in and out of different gowns.

Blend into Wedding Boutique's Interior

Magic Mirror can be flush mounted into a wall or a cubicle that make it looks like a normal mirror in the wedding boutique, to better fit with the store's interior.

Blend into Wedding Boutique's Interior

Magic Mirror can be flush mounted into a wall or a cubicle that make it looks like a normal mirror in the wedding boutique, to better fit with the store's interior.

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3D Virtual Gown Fitting for Wedding Boutiques

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Magic Mirror is popular among the wedding boutiques, facilitates brides-to-be in searching for their 'dream gown' and alleviating some of the physical and mental stress faced during the gown hunting process. With over 20 unique gown designs that vary silhouettes, necklines, fabric and embellishments for virtual 'try-on', what would normally take days could potentially only take hours.

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Sales KPI Calculations worksheet - student NAME

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New Look introduction

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FY21 audited results for the 52 weeks ended 27 March 2021

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Introduction

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Our purpose is "to inspire that New Look feeling".

At New Look, we understand the transformative power of a really great outfit, and we take our feel-good mission seriously. We aspire to be the go-to destination for fashion that makes her feel like her very best self, whenever, wherever. We get her, we've got her back, and we know good style - it's as simple as that.

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Our purpose is "to inspire that New Look feeling". At New Look, we understand the transformative power of a really great outfit, and we take our feel-good mission seriously. We aspire to be the go-to destination for fashion that makes her feel like her very best self, whenever, wherever.

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PEST

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The UK unemployment rate has surged to its highest level in over three years as the pandemic continues to hit jobs.

The unemployment rate grew to 4.5% in the three months to August, compared with 4.1% in the previous quarter.

Meanwhile redundancies rose to their highest level since 2009, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

It comes as the government prepares to impose tough local lockdown rules that will force some businesses to close, potentially leading to more job losses.

Who has been affected?

According to the ONS, an estimated 1.5 million people were unemployed between June and August, while redundancies stood at 227,000.

Jonathan Athow, the ONS's deputy national statistician for economic statistics, said there had been a "sharp increase" in those out of work and job hunting since March.

"Overall employment is down about half a million since the pandemic began and there are particular groups who seem to be most affected, young people in particular," he told the BBC's Today programme.

"[Of those out of work] about 300,000 are aged 16-24, so about 60% of the fall in employment... that's really disproportionate."

Mr Athow said the large number of redundancies had been focused on sectors such as hospitality, travel and recruitment.

The number claiming work related benefits, meanwhile, hit 2.7 million in September - an increase of 1.5 million since the beginning of the crisis in March.

What do the unemployed say?

Sophia Royle was a project manager working for an e-learning firm. She was put on furlough in May, but then made redundant at the end of August.

"The jobs market is now flooded with people that have been made redundant and are looking for jobs," she says.

The problem is that because of the changing nature of the market, she is no longer just competing against people who live locally.

"A lot of these jobs are remote. They're online," she says. "That means you're competing with the whole of the UK."

Sophia and her partner are worried about paying the mortgage. She is also six months pregnant and only qualifies for statutory maternity leave, which she will start receiving in December.

"I've stopped looking for jobs, because how can I approach someone with that piece of news, that I'm not going to be around in six weeks' time?" she says.

Will things get worse?

Most expect unemployment to rise further after the government's furlough scheme is replaced with a less generous wage support package in November.

On top of this, from this week tougher local restrictions will force pubs, bars and other hospitality and leisure businesses in England to close in the most infectious areas, as has already happened in parts of Scotland.

Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey told the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee that the second wave of coronavirus cases hitting the UK economy is likely to increase the long-term damage to the economy as businesses go bust and consumer behaviour changes.

"It's very hard at the moment, I have to be honest with you, to put an estimate on how much scarring there will be," Bailey told the House of Lords' Economic Affairs Committee.

"As Covid returns, and if the prospect is that it will go on for longer... the prospect of scarring could increase."

The government has offered to pay two thirds of workers' wages if their employer is affected, but some say this falls short.

"The fallout from the Covid-19 recession is intensifying," said Paul Dales, chief UK economist at Capital Economics.

"What's more, the prospect of the latest Covid-19 restrictions leading to the economic recovery stalling, if not going into reverse, means worse lies ahead."

Analysis from Citibank suggests the unemployment rate could hit 8.5% in the first half of 2021 - a level not seen since the early 1990s.

Holly Tucker, founder of e-commerce firm Not On The High Street, says she's looking for one thing in potential recruits: "Creativity."

"I want to be wowed by the application, whatever the role," she says. "I want to see the care, attention to detail and creativity in their application that I will want to see from them in their job every day."

She suggests a handwritten letter or an imaginative design as a good starting place.

"Some of my favourite CVs have gone the extra mile and showcased their work within their application and not just told me about it. Are you a video editor? Then send me a video CV. Are you an animator? Animate it! Are you a copywriter? Be bold and rewrite some of the brand's copy and show them how it should be!"

What has the reaction been?

Trade union body the TUC says the UK is on the "precipice of an unemployment crisis" and called for more government support.

"Wage replacement should be 80% for businesses who have to shut," said general secretary Frances O'Grady.

"We need a more generous short-time working scheme for firms which aren't required to close but will be hit by stricter local restrictions. And self-employed people in local lockdown areas need help too."

Anneliese Dodds, Labour's shadow chancellor, said the government needed to fix the test and trace system and provide "fair funding" to local areas as soon as restrictions are applied.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak said he had been honest with people from the start that he would not be able to save every job during the pandemic.

"But these aren't just statistics, they are people's lives," he added.

"That's why trying to protect as many jobs as possible and helping those who lose their job back into employment, is my absolute priority."

He said for those who do lose their job, there would be new opportunities through apprenticeships, traineeships and the £2bn Kickstart scheme, as well as extra work search support.

The headline jobs numbers are beginning to catch up with grim jobs numbers elsewhere. Unemployment above 1.5 million and the rate at 4.5% represent considerable rises over the third quarter, and three year-highs, though still relatively low by international and historic standards.

The redundancy numbers were up in the quarter to August by a record, partly reflecting the start of the phased withdrawal of the furlough scheme.

There were some signs that the government's attempt to reopen and boost the economy had some impact. Payroll numbers stabilised, up a little, though still 629,000 down on March. Vacancies were up too during the month of "Eat Out to Help Out".

So these numbers reflect both the headline numbers catching up with the grim reality of the jobs market since the shutdown - but also a bump to certain parts of the economy in August. The numbers will continue to get tougher from here.

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Unemployment rate hits highest level in three years

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The UK unemployment rate has surged to its highest level in over three years as the pandemic continues to hit jobs. The unemployment rate grew to 4.5% in the three months to August, compared with 4.1% in the previous quarter. Meanwhile redundancies rose to their highest level since 2009, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

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Economical factors

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The number of people being made redundant in the UK has risen at the fastest rate since records began as the economic fallout from Covid-19 and the scaling back of the government's furlough scheme drives up unemployment.

The Office for National Statistics said the number of people being made redundant in the UK almost doubled in the three months to August, increasing by 114,000 to reach 227,000, as the shock from the Covid recession rippled through the jobs market.

The unemployment rate rose by more than expected to 4.5%, up from 4.1% in July, with the biggest increase in the jobless rate in more than a decade leaving 1.5 million out of work. Stoking concerns of a full-blown jobs crisis this winter after the furlough scheme ends, the figures showed the increase was driven by self-employed men losing their jobs and women working part-time falling out of the jobs market altogether.

Overall employment has fallen by 480,000 since the start of the year, with 16- to 24-year-olds accounting for 60% of the decline as the pandemic strikes a heavy blow for a generation of young people whose lives have been disrupted by the global health emergency.

Signalling that redundancies will peak at a higher level than in the 2008 financial crisis, as growing numbers of companies shed jobs in response to the economic shock, analysts warned unemployment would continue to climb during the second wave of Covid-19.

The news of the rise in unemployment came ahead of a virtual meeting of the International Monetary Fund at which the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, will call on fellow finance ministers to work together in he fight against the pandemic

Sunak will call for the burden on the world's poorest countries to be eased by an extension of the debt suspension agreed earlier this year.

"No economy has been spared the effects of this crisis - and every recession brings the risk of countries turning inwards. Let's work together to sow the seeds of recovery."

Nye Cominetti, a senior economist at the Resolution Foundation thinktank, said: "With economic support falling just as lockdown restrictions increase across the country, we should prepare for a major increase in unemployment over the coming months."

The figures come after the chancellor, Sunak, last week announced an expansion of the government's

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uk unemployment and employment statistics

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UK redundancies rise at record rate amid Covid fallout

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The number of people being made redundant in the UK has risen at the fastest rate since records began as the economic fallout from Covid-19 and the scaling back of the government's furlough scheme drives up unemployment.

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Social factors

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Barclaycard has shared new data that reveals consumer spending in September has risen since August, with clothing seeing a "significant" increase of 4.2 percent.

This growth could be due to consumers investing in their winter wardrobe and parents preparing their children for the return of school, the report suggests. August's clothing figure of 0.3 percent was the first increase since March.

The bank's report contains hundreds of millions of customer transactions, as it sees data from nearly half of the UK's debit and credit card transactions, and it has combined the data with additional consumer research.

The report also found spending on non-essential items has increased by 0.6 percent, the first rise since February. The high street's physical shopping spend was down 1.9 percent, an improvement since August which saw a decrease of 6.7 percent. The report indicated that Brits are potentially becoming more comfortable with visiting shops.

Barclaycard's data showed department store spending dropping by 0.2 percent and on a transaction basis, it was down 8.8 percent. However, other retailers showed a spend and transaction increase in their figures.

Sports and outdoor shops increased 30.2 percent by consumer spend and 14.5 percent by transaction. Pharmacy, health and beauty rose 9.4 percent by consumer spend and 0.2 percent by transaction.

Raheel Ahmed, head of consumer products at Barclays, said in a statement: "While the nation's confidence in the UK economy has improved slightly, many are still cautious about the upcoming winter months, and the subsequent uncertainty it may bring has caused some to start stockpiling once more."
Photo credit: Barclaycard

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UK clothing spend up 4.2 percent in September

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Barclaycard has shared new data that reveals consumer spending in September has risen since August, with clothing seeing a "significant" increase of 4.2 percent. This growth could be due to consumers investing in their winter wardrobe and parents preparing their children for the return of school, the report suggests.

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Technological factors

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In recent years, technology has been dabbling in the fashion world. With the shift from brick-and-mortar retail shopping, technology's impact has been difficult to ignore - especially with e-commerce in full force.

As in all sectors, tech is revolutionizing how businesses operate, with the use of data analytics, artificial intelligence, virtual technology and so on -leading to streamlined and efficient processes. In light of these technologies, the retail sector is growing as well as the need for retailers to adapt to the new landscape and embrace the turning point of the fashion world.

So, which technologies are making the biggest impact in the fashion industry?
Internet of things (IoT)
One of the biggest opportunities reaching the retail industry is the introduction of IoT. This technology mechanizes our world by letting us interact with everyday objects through the internet.

For fashion, this means a drastic change is emerging. A recent Retail Vision Study report stated that 70% of retail decision makers globally are ready to adopt the Internet of Things to improve customer experiences. Apparel items will have digital capabilities that open communication between retailer and customer - such as , yoga pants with built-in sensors that users into alignment by vibrating they move through the various yoga poses. This example and other IoT apparel, interact with the user to collect data that helps retailers understand needs and concerns, and implement it to create a more personalized experience.
Artificial intelligence (AI)
Big data is the buzzword sweeping most industries in the business world - and the fashion industry is no stranger to this. In fact, retailers have started jumping onto the digitalization bandwagon and are using these machines to their advantage.

As of now, social media is the ruler of the web - and is providing customers with the platform to mend and shape trends. But, what most customers don't realize, is that they are also providing brands with a goldmine of data that can be used to predict trends and significantly reduce the gap between what is being produced, and sold .

So, rather than manually gathering data, retailers are utilizing AI to collect, organize, analyze, and sort data into relevant categories, that can then be used to predict and understand what their customers are looking for - and deliver on it.

AI in action is demonstrated by Screenshop , an app created by Kim Kardashian that uses AI image recognition to make fashion easier. Users simply take a photo or screenshot anywhere of a look they like and open the app to find similar products at any price - so users can shop the whole look. This handheld fashion store helps users find shoppable prices to ultimately create a better wardrobe.
Mobile commerce
These days, internet access is so readily available wherever, whenever and it's all due to one thing - smartphones.

With social media apps, digital wallets, and communication apps, it's clear that mobile has not only impacted our everyday lives but now squeezing its way into the business world.

This era of connectivity has introduced a sleeker form of shopping through mobile commerce. Armed with our smartphones, now not only can we shop online but, have easy payment experiences with digital wallet options such as and Android Pay. In fact, BigCommerce found that two out of three millennials prefer to shop online rather than go to a physical store .

This newer method of shopping makes buying on the go easy and simple with just the click of a button. Take for example Instagram's shopping feature . Now customers can enjoy a seamless mobile-friendly shopping experience by clicking on the item they like and be redirected to the product page - effectively reducing search time. Businesses can provide their customers with a simple way to discover products and shop, all through their handy smartphones.
Virtual/augmented reality (VR)
Mobile and e-commerce technologies brought about the first wave of transformations for the fashion industry. Now, we can look ahead to the next possibilities for retail, more specifically virtual reality technology.

These days, on their mobiles customers can easily browse through the various items and with one click, purchase. However, there have been many occasions where brands have suffered the backlash from customers who received items that didn't match their online equivalents or simply didn't meet expectations.

But, new VR platforms are arising that are changing the game by merging the physical and online worlds of retail .. For example, try-on avatars are becoming a big hit in the fashion world. Apps such as DressingRoom are using augmented reality technology to enable shoppers to try outfits on an avatar - customized to the correct measurements - before purchasing an item. These platforms, change the online shopping experience for the better, as avatars and virtual platforms engage and retain the customers for longer. Now, customers can physically see the product on themselves or in the intended space before purchasing.

Over time, these platforms provide added value to the retailer, as brands can gain valuable insights through regular customer use, which can be leveraged to provide customers with a more personalized experience.
Final note
Overall, digitalization has completely evolved the fashion industry. With the introduction of new technologies such as AI, IoT, VR, and mobile customers can expect to receive a more personalized experience that caters to all their needs and concerns.

Digital transformation is resulting in changes previously unimagined, and we can only expect this change to rapidly advance. Therefore, it's time for retailers to embrace the new fashion landscape or get left behind.

Read next: Square now lets all US CashApp users buy and sell Bitcoin

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How technology is changing the fashion industry

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In recent years, technology has been dabbling in the fashion world. With the shift from brick-and-mortar retail shopping, technology's impact has been difficult to ignore - especially with e-commerce in full force. As in all sectors, tech is revolutionizing how businesses operate, with the use of data analytics, artificial intelligence, virtual technology and so ...

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SWOT

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Throughout the Mod movement the main influencers have been Music and Fashion (closely followed by smart haircuts) - when the two go together a culture is created. Each play an equally important role in what makes a Mod, a Mod. Initially it was Music that fashioned an entrance for the Mods, but as the movement grew and image became more important, especially for bands, it was the Mod look and the subculture itself that paved the way for bands, the prime example being The Jam.

Examples of Artists influenced by the Mod subculture are: The Action, The Who, The Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart, Small Faces, The Kinks, The Beatles, David Bowie, Marc Bolan, The Specials, The Jam/Paul Weller, Oasis, Blur, The Libertines, Amy Winehouse, Miles Kane, Jake Bugg.

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British Mod Culture and Fashion: Discover John Smedley

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Discover how British Mod Culture has been influencing fashion since it's inception, and how it still influences our designs today.

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The Mods and their counterparts were the first post-war generation to reach their teenage years without suffering the combined misery of national service or austerity and they were going to make the most of it.

These young people, some of whom were now earning more money than their parents, were going to break and smash the mould that society had in place for them. Mod life provided an opportunity to rebel against the older generation and lay down a newfound financial and creative independence based around music, fashion and amphetamines.

Although none of them realised it at the time, the young people of Leicester and Nottingham and their rebellion in lifestyle, music, fashion, politics and aspiration really did change not only their home town but, together with others of their generation, the wider world forever.

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Who were the Mods? | Shaping a Generation

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The Mods and their counterparts were the first post-war generation to reach their teenage years without suffering the combined misery of national service or austerity and they were going to make the most of it. These young people, some of whom were now earning more money than their parents, were going to break and smash the mould that society had in place for them.

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They may have taken place fifty-odd years ago, but the 1960s are still relevant today. In particular, the style and fashions of the time continue to influence the way that gents dress. From the sensational mod look to the unforgettable bohemian style, '60s fashion was bold and unique. Today, some of these key looks still hold a firm place in our sartorial hearts and pop up season after season on the runway and in stores. So, while no one's encouraging a full retro revival, embracing some quintessential '60s pieces into your wardrobe is a no-brainer. All you need to do is select the perfect style from the decade to suit your personality, and we can show you how to nail the look.

