Ethical manufacturing, sizing and bankruptcy – nothing was off limits at a recent industry seminar in sydney, melinda oliver reports.
Designer Charlie Brown is still reeling from past press scrutiny into her manufacturing practices. Several years ago, she was accused of using a sweatshop, a claim she vehemently rejects.
“(T)here was a big story about me ... having a sweatshop, but I didn’t really have a sweatshop,” the industry veteran with the eponymous label said. “When you hand your work to somebody, they have their own factories and they hand the work out. I pay the person who does the fair share of what that price is worth; I’m not sure where they send it.”
Brown took the opportunity at the Fashion Palette ‘Fashion Future’ seminar in Sydney last month to assert her current position on ethical production. She said she now provides unions with a list of every factory her business engages, to ensure they are thoroughly checked regarding staff conditions.
“As far as I’m concerned, I’m ethical,” she said.
Fellow speaker, WGSN national sales manager Jen Sherrin, said it is essential that brands review the issue of ethics and environmental sustainability across their whole business.
“It is not enough these days to just have a few ethical t-shirts in the range,” Sherrin said.
“You have to think about it right from the fabric.”
The panel, which also included designer Nicola Finetti, discussed how members were now doing as much local manufacturing as possible, particularly as the recent trend towards highly embellished apparel, cheap to do in China, is waning. Brown said the positive increase in ethical practices in Chinese factories meant that the cost of domestic manufacturing was not always higher.
“They are giving them maternity leave and they are not allowing them to work seven days a week, 20 hours a day,” she said. “And they are paying them a fair rate of pay.”
Sherrin argued that a notable increase in Australian manufacturing will only occur if it is driven by consumers and their willingness or desire to spend more on Australian creativity.
“I think it is to do with marketing ourselves as well,” she said. “We have to encourage our emerging designers to get behind a cause and get associated with things that are happening, like [here] at Fashion Palette, or at Fashion Exposed and L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival. You have to market yourself as much as possible to create the desire for people to spend more on your collections. It is the responsibility of the designer and the responsibility of the consumer.”
Panel mediator, journalist Patty Huntington, asked Brown and Finetti how they interpret the ever-changing international trends for the local market.
“I actually hire a couple of the best stylists in the country and I have a half-day seminar with them,” Brown said. “We talk about the looks that are the most appropriate for my brand for the season before we start off. That just gives me a little bit more direction than the direction I would have given myself.”
Finetti was less interested in capturing the prime trends, and more concerned with fabric choice.
“We are at different levels of business,” he said. “She [Brown] has a very big business, I am not that big, I like to be able to do things that are not found anywhere.”
Another topic of discussion was how social networking and the evolution of the fashion blogger had fundamentally changed the designer’s relationships with the media.
Finetti has embraced the culture of the blogger, liking the immediacy of the format, especially when it comes to providing seasonal samples and images with short lead times.
He said it was important to invite the new generation of online reporters to catwalk shows. Huntington, however, challenged him on his stance.
“You are not going to put [Vogue editor] Kirsty Clements in the third row of your show, are you, with a whole bunch of bloggers in front?,” she said.
“No, but maybe in the future, yes!” he responded.
Huntington questioned whether the impact of street-style imagery snapped by bloggers was changing the industry’s expectations of an ideal model shape and size. Sherrin said the trend was encouraging.
“The consumer is a lot more confident about their body. At the other end of the scale there is a massive industry for plus size. It is not just a sub-brand – supermarkets and retail chains have a whole collection dedicated to them.”
Brown’s label ranges from size six to 16, with special orders available for larger sizes, while for Finetti, it is six to 12. Huntington suggested he was actively discriminating against larger sizes, which Finetti strongly denied. His diffusion collection for department store Myer, for example, goes to size 16.
Both advised young designers starting out in the industry to gain experience with big brands before branching out on their own. “...you have mortgaged your parents house, you have sold your car, you have done all of these things and you think that you are a failure and you won’t do it again, but maybe you just didn’t do it right,” Brown said.
“I think it is very important that you go and work for somebody and understand how it goes, understand the stresses, understand that cash flow is the number one thing in this business.”