Indie brands create products that leave minimal waste in their making

As fast fashion -manufacturing of garments quickly, by large retail brands -leads to increasing wastage of fabric and resources, smaller indie brands and designers in Bengaluru are working in their own little way to create products that are not only responsibly sourced but also leave minimal waste in their making.
                                     

Akin to slow-cooking, the process is time consuming, involves a high degree of human intervention and is expensive.But then, that is the price one would have to pay for the drawbacks of assembly-line production, they argue.

What's more, the fabric used in the collection is hand woven.“The easiest way to think about sustainability is being mindful of raw materials, using sustainable textiles, limiting wastage, preserving skills and providing employment,“ says Narayanan, 36, the creative director of Brass Tacks, which opened in the city recently.

Ierene Francis, who runs Corvus, an online store that sells hand-made cotton bags has a similar thought. Worried about the impact of plastic on the environment, Francis decided to experiment with cotton to start her small enterprise. “I am glad that I run a business that is not adding plastic in the oceans,“ she says. Francis does not allow plastic packaging of her products even on ecommerce sites. She, in fact had to reason with ecommerce platform Amazon for sustainable packaging. “I am amazed how ecommerce is unaffected by the plastic ban,“ she says.

JD Institute of Fashion Technology last month conducted its annual design awards titled Future Origins. The theme was innovative, ethical and sustainable fashion. Designers and students Krithika PB and Jaisel Jain who won best contemporary design collection, worked a firstof-a-kind fabric called Nettle, which is neither dyed nor bleached. “The fabric is manufactured from a weed that can grow in any kind of soil and does not need pesticide or extra water, unlike other fibers. It is also an all-weather fabric,“ say the 20-year-old fashion innovators of the brand The Closet Queen.

Beauty, fashion and looking ‘hot’

Last September, comedian Amy Schumer posted pictures of the covers of two US magazines – Girls’ Life and Boys’ Life – on Instagram with the caption “No.” The Conversation

The pressure for girls to focus on how they look or fashion themselves after adults has been much discussed. Most of this, however, has focused on “traditional” forms of media – books, magazines, TV shows – but this does not accurately depict the changing mediascapes of girls’ lives, in particular, the growing significance of YouTube.

YouTube has attained a global watch time of over 500 million hours daily. Growing by 60 per cent each year, it is prevalent in many young people’s everyday lives. But how do YouTubers typically construct and celebrate what it means to be a girl? In 2014, there were at least 45,000 YouTube channels that featured beauty-related content. In June 2016, there were more than 5.3 million videos that capitalise on the female appearance on YouTube.

Fashion

Haul videos are one of the most popular genres uploaded by young female YouTubers. In haul videos, YouTubers typically introduce and describe the products that they have purchased, after each shopping trip.

If you like fashion films and documentaries on designers then Frock Club - a group that goes behind the scenes to learn more about the fickle, fast-paced world of fashion - has something to offer.

Local freelance pattern engineer Ruth Povall started Frock Club to educate people about the fashion industry, and hosts concerns about the sustainability of fast fashion, the decline of quality hand-made fashion in Australia and the loss of skilled technical trades that contribute to Australia as a global design hub.

Introducing ELLE's Fashion Now

This week, ELLE is launching a global intiative to find and celebrate the world's best new fashion designers, and you're invited to have your say! 46 edition of ELLE from around the world have each nominated their country's most promising rising design talent, with the overall winner to be voted by you, dear readers.
                                       

ELLE Australia selected sisters Beth and Tessa Macgraw from Macgraw for the honour of representing our nation on this global platform, adding yet another feather to their already rather full fashion-award cap.

ELLE's fashion director Rachel Wayman said of the decision "Australian label Macgraw embraces the joy of the feminine, fun, fashion extrovert. Designers and sisters, Beth and Tessa Macgraw mix lace, frills, bows and ruffles in a modern way that has attracted the attention of Australian and internationa celebrities alike."