RELATED: How to Perfect the 1950s Style

'60s Fashion

Fashion in the 1960s was diverse and wide-ranging. Instead of just one key look, the '60s embraced several main styles that each celebrated a particular subculture. Mod, bohemian, biker, and beatnik styles were the dominant looks of the decade. As each was unique to the next, these main styles attracted different types of gents. As such, selecting a style often came down to a matter of personality and preference. Although each look was unique, they all embraced the feeling of freedom and creativity that encompassed the era. As art, culture, and music permeated the world of fashion, these individualistic and expressive styles were born.

'60s Mod Style

When we think back on the 1960s, the mod look inherently comes to mind. The style, which was undoubtedly one of the biggest fashion looks for the decade, was championed by the Beatles. As such, it was incredibly popular, and many fans of the band also embraced the style. Unlike many of the other famous fashion trends from the decade, the mod look was sharp and sophisticated. The style, which evolved from the iconic Teddy boy appearance of the '50s, embraced slim-fit designs with a narrow silhouette and clean lines. In particular, the mod look featured tailored suits but mixed things up with polo shirts and bright colours and patterns.

How to Wear the Mod Look

The mod look can work extremely well in 2017. Thanks to its focus on streamlined silhouettes, the style is similar to current looks and comes across as modern instead of outdated. To dress like a mod today, just remember to stick to the essentials. Start by investing in a slim-cut or skinny suit. Then, pair it with a polo shirt in summer or a roll-neck sweater in winter. For those extra cold days, you can also rock a mac raincoat over the top of your suit. Just remember to keep your silhouette clean and narrow, including at your feet. Try avoiding bulky shoes and opting for a slim, leather Chelsea boot instead.

SHOP THE LOOK

'60s Bohemian Style

Before there were the '70s hippies, there were the '60s bohemians. Cool, carefree, and nonconforming, the bohemians of the 1960s expressed their values and personalities through creative means, including fashion. Made famous by music icons, such as Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison, the bohemian look was eclectic and expressive. The bold style prominently featured items such as bell-bottom pants, suede jackets, and patterned shirts. As well as creating a unique, new look for men, the bohemian movement also proved that typically feminine designs could easily be worn by gents, so long as they had the confidence and conviction to pull them off.

How to Wear the Bohemian Look

While bohemian style still exists today, it has evolved significantly since the sixties. Today, rocking the look requires much more restraint. While you still want to project the relaxed, nonchalant vibe for which the bohemian style is known, you want to do it in a more modern way. Try opting for an outfit that is more subdued than the traditional boho looks. A shirt featuring a floral, paisley or animal print will work well as a feature piece. As for pants, it's best to leave the bell-bottoms behind. Instead, choose ripped jeans to complete your outfit with a fresh attitude.

SHOP THE LOOK

'60s Biker Style

The biker look was one of the biggest fashion styles of the 1960s and is still going strong today. The look was significantly different to that of the mod and bohemian trends, both of which it rivalled for popularity. Influenced by the rock and roll culture of the '50s, the biker style was edgy and full of attitude. While the look expressed the rebellious personalities of an entire subculture, it didn't offer much variety. Acting almost like a uniform, the aesthetic of the biker style featured black jeans, heavy-duty boots, a T-shirt or polo, and a leather jacket.

How to Wear the Biker Look

Thanks to its simplicity and edgy attitude, the biker look is still a popular choice for gents today. As such, pulling off the look in 2017 is incredibly easy. All you need to do is invest in a few essential items and keep things minimal. Most importantly, you'll need a black leather biker jacket. If you don't already own one, don't be afraid to splurge on a genuine leather style. Doing so will ensure that your jacket looks right and lasts forever. Then, pair your leather jacket with a white, crew-neck T-shirt, black boots, and a pair of jeans. Choose between either a straight-leg style for a classic look or a skinny design for a more modern touch.

SHOP THE LOOK

'60s Beatnik Style

While it may not have been as prominent as the mod, bohemian, and biker fashions of the decade, the beatnik style was an essential sixties look. Often worn by unique and creative-minded individuals, the style was propelled to its peak by iconic musicians, writers, intellects, and artists, such as Andy Warhol. The simplistic style had a penchant for black and white and a love for stripes. Like the biker looks of the decade, this fashion trend also featured specific items that soon became the unofficial uniform of the subculture.

How to Wear the Beatnik Look

Rocking the beatnik look in 2017 is rather straightforward. All you need to do is update the usual uniform to appear more modern and relevant. To do so, start by selecting a striped T-shirt. Choose between either a long-sleeved style, which will create a traditional appearance and a short-sleeved design, which will come across as more contemporary. Then, pair your tee with wide or straight leg black trousers and your favourite black shades. To cap things off, opt for either boots or brogues on your feet. Also, if you're feeling confident, you can rock a beret for a serious touch of the sixties.

SHOP THE LOOK

'60s Hairstyles

As the fashion of the decade, the hairstyles were also diverse with plenty of options. Some of the most prominent looks were mod hairstyles, such as the overgrown look rocked by the Beatles. Many mods also opted for choppy, layered cuts with messy bangs and long sides. Other popular looks included side-parted styles, such as the comb-over and the reworked pompadour hairstyle. Of course, while many gents rocked these styles, bohemian men often preferred to grow their locks long and leave them wild.

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60s Fashion | How to Perfect the Sixties Style - The Trend Spotter

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They may have taken place fifty-odd years ago, but the 1960s are still relevant today. In particular, the style and fashions of the time continue to influence the way that gents dress. From the sensational mod look to the unforgettable bohemian style, '60s fashion was bold and unique.

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So, what Mod basically is?

To describe in short - Mod (came from the word modernists), is a subculture that began in the UK in the 1960s and spread around the world. To be more specific, it actually was introduced around the 1950s, but '60s is the time when it began to gain popularity.

Focused on music and fashion, a small group of London-based stylish young men in the late 1950s was termed modernists because they liked to listen to modern jazz, and that's where this subculture has its roots in.

These teens basically wanted a new style and or image and they wanted to break the formal tradition of being worn by their parents. To say in other words, the group of teens (mods) rejected the "faulty pap" of 1950s pop music and sappy love songs.

Rather they aimed at being "cool, sharp, neat, hip, and smart" by embracing "all things sexy and streamlined", especially when they were new, exciting, controversial or modern.

Those group of young men carried it forward and many followed them - creating this subculture. However, the subculture later expanded to include women.

So, what makes this "Mod" or "Modernists" subculture different from other ones? What the other subcultures was even at that time?

The difference in the taste of Music and Fashion differentiates Mods and Other subcultures like the rockers from each other. Clubs, dancing, amphetamines, and scooters were other significant differentiators of this subculture.

For example, Mods would listen to modern Jazz, Soul, and R&B; they used to ride Vespa and Lambretta or other types of Motor Scooters, and their style was Tailored and upper-end boutique designer fashions.

On the other hand, The rockers listened to rock and roll music; rode motorcycles; and their fashion style included leather jackets jeans.

That is how these 2 groups differentiate from each other.

Now that you know what Mod culture is, the next thing you want to know is -

What Mod Fashion is? How did it look like?

In simple words, the Fashion that the Mods used to follow is known as Mod fashion. Now, this fashion has some own significance of it that made it so popular that people still adore it and wants to try it.

1960s Fashion - Mod fashion was creative, innovative, bold and brash. 1960's fashion basically belonged to London, UK. The British set the tone and the world used to follow.

The 1960s ushered in an attitude of "anything goes" and reflected the shifting politics of the day. "Do your own thing" applied to clothes as well.

Mod fashion is one of the most distinguishable of vintage styles thanks to its jaw-dropping hemlines, colorful prints, and innovative designs that until the 1960s, had never been considered fashionable before.

The '60s mod girl was considered a courageous one because she wasn't afraid to explore the "bold" side of dressing.

Men used to look sharp with cutting-edge suits

Mod Fashion Trends - What Made The Mod Fashion? (Women)

So, how do you call a fashion "Mod"? What was the significance of Mod fashion? Let's explore them from the bold women's perspective -

#1. OP Art Prints

"Op art" refers to "optical art", as the geometric and finely calculated lines of its designs tend to create optical illusions for the human eye.

This term was actually introduced by TimeMagazine when writing about the new '60s art craze.

Mods were obsessed with black and white lined fashion as that can be traced to a 1965 exhibit called "The Responsive Eye." Artists like Bridget Riley were pioneers of the movement and featured at the exhibit.

#2. Mondrian Dress

The Inventor of the Mondrian dress is Yves Saint Laurent, but it was French VogueMagazine's featured cover for their November 1965's copy. This incident, later on, inspired every mass market retailer to create their own (and cheaper) version.

"Mondrian" is a style of art consisting of parallel or perpendicular to one another rectangles of various sizes and a different color from the other.

The authentic YSL Mondrian dress looks like the one shown above. However, there's a slight difference which is the placement of blue and yellow colors are reversed.

This is how brands could take the original idea of the designer and produce similar products without copyright infringement.

#3. Mini Skirts

One of the most famous, if not "the" most mod designer, Mary Quant introduced her version of the above-the-knee skirt to the hip and young things of London's trendy set. Once these mod guys and gals adopted the styles, the fashion collective followed.

The mini-skirts were actually mini considering their length, and moreover, there was an even an extraordinarily short style which was called the "micro" mini!

#4: SPACE AGE FASHIONS

In 1961, Russian Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space who was later followed by American Alan Shepard that same year.

Considering this remarkable incident, designers like Pierre Cardin, Andre Courreges and Paco Rabanne began to look for fashion inspiration beyond the earth's horizons.

Andre Courreges even had a collection named "Moon Girl" in 1964 that consisted of fairly simple white mini dresses, helmet hats along with shiny plastic white go-go boots.

Courreges' believed that the future of fashion would be ready-to-wear garments and a simple one of clean lines as if the wearer needed a uniform for steering her space capsule through the air, and that's where the collection was born from.

Chain metal tops, Plastic dresses, and clear vinyl raincoats are some of the more memorable mod trends from Space Age fashion, which was also called the "Cosmic Era" by Courreges for its ethos of untapped and unlimited futuristic potential for mankind.

If you want to have a look yourself, This 1960s video showing models wearing Space Age designs is a recommended one for you, You'll love the abundance of bizarre headgear, shiny plastics, and sunglasses that look like protective eyewear.

#5. Peter Pan Collar

You' might be surprised to know that Dressing like a child became a trend of mod fashion, but it has its own reason. The true mod was basically a young and restless guy or girl who's anxious for change.

The youth had enough time to adopt the fast-moving trends and therefore they became representative of this fashion culture as a whole.

The Peter Pan collar was a very old-age fashion that was applied to children's clothing as early as the 1830s but was most prominent in the '20s for little girls' dresses. Later on, the collar was also worn on wedding dresses (yep, really) from the '20s into the '40s. It's thought that this was done to signify the bride's virginal, childish innocence (or at least fake it, lol!).

Now, this collar design evokes a sense of nymph, as if its wearer is a little girl who's dressing like a woman. The mods were so embraced by the youth, the Peter Pan collar became the go-to for their era's marvelously mini dresses.

The Modern Mod Suits that Makes the Man

The mods had their own way of crafting suits that set them apart from the average men. There was some significance in their suits that clearly shouted their name. If a Modern day mod would like to craft a suit based on that inspiration, what it might look like?

Come to the choice if fabric first. Pick something like this less conventional wool and cashmere blue check pattern with accents. This is bold enough to be different but at the same time subtle enough not to stick out like a sore thumb.

Let's go with a 3-button short jacket with two 8 1/2 inch side vents.

We should go with the patch pocket and buttoned flaps that are less common, instead of going with the predictable slanted pockets with matching ticket pocket and flaps.

The point on the flap is your another way to kick it up a notch. As mods always looked for subtle ways to signify their boldness, let's take the chance to go with contrasting burgundy covered buttons with the intention to potentially exchanging them for some vintage dark leather buttons.

The short sleeve design of the suit gives you the chance to showcase a nice pair of vintage cufflinks. If you're already bored of the usual 5 button cuff, 2 is the magic number for you this time. Make sure that you distance them to give it a unique look. (We're talking about mods, right?)

Talking about the trousers, they're inspired from the 1967 Canadian mail-order catalog.

Here're the highlights of this fashion.

The place of the classic frogmouth pocket has been taken by the front "military" pockets that are fastened by 2 buttons each.

Like many pants of that style, there will be no pockets at all in the back. Consider going with wide belt loops that have the capability to accommodate a large belt with an oversized belt buckle.

The pant leg for this suit design is tapered with a 7″ opening. There could be a small notch at the bottom with a decorative button. Wear it with a pair of Loake Chelsea boots, you can't go wrong.

Again, Mods were all about attention to detail to look for subtle ways to express their uniqueness and boldness. That's what you must be consistent with if you want to dress like a mod.
Olivia Palermo:

Celebrities that Still Adore Mod Looks
Blake Lively:

Jackie O, Jane Birkin, Audrey Hepburn, Mia Farrow, Diana Ross ... the list of '60s style icons goes on. So it is not surprising at all that the decade's mod style has returned in full force.
Kirsten Dunst:

Some of the famous celebrities have been spotted in '60s revival looks lately, but here are nine fashionable ladies that exemplify how to keep the trend modern as opposed to costumey.
Jaime Chung:

Olivia's wearing: Desigual dress; Aquazzura sandals
Emma Stone:

Lively's wearing: Michael Kors dress; Casadei shoes
Grace Moretz:

Dunst's wearing: Miu Miu dress
Hailee Steinfeld:

Chung's wearing: Valentino dress
Dakota Fanning:

On Emma: Valentino Dress
Poppy Delevingne:

On Moretz: Miu Miu dress and shoes

On Steinfeld: Valentino dress

On Fanning: Miu Miu top and skirt; Christian Louboutin pumps

On Poppy: Jimmy Choo handbag

Some of the Famous Mod Designers:

Mary Quant

If you tell me to take one name as the innovator of the 1960's fashion, I would take the name of Mary Quant.

Back in 1955 in Chelsea, Mary Quant had opened a boutique named Bazaar. This was the beginning of what we call the "London Look."

Her colored tights and miniskirts challenged and influenced the fashion world to move in a whole new direction. She liked the simple A-Line style for the design of dress but in a shorter length and bold colors as well.

She entered into an agreement with J.C. Penney Later in the 1960s, with the intention to do four collections a year, she made mod fashions available and affordable to the masses in the U.S. Mary Quant also gets the credit for hot pants and the "Lolita" or baby doll look.

In the picture below, you can see hairstylist Vidal Sassoon is doing Mary Quant's hair, who originated her hairdo. The cut is known as the bob - it was a short, angular hairstyle cut on a horizontal plane.

Rudi Gernreich

The next name I would take is Rudi Gernreich from Austria who first came into public view in 1964 with a daring topless swimsuit called the monokini, which I'm not picturing here for obvious reasons (hint - google it, if you're eager to see)

The dress shown above displays the 1960s fascination with vinyl and cutouts, which Gernreich gets the credit for creating. Rudi Gernreich is also the first creator of the braless bikini top (not the topless one I mentioned above), the first space-age type designs and first thong bikini.

He had the passion show off a woman's form and thus he tried to design such clothes that followed that natural form of a woman's body. Rudi was also one of the only American based designers.

The model you can see in this photo is Peggy Moffit who worked exclusively for Gernreich in the 60s and 70s.

Pierre Cardin

Another designer who was known for "space age" styling along with Gernreich, is Pierre Cardin. He was born in Italy but later relocated to Paris. Pierre was also famous for asymmetrical styles, hoop dresses and collarless jackets for men.

In Haute Couture world, many believed that Cardin was sold out as he turned his attention and focus towards the average buyer with a ready-to-wear line, and later on the branding of household items through licensing agreements.

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Pierre was, in fact, a pioneer whose merchandising genius, later on, was imitated by the ones that criticized initially.

Paco Rabanne

There's no way that you can tell the story of 1960s mod fashion without mentioning the name - Paco Rabanne. He was very much like the "bad boy" of the French designers.

He was originally from Spain who got his start designing jewelry but then opened his own Design & Fashion House soon. He liked to use unconventional material such as paper, metal, and plastic for his Metal Couture and outlandish and flamboyant designs.

Starting from 1966, Rabanne's design could be seen in movies and theatrical productions throughout that decade.

Anything More You want to Know?

In this piece, we covered the basics and details of Mod fashion - what this is, How it looked like, The significances, celebrities that follow this trend, the remarkable designers and so.

If you think you still have questions, the comment box is open for ya.

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So, what Mod basically is? To describe in short - Mod (came from the word modernists), is a subculture that began in the UK in the 1960s and spread around the world. To be more specific, it actually was introduced around the 1950s, but '60s is the time when it began to gain popularity.

