Sportswear and Outdoor brands championing transparency

According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a charity launched to accelerate the transition to a circular economy, the apparel industry is one of the culprits in causing our environmental and pollution problems, as globally a mind-boggling 73% of materials used for clothing are being sent to landfill or incinerated every year, with less than 1% being recycled to make new clothing.

Designs by Christopher Raeburn at the Jackets Required London trade show in January 2019.
The designer , a pioneer in recycling and upcycling, set up RÆBURN, a collaborative, creative fashion studio where daily design meets painstaking production, alongside monthly events, discussions and workshops.
Photo by Lucia Carpio.

Thus it is welcomed news that Fashion Revolution’s Fashion Transparency Index 2019 reveals today that three sportswear and outdoor brands are leading the way on transparency among the world’s 200 largest fashion brands and retailers by disclosing a wide range of human rights policies, commitments and outcomes, as well as who their suppliers are.

Adidas, Reebok and Patagonia each score a total 64% out of 250 possible points, followed by Esprit and H&M in the 61-70%. C&A, ASOS, Puma, Nike, Converse, Jordan, The North Face, Timberland, Wrangler, Vans and Marks & Spencer rank at the top end of the 51-60% range.

This is the first year since the Fashion Transparency Index’s inception that brands will score over 60%, showing that progressive brands are now taking real, tangible steps to disclose more about their social and environmental policies, practices and impacts.

However no brands score above the 70% range showing that there is still a long way to go towards transparency amongst all major fashion brands.

Since 2016, Fashion Revolution has tracked global brands and benchmarked their performance against five key areas: policy and commitments, governance, traceability, supplier assessment and remediation, and spotlight issues, which this year focus on the Sustainable Development Goals.

Sarah Ditty, Policy Director and report author says: “The progress we are seeing this year, coupled with the feedback Fashion Revolution has received from brands, suggests that inclusion in the Fashion Transparency Index has motivated major fashion brands to be more transparent. We are seeing many brands publishing their supplier lists and improving their scores year on year.”

Amongst the 98 brands reviewed in 2017, 2018 and again in 2019 there has been an 8.9% increase in the average score since they were first included in the Index.

11 brands have increased their scores by over 10% this year, showing significant efforts to be more transparent, and data shows that more brands are embarking on their journey towards greater transparency.

The report shows the following findings:

·         Brands are disclosing very little about their efforts to empower women and girls and achieve gender equality, despite the fact that women make up the majority of the workforce in the fashion industry from factory to shop floor.

·         Some progress has been made on disclosing equal pay policies and the gender pay gap by major fashion brands, but little is published about how brands are addressing gender-based labour violations in garment factories.

·         55% out of the 200 brands are publishing the annual carbon footprint in the company's own sites, although only 19.5% disclose carbon emissions in the supply chain – where over 50% of the industry’s emissions occur.

·         Given that major brands are expecting trust and transparency from suppliers, they too should share more information publicly about their own commitments and efforts to be responsible business partners. Only 9% of brands disclose a formal process for gathering supplier feedback on the company's purchasing practices and just 6.5% of brands publish a policy of paying their suppliers within 60 days. 

The highest scoring brands in the Spotlight Issues section this year are H&M, Adidas and Reebok, Patagonia as well as Bershka, Massimo Dutti, Pull&Bear, Stradivarius and Zara (all owned by Inditex), ASOS and C&A, respectively.

Google, Lego and Gucci among the top brands in the world according to study

Google has taken over from Apple as the world's most valuable brand according to the latest ranking study published by Brand Finance Global 500.

Gucci Timepieces & Jewelry will unveil their new addition to its
Le Marché des Merveilles collection at the Baselworld 2017
March 27 - 30.
The hallmark features of the bee, the tiger and the snake
are elegantly embroidered on a nylon dial against the famed Gucci stripe.
On the sportier versions, this stripe continues into a woven
strap which bears Gucci's expression, "L’Aveugle par Amour". 

In the annual study by Brand Finance which calculates the most valuable and powerful brands in the world,  it claims that Apple's fall after five years at the top comes as its brand value dropped 27% to US$107/1bn over 2016, while Google's rose by 24% to $109.5bn.

In third place was Amazon, while Facebook moved up from 17th last year to ninth. The highest ranked British brand is Vodafone, which came in at 50th, 20 places down from 2016.

Technology brands aside, toy brand Lego - spurred by the Lego Batman Movie - has replaced Disney as the world's most powerful brand, according to the ranking.
When looking at the top 20th retail brands, two luxury watch brands - Rolex and Cartier have been listed  respectively at 18th and 20th place, with fashion brand Gucci squeezed in the middle.  The only other brands with a watch and jewellery retail offering in the top 40 strongest firms are Tiffany & Co (38th place) and Burberry (40th place).

Meanwhile, according to David Haigh, CEO of Brand Finance, in an interview on the Telegraph.co.uk, there is also a growing dissatisfaction across the globe with American brands, when commenting on why global fast food chains McDonald’s, KFC and Domino’s Pizza continue to drop down the rankings of the world’s most valuable brands, saying the election of Donald Trump could impact a company’s international standing.“There was a period when American brands were considered to be very aspirational. Gradually goodwill towards American brands has been eroded,” he said.“One of the interesting dimensions at the moment is the extent to which Trumpism is actually going to accelerate this negative view about American brands.”

CABANA - unique magazine for those who love beautiful things

While there is so much information out there constantly available to entice us on the internet, or on the streets of great cities, in retail shops and book stores everywhere, I was pleasantly surprised to be drawn to a unique magazine that has given me much food for thought; so much pleasure by simply touching it and flipping through its pages.
After strolling through the aisles of the London Print Design Fair looking for print trends and inspiration, I came upon one unique magazine under the title Cabana displayed by Chelsea-based exhibitor Potterton Books London.

One of the four limited edition covers designed by Gucci for the Spring-Summer 2016 issue of Cabana magazine.

Beautifully printed in Milan, the current Spring-Summer 2016 edition features four different limited edition fabric covers which were designed by the luxury fashion house Gucci.

"It's like being part of a tribe.  A tribe of those who love beautiful things."

As editor-in-chief and founder Martina Mondadori Sartogo explained in her foreword, the ethos of Gucci is reflected through the pages of Cabana.

She quoted Gucci's creative director Alessandro Michele's thoughts on the very new and very striking brand identity he is moulding: "It's like being part of a tribe.  A tribe of those who love beautiful things."
Alessandro Michele of Gucci had not only done the covers of this Spring-Summer 2016 edition of Cabana, but also helped to shape and conceive one of the portfolios on Roman architectural history.
Potterton Books explained that Cabana was a rare find for them: they had got word of it through an interior designer in New York.  Like a coveted commodity, Cabana is stylishly elegant, and my personal copy (shown in picture above) shall be treated as a coffee-table objet d'art rather than just a magazine.  The pages are like art galleries showcasing the homes and work places of art collectors themselves, or historial architecture that have provided inspiration for contemporary styles.
The photographs don't just show interior designs but present details of houses and buildings in artistic intimacy.

But don't expect to find exhaustive information on every detail as one would in conventional magazines.  The editors want readers "to be inspired, to start travelling with your mind to that place, like visual storytelling."

Cabana is published twice a year in English.

Photos: Lucia Carpio for My Fashion Connect Global.