The scale of the tragedy was such that the world could no longer turn a blind eye to the people who make our clothes, often in substandard conditions in some of the poorest countries. And many are paid below what is considered a living wage in their respective countries, meaning they are unable to lift themselves and their families out of the poverty cycle.

The Fashion Revolution movement and organisation was set up in the aftermath of Rana Plaza, with more than 80 countries involved in its message of ethical fashion production, and this week marks Fashion Revolution Week. The overriding message is to urge consumers to ask a simple question of the brands they wear: Who made my clothes?

A look at the role of fashion critics today

Cathy Horyn panned Maria Grazia Chiuri’s fall 2017 show for Dior, noting that her “designs didn’t pull weight” and that she effectively “took the air out of” the house’s famous Bar jacket. She wrote that she had a “beef with Chiuri” — though it had vague foundations, having something to do with a lack of surprise in Chiuri’s designs.

This negativity may be part of Horyn’s schtick, but it runs through other critics’ reviews, as well.

Robin Givhan, of The Washington Post, tends toward drier digs, as with her latest take on Olivier Rousteing’s Balmain: “Consider his fall collection to be a sort of African road trip with ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ blaring from the speakers and huge bags of Cheetos and Doritos piled in the back seat of the Range Rover for snacking.”

An unwelcome question
Robin Givhan was initially frustrated by the question of what a fashion critic’s role is today. “The title ‘fashion critic’ seems to create all kinds of tension, paranoia and concern among people,” she said. The industry might be changing, she added, but the essence of her job remains the same: “to report the news of the industry and look at it with a critical eye.”

Vanessa Friedman agreed, explaining what to her is obvious: “I think a critic’s role has always been to act as [an] interpreter between designer and consumer. That means you bring to it a certain amount of historical and contemporary context. You provide the framework for how people think about clothes.”

The retail response
Paying more attention to what works in retail certainly seems like the practical choice. But perhaps said retailers look to critics’ reviews when shopping for their stores?

Ken Downing, the fashion director and senior vice president of Neiman Marcus, doesn’t. “I’m of the belief that too many opinions cloud your decision-making process and can lead you in a direction that might not be appropriate for your customers,” he said. “I’m not interested in their opinions because I have my own opinion, and I’m really thinking about what’s going to be best for my stores.”

Critics as conduit
Robin Givhan, for her part, said it behooves retailers “to look at a variety of sources of information,” including reviews, “to get the best and most well-rounded sense of a brand’s footprint in the industry.” She also noted that those reviews make up a mere 10 percent of her workload.

How the global giants are squeezing out Australian fashion

It's been a bloody few weeks for Australia's apparel sector as retail's killing season claimed its annual bounty of weak and weary brands.
                                     

Four national apparel chains have collapsed in just two weeks and insolvency specialists claim the combination of rising costs and weak or falling sales have pushed a number of other, prominent fashion chains onto the endangered list.

The carnage of the last fortnight follows the collapse of kids clothing chain Pumpkin Patch as well as Payless Shoes at the end of last year. It's sharpened the focus on Australia's mid-market fashion chains and the immense challenges facing this broad swathe of the retail market.

The storm clouds that gathered over Australia's apparel sector in the past 12 months weren't just the result of the unpredictable weather conditions.

Winter arrived late on the eastern seaboard and then the chilly start to spring forced fashion retailers to cut prices again to move stock.

International fast-fashion superstars like Zara and H&M have taken hundreds of millions of dollars in sales out Australia's apparel sector, leaving long-established brands subsisting on the thinnest of margins and vulnerable to even minor shifts in spending.

JP Morgan analyst Shaun Cousins said the globalisation of Australian retail was most apparent in apparel and it had left domestic chains vulnerable to even relatively small market fluctuations.

Zara's sales in Australia have retreated from their initial "elevated levels", according to Macquarie Wealth Management, but along with Japanese giant Uniqlo and H&M these three brands captured $600 million in Australian apparel sales last year.

Macquarie reports that margins are under pressure at all three of the international chains, but they're still driving sales growth through new store openings and squeezing domestic chains out of the market.