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From the new luxe leather to the ultimate billowy blouse, GRACE COOK breaks down next season's most directional looks and how to make them work for you now

From Crayola-colored dresses to '70s-inspired denims and decadent leathers, the spring/summer 2021 collections brought us an array of covetable trends to excite and inspire. In a season like no other, when runways were live-streamed without audiences or else not staged at all, there was a tangible sense of reaffirming the joy of fashion - celebrating the art of dressing up for those rare occasions when we do go out and the idea of dressing your best to feel your best. Comfort, too, was key, with slippers and knits taking center stage for new-season wardrobes, ideal for this increased time spent indoors. Stay ahead of the game with our cheat sheet to the ultimate trends to wear next season and beyond.

The humble slip-on, which has been the subject of surging demand this season for its indoor-outdoor wearability, remains a sure-footed favorite for SS21. This hybrid shoe is made fresh with playful silhouettes: Proenza Schouler showed squashy mules that were reminiscent of clouds - a symbol of comfort if ever there were one - while JW Anderson updates the classic penny loafer with a gargantuan buckle that turns this simple mule into a swashbuckling silhouette that's as ideal teamed with a sock and slacks as worn with midi-length dresses.

The models featured in this story are not associated with NET-A-PORTER and do not endorse it or the products shown

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SS21's best trends and how to wear them now

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SS21 Fashion Trends To Know: These are the top SS21 women's fashion trends you need to get on your radar for the SS21 fashion season. Discover how to style up SS21's fashion trends to help you start the new season - and spring/summer 2021's fashion trends - in style...

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Fashion
In truth, trend cycles are slowing down - what was big last year is still more or less dominating the runway a few seasons later. This is true of Copenhagen's signature look - a feminine dress in a bright color with a snappy hair clip and sneakers - which shows no sign of stopping. But also of refined basics, classic silhouettes, and timeless tailoring, of which we saw plenty. Collections featured plenty of hardworking items, often made from sustainable fabrics, that won't go "out" of style in a mere six months. This is great news of course, as rampant consumption and a constant redefining of what's "in" is awful for the planet and bank accounts alike.

With this in mind, the trends that we did see aren't impossible to adopt without rebuying an entirely new wardrobe: they're trends that help us to see old pieces with fresh eyes, encourage us to go back into our wardrobe and discover forgotten gems, and help us to refresh a capsule wardrobe with a singular key piece.

Tailoring

Say what you want about the lockdown leisurewear boom, but tailoring isn't going anywhere. Blazers, waistcoats, tailored trousers, and two-piece suits acted as a red thread throughout the week, as almost every show featured them in some iteration. Some of the best included Mark Kenly Domino Tan's waistcoat with chiffon dress, Brøgger's ruffled ballgown peeping out from under an 80s power jacket, and Rain 's waterproof two-piece.

Leather

For summer. No, really. This was a trend that was present on the streets and the runways, as more than one guest opted for a midi leather skirt with a colorful t-shirt. On the runway, Remain Birger Christensen used leather for shirts, shorts, trousers, and jackets in deep burgundy, burnt orange, and a two-tone black and white; Lovechild 1979 stuck to gunpowder gray for its vintage-style dress; Gestuz crafted a longline jacket with contrasting leather panels and matching skirt; Soulland cut a double-breasted jacket and wide-leg trousers from snakeskin - even in leather, the suit isn't budging.

Feminine maximalism

It's a style of dressing that's most effectively executed in Copenhagen, a city famed for floaty dresses with inexplicable volume - just think Cecilie Bahnsen - and this season continued in that vein. Even at their softest and most minimal, the oversized, voluminous silhouettes of SS21 have been born from the "more is more" school of thought. At Brøgger, tiered skirts and ruffled sleeves adorned baby doll dresses; Soeren le Schmidt opted for a structured mullet skirts with exaggerated trains; Stine Goya has its usual draped dresses cut from recycled-polyester jacquard; Custommade stuck to Victoriana ruffles and protruding shoulders for its Heathers-appropriate collection. Basically, bodycon isn't coming back anytime soon.

Statement collars

In this post-coronavirus world where calls no longer suffice and everyone is expected to exist on Zoom 24/7, it should come as no surprise that the collar is getting super-sized - it's the only part of your outfit visible onscreen. From GANNI's oversized pilgrim collar, seen in their film "202020 Dance Film - Threshold", to Soeren le Schmidt 's 70s inspired lapels, it seems that bigger is better when it comes to your neckline.

Purple and green reign supreme

Although some brands opted for an absence of color, with Skall Studio and Mark Kenley Domino Tan show almost all-white collections, SS21 was mostly full of the neon pastel colors Copenhagen has come to be known for. Pinks, oranges, yellows, and blues all made an appeared, but there were two colors in particular that stood out this season.

But purple and green were the MVP - so much so that Stine Goya even repainted their studio to reflect their significance.

At Rixo, lime green with faint touches of lilac was used for a vintage-inspire floral print; Henrik Vibskov used a textured mint green with a graphic pastel purple print; Lovechild 1979 favored a pastel with violet undertones for its show-stopping coat, worn by the delightful Anna Von Rueden; Brøgger had a sheer, acerbic take for its floaty summer dresses; as ever, Stine Goya drew with every color in the crayon box in reiterating their commitment to a more inclusive and representational narrative, but used mints, lavenders, and acid brights heavily to capture its Fauvist movement-inspired collection.

- RIXO -

See our Trendy Trend reports from previous seasons here.

Header image: Stine Goya SS21.

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Trendy Trend Report: Copenhagen Fashion Week SS21

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Fashion In truth, trend cycles are slowing down - what was big last year is still more or less dominating the runway a few seasons later. This is true of Copenhagen's signature look - a feminine dress in a bright color with a snappy hair clip and sneakers - which shows no sign of stopping.

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We know, it might feel like a bit of a weird time to be looking ahead to next year's spring/summer fashion trends when 2020 is still proving to be one of the biggest roller-coasters of our lifetime (as we write this the restrictions and measures surrounding Covid have tightened up again for six months). However, if fashion month so far has taught us anything, it's that we should keep looking ahead with an open mind.

We had no idea what to expect from London Fashion Week this season and yet it seems nothing has got in the way of creativity. If anything, the shows so far have proved that designers have embraced the turbulent times, head on, creating smaller collections during lockdown with a greater emphasis on wearability and longevity. Finally, a fashion week where designers are less focused on creating one season wonders that ruin the planet and more towards evergreen trends that we'll keep coming back to.

With a predominantly digital showing, some brands like Burberry went for a merge between a real show and an online one, live-streamed from the British countryside without any physical attendees but with a pre-show chat hosted by musician and actor Erykah Badu, all hosted on video site Twitch. Victoria Beckham cancelled her planned 'salon-style' catwalk show and instead showed her collection to groups of just three visitors at a time, where guests were handed a Monogrammed silk "VB" face mask. Meanwhile, Bora Aksu was one of the very few designers to show to a real life audience, with models donning organza face masks and guests perched on their own park bench in a Covent Garden church garden.

These are the only 8 colour trends you need to know about for autumn, according to our Fashion Editor

Much like the steer towards making the shows more practical, the collections themselves had the same appeal. Many of spring summer 2021's trends aren't anything new instead they're recycled - trends we've seen before that are largely easy-wearing and versatile. Pieces you can easily slip into for a night out or night in.

After a year of many formal occasions being cancelled or postponed, many of us have missed the thrill of wearing something extra special. Thankfully, London Fashion Week has shown us we have heaps to look forward to next year with some designers still heralding the age of dressing up. Grown-up chic, timeless pieces worth investing in that you'll love year after year. A far cry from throwaway fashion as they'll ever be.

Here are a few of the trends we spotted during London Fashion Week that we'll all be wearing as soon as spring 2021 hits (and hopefully long after...)

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5 trends from London Fashion Week that we'll all be wearing next spring and beyond

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We know, it might feel like a bit of a weird time to be looking ahead to next year's spring/summer fashion trends when 2020 is still proving to be one of the biggest roller-coasters of our lifetime (as we write this the restrictions and measures surrounding Covid have tightened up again for six months).

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Since this is a blog for the modern day Mod, I think it's only proper we start with a modern day Mod icon. Ok so maybe Wiggins isn't an icon yet, but he will be. I just didn't wanna start this banging on about Weller or Daltrey becuase we all know they're brilliant, but this the new generation.
So Wiggo rose to fame after he won the Tour de France and Olympic gold this year, but what I'm interested in is the mans style. I mean, look at him.

Wiggins at the GQ awards.

That's just pure class. If more sports stars dressed like him, I think I'd like them a bit more (I'm talking to you footballers). I love how he's gone for the double breasted plaid suit, which is just so eye catching from your normal black tie ensemble. Looking stylish and standing out is what being a Mod is all about.

Another thing I love about Wiggins is his hair. He's chosen a classic Mod style that you don't see enough of nowadays, but speaks volumes about his personality and fashion sense, even when he's in all his cycling clobber.

Moment of appreciation for this mans hair please.

I've always thought that hair says a lot about someone, because even when you have to wear a uniform and look like everybody else, your hair is still yours. Wiggins 'do is the perfect example, it still says Mod even when he's cycling. It's also probably a lot easier to fit helmets on.

So in conclusion, I love this man. His style is fantastic, he seems pretty down to earth, and is a god damn national treasure.

Wiggins proves that it's not just a style, or a fashion. It's a way of life.

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Since this is a blog for the modern day Mod, I think it's only proper we start with a modern day Mod icon. Ok so maybe Wiggins isn't an icon yet, but he will be. I just didn't wanna start this banging on about Weller or Daltrey becuase we all know they're brilliant, but this the new generation.

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The art of patchwork has been practised for many centuries. It is a layered structure consisting of a top made of pieces of patchwork fabric with a middle of quilt wadding or other insulating material and a backing to cover the wadding. In early days this way of putting together fabrics was done for warmth and was used for bedcovers, clothing and curtains or door hangings. Then as life became easier and women had more time they started to decorate the top piece with patterns and these patterns became the patchwork that we know today; patterns such as Flying Geese, Nine Patch and Drunkards Path. The early settlers in America took the art of patchwork with them and developed it into a thriving skill. Patchwork patterns would be designed to commemorate things that happened in their lives. One of these patterns 'Road to Kansas' was designed by women on the trail West in the 1800's. Another is 'Log Cabin' which represents the log cabins of the early settlers in America. All of these traditional blocks have a story to tell and it is fun to research them. The technique of using small pieces of material to make the top of the quilt comes from the need to use up everything that was available and not to waste fabric. Because cloth was expensive and not easily come by the early settlers used such items as flour and sugar sacks to make their quilts and these are still around today though mostly in museums. Then as cotton became a staple of the American economy and more dyes were discovered, especially mauve, patchworkers were able to have more choice over the fabrics they used.

Traditional patchwork is thought of as using the many and varied patterns to make a quilt top or patchwork item choosing a variety of fabrics usually in cotton. As mentioned above the majority of the traditional patchwork block patterns come from America in the 19th century. These block patterns vary from the simple Nine Patch block to the very complicated Mariner's Compass block. Quilters take great delight in showcasing their skills by completing quilts with complicated block patterns! However when missionaries tried to teach Hawaiian islanders patchwork the natives of the islands were horrified at the idea of cutting up fabric just to put it all back together. Instead they made their own patchwork designs of flowers and emblems by folding the fabric and cutting it into shapes which they then appliquéd onto a plain background. This method was very similar to the folded paper cutting that was practised in such skills as origami. This method became popular and is now known as Hawaiian patchwork and is often used in pictorial quilts such as Baltimore Album quilts. As the name suggests Baltimore Album quilts originated in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. The wives of sea captains would spend their time while their husbands were at sea appliquéing and embroidering blocks with pictures of things that had relevance to their lives or happenings in their lives so that when the husband returned he could see what had occurred at home while he'd been gone. They were like a photograph album only done in cloth. These were special quilts and were often worked as family heirlooms or given to a new bride or to mark a special occasion. The background fabric was always white though nowadays that isn't always the case. Many of the block patterns were designed by the maker and often new fabric was used as Baltimore was a prosperous city in the mid 1800's. Sometimes more than one person would work on a quilt and the popularity of this form of quilt spread far and wide and it is still very popular today. It is possible to see original quilts in museums and admire the handwork. The blocks with flowers, baskets, birds, trees, cornucopia and country scenes portray an idyllic life which wasn't always the case at the time. However these quilts are timeless and provide a challenge for today's quilter to make something original which still has overtones of the traditional. Elly Sienkiewicz is the most well know modern proponent of Baltimore quilts and she has written several books on them with many modern designs included.

Because precious fabrics such as silk were so expensive another form of patchwork became popular. First practised by rich women with plenty of time on their hands Crazy Patchwork became exceptionally popular in the mid 19th century and it is thought that it originated in America and then quickly found its way to Europe. Crazy Patchwork consists of small random pieces of silk, satin or velvet put together like crazy paving and then originally the seams were feather stitched. Later the stitching became more elaborate and also beads, buttons and charms were introduced. Stitching became more and more ornate and the centre of patches was decorated with embroidered motifs and pictures. Crazy Patchwork had a revival at the end of the 20th century and there is a large interest in this form of patchwork around the world with America, Europe and Australia leading the way. Luxury fabrics are still the staples of crazy patchwork but also cotton, rayon and polyesters are being used. Embellishments include lace, ric-rac, beads, buttons, couched motifs and trims, silk ribbon embroidery and even punch needle work. Today embroidery stitches can often be done by machine in place of traditional hand stitching and this has speeded up the process of creating a crazy patchwork quilt. However hand work is still the more desirable form of embellishment and additions such as silk pictures as given away with cigarette packs at the turn of the 1900's and later are still much sort after. They can be found in second hand and vintage shops. Because crazy patchwork is worked onto a calico or muslin backing it is fairly heavy when completed and rarely is wadding used with it, just a backing which has caused a few problems when exhibiting as a quilt is supposed to consist of three layers!

Appliqué is another technique that is used a lot in patchwork that is very popular especially when designing and making picture quilts. Appliqué is the sewing technique where one sews shapes to a background of a different colour and even fabric. It has been used as a form of sewing for centuries and probably started as a form of mending and then progressed from that to decorative effects. Originally a piece of fabric would be sewn on to the background material by turning the edges of the shape in with the needle and hemstitching it down. Today with the advent of transfer adhesives patches are able to be stuck onto the fabric and then either blanket stitched by hand or stitched by machine using either satin stitch or any other fancy stitch that may be available.

No patchwork quilt is complete until it has been quilted. Quilting is the stitching that holds all three layers together. Some quilts are known as 'Whole Cloth' quilts where the top layer is a single piece of fabric and the quilting provides all the decoration. And this quilting could be exceptionally elaborate and detailed. Amy Emms was a prolific quilter born at the turn of the 1900's near Sunderland and some of her quilts can be seen in museums. The small picture on the right is of part of a quilt done by Amy Emms and now owned by Barbara Chainey another well known quilter. Whole cloth quilts often used silk or satin as the top of the quilt so that the stitching would be easily seen and highlighted.

Hand quilting is an art form in itself. Originally women would get together and have sewing bees to quilt a patchwork quilt. It would be laid out over a frame and the women would sit around it and stitch the part in front of them. The ideal stitch was small and measured at 20 stitches to the inch. Quilters would design their own quilt patterns and transfer these to the quilt top either by stitching through paper or by the prick and pounce method. This is where the patterned was holed by the use of a pin and then powder was press over the paper through the holes thus leaving a line to delineate the stitching line. Nowadays there are many and varied marking tools available and often quilting is done using the sewing machine where the stitch is either outlining a patch or stitching 'in the ditch' which means stitching in the seam line.

A technique which is available to quilters today is free machining. This is where the feed dogs on the machine are lowered and a special foot called a darning foot is attached to the machine. The bottom tension is slightly tighter than the top tension. Then the machine is used to 'draw' on to the fabric producing wonderful shadings and outlines. (see picture right of gooseberries) This feature on the sewing machine gives the modern day quilter an amazing amount of control over the quilting on a quilt. Lines can be followed easily and the quilt top doesn't need to be turned around as the action of machine quilting is similar to that of panning for gold which is a side to side motion. This is an art form and enables the quilter to produce pictures and modern day 'art' quilts which use the sewing machine to embellish the top fabric or fabrics. By using water soluble fabrics in a hoop many intricate and attractive items can be produced using this method: items such as butterflies, trees, flowers, animals and birds. If the water soluble material isn't completely washed out the piece of embroidery can be shaped into three dimensional items such as small bowls and brooches.

Pieced Quilts

There are many types of quilts. The majority of quilts are pieced and are usually known as Patchwork Quilts because of the many pieces of fabric that make up the whole quilt. This is the basic form of quilting. Piecing means cutting out the various shapes which form the pattern in different coloured cotton fabric, and then sewing these together, following the pattern, either by machine or by hand. Usually a ¼ inch seam allowance is used though some people like to use 3/8th inch but both these measurements are smaller than that used by dressmakers which is 5/8th inch. The majority of traditional quilt patterns were pieced and that usually by hand. Nowadays with the easy accessibility of sewing machines they would be machine sewn. The simplest quilts would be Postage Stamp quilts which can be made using Charm Packs and Mini Charm Packs. This type of quilt would consist of squares put together to form a quilt. The squares would vary in size but be very simple to sew together. Some would be using just one block and arranging this into a suitable design and others could be using several block patterns (see photo on right - Drunkards Path variations) to make the design. First each pattern piece would be cut out in paper and then put onto the fabric and the fabric cut out. Sometimes the paper pattern would include the seam allowance and sometimes this was added afterwards to the fabric before cutting. Paper piecing was when the paper pattern was retained on the fabric and the fabric sewn with the paper still visible. This enabled the quilter to get a clean line along the edge of the pattern. The paper was then removed after sewing. This should not be confused with foundation piecing where the whole design is drawn out on the paper. However pieced quilts are not always regular patchwork block quilts they can be worked around a theme or they can be scrappy with many different patterns; they can be traditional or modern; and they can be planned or free form such as wonky cut patterns. This type of quilt gives the quilter complete freedom of design. Whatever is chosen they are all pieced quilts where the pieces of the quilt are sewn together to form the whole quilt.

Stripes in Patchwork

Stripes are very important in patchwork designs. Leonardo Fibonacci, an early thirteenth-century mathematician, worked out a series of numbers in which each number is the sum of the previous two. This series turned out to be in the same ratio as many proportions of growth found in nature. The ratio of various parts of the body to each other follows this ratio as does the division of stems and branches of plants and trees.

If you base the proportions of your stripes on any part of the series it will look right. If you find this unwieldy when double figures are reached add the double figures together ignoring any 0s. This is called the reduced Fibonacci series. The Arabs made use of this latter system and it is used in many of their designs.

Spider's Web

By sewing several strips together, cutting them up and re-sewing them several interesting blocks can be made as well as experimental pieces. The first thing to do is to choose several pieces of fabric which work well together and sew them together in long strips. The width of each strip will depend on the effect that is wanted but it is a good idea to make the length as long as possible ( at least 18 inches ) so as not to have to sew lots of smaller strips and waste pieces when cutting.

In the diagram below the angles are 60 degrees at the apex of each triangle.

For Spiders Web use the template to cut 8 triangular shapes. The template is formed by dividing a square into 8 sections. Draw the square of your block and then draw in the quarters and diagonals. Divide the angles at the centre, between the diagonals and the quarters, using a protractor or a pair of compasses. To make the octagon join the points where these lines cross the edge of the block. Erase the diagonal and quarter lines and leave 8 large triangles and 4 smaller corner triangles.

Log Cabin Quilt

The Log Cabin Quilt is a good example of a quilt made of one block sewn multiple times in different fabrics and rotated to create a design. This is a traditional pieced block and can be sewn using the foundation piecing method or just by ordinary piecing. The log cabin block works from the middle where a square, usually in red fabric, is placed and then the 'logs' or strips of fabric are sewn around this centre square. The idea is that the centre square represents the fire which would have been in the cabin and the strips around the side represent the walls and the windows. Two sides being dark fabrics and the other two sides being light fabrics. Log Cabin quilts have been made in the US since the 1860's but the pattern goes back a lot further than that. When putting the blocks together there are many patterns which can be formed by placing the lights and darks in particular places. Barn Raising is one of the more popular ones representing the square of a barn; Furrows is also a popular way of arranging the blocks.

How to make a Log Cabin Quilt

The Log Cabin block is a strip patchwork block as all the patches, apart from the centre patch, are strips. Log cabin quilts are some of the easiest to make as they don't require templates and so it is often chosen as being suitable for a beginner's first quilt. For a start only three colours of cotton fabric are needed plus a backing and wadding both of which will be the size of the finished quilt. Usually in each block the centre square is in a red cotton fabric but this does not need to be followed if one isn't doing a traditional log cabin quilt. These centre squares are usually cut at 2 inches to produce a finished square of 1 ½ inches after seam allowances have been used. Then one of the other fabrics can be in a dark coloured cotton to represent the walls of the house and the other in a light coloured cotton to represent the windows or light side of the house. The first side strip will be cut to the length of the centre square and be 2 ½ inches wide. This will be sewn to the centre square and the seams pressed to the side. The second strip will be cut in the same colour and be the same width but the length will be the length of the centre square plus the strip that is already sewn onto it! Strips 3 and 4 will be in the other colour chosen. All strips will be 2 ½ inches wide. Strip 3 will be the length of the centre square plus strip 2. Strip 4 will be the length of the centre square plus strips 1 and 3. Continue in this way adding two strips of dark fabric and then two strips of light fabric until the size of block is that which is wanted. When several blocks have been made they can be joined together in rows and then the rows joined together to make the quilt top. Before sewing the blocks together they can be arranged in various patterns to find the pattern which is most likes. Another way of making a log cabin block is not to stick to only one colour in dark fabric and one colour in light fabric but to use several light fabrics and several dark fabrics so that the finished block is more varied.By varying the width of the strips on each side different patterns can be achieved when the blocks are put together. So on one side of the block the 2 ½ inch strips would be used but on the other side of the block the strips would only be 1 ½ inches wide. As you can see from the illustration on the left this gives a circular effect.
By varying the width of the strips on each side different patterns can be achieved when the blocks are put together. So on one side of the block the 2 ½ inch strips would be used but on the other side of the block the strips would only be 1 ½ inches wide. As you can see from the illustration on the left this gives a circular effect.

Colour is very important in Log Cabin quilts as the way the colour/s lie can make or break the quilt. Choose your colours wisely and don't use too many patterned fabrics. Smaller patterns work better than larger patterns on cotton fabric.

Another version of Log Cabin is known as Court House Steps and is worked in a similar manner to Log Cabin except that instead of working on two corners diagonally this time the strips are worked on opposite sides. This is quite a masculine block and is often used for making quilts for men. It does not have the same variations in arrangement that the Log Cabin block does.

Fence and Rail Quilt

The Fence and Rail quilt is another example of strip patchwork. The strips are sewn together into blocks and then arranged into the pattern desired. They are quick and simple to do. The photo on the right shows a typical Fence and Rail arrangement in a skinny quilt which is being used as an end of the bed quilt.

Mixed Technique Quilts

These are quilts where the methods used can be varied. Appliqué, traditional piecing and other techniques such as trapunto can be used. An example of this is the quilt photo on the right where the basic quilt has been pieced by machine and then the cats have been appliquéd over this background. This method is frequently used for children's quilts. Another source of mixed quilting methods is the Sampler Quilt which uses all methods in its blocks.

Sampler Quilts

Sampler quilts are so called because they sample many different and varied patchwork blocks and types of patchwork. A sampler quilt can have examples of pieced patchwork blocks, appliqué blocks and paper pieced blocks such as clamshell or hexagons to name but a few. The quilter will sort out different block patterns and choose those that complement each other and also that will show off her skills. In a class the tutor will make sure that each block included in a sampler quilt will be a learning curve for the pupil and stretch his or her abilities to the full. There are so many traditional patchwork block patterns that sampler quilts can vary from maker to maker without any crossovers of patterns. Often sampler quilts will be made up into Quillows which is an American word which means a cross between a pillow (cushion) and a quilt. Nine blocks will be made and sewn together with a tenth block sewn onto the back of the finished piece leaving one edge open. The quilt is then folded and turned into the tenth block through the opening thus forming the cushion. These are exceptionally useful and can be used in the car, at home, on the beach or in any number of ways where a quilt would be in the way until it was wanted for warmth or comfort. Often blocks on sampler quilts would be joined with sashing between them so as to show case the individual blocks. This is a good project for a beginner. Block patterns used in a sampler quilt include Flying Geese, Castle Walls, Drunkard's Path, Card Trick, Courthouse Steps, Road to Kansas, Steeplechase, Sunshine and Shadows, Martha Washington's Star, Dresden Plate and Lady of the Lake.

Medallion Quilts

Medallion quilts are quilts which are designed with a focal point of interest at their centre. This centre piece is usually larger than the surrounding area of the quilt. This would then be surrounded by patchwork blocks, squares of fabric or multiple borders. The centre was occasionally a piece of large scale fabric with ornate designs or it could be an appliquéd motif such as a Tree of Life Appliqué. Large and intricate patchwork patterns such as Mariner's Compass would also be used as the central piece. Depending on the intricacy of the central piece of work the borders would be either plain fabrics or patchwork or appliquéd blocks. The size of the quilt was another factor in determining what and how many borders were to be made.

Hawaiian Quilts

In the early 1800 the missionaries in Hawaii showed the Hawaiian women how to make patchwork quilts with three layers of fabric. The top layer consisting of small pieces of fabric sewn into a pattern. However the Hawaiian women didn't think it at all sensible to cut up good fabric into small pieces just to sew it up again.
They were already using printed designs from nature in their own quilts and when the missionaries showed their children how to make snowflake designs from folded paper they found this method of creating a pattern much more useful and would then cut it out in fabric. They would take a large piece of fabric and cut the complete pattern out and then appliqué it to a background fabric. Often just one design was cut out from a very large piece of fabric to form the quilt top. This was then 'echo' quilted. 'Echo' quilting is where the quilting stitch follows the contours of the design and is repeated so that it resembles ripples on water spreading out from the appliquéd motif. The Hawaiians found all their inspiration from the beautiful islands where they lived and many of the designs have names which are reminiscent of their inspiration. Names such as Breadfruit, which is supposed to be the first pattern created and will bring a long and fruitful life if incorporated into a quilt, Calla Lily, Kukui, Anthurium, Mango, Star Lily and Wood Rose are but a few of the traditional designs that can be made. The work on a Hawaiian quilt is all done by hand and the appliqué is needle turned often against freezer paper which has been used to cut out the pattern. The freezer paper pattern is ironed onto the top fabric and then the fabric is cut away around the pattern as the pattern is stitched. It is quite a slow process and the seamstress needs to be quite an accomplished hand sewer to achieve the neat finish and good points that the design calls for. This form of patchwork is truly a labour of love with over 1000 hours taken to make a full size quilt. However when it is finished it will be a work of art and the quilt will be sure to become an heirloom!

Seminole Quilt Pattern

The Seminole tribe of Indians originated in Florida, USA. Seminole quilting came from the Seminole patchwork used for their clothing. In the late 1800s it was difficult to trade for cotton cloth on a regular basis so women began sewing the strips left on the end of the bolts of fabric to make what was known as "strip clothing". Around the end of the 19th century the sewing machine became available thus making it possible to use much smaller strips. Seminole designs grew to become even more complicated and intricate. Seminole patchwork was usually used for traditional dress including the women's long full skirts. Even today these garments are worn for special occasions. These beautiful Seminole patchwork patterns eventually became popular in quilt making as well.

The fabric is sewn in strips and then cut across the strips. The resulting strips are then sewn together dropping one colour each time as shown. The resulting piece is then placed on a 45 degree angle and the top triangles cut off. The strip of Seminole work is now ready to insert wherever you wish. It can be used as a border, an insert or several can be joined together to make a larger piece of work.

Strip Quilts

Strip quilts are just that! Strips of fabric sewn together to make a block or a quilt. There are many versions of strip quilts depending on the fabric you have. The strips can be carefully matched, cut on an angle or of varying sizes but overall they are the main component of the quilt. Sometimes a calico foundation is used and the scrap strips of fabric are sewn on to this foundation. Several of these foundation strips would then be sewn together and made into a quilt. Or long strips of fabric can be sewn together and then joined to other strips at an angle to make a squared strip quilt. Jelly Rolls are ideal for using for strip quilts as the strips are already cut out for you. They can be sewn together and then cut and re-assembled or used to make a long strip quilt. Most Jelly Rolls contain cotton fabric 42 inches long so a good sized throw could be made from one Jelly Roll. Another version of strip quilts is a different technique altogether. Thin strips of fabric are sewn together and then cut again into different sizes which are rearranged and sewn into various patterns to make a quilt top. Examples of patterns using this method are Fence and Rail, Spider's Web and Seminole Patchwork. With the advent of Rotary Cutting Equipment it has become easier for the quilter to sew fabric together and then cut out the various pattern pieces needed, thus saving time. These quilts are still known as strip quilts.

Art Quilts

An art quilt is a work of art made with fabric not paint and it hasn't been created to keep you warm! You are more likely to hang an art quilt on the wall than use it on the bed! It is a way of expressing oneself and creating beauty, telling a story, recording an event or making a comment on social issues. Art quilts are originals which have been designed and made by the maker. They are one of a kind and there will be no copies! The materials used in making an art quilt will not always be the usual fabrics that one will find in traditional quilts. Mixed media techniques will often be used and three dimensional effects obtained with the use of metals and plastics.

Modern Quilts

Modern quilts are an innovation that is fairly new having only come into prominence in the last five years or so. Modern quilts often use graphic design, with bold colours and make use of negative space. Many quilters enjoy turning traditional blocks into more modern pieces of patchwork. Often modern quilts will employ mixed media techniques and add other materials instead of just using cotton fabric. Plastic, paper and wire are just a few of the additions to the modern quilt. The fabric can be manipulated rather than sewn. The piece on the left has a background of woven strips and the resulting design of the fabric is reminiscent of debris floating on water. The inspiration for this piece was a canal with autumn leaves caught in the eddies.

The Modern Quilts Guild's definition on Modern Quilting is printed below.

"We define modern quilts as quilts that are functional, include bold colours, and are inspired by modern design. Minimalism, asymmetry expansive negative space, and alternate grid work are often a part of modern quilt compositions, as are improvisational piecing and solid fabrics."

This is the exact opposite of traditional quilting where the blocks would be reproduced to produce symmetrical designs, colours would be used in traditional ways and not in bright blocks of colour and harmony and balance of colour and design was paramount. There is not necessarily any symmetry in modern quilting and the randomness of the colour placement and the overall casualness of the design are far removed from the exactness of traditional quilts. Often a traditional block will be taken and extended into a modern day version of itself giving a pleasing and colourful update. There is nothing that can't be done in quilting in this day and age. Anything goes as is inherent in the Modern Quilt Guilds manifesto.

Modern quilting is also about the attitude and the approach that modern quilters take. It respects the amazing artistry and talent of the tradition of quilting, while allowing the quilter to challenge the "rules".

In fact, if there were one rule in modern quilting, it would be that there are no rules. The concept of modern quilting is not meant to divide or segregate. It is meant to welcome new quilters, of all ages, to the world of quilting in a style that they can relate to. In many ways, modern quilting takes us back to the basics of the early quilters, when women of the day used the colors and styles of their time to express themselves creatively"

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The art of patchwork has been practised for many centuries. It is a layered structure consisting of a top made of pieces of patchwork fabric with a middle of quilt wadding or other insulating material and a backing to cover the wadding.

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Posted: in Uncategorised

Hidepark has ventured in to the world of furnishings!

Our high-quality leather range is expanding, with the release of the first product in our Home collection: Cowhide patchwork cushions. Designed and manufactured from premium hide, the luxury product will bring a touch of elegance to any room in your home.

Patchwork has long been used as a technique with leather crafting, both as a technique for creating larger leather pieces, and also as a finishing for leather products.

Our new cushion range uses patchwork as a front for the upholstery, with a beautiful real leather finish on the back. Manufactured from premium hide, the patchwork tiles have been sewn together for a unique and eye-catching look that will bring individuality to your living room.
But just what is the history behind patchwork?
Patchwork dates back around 5,000 years to early age China and Egyptian tombs. Most often used to make quilts, the patchwork technique can also be used to make bags, wall-hangings and other items of clothing.

Patchwork quilts have become a popular piece of global history, being found in all cultures across the world. Once considered a sign of poverty, patchwork pieces are now treasured heirlooms.

In the 18 th Century patchwork flourished after technological improvements in the textile manufacturing industry, which saw people used printed cotton fabrics.

Patchwork became street fashion in the 1960's, and has continued into today - presenting itself in a variety of forms across high street retailers. The innovative patterns it can generate make it a perfect a staple piece both in fashion and in your home.

Patchwork is mainly found in two forms: block and strips. Pieces of square material make up Patchwork blocks, which are assembled in a multitude of patterns and sewn together in rows to make a bigger composition.

Strip patchwork involves piecing together longer strips of the fabric side-by-side to give a pleasing aesthetic.
To find out more about the history of leather, visit our blog.

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Posted: in Uncategorised Hidepark has ventured in to the world of furnishings! Our high-quality leather range is expanding, with the release of the first product in our Home collection: Cowhide patchwork cushions. Designed and manufactured from premium hide, the luxury product will bring a touch of elegance to any room in your home.

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15 Top Fashion Trends from 2022 Fashion Weeks

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Say hello to instant classics and new color palettes as we unpack the 15 fashion trends we loved from Spring Summer 2022 Fashion Weeks.

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Preen By Thornton Bregazzi was founded in 1996 by Justin Thornton and Thea Bregazzi, built on an aesthetic of darkly romantic and effortlessly modern, juxtaposing the masculine with feminine and mixing of hard and soft. Their debut collection at London Fashion Week for Spring Summer 2001 established the brand's essence of punkish sensibilities with vintage elements and hand crafted details. The collection debuted to rave reviews with critics responding to the subverting of traditional motifs and British sense of tongue-in-cheek chic. The label has since become synonymous with deconstructed London cool and developed a cult status amongst fashion heavyweights.

Over two decades, Preen has evolved from a small boutique in London's Notting Hill to a globally loved brand stocked across 5 continents and an industry insider favourite. Regularly featured in leading fashion publications and broadsheets, Preen has also collected a loyal fan-base of famous faces, with stars from Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Bosworth, Beyonce, Rihanna, Cate Blanchett , Naomi Watts and Emma Stone to the Duchess of Cambridge, the Duchess of Sussex and former First Lady Michelle Obama repeatedly stepping out in their designs.

2008 saw the launch of ' Preen Line' - the effortless rock 'n 'roll contemporary line focusing on the easy wear elements of the Preen Woman's every day wardrobe. A fashion week must see for 30 seasons, showing on the runways of both London and New York, Preen was winner of the 'Established Designer' award at the British Fashion Awards 2015. With 6 ready to wear collections a year, Preen By Thornton Bregazzi has expanded to include Preen Home - an opulent offering of soft furnishings, Preen Mini, the luxe children's wear line as well as a seasonal offering of accessories and footwear.

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Preen By Thornton Bregazzi was founded in 1996 by Justin Thornton and Thea Bregazzi, built on an aesthetic of darkly romantic and effortlessly modern, juxtaposing the masculine with feminine and mixing of hard and soft. Their debut collection at London Fashion Week for Spring Summer 2001 established the brand's essen

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"I rebel with lace and tulle," Erdem Moralioglu told Vogue 's Sarah Mower in 2007. Since his vibrant, lace- and flower-strewn breakthrough collection for Fall 2009, the designer, born in Canada has been touted as Britain's answer to Christian Lacroix. Based in London, Erdem (who prefers to use just his first name, in life as for his label) has cultivated a nerdy image that belies a deep romantic streak that was fostered during his childhood by a steady diet of Merchant Ivory films.

Erdem is especially admired for the dreamy watercolor prints that he designs himself on a Mac computer. He has told Vogue.com that he considers each season "a chapter in the same book." A love story that would be set in a lush English garden filled with "color, optimism, and oddities."

All Erdem Collections

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Erdem News, Collections, Fashion Shows, Fashion Week Reviews, and More

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Your source for the latest Erdem news, updates, collections, fashion show reviews, photos, and videos from Vogue.

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Patchwork is the main focus for the range with examples in the images below found on WGSN

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These denim patchwork jeans from Acne Studios were inspiration for the denim jeans used in my collection.

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To offer you a better experience, this site uses profiling cookies, even from third parties. By continuing to browse our site you accept our cookie policy. Find out more

+ NET SUSTAIN 1993 frayed patchwork organic high-rise straight-leg jeans

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EXCLUSIVE AT NET-A-PORTER. Part of our exclusive collection, Acne Studios' jeans have a subtle patchwork design that's highlighted by frayed trims. They're made from slightly stretchy organic denim and have a high-rise waist and straight-leg fit.

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I was responsible for the evaluation within our comp shop project and devised an original plan to know what information to include. I visited New Look and Bershka and located the products online with Boohoo. Therefore, when sorting which parts of the project we each were responsible for, any information written about New Look was written by myself.

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I took the lead on this project and created the original layout for our presentation. 2 of our group members were absent for the comp shop so we split up into pairs and visited 2 stores each. We compared our findings with each other so we could identify any similarities and differences and then focused on our individual stores we visited to write about within the project.

I found this project relatively difficult to carry out as a group and would have preferred to do it individually. I did find I did the majority of the work as I have had more time on my hands recently being furloughed from work and Beth and Aimee were absent for the comp shop lesson so missed out on key information vital for the project. We did share our findings with them but it was still difficult to relay without physically walking through the shops and seeing this for themselves. The physical visiting of stores as part of the comp shop was easier within pairs to have one person taking photos and the other recording information about the products. However, delegating jobs to everyone was difficult as many points related to one another and would have been easier carried out individually.

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Leather shackets offered by New Look online

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My test answers suggested I was more extroverted than introverted which I don't think exactly relays in real life.

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Spring/Summer collection starts in January ending in June, Autumn/Winter starts in July until the end of the year until December

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Current economical state of Turkey- "spiralling inflation, exchange and interest rates"

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President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Friday that the government is making preparations for new reforms in the economy and judiciary, stressing they are eager to propel Turkey into a new era for the economy and democracy.

"We are determined to bring about a new booming era for Turkey's economy and democracy," Erdoğan said in his speech at the major trade fair, EXPO 2020, organized by the Independent Industrialists and Businessmen's Association (MÜSIAD) in Istanbul.

"We will take every step to gain investor confidence; we will do what is necessary," he noted, stressing that they aim to present reforms regarding the economy and democracy to Parliament as soon as possible.

The remarks follow his pledges last week, as he announced a series of new economic plans that will enable an improved investment climate for foreign investors backed by an efficient judicial system.

"We are working on both strengthening our economic policies and raising the bar of democracy and freedoms while easing daily life for our citizens," Erdoğan said.

He emphasized the government is also ramping up efforts to protect the health of the nation amid the coronavirus outbreak and ensure that production and employment continue smoothly.

On the coronavirus outbreak, the president stressed the government's efforts to ease the burden and problems of businesses by providing the necessary support.

"Turkey is in relatively better shape at a time when the whole world is being ravaged by the second wave of the coronavirus outbreak," he added.

"As a state, we keep production, exports, trade and employment afloat by mobilizing all opportunities," he noted, adding that they extended their "hands and resources to all segments, from our business world to our shopkeepers, from our workers to our citizens in need of help."

Noting that the support of the business circle and citizens is crucial for achieving the economic goals, Erdoğan said, "First of all, we must bring overseas savings to our country."

"We should enhance the trust of our nation and investors in our national currency, the Turkish lira, thus reducing the weight of foreign exchange currency in deposits," he noted.

He urged the business sector to invest money in employment, production and exports.

"By mobilizing domestic and international entrepreneurs, we will ensure the acceleration of investments that will have lasting results in production and employment," he said.
'Rate hike bitter but necessary medicine'
Erdoğan also said that the central bank's 475-point interest rate hike a day earlier was a "bitter medicine" to be taken in order to lower inflation.

"We are aware that we need to take some bitter medicine if needed at this stage. I evaluate yesterday's interest rate hike decision within this framework," he said.

But, he said, "It is essential that we remove Turkey from the spiral of inflation, interest rates and exchange rates."

Erdoğan also said he believed declining inflation will stabilize the lira, reiterating that interest rates are the cause of inflation.

"Our real target is to first bring down inflation to single digits as soon as possible, then to the levels in our medium-term targets and to ensure that interest rates come down in line with this," the president said.

"Together with our new economic management, we will hopefully save our country from this chronic pain by focusing all our attention on this issue," he said.

The Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT) hiked its key policy rate to 15% and pledged to remain tough on inflation on Thursday.

The bank made it clear it would employ strong, transparent monetary tightening to eliminate risks to the inflation outlook, contain inflation expectations and restore the disinflation process.

The rate hike, the sharpest in more than two years, met the market expectations and came after former Finance Minister Naci Ağbal was named the new chief of the bank.

Turkey's inflation increased to 11.89% in October, up from 11.75% in September, according to official data.

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Erdoğan: Turkey determined to bring about new boom for economy, democracy

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President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Friday that the government is making preparations for new reforms in the economy and judiciary, stressing they are eager to propel Turkey into a new era for the economy and democracy.

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Article showing current in-trend denim styles- favouring loose boyfriend fit, Baggy, Mom, Flares

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Introducing the new denim trends to shop. From embracing head-to-toe white (even though it's autumn) to tucking your skinny jeans into your boots, Vogue edits eight new denim trends to embrace this spring. With looks from Gucci, Christian Dior and Celine.

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Reasons for adopting Turkey as sourcing country- positives

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What Makes Turkey a Great Apparel Sourcing Destination for Europe?

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Over the recent years, Turkey has emerged to be one of the most prominent locations for sourcing in Europe. The fashion industry contributes a lot to the flourishing of the Turkish economy.

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With inflation on the rise in Turkey, labour costs are also increasing to $550 a month for manufacturing workers- disadvantage for sourcing

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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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Shift in production from Chinese factories to Turkish factories due to current economic climate- Coronavirus outbreak

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ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Several fashion retailers that manufacture clothing in coronavirus-hit China are in talks with Turkish firms about shifting production to Turkey, two sector officials told Reuters, with one predicting new orders worth up to $2 billion.

An outbreak of the newly-identified coronavirus has killed 637 people in mainland China, where it is believed to have started, prompting many factories to suspend operations until next week or later as authorities try to contain its spread.

Polish fashion retailer LPP has said it is in talks with factories in Turkey, Bangladesh and Vietnam as a backup plan if Chinese production delays continue.

Turkish manufacturers have in recent years shifted their clothing production up-market as China's dominance grew globally. But the outbreak has sent some European companies back to Turkey, the officials said.

"Purchasing managers and designers can't go to China due to coronavirus worries and travel restrictions. So several well-known brands started discussions for production of new seasonal items in Turkey," said Hadi Karasu, head of Turkish Clothing Manufacturers' Association (TGSD).

Rising Chinese manufacturing costs and a 36% slide in the value of the Turkish lira in the last two years, on the back of a currency crisis in 2018, has already made Turkey an affordable option, Karasu added.

"As manufacturing costs leveled between China and Turkey, some European firms were (already) considering shifting orders towards here," Karasu said.

"China has some $170 billion ready-to-wear exports," he added. "According to our calculations some 1% of orders will (now) be shifting to Turkey initially which could amount to $2 billion."

Turkey exported some $17.7 billion ready-to-wear products last year. Any rise could help the import-heavy economy keep a lid on its current account deficit and hit the government's ambitious 5% economic growth forecast this year.

Mustafa Gultepe, head of the Istanbul Apparel Exporters' Association (IHKIB), said the sector has capacity to take on additional orders as both new and existing clients increasingly contact Turkish factories.

"There are clothing retailers asking around for prices and products in Turkey after the coronavirus outbreak," Gultepe said.

"I think the impact of the outbreak will continue for 5-6 months...and I think there will be a major shift from China that we will see after May," he added.

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apparel & accessories (nec) (trbc level 5)

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Turkish clothes makers see orders shifting from coronavirus-hit China

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ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Several fashion retailers that manufacture clothing in coronavirus-hit China are in talks with Turkish firms about shifting production to Turkey, two sector officials told Reuters, with one predicting new orders worth up to $2 billion.

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Exchange rates- 8 Turkish lira= $1
Value of lira dropped to all time low in October 2020, losing 26% of value this year

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Piotr Matys, an analyst at Rabobank, said there were concerns that a win for US presidential candidate Joe Biden could mean "severe sanctions on Turkey for purchasing the Russian S-400 [anti-aircraft] defence system" and "the market is also concerned about [the] rapidly deteriorating relationship between Turkey and France".

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Turkish lira sinks amid Erdogan fury with allies

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Piotr Matys, an analyst at Rabobank, said there were concerns that a win for US presidential candidate Joe Biden could mean "severe sanctions on Turkey for purchasing the Russian S-400 [anti-aircraft] defence system" and "the market is also concerned about [the] rapidly deteriorating relationship between Turkey and France".

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Which mode of transport best suits New Look and for individual product

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Advantages and disadvantages of road transport for international trade | nibusinessinfo.co.uk

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The pros and cons of using couriers, freight forwarders or hauliers, or operating your own vehicles to move goods by road

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Global issues affecting Turkey and influence on retail industry

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This detailed PESTEL analysis of Turkey aims to explore some of the political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal factors affecting Turkey today. Turkey is a beautiful country. It is also a major emerging economy and a key regional power.

Turkey, officially known as the Republic of Turkey, is a powerful transcontinental country bordered by Greece, Bulgaria, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Iraq, and Syria. It also borders Egypt, Cyprus, Romania, Russia and Ukraine by sea. It is a secular state and was a parliamentary representative democracy until 2017 when a presidential system of government was adopted through a referendum. The new system makes the President of the Republic the Head of State. Turkey was once the centre of the Ottoman Empire.

Turkey is an important member of some of the biggest institutions in the world such as the United Nations, the IMF, the World Bank, the OECD, the OIC, the EEC, NATO, and G20. It is an ally of the United States of America. However, Turkey's purchase of Russian S-400 has strained its relationship with the USA and the latter has recently removed the former from the F-35 fighter jet programme (BBC, 2019). Turkey also faced a big political challenge in 2016 when a military coup took place. The coup failed; however, created a lot of uncertainties and affected the political dynamics of the country. Similarly, the terrorist attacks, and political instabilities in neighbouring countries have affected Turkey to a great extent.

Although the political and security challenges stated above have been worrisome, Turkey is a relatively safe country to holiday and do business. The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has lifted several warnings on visiting Turkey that were in place for the past few years. Many other big nations also see Turkey as a safe place and advise their citizens on travelling there accordingly.

Turkey has made serious efforts to join the European Union, however, any significant progress is yet to be seen. When and if it happens, Turkey will have access to one of the biggest markets in the world with perhaps freedom of movement for its citizens. However, Turkey and the EU are engaged in a dispute over the divided island of Cyprus. Likewise, many analysts see Ankara's deepening relationship with Moscow as an obstacle to the accession to the European Union.

Turkey is a major emerging economy and a key regional power. It is a member of the MINT block. The term 'MINT', coined by famous British economist Jim O'Neill, stands for Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey. Turkish GDP in 2018 was $769 billion and the GDP per capita for the same year was $ 9,445 (World Bank, 2019). Turkey is currently an upper-middle-income country. This has been made possible particularly due to the impressive social and economic developments (increased employment and incomes) the country has been making since 2000.

Turkey is one of the biggest exporters of a number of commodities. Its top exports are cars, gold, delivery trucks, vehicle parts, and jewellery. Other notable exports are knit T-shirts, raw iron bars, wheat flours, refined petroleum, and buses. Turkey's top imports are gold, refined petroleum, cars, vehicle parts, scrap iron, broadcasting equipment, and coal briquettes (Trading Economics, 2019). Germany is the top export destination of Turkey, while China is the top import origin. Turkey is the EU's 5th largest trading partner, both in exports and imports.

Companies in Turkey are charged taxes on net profits at a rate of %22 for the years 2018, 2019, and 2020 (PWC, 2019). The personal tax rates vary from 15% to 35%. People who earn less than 18,000 Turkish Iira a year are required to pay 15% tax, while 35% by those who earn over 148,000 Iira.

Social environment is the next issue to discuss in the PESTEL analysis of Turkey. The total population of Turkey is approximately 83 million as of July 2019 which makes up around 1.08% of the total population of the world (World meters, 2019). The life expectancy for men is 72 years while 79 years for women. Turkish is the official and major language, and Kurdish is widely spoken as well. Turkey is a secular state and the major religion is Islam.

Turkish people are generally welcoming and friendly, and many cities (particularly Istanbul) are multi-layered and multi-cultural. Sitting between East and West, and drawing elements from both continents have helped Turkey produce its own unique cultural identity. While many countries in Europe are facing challenges such as as ageing and shrinking populations, Turkey has a very young, dynamic, and well-educated population. This shows the country has a huge potential for productive employees who can meet the needs of domestic and international investors.

Turkey has hundreds of private TV and radio stations which compete with TRT, the state broadcaster. Likewise, it is rich and diverse in sports. Football is the most popular sport in the country; however, basketball, wrestling, volleyball, and handball are also very popular. Turkey is well-connected with the rest of the world due to its geographic location, and Turkish people have an international mindset. However, there are some social challenges facing the country today. For instance, social exclusion, poverty, and declining liberalism within the society can be considered in this regard.

The Turkish technology market is rapidly growing and going beyond the confines of cities to reach out to rural areas. Heavy government investment in the sector has been a major factor in the acceleration of progress. Turkish people are increasingly becoming technologically advanced and their demands for tech products are on a rapid rise as well. The use of e-commerce, fixed broadband, mobile broadband, PC, software and mobile banking services have increased manifolds over the years and created massive business opportunities for entrepreneurs (ITA, 2019).

Turkey has a vision of becoming one of the top 10 technologically advanced countries in the world by 2023. It also aims to make 80 percent of the population computer literate. However, establishing an infrastructure that is capable to meet the current demands and future potential developments is a challenge. Therefore, substantial progress must be made sooner than later, and both private companies and public institutions need to a have a clear digital strategy.

It goes without saying that Turkey is an insanely beautiful country. 37.6 million tourists visited the country in 2018 making it the 8 th most visited country in the world. Extremely friendly people, delicious food, crystal clear water, fanciful beaches, picturesque fishing villages, outstanding historical sites, stunning mosques, churches, synagogues, and World Heritage sites make Turkey one of the hottest holiday destinations on earth; hence great business opportunities for travel agents, tour operators, hotels, and airlines.

While Turkey is a great place to visit, it faces some enormous environmental challenges. No doubt that it's economic developments with massive industrial productions have caused higher levels of different types of pollution. Air pollution, marine pollution, climate change, deforestation, water scarcity, and nature degradation have added greater risks to the country's environment. However, the Turkish government has taken a number of initiatives to reduce the strain on the environment.

The last element to address in the PESTEL analysis of Turkey is the legal landscape of the country. The Turkish constitution, also known as the Constitution of 1982, ensures equal treatment for both nationals and foreigners. The judicial system is independent and impartial which ensures justice for everyone in judicial matters.

Discriminating employees on the basis of their religion, race, language, gender, political views, and other similar grounds is prohibited by the Turkish law. A full-time job comprises of 45 hours of work a week. Hours worked over that limit is considered over-time. Employees are entitled to annual holiday, the duration of which is determined by the length of service. For instance, people working 1 to 5 years in a company are entitled to a minimum of 14 working days paid annual holiday.

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Last update: 28 July 2019
References
BBC (2019) US removes Turkey from F-35 fighter jet programme, available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-49023115 (accessed 21 July, 2019)

ITA (2019) Turkey - Information and Communication Technology, available at: https://www.export.gov/article?id=Turkey-Information-and-Communications-Technology (accessed 22 July 2019)

PWC (2019) Turkey: Taxes on corporate income, available at: http://taxsummaries.pwc.com/ID/Turkey-Corporate-Taxes-on-corporate-income (accessed 20 July, 2019)

Trading Economics (2019) Turkey Imports, available at: https://tradingeconomics.com/turkey/imports (accessed 15 July 2019)

World Bank (2019) Turkey: Overview, available at: https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/turkey/overview (accessed 21 July, 2019)

World Meters (2019) Turkey population, available at: https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/turkey-population/ (accessed 20 July 2019)

Photo credit: Pixabay

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howandwhat.net welcome to the world of easy-to-use information!

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This detailed PESTEL analysis of Turkey aims to explore some of the political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal factors affecting Turkey today. Turkey is a beautiful country. It is also a major emerging economy and a key regional power.

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$200 pay for Chinese factory workers in 2019 compared with Turkey which is at least double at $550- benefit of China as sourcing country

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Workers get a relatively small piece of economic pie: 53 percent in 2007, down from 61 percent in 1990 and compared with two third in the United States. Total Workforce: 795.3 million in 2006. Labor force by occupation: 24 percent industry; 35 percent agriculture; 31 percent services (2005). By 2030 40 percent of the global work force will come from China or India.[Source: The Economist]

China once boasted it was a workers paradise. Under Communism, the most basic social divisions were between the peasants, mostly subsistence farmers bound to the land, and urban people who worked in factories and in the bureaucracy Modern China has been called "a giant labor-intensive processing factory." Many Chinese still work for the state but their numbers are shrinking while those in the private sector are rising. The vast majority of jobs are created by the private sector.

China has difficulty creating jobs for new job seekers that enter the labor force every year. Measures to deal with the problem include encouraging more start ups and providing retraining for workers with outdated skills. Growth has to produce 24 million jobs a year to sustain the pace of migration. Before the economic downturns in the 2008 that appeared implausible. After that it seemed impossible.

One of China's problems is that while it produces lots of low skill factory jobs it isn't creating enough good job for college graduates. Many economists feel that China may be reaching the "Lewisian turning point" named after the late Nobel-Prize-winning economist Arthur Lewis who described how developing countries eventually exhaust their pool of cheap labor and have to evolve into a more developed economy.

PLA factory Labor is ruled by the same forces of supply and demand that govern consumption. At the moment China has a huge supply of labor so companies and employers can dictate the terms. If a worker is unhappy that pay is too low or the conditions are too harsh, he or she can easily be replaced: there are millions of other waiting in line for the job. The details of labor costs are a carefully-guarded secrets in China but analysts estimate that the wages and benefits per factory workers are about a tenth of what they are in the United States.

Ranking of education systems and worker productivity in Asia by Hong Kong-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy: 1) South Korea; 2) Singapore; 3) Japan; 4) Taiwan; 5) India; 6) China; 7) Malaysia; 8) Hong Kong; 9) the Philippines; 10) Thailand; 11) Vietnam; 12) Indonesia

A study by the McKinsey Global Institute found that "fewer than 10 percent of Chinese job candidates, on average, would be suitable for work [in a multinational company] in nine occupations we studied."

Chinese workers are becoming more efficient. Labor prices increased 15 percent in 2006 and 2007 but productivity increased even more, meaning that unit labor costs had decreased.

Websites and Resources

Good Websites and Sources: China Labor Watch chinalaborwatch.org ; China Labor Bulletin clb.org.hk/en ; Average Pay and Expenditures worldsalaries.org/japan ; China Law Blog on New Labor Laws chinalawblog.com ; 2003 IMF Report on Labor Perfromance www2.assind.vi.it ; Book: Understanding Labor and Employment Law in China (Cambridge University Press, 2009) cambridge.org/us ; Time magazine's Worker's Wasteland Time.com ; Chinese Government Paper on Labor Policy xinhuanet.com ; Gloomy Photos of Workers zhouhai.com ; Rising Wages, Business Week Article businessweek.com ; New York Times Article About "Unknown Substance? nytimes.com Chinese Workers on Stuff Made for Americans (satire) theonion.com

Links in this Website: CHINESE LABOR AND WORKING CONDITIONS Factsanddetails.com/China ; TYPES OF JOBS IN CHINA Factsanddetails.com/China ; WORKING WOMEN IN CHINA Factsanddetails.com/China ; CHINESE FACTORIES AND MINES Factsanddetails.com/China ; CHINESE LABOR RIGHTS AND UNIONS Factsanddetails.com/China ; MIGRANT WORKERS IN CHINA Factsanddetails.com/China ; LABOR-INTENSIVE INDUSTRIES IN CHINA Factsanddetails.com/China ; LABOR-INTENSIVE INDUSTRIES--TOYS, CHRISTMAS STUFF AND FIREWORKS Factsanddetails.com/China ; LABOR-INTENSIVE INDUSTRIES--TEXTILES, FURNITURE, SPORTING GOODS Factsanddetails.com/China ;
Books on Labor in China

Working in China: Ethnographies of Labor and Workplace Transformation (Routledge 2007; edited by Ching Kwan Lee) and How China Works: Perspectives on the Twentieth-Century Industrial Workplace (Routledge, 2006; edited by Jacob Eyferth) contain several commendable portraits of Chinese labor based on ethnographies and participant-observation by the authors. They have numerous chapters that explore workplace conflict and community (in sites ranging from department stores to merchant marine vessels to insurance sales agencies) and connect these issues to broader questions of power, culture, and political economy In a similar vein, Calvin Chen's Some Assembly Required: Work, Community, and Politics in China's Rural Factories (Harvard University Press, 2008), based on his experience of working and living at two township and village enterprises (TVEs) in Zhejiang province, offers rewarding insights into how workers experience and interpret multiple meanings of labor, and how these change over time. [Source: Mark W. Frazier, China Beat, July 2, 2010]

Dorothy Solinger's "States Gains, Labor's Losses: China, France, and Mexico Choose Global Liaisons, 1980-2000 (Cornell University Press, 2010) provides, as its title reveals, a valuable analysis of how China's labor unrest and government responses to it compares with two other countries where states have both pulled the plug on longstanding labor policies and quickly needed to respond with new welfare measures and increased social expenditures.

Books by journalists who have turned their focus to workers and factories in China are also excellent sources for understanding contemporary Chinese labor issues. The personal portraits of the subjects found in Leslie T. Chang's Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China (Spiegel & Grau, 2009) and in Alexandra Harney's The China Price show how migrant workers experience the labor market of the sunbelt, and how they preserve ties to their home communities and to one another.

Working Conditions in China

Employers routinely discriminate on the basis of height, looks, health, home province and age. Workers are routinely passed over because they are too ugly or too short or have had hepatitis in the past. A typical advertisement for a factory job reads: "1) Age 18 to 35, middle school education, 2) Good health, good quality, 3) Attentive to hygiene, willing to eat bitterness and work hard. 4) Women 1.66 meters or taller. 5) People from Jiangxi and Sichuan need not apply."

Factories often have a high turnover. Workers often quit. Companies traditionally could easily fire workers. Many workers have mobile phone and use them to exchange information about jobs. Workers that quit typically don't give any notice when the leave. They typically ask for a couple days off, change their cell number and split. People frequently change jobs around the lunar New Year. New labors laws make it harder to fire workers.

Many jobs require a lot of overtime. Workers often welcome it as a chance to make more money. Sometimes workers go months without getting paid. When they lose their jobs they often don't receive the pension or severance pay that has been promised them.

Wages are low but so too is the cost of living, On a wage of $125 a month the owner of a violin factory told the Los Angeles Times, "China is poor. Everything is cheaper. With this money they can eat well and pass their lives well.

In a survey by Pew Research Center in 2008, 60 percent of those asked said they were satisfied with their jobs and 54 percent were satisfied with their household incomes.

See State Jobs, Types of Jobs

Wages, Work Week and Vacations in China

The average wage at a Chinese factory in 2009 was around $200 a month, 17 percent more than the year before. The average monthly of wage of China's factory workers increased 66 percent between 2004 and 2007 to $234, about twice the rate of workers in Indonesia. High growth rated in China has allowed workers to receive double digit pay increases each year.

Work week: 42.4 hours, compared to 40.3 hours in France and 55.1 hours in South Korea. [Source: Roper Starch Worldwide, based on interviews in 2001 and 2002]

There are no reliable figures of average wages. Wages in northern China are as much 20 percent lower than those in southern China. Hourly labor costs: 1) China ($0.6); 2) India ($1.0); Czech republic 3) ($5.2); 4) Britain ($19.5); and 5) the United States ($21.6). Average hourly wages in Asia (1997): 1) $0.40 in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; 2) $0.90 in Shanghai, China; 3) $1.30 in Manila, the Philippines; 4) $1.80 in Jakarta, Indonesia; 5) $3.00 in Bangkok, Thailand; 6) $4.60 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; 7) $6.20 in Seoul, South Korea; 8) $7.30 in Hong Kong; 8) $7.50 in Taipei, Taiwan.

Many Chinese get bonuses around the time of the lunar New Year and the "golden week" around the anniversary of the 1949 Communist Revolution. Many Chinese take off from work during the three "golden weeks": 1) around May Day on May 1st, in which Chinese get three work days off; 2) around National Day on October 1st; 2) and around Spring Festival (late January or early February).

Rather than asking how many days of vacation they get, many Chinese workers ask how many days they can work: they are motivated to make money and get ahead any way they can.

According to a survey by Japanese foodmaker Ajinomoto, working people in Shanghai got more sleep (seven hours and 28 minutes) than working people in New York, Paris and Stokcholm. People in Tokyo get the least sleep (slightly less than 6 hour a day). In New York the business people surveyed got six hours and 35 minutes. "In Shanghai, people simply seem to go to sleep earlier. Everyone in all the cities gets up around the same time in the mornings, between 6:30 and 7:00," said a Ajinomoto spokeswoman.

Wages as a proportion of China's GDP growth has been decreasing for over two decades, Zhang Jianguo, an official with the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), told workercn.cn, a website under the group. The proportion peaked at 56.5 percent in 1983, but it fell to 36.7 percent in 2005 and has not improved the report said.

Raising the Minimum Wage in China

When the Chinese government introduced the minimum wage in 2004, factory owners used it as the basic wage for their production-line workers.

In June 2010, while China was experiencing a number of labor problems, including disputes and suicides, the Beijing city government raised the minimum wage by 20 percent to $141 a month. [Source: Reuters, June 4, 2010]

Provinces and cities throughout the country have raised their minimum wage this year as companies have reported growing labor shortages with migrant workers from the interior choosing to seek jobs in small cities closer to their homes.

A strike at a Honda Motor car parts factory that began month was resolved Wednesday after the company offered its workers a 24 percent pay raise, showing how the balance of power in the country's factories is gradually tipping toward workers. tung by labor shortages and a rash of suicides at its factories in southern China, Foxconn Technology has raised the salaries of many of its Chinese workers by a third.

In December 2010, China raised the minimum wage in Beijing by 20 percent for the second time in six months as adjustments for high food and property prices and to narrow the gap between rich and poor. The minimum monthly salary was raised to 1,160 yuan ($175) from 960 yuan.

Pressure for Higher Wages in China

High manufacturing job growth and highly-publicized strikes at Honda and Toyota plants and suicides at Foxconn factories in China put pressure in manufacturers to raise wages. Huang Yiping, an economic professor at Peking University told Bloomberg, "Honda's just the tip of the iceberg, and it reflects an urgency of adjusting China's growth model. After three decades of rapid growth partly driven by cheap labor, China must adjust to higher wages.

Tao Dong, an analyst with Credit Suisse, told Bloomberg, "I expect double digit wage growth a year over the next few years...Events have dramatized the beginning of the end of an era of China as world factory." Chaing Kai, a director at Renmin University Labor Institute told Newsweek, "Our economy can't keep squeezing labor benefits because workers are not willing to accept it."

A survey in nine Chinese provinces by China's central bank in 2010 found that a quarter of those that responded expected pay raises of at least 10 percent in 2010. Analyst expected this trend to continue for several years.

Wages are increasing but aspirations and expectations are growing even faster. Some expect the power of unions and collective bargaining to rise.

Companies are aiming to stay ahead of the trend by moving inland to cheaper areas or in other developing countries. Some of even returning back home to the West. General Electric, L'Oreal and New Balance are among the companies that are looking to Vietnam, Indonesia and other countries as labor sources.

Minimum Wage Raised in Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen

In early 2012, Bloomberg reported: Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen boosted their minimum wage as policy makers seek to spur consumer spending and a shrinking labor surplus pushes up salaries. Shanghai, the nation's most affluent city, increased the wage by 13 percent to 1,450 yuan ($230) a month starting in April, the Shanghai human resources and social security bureau said. It's the 19th adjustment since the city's minimum wage rule was established in 1993, according to the statement. [Source: Bloomberg News, February 28, 2012]

Policy makers in the world's second-biggest economy are trying both to keep inflation in check and shift the nation's economic growth toward domestic demand. Promoting consumption by raising wages would facilitate such a transition, said Tim Condon, chief Asia economist at ING Financial Markets in Singapore. Increased company profits over the past decade "means producers have the wherewithal to increase salaries," Condon said.

In 2011, 24 provinces and municipalities raised minimum wages by an average of 22 percent, according to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security. Shanghai's rose by 14 percent. China plans to raise the level by an average of at least 13 percent annually from 2011 to 2015, according to the national 12th Five-Year Plan that covers those years. The government suspended increases in minimum wages in 2009 to help companies weather the global financial turmoil. Thirty provinces raised minimum wages in 2010 by an average of 22 percent. Beijing, Shenzhen

Shanghai has a population of 23 million. Beijing, the nation's capital with 19.6 million people, raised the minimum wage by 8.6 percent to 1,260 yuan a month on Jan. 1. Shenzhen, a manufacturing hub of 13 million people bordering Hong Kong, increased minimum payments by 13.6 percent in February. The southern region of Guangxi increased its wage by about 22 percent in January.

Foxconn Lifts Wages

In February 2012, The Guardian reported: Foxconn, the Taiwan-owned manufacturer with giant assembly facilities in mainland China which is one of Apple's main contractors, says it has raised wages by up to 25 percent in the second major salary hike in less than two years. As the world's largest electronics contract manufacturer, it has come under intensive scrutiny after a spate of suicides last year and reports of long hours for the hundreds of thousands of staff. Its facilities are scheduled for inspection by a team from the US Fair Labor Association, at the prompting of Apple. [Source: The Guardian, Charles Arthur, February 20, 2012]

Foxconn employs about 1.2 million workers at a handful of massive plants in China which are run with almost military discipline, in which staff work for six or seven days a week and up to 14 hours per day. The workers assemble iPhones and iPads for Apple, Xbox 360 video game consoles for Microsoft, and computers for Dell and Hewlett-Packard. Foxconn is one of China's largest single private employers.

Chinese workers at Foxconn now receive between 1,800-2,500 yuan ($286-$400) per month following the raises that became effective from 1 February, the company said. "This is the way capitalism is supposed to work," David Autor, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told the New York Times . "As nations develop, wages rise and life theoretically gets better for everyone. "But in China, for that change to be permanent, consumers have to be willing to bear the consequences. When people read about bad Chinese factories in the paper, they might have a moment of outrage. But then they go to Amazon and are as ruthless as ever about paying the lowest prices."

Foxconn is also taking measures to limit workers' total work hours. The raises come as a compensation for their reduced overtime, company spokesman Simon Hsing said in a statement. Foxconn said it is cooperating with the FLA inspectors, pledging again to provide a safe and fair work environment.

The company has denied allegations that it ran excessively fast assembly lines and demanded too much overtime, but after the suicides it soon announced two pay hikes that more than doubled basic worker salaries to up to 2,000 yuan per month. In January 2012 dozens of workers assembling video game consoles climbed to a Foxconn factory dormitory roof in the central Chinese city of Wuhan and some threatened to jump to their deaths amid a dispute over job transfers that was later defused.

The New York Times reported that workers welcomed the announced raises and overtime limits, though some were unsure they would cause much real change. "When I was in Foxconn, there were rumors about pay raises every now and then, but I've never seen that day happen until I left," said Gan Lunqun, 23, a former Foxconn worker. "This time it sounds more credible." "China can't guarantee the low wages and costs they once did," Ron Turi of Element 3 Battery Venture, a consulting firm in the battery industry, told the paper. "And companies like Foxconn have developed international profiles, and so they have to worry about how they're seen by people living in places with very different standards." Foxconn has also announced plans to invest in millions of robots and automate aspects of production.

Overtime Pay and Severance Pay in China

A common complaint among laborers is lack of overtime pay when a work schedule exceeds 40 hours. Liu, the labor advocate, said his group had done a study of 210 factories in the Pearl River Delta and the Yangtze River Delta that showed 90 percent of those factories cheat on overtime: they often reported employees as working eight-hour days even when the hours were much longer. Thus, the salaries were much more generous on paper than in reality. [Source: Edward Wong, New York Times, June 20, 2010]

At the Gloria Plaza Hotel in Beijing, workers took their dispute with management to the streets on May 2010. The company that owns the hotel plans to tear it down and lay off the workers. Although the company had said the workers would get the minimum severance pay required by law, the employees complained that that was far too low. They are a state-owned enterprise, they have the money, but they don't care about us at all, said one woman who declined to be named for fear of retribution.

Chinese Workers

China has traditionally had an obedient work force, which helps keep management costs low. Photographs of Chinese factories often show rows of workers with no supervisors in sight. In some work places it is not uncommon to have only 15 mangers for 5,000 workers. Working together is expressed by the Chinese proverb: Eight hermits sail the ocean with the might of each other.

A study by the McKinsey consulting group found that the average Chinese workers needs to put in seven hours on the job to earn enough to purchase the same amount of goods or services that an American worker could buy with one hour's pay.

It's not only cheap labor that drives China's economy. Chinese workers are hard working and efficient. Marril Weigrod, a consultant for China Strategies, told the New York Times: "Culturally the Chinese put a very high premium on not losing face. In manufacturing, that translates into not making mistakes on the production line. Their self-discipline and their ability to adapt are key factors in driving Chinese competitiveness." If one worker is not up to snuff there is another worker waiting in the wings to take his place.

One businessman told Theroux that "young workers were lazy, slow and arrogant, while those over fifty were the best." Workers who grew up during the Cultural Revolution "seem to have a chip on their shoulder, as if they were cut out for better things." The Chinese "are used to working with their hands," he added. "That's the problem. They can rig up something with a piece of wire and a stick. But they have never relied on sophisticated machinery or high tech. I have to show them every detail about a hundred times." One worker with a machine-making company I talked to said the Chinese were not very good at tinkering with machines to work out what is wrong with them.

Motivated and Hard-Working Workers

On China's labor force, Peter Hessler wrote in National Geographic, "The sheer human energy is overwhelming: the fearless entrepreneurs, the quick-moving builders, the young migrants. Virtually everybody has been toughened by the past; families remember well the poverty of the Mao period. Meanwhile most Chinese have seen their living standards rise in recent years, often dramatically. This combination---the fear of the past, the opportunities of the present---has created a uniquely motivated population. It's hard to imagine another place where people are willing to work."

On workers in Lishui, a small industrial in Zhejiang Province, Peter Hessler wrote in The New Yorker, "I was impressed by how comfortable people were with their jobs, They didn't worry about who consumes their products, and very little of their self worth was tied up in these trades...If a job disappeared or an opportunity dried up, workers didn't waste time wondering why, and they move on. Their humility helped, because they never viewed themselves as being the center of the world."

"In Lishui people moved incredibly fast with regard to new opportunities. This quality lay at the heart of the city's relationship with the outside world. Lishui was home to the greatest number of pragmatists...everybody was so opportunist in the purist sense. They market taught them that---factory workers changed jobs frequently, and entrepreneurs could shift their product lines at the drop of a hat." Hessler came across one family that over the course of a few months sewed colored beads onto children's shows, applied decorative strips to hair bands, assembled small light bulbs and finally bought some second hand computers and played World of Warcraft for money as "gold farmers." [Source: Peter Hessler, The New Yorker, October 26, 2009]

There are plenty of opportunities for advancement in China. It is easy to change jobs or start new businesses. Factory workers can triple there incomes by taking computer courses or learning a little English. Unabashed ambition and live-for-today opportunism are what drive people rather than traditional Confucian values

Work Exercises in China

Radio calisthenics is the name of the twice-daily fitness broadcasts that reached their participatory peak in the 1960s during the Cultural Revolution. The first broadcast is in the morning to make sure workers get their day off to a good start. The music and routine are set and almost every Chinese has learned it in school. [Source: John Glionna, the Los Angeles Times, September 14, 2010]

Over the years people lost interest in the routine and employers didn't bother to push it as they once did but in recent years radio calisthenics have made a comeback. Describing the scene before the opening of a department store in Beijing John Glionna wrote in the Los Angeles Times, "Wearing her form-fitting skirt and high heels, the 24-year-old cosmetics clerk joins her coworkers for eight minutes of semi-strenuous exercise: a sort of office-place Rockettes routine that is spiced by Far East martial arts moves, peppy music and precise instructions broadcast over state-run radio." [Ibid]

Formally known as Dance Routine No. 8 the routine was introduced in 1951 and has been updated every five to 10 years. Music and instructions are broadcasts at 10:00am and 3:00pm over state-controlled Beijing Sports radio. Some do the routine in parking lots or other outside open areas; others do it indoors. [Ibid]

In 2011, the Chinese government plans to make the daily exercise routine compulsory for all employees at state-owned enterprises. Some say that government is reviving the practice to fend of the negative aspects of increased prosperity, junk food and a couch potato life style. Others assert it is the government's way or reasserting control over the lives of individuals. One official told the China Daily, "Any exercise done by the individual can be tedious and boring...Through collective [exercise] people feel more relaxed and have greater efficiency at work. That's why we want to resume the fitness activity." [Ibid]

Many Chinese roll their eyes at the idea of being forced to do the exercise routine. One worker told the Los Angeles Times, "People secretly admit they don't want to do it. They say it's childish. It's not cool." An Internet blogger wrote: "This is all connected to the singing of revolutionary anthems. It totally shows that history is moving backward." [Ibid]

Nationalism, Stress, and Work in China

One Japanese manager in China told the Washington Post, "The competition for jobs is really brutal here, so people are far more serious about their work.." In Japan "we have to promise workers jobs for life and pay them based on seniority. But no one even thinks about that here. Workers in China believe in merit."

The stress created by free market economics seems to be taking its toll. One survey found that a third of all this asked felt angry, frustrated or listless. Prozac sales nearly doubled between 2000 and 2004 and an increasing number of stressed out Chinese are seeking advise from psychologists and counselors.

It is not uncommon for discouraged officials and managers to commit suicide. See Mattel

Employers try to boost production from their workers by encouraging nationalism. A sign outside the Chery automotive plant reads: "We Need Not Only to Work Hard, We Must Also Be Diligent, and More Important We Must Have a Sense of a National Mission."

Overworked Chinese White Collar Workers

Many young Chinese professionals feel burned out, empty and numb. Sim Chi Yin wrote in The Straits Times, "Almost as soon as he wakes up at 8am each day, property agent Kevin Tu is already tired. He drags himself to work, and puts in nine hours in front of the computer and with clients. Then he goes home to his one-bedroom apartment in the south side of Beijing to stare at TV shows alone. A go-getting executive in a multi-national company just a few years ago, Tu, 31, now lives just "one day at a time", as he puts it. [Source: Sim Chi Yin, The Straits Times, September 13, 2010]

There are no known academic studies on this phenomenon, but the magazine cited a survey carried out last year by The Beijing News newspaper and Sina Web portal of 1,700 people across China. It showed that 70 per cent of them displayed signs of job burnout. Almost 60 per cent of the companies polled also said that the incidence of burnout among their employees had increased.

Just last week, the official People's Daily reported that the burgeoning ranks being labelled 'middle class' in China are battling daily worries about paying for a house, car and credit card bills. "Young Chinese feel suppressed by pressure on many fronts," said professor Zhou. "Once they graduate, they have to fight to find a job, make enough money to buy a home amid soaring property prices, and once they do that they are in debt for a long time." "My generation had more ideals, more room to fulfil those ideals," he added.

The root source of these woes is the great inequality in Chinese society today, he said, noting that powerful elite interest groups keep a stranglehold on wealth. "In China, if you're not born into the elite, then you're just unlucky for life," professor Zhou said. For his part, Tu is concerned less with money than about finding his zest for life again. "Maybe this numbness is just a phase," he said, thinking aloud. "Or maybe life will just be this bland for me and I'll just have to accept that this is it."

China's Plasticine Men

The growing group of fatigued young, white-collar Chinese are known as 'eraser' or 'plasticine' men (xiang pi ren). Sim Chi Yin wrote in The Straits Times, "Brow-beaten out of shape by life, they show little if any response as they are kneaded this way and that, reported a local news magazine which has popularised the term now spreading in Chinese cyberspace. Broadly defined, they are mostly white-collar workers who are somewhat numb to life, have no dreams, interests or ideals, and do not feel much pain - or joy - reported the Guangzhou-based New Weekly magazine. [Source: Sim Chi Yin, The Straits Times, September 13, 2010]

These 'plasticine men' can be found among doctors, bank employees, teachers, journalists, traffic policemen, civil servants, actors and taxi drivers, the magazine reported. Typically, they work alone and for more than 50 hours a week. They feel as if they have expended all their energy and all they get in return is a sense of emptiness.

The term comes from a 1986 book, Xiang Pi Ren (Plasticine Man), by still-popular novelist Wang Shuo, that was later made into a film entitled Out Of Breath (Da chuan qi). It tells the story of a plucky young man who arrives in the southern economic powerhouse of Guangzhou with lofty dreams. Cheated many times over in business, he ends up in jail where he is repeatedly beaten up by fellow prisoners. He is left indifferent and dehumanized, feeling nothing when he discovers his lover has long been stringing him along.

That fictional depiction might be a tad dramatised, but soulless white-collar Chinese workers who feel entrapped in this pressure-cooker society are not difficult to find. While he is not depressed and surrounds himself with friends, Mr Tu said he feels much like a 'plasticine man'. "Everything just feels very bland," he said. "I have no ambition, no real goal in life and I just don't feel interested in anything anymore, even in hobbies I used to have." The native of Wuhan city in central China lives in Beijing alone. Most Chinese men his age would be married and about to start a family, but Mr Tu said: "Now that I feel stuck in my career, I am in no mood to look for a mate."

If there is a growing group of 'plasticine men' among China's white-collar class, it is hardly surprising, said outspoken sociology professor Zhou Xiaozheng of Renmin University in Beijing. "We are all slaves these days. Buy a house and you're a 'house slave' (fang nu). Buy a car and you're a 'car slave' (che nu). Bear a child and you're a 'child slave' (hai nu)," he said.

Job Searching Customs in China

Looking for work in Guangdong In the Maoist era, the government fen pei system guaranteed jobs to everyone. People had no real say in where they worked: they were told by the government where to work. The best jobs tended to go to those with best connections with the Communist party. One think tank researcher told the Los Angeles Times, "In 1985, you sat in school and waited for a teacher to tell you, 'This work unit has this many openings,' and what kind of jobs you should look for.'"

People no longer wait for job assignments. They now have to go to job interviews. College graduates tend to get jobs more through their connections that abilities, test scores work experience and letters of recommendation. A university faculty advisors is instrumental in getting someone a job.

Even so many private companies today, especially those that deal with foreigners, are hiring new employees on the basis or merit and experience. The process that college graduates go through to find work'submitting resumes, attending job fairs and going to interviews---is becoming more and more like what their American counterparts go through. Many people look for jobs at job fairs known as talent markets.

Height, marriage status, age and health record can all be taken into consideration by potential employers. People have been denied jobs because they have had hepatitis in the past or are too short. Companies often refuse to hire workers who over 35 and 40. But because of the one-child police the number or workers in the 20 to 24 bracket is already starting to shrink.

People applying for jobs routinely lie to their prospective employers. One government investigation uncovered that 15,000 civil servants had used fake university degrees or bogus certificates to get their jobs. Lying about credentials is such a problem that companies can hire investigators that specialize in checking out if credentials claimed by applicants and staff members are for real.

Looking for Work After Graduation, See Education

'Naked' Resignations on the Rise

Wang Wen wrote in the China Daily, "When Song Lin submitted her resignation on New Year's Eve her boss asked whether she had received a job offering better pay. "I don't actually know what I will do after quitting," Song said. "For this reason, I didn't even tell my parents about my decision. I just know that job was not for me." Song, who had spent the last two years working for a company based overseas in what was her first job, said she is more interested in organizations rather than business. She is prepared to wait several months for the ideal job to arrive and has savings that will support her for at least a year. [Source: Wang Wen, China Daily, January 31, 2012]

The white-collar worker is not alone in China in quitting a job before getting a new one, according to the latest job-hunting research. It identified a growing trend for younger people to put their ideals ahead of work as the country undergoes a radical transformation from an export-driven manufacturing economy to a more innovative business model. Job analysts call the trend "naked" resignation. It started to become common in 2011, according to the annual employment report by 51job Inc, one of the biggest human resource service companies in China.

A more liberal and independent generation of workers, like Song, are less likely to be lured by income. Instead, they want a more rewarding life experience that gives them peace of mind, according to specialist observers. They are no longer afraid to leave traditional career paths if they find them to be less rewarding than they hoped. They see abundant opportunities but also less job security. This trend is changing the landscape of China's job market and making it more favorable for employees.

More than 80 percent of surveyed employees said they wanted to change their current jobs at the end of 2011. "The young generation seems more distant toward the traditional job market," said Feng Lijuan, chief human resources consultant at 51job Inc. "There is a growing trend that jobs are less important in the lives of workers. They seek more equality in the job market and greater job satisfaction, both mentally and materially." For Li Chen, managing partner of Apex Recruiter Ltd, a headhunting company in Beijing, about 30 to 40 percent of his candidates resigned "naked". "These candidates care about opportunities and career development rather than salary," said the veteran headhunter.

A growing number of experienced workers are also lured by opportunities outside business capitals such as Beijing and Shanghai, according to the latest analysis. Second- and third-tier cities in China, although less developed than the first tier, offer more freedom for workers who seek to make a bigger difference in their career paths. It is the chance to be a big fish in a smaller pond.

This new generation downplays the importance of work and is acutely aware of the dangers of overwork. A growing number of employment injuries and death caused by working too hard lie behind a desire to play safe and quit jobs with nothing to go to. "Employers are also paying more attention to their health," said Xie Zheng, China partner of Antal International, a British-based recruitment company.

China's high inflation rate last year also made life harder for employers, many of whom felt obliged to raise wages to keep staff despite the economic slowdown. "Some employers raised salaries by up to 30 percent but still couldn't stop their employees from leaving or attract new recruits," said Feng Lijuan. Vacancies in the job market have risen more than 30 percent but the number of applicants is up just 12 percent, according to statistics compiled by Zhaopin.com, another major human resource service in China.

The current lack of job applicants is forcing employers to be more aggressive in headhunting, analysts said. The first pay rises are often given to shopfloor staff and specialized workers. The job market in China is also witnessing the first signs of a scaling-back in job recruitment in the face of higher wages in comparison with Southeast Asian countries. The trend is further transforming China's job market from a labor-intensive one to a more mature one, analysts said.

Moonlighting in China

Many people have two or three jobs and earn extra money taking short term assignments, temporary work. A lot of money is earned under the table and off the books, and boosting incomes to higher levels than those recorded in official statistics.

State jobs pay very little. They pais so little in the 1990s it was not uncommon for university professors and doctors to moonlight as by driving a taxi, shining shoes, waitressing to their bills, or write articles for popular magazines, teach English or aerobics, consult on computer programs or give seminars on stocks and bonds to earn extra money.

"The biggest difference," one man told Theroux of China after the Deng reforms, "is that we can all get jobs now. In the past if you didn't have a job you stayed at home. The government gave you nothing and you had to take money from your parents. Now everyone can find something to do. There is plenty of work."

Female factory worker

Cheap Labor in China

An executive at Volkswagen once said "the cost of labor in China is nothing." By one count there are 760 million laborers in China. One Chinese analyst predicted that China would be the main source of cheap labor for the next 30 to 60 years.

Female textile workers in Guangdong make $60 to $150 a month. A worker who has put in 30 years at a pencil factory in Shanghai earns about $75 a month with bonuses of $35 a month for high productivity. An elevator operator in Beijing makes $35 a month and no benefits. Workers jump at the opportunity earn $60 a month because all they can earn at home as farmer is around $20 a month. A typical job in the countryside is mixing mud and water for 10,000 bricks for 25 cents.

Expenses for low-cost labor are low. Many factories provide room and board. Fifty cents will buy a worker a large plate of rice at a restaurant near his factory. Many workers are by piecework, with workers getting paid for each until they produce, If they work hard and their si enough work the can make $100 or $150 a month but often the make less than $50 a months.

Many migrant speak mutually unintelligible dialects. Large factories often have separate cafeterias that serve dishes native to different regions.

There is cheaper labor in Bangladesh, Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia and Myanmar. Monthly wages in 2000 were $65 in China, compared to $30 in Indonesia, $42 in Vietnam. Cheap labor in China is considered better than cheap labor in other places because of the quality and dedication of the workers and management.

Low labor cost have taken jobs away from other countries around the globe where labor and benefits costs are higher. In many cases, Chinese companies using manual labor for jobs done by machines overseas. But As labor costs rise in China factory owners are taking their businesses to places such as Vietnam. In November 2007, the American toymaker Tomy, which makes 90 percent of its toys in China, announced it cut production in China by a third because of surging labor costs and move production to other Asian countries, most likely Thailand and Vietnam.

Globalization and Labor in China

Among the works that show how China's openness to foreign investment brought institutions that replaced Maoist or socialist labor practices with labor law, employment contracts, and dispute resolution are Mary E. Gallagher's Contagious Capitalism: Globalization and the Politics of Labor in China (Princeton University Press, 2005). Gallagher shows that timing was everything: foreign direct investment coming to China in the 1980s created a laboratory for the reform of labor practices, and in the 1990s the politically sensitive reforms to China's domestic or state-owned enterprise sector could commence as this sector adopted the labor contracts and workplace norms found in the foreign-invested sector. Not that the process went smoothly, but the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership managed to prevent the formation of a broad-based opposition movement made up of laid-off workers. [Source: Mark W. Frazier, China Beat, July 2, 2010]

The extent to which global capitalism influences labor in China is also a theme found in The China Price: The True Cost of Chinese Competitive Advantage (The Penguin Press, 2008) by Alexandra Harney, a Financial Times reporter. Among much else, Harney's book shows how the regime of factory inspections by NGOs and other international labor rights auditors is hampered by the way in which factory owners take a clue from corrupt accountants by keeping two sets of factories---one for showing to the auditors, and one for where the actual production takes place, with rampant labor violations and abuse.

Foreign Workers in China

An increasing number of illegal immigrants from countries poorer than China, seeking higher wages and a better life than they can get at home, are entering China. They come from Southeast Asia, North Korea and even as far away as Africa. In some cases it easy for them to get in as there are virtually no fences along China's 20,000-kilometer-long border. [Source: David Pierson, Los Angeles Times, September 2010]

Many are surreptitiously crossing the border from Vietnam. One Vietnamese clothing merchant who travels regularly between China and Vietnam told the Los Angeles Times, "people are struggling for money in Vietnam. They look at China and think it's rich. In China they can find a job easily and earn so much more." A typical laborer from Vietnam is between 17 and 20 years old and is brought into China by guides and agents who are paid around $30 per head by an employer. Near the Vietnamese border they often do field work for $5 a day (Chinese get $9 a day for the same work) and often do work that no Chinese is willing to do.

One agent told the Los Angeles Times that the government "won't ever be able to control the border. There are too many small roads and passes. Besides who else is going to work in the fields?" The immigrants from Vietnam don't look so different from Chinese and members of ethnic groups found in southern China. Some speak Cantonese, which helps in the industrial areas around Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

Legal foreign workers are few and far between. The government doesn't grant many work visas or residences to foreigners that lack specific skills. Officially businesses that hire undocumented aliens can be fined as much as $3,750. Workers can be fined $150 and be deported. There has been some violence involving foreign workers. In 2009, there was a small riot in Guangzhou after police were accused of harassing African merchants that left one Nigerian man dead.

Americans Seeking Employment in China

During the global economic crisis in 2008 and 2009 some Americans came to China to seek job opportunities. One West Virginia resident who can't speak Chinese told AP, "I applied for jobs all over the U.S. There just weren't any." After coming to Beijing as an Olympic volunteer she said, in China "the jobs are easy to find. And there are so many." Many foreigners get jobs as English teachers but some also get skilled positions in computers, finance and other fields."

To hire foreigners Chinese companies need to explain why a foreigner is needed over a Chinese national but the government promises an answer within 15 working days, considerably shorter than the wait time in some countries.

About 217,000 foreigners held work permits at the end of 2008, up from 210,000 in 2007.

The State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs, a Chinese government agency, estimates there are 460,000 foreign professionals in China. There are so many and such a high demand for them there are even job fairs for them.

End of Labor Force Growth in China

If China ends up with too many old people and too few young workers it could slow economic growth. In the worst case the government and families will have to tap into savings to take care of the elderly, reducing funds for investments and driving up interest rates. As the working-age population shrinks, labor cost will rise. China's aging population could undermine the advantages of low-cost labor by the middle of the 21st century. In 2007 China had six people in the workforce for every retiree but this ratio while fall to 2:1 by 2050.

Nicholas Eberstad wrote in Far Eastern Economic Review, "China's explosive economic growth between 1979 and 2008 was historically unprecedented in pace, duration, and scale. A repeat performance over the coming generation is most unlikely for one simple reason: the demographic inputs that facilitated this amazing first act are no longer available. [Source: Nicholas Eberstad, Far Eastern Economic Review, December 2009. Eberstadt holds the Henry Wendt Chair in political economy at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., and is senior adviser to the National Bureau of Asian Research]

Over the 1980-2005 generation, China's working-age population---defined here as the 15- to 64-year-old group---grew by about 2 percent per annum. Yet over the coming generation, China's prospective manpower growth rate is zero. By the "medium variant" projections of the United Nations Population Division (UNPD), the 15- to 64-year-old group will be roughly 25 million persons smaller in 2035 than it is today, and by 2035 it would be dropping at a tempo of about 0.7 percent per year. In fact, by the U.S. Census Bureau's reckonings, China's conventionally defined manpower will peak by 2016 and will thereafter commence an accelerating decline. Though these forecasts concern events far in the future, they are more than mere conjecture; virtually everyone who will be part of China's 15- to 64-year-old-group in the year 2024 is alive today. If current childbearing trajectories continue, by the UNPD's reckoning, each new generation will be at least 20 percent smaller than the one before it. [Ibid]

These numbers alone would augur ill for the continuation of rapid economic growth in China, but the situation is even more unfavorable when one considers the shifts in the composition of China's working-age population. In modern societies, it is the youngest cohorts of the labor force who have the best health, the highest levels of education, the most up-to-date technical skills---and thus the greatest potential to contribute to productivity. In China, however, this cohort has been shrinking for a generation, and stands to shrink still further, in both relative and absolute terms. In 1985, 15- to 29-year-olds accounted for 47 percent of China's working age population. Today that proportion is down to about 34 percent of the workforce. By Census Bureau projections, 20 years from now it will have fallen to just barely 26 percent of China's conventionally defined labor force. [Ibid]

The only reason China's working age population will not shrink more rapidly over the next few decades is because of an enormous coming wave of laborers in the 50- to 64-year-old age range. This group looks to swell by over 100 million between 2009 and 2029, growing from 22 percent of the working population to roughly 32 percent. The educational profile of this group is far more elementary than is generally appreciated: according to official Chinese census data, 47 percent of 50- to 64-year-olds have not completed primary schooling. [Ibid]

With this coming "age wave," the structure of China's labor force will be inverted. A generation ago, there were nearly three times as many younger workers as older workers. Today there are half again as many younger workers as older ones. Two decades from now, the Census Bureau projects 120 older prospective workers for every 100 younger ones (at which point the situation may then stabilize, depending upon fertility trends). It's not exactly an ideal transformation in the labor force structure if one is aiming to maintain rapid rates of economic growth. [Ibid]

The situation might be easier for economic planners to cope with if China were still a nation with an abundance of underemployed labor. But policy makers in Beijing can no longer count on these once huge reserves. Instead, leading Chinese economists---among them Professor Cai Fang, director of the Institute of Population and Labor Economics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences---argue that the Chinese economy has already reached a turning point where those seemingly unlimited reserves of rural labor have actually been tapped out, and any future increase in demand for labor will only be supplied by increasing wages. [Ibid]

Shrinking Labor Population and Rising Elderly Population

China's once cheap and plentiful pool of workers is becoming more scarce and expensive; the labor force declined by 3.45 million in 2012 and is expected to decrease by 10 million per year starting in 2025. The shrinking pool of workers will be forced to support an expanding population of senior citizens -- 200 million in 2013 -- that is expected to arrive at 360 million (more than the current U.S. population) in 2030. Meanwhile, over the next two decades, pension liabilities may reach more than $10 trillion.

From 2010 to 2030 China's working-age population-those ages 15 to 64-is expected to lose 67 million workers-more than the entire population of France-according to United Nations projections. Over that period, the elderly population is projected to soar from a tenth to a quarter of the population, according to U.N. data. China's population, the world's largest, rose to 1.34 billion in 2010, according to census data. It had been projected to peak at around 1.4 billion in 10 years but decline for the next 30. [Source: Laurie Burkitt, Wall Street Journal, November 15, 2013 <=>]

The Chinese birthrate has plunged to 1.18 births per woman, considered too low for the population to replenish itself. Many analysts say the one-child policy has shrunk China's labor pool, hurting economic growth. For the first time in decades the working age population fell in 2012, and China could be the first country in the world to get old before it gets rich. China's working-age population fell by about 3.45 million to 937 million in 2012. The drop added to concerns about how the country will provide for its 194 million elderly citizens, who now make up 14.3 percent of the population, a nearly three-fold increase from 1982. [Source: AFP, November 16, 2013]

Laurie Burkitt wrote in the Wall Street Journal, "Wang Feng, a demographer at Fudan University in Shanghai, and other population experts have argued for several years that the government was running out of time to change course. Birthrates had already fallen, in some cities to levels below that needed to replace the current population. If left unchecked, they said, the labor force would shrink, pressuring wages and inflation, and fewer workers would be taking care of a growing elderly population, potentially creating a pension shortfall. <=>

"Companies manufacturing or operating in China have already seen their profits diminish as the supply of labor-seen as China's most competitive advantage in attracting foreign companies to its turf-tightens, pushing up wages. The predicament has caused experts to wonder if the world's No. 2 economy would grow old before it gets rich. Japan's long slump beginning in the 1990s occurred after a similar dip in demographics, though Japan was far wealthier at the time than China is currently and was able to absorb the slowdown in growth. Population experts said the latest move, while positive, fails to fully steer China away from the demographic crisis. "The entire policy should have been abolished," said Liang Zhongtang, a demographer from the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. <=>

Image Sources: 1) Landsberger Posters http://www.iisg.nl/~landsberger/ ; 2) BBC; 3,6 ) Nolls China website http://www.paulnoll.com/China/index.html ; 4) China Labor Watch; 5) Cgstock http://www.cgstock.com/china ; 7) Reuters, Telegraph

Text Sources: New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Times of London, National Geographic, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, Reuters, AP, Lonely Planet Guides, Compton's Encyclopedia and various books and other publications.

Last updated April 2014

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LABOR IN CHINA: WORKING CONDITIONS, WAGES AND STRESS

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Workers get a relatively small piece of economic pie: 53 percent in 2007, down from 61 percent in 1990 and compared with two third in the United States. Total Workforce: 795.3 million in 2006. Labor force by occupation: 24 percent industry; 35 percent agriculture; 31 percent services (2005).

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Capital invested in technological growth in Turkey to give them advances against competitor countries- chosen for exports and tourism

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Technology - Turkish Heritage Organization

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Turkey has invested heavily in technology over the past two decades. The number of internet users in Turkey has surged from just three percent in 2000 to 44% today, and 96% of the population now owns a mobile phone. The Turkish people are increasingly interconnected and technologically advanced, and it's having a ripple effect across many aspects of life in the country - from education and infrastructure to business and research.

Over a quarter of Turkey's population is under the age of 15, and the Turkish government has proactively engaged youth by creating opportunities for more technology education. For example, the Turkish Ministry of National Education implemented the FATIH Project in 2011 to provide training and infrastructure, and to ensure a generation of technologically literate children. Classrooms across Turkey have been equipped with state-of-the-art technology, and by the completion of the project in 2019, over 680,000 teachers from 42,000 schools across will have received training. Hundreds of thousands of new 'Smart' whiteboards, which are manufactured by a Turkish company, have also been installed to help make learning more interactive. In addition, the Turkish government has provided tablets to both teachers and students with educational software to help children gain greater technological literacy.

The FATIH Project, coupled with Turkey's 77 universities and 90 public research institutes, ensures that Turkey's youth get the technology and tools they need to succeed. This commitment to innovation in education has attracted global attention, including from Silicon Valley. Google, for example, has met with Turkish leaders to discuss ways to integrate their technology into the FATIH project. Microsoft has also collaborated with Turkish universities to develop new initiatives such as the Open Academy, which teaches IT skills to over 100,000 Turkish citizens, further expanding the reach of Turkey's technological initiatives.

Turkey is also building infrastructure to support advanced technology careers and businesses. Istanbul's Technopark is a central hub for collaborative research projects between industries and universities in sectors such as biotechnology, electronics and defense. The Turkish government has funded a series of these parks to foster technological innovation. American companies such as Pfizer have taken advantage of this technology infrastructure to set-up offices and expansive research hubs in Turkey.

Start-up businesses also reap the benefits of Turkey's technological advancements. Internet start-ups can apply for grants from the Turkish government to get off the ground, and also receive investment from global firms. Companies such as Trendyol and Yemeksepeti are becoming major players in the Turkish internet market, and have attracted funding from American companies too. Turkish venture capital firms have also begun to invest heavily in startups, recognizing that the unique combination of Turkey's young population and strategic location between the EU and Asia is ideal for financial growth and success.

To keep Turkey on the cutting edge, the Scientific and Technological Research Council (TÜBİTAK) has developed research initiatives aimed at finding solutions for the country's energy, science and technology challenges. This year's TÜBİTAK Supreme Council of Science and Technology conference was focused on developing new technologies for clean energy production. Over the next decade, TÜBİTAK will invest nearly $50 million into energy research to help build Turkey's renewable energy sector. In addition, Turkey has collaborated with partners around the globe through the International Energy Agency to develop new and efficient technologies such as solar heating and cooling and hybrid vehicles. The American company GE is working in Karaman to build solar and wind energy infrastructure, including the first-ever "integrated renewable combined cycle" system with FlexEfficiency technology. Other key players in the American energy market, such as AES, have also invested heavily in joint ventures with Turkey.

By investing in technology, Turkey is investing in its future. From elementary-level education to start-ups and energy, these investments will continue to pay dividends. By 2023, Turkey is working to double the percentage of its GDP from technology-based industries and increase its computer literacy rate to 80%. The continued success of the FATIH Project and ongoing investments in business and infrastructure will keep Turkey on track to meet these ambitious targets.

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Technology - Turkish Heritage Organization

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Turkey has invested heavily in technology over the past two decades. The number of internet users in Turkey has surged from just three percent in 2000 to 44% today, and 96% of the population now owns a mobile phone.

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Air pollution problems in Turkey and standards company has put in place to counteract issues

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Turkey: Environmental Issues, Policies and Clean Technology

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Turkey hopes to continue their economic expansion and become one of the world’s 10 largest economies by the year 2023.

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Denim- Cotton twill fabric

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Denim | Types of Cotton Fabrics | Cotton

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Denim's rugged durability and style has made it one of the most popular and enduring. Discover new care tips for this American classic today.

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Country's clothing industry position against other countries- forefront cotton production

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Future opportunities for organic cotton

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turkey textile cotton industry statistics

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turkish cotton yarn fabrics textile exports

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Cotton Textile Industry in Turkey | Cotton Fabrics Industry Statistics | Production of Cotton Textile | Fibre2fashion.com

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Read Article on the Cotton Textile Industry in Turkey, Production of Turkish Cotton Fabrics, Cotton Yarn Industry Report, Turkey Cotton Textile Industry Statistics and Turkish Cotton Yarn Exports. The Turkish clothing industry is the fourth largest supplier in the world, and the second largest supplier to the EU.

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New Look- 895 stores worldwide with 519 stores in UK and Ireland

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New Look sustainability measures- achieved in design stages and in store measures

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Buyers debrief for best selling products and opportunities in future seasons- comfort, free flowing clothing and up and coming importance of sustainable fashion

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£10.6 billion goods exported from Turkey to UK only in 2018. Movement of production by many businesses to Turkey- exports continuously rising

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WGSN analytics to show the demand for wide leg trousers- reasoning for incorporating in range

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I also compared other future trend designs and this is where I looked to find similar garment styles to those used in my trend collection.

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Development of the top handle bag on WGSN to combine components with tote bags to form new shaped bags shown in trend.

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Comfort focus!! Structured fits have reduced in popularity- need for flowy draped garments

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Co-ords are key garments in any collection and can be developed to suit each season.

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Sustainability measures by New Look- only beginning for brand, lot of room for development

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At New Look, we’re committed to being a force for good within the fashion industry — discover the ways we’re working to be kinder to people and our planet.