For this week's podcast, our Slow-fashion Policy Lead Meg Pirie is in conversation with Ruth Rands, founder of knitwear label Herd. We first met Ruth at one of our initial roundtables focused on wool and Herd is one of our most cited case studies, because of their localised business model and best-practice processes, with provenance at its heart. Through her label, Herd, Ruth has shown what is possible here in the UK, sourcing everything within 150 miles.
Read MoreFashion Week came to a close in Paris last week, where our Fashion Director styled London-based designer, Feben Vemmenby's show. If you haven’t heard of the label Feben yet, then it’s certainly worth taking note. A recent Masters graduate of Central Saint Martins as an Isabella Blow scholar, her work reclaims feelings of displacement. Creating an aesthetic vision imbedded in community, her approach explores visual codes of Black life from all corners of the globe. Hear from our Fashion Director, Karen Binns on styling the show.
Read MoreAn Op-Ed not to be missed by CEO Tamara Cincik. Tamara explores why we need a manifesto for creative wellbeing not more International Women’s Day platitudes.
“Who else is bored? Bored of the neverending pendulum swing between riding a tide of adrenalin infused empowerment, and a continuous news cycle which highlights the endemic structural issues women and girls face. I know I am, and I know I am not alone.”
Read MoreMulberry has closed its iconic Bond Street store, citing the axing of VAT-free shopping as a major factor in its decision. Here at Fashion Roundtable, this is a big concern and we have already presented MPs with questions to take to Parliament. Our recent Treasury Report, powered by ACS, focused on key issues around VAT and is linked below. Click through for more.
Read MoreChildren’s early years have been in the news recently, thanks to the Princess of Wales’s launching of a campaign emphasising the long-term benefits of investing in the first five years of a child’s life. In a report for her Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood, she warned how the roots of adult problems, such as mental health issues and addictions, often trace back to those years. We at Fashion Roundtable, and the Fashion Roundtable Education Committee, suggest that we should be looking beyond those first five years, too. A poignant OP:ED by Fiona McKenzie Johnston.
Read MoreLast week Traid and Hemingway Design launched Charity Super.Mkt, bringing together for the first time, Britain's charity retailers and creating a physical department store in former Topshop space. We hear from CEO of Traid Maria Chenoweth on the new concept.
Read MoreIn honour of the late Dame Vivienne Westwood, The Vivienne Foundation launched last week. Since the start of her career in the 1970's, Vivienne has been renowned not only for her eponymous label, but also in utilising her platform for activism. The Vivienne Foundation exists to honour, protect and continue the legacy of Vivienne's creativity and activism.
Read MoreActivist Group ‘Pregnant Then Screwed’ made deadlines over social media this week, as the Education Select Committee has launched an inquiry into childcare and early years education. Given so many of the fashion industry are women, as well as freelance, to delve further into the issue of access to good quality, affordable and accessible childcare, and the impact this might have on your career, decisions to have children, and your hopes for your family, we interviewed Employment Law Specialist Sarah Russell. In this Q&A she answers our questions on paternity leave, freelancing and childcare, and discrimination, with a fashion industry focus.
Read MoreFashion Roundtable’s Slow-fashion Policy lead and writer, Meg Pirie, talks with a local guild who are at closure, with the Welsh Wool Museum and the Heritage Craft Association on why skills are more important than ever. With comments from the Welsh Government on introducing the ARTS back into their curriculum.
Read MoreFashion Roundtable’s Slow-fashion Policy Expert for Wales and Writer, Meg Pirie, shares an in-depth piece featuring iconoclastic stakeholders in the woollen industry. With insight from Deborah Barker, Fibreshed; Maria Benjamin and Zoe Fletcher, The Wool Library; as well as comments from Andrew Hogley, CEO of British Wool.
Read MoreWriter, Meg Pirie, in conversation with Kate Fletcher and Mathilda Tham about Welsh wool, the climate crisis and the importance of localism for the next generation.
Read MoreIn a world which feels uncertain, unstable, and all too frequently it is, there is something very powerful in recognising the timelessness of sustainable values, craft skills, nature and provenance. These are core to our work at Fashion Roundtable and what I found refreshing was to see them in action from education through to business via the work of The Princes Foundation.
Read MoreI am often asked where the idea for a soil to skin, vertically integrated yarn and knitwear brand came from - and perhaps HERD would never have come into being without these unconventional roots - but it actually came from seaweed of all things, in my prior brand where we sourced wild, naturally occurring seaweed directly from harvesters around the U.K, Ireland and Northern Europe.
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The VAT RES allowed the UK to be the number one European destination for global tourists looking to purchase fashion items and reclaim their tax. This was stopped when the UK left the EU and currently Paris, not London is their tax-free tourist destination of choice.
Micro influencers are all too often happy to get paid in free clothes, which cost pennies to make, and their recommendations often come across as more authentic to their followers, because they are less obviously advertising and are more engaged with their audiences to boost their follower numbers.
Read MoreUnfortunately it seems Iran is not ‘on brand’. Iranian women are seen only through the lens of an oppressed regime and have a history of negative portrayal by the western media. As many have always suspected, the message of diversity we have seen the fashion industry peddling in recent years is often little not more than virtue signalling in a world where Iranian women don’t matter. To be fair, this isn’t unique to the fashion industry - Iranian women have been invisible under a cloaked veil for over forty years. But that’s why it is so important that the fashion industry looks beyond the stereotype of Iranian women.
Read MoreSalts Mill hosted the Campaign for Wool's launch event leading to the current Wool Week last Thursday night. The Heritage site in Bradford (the cultural capital of the worlds's wool industry) is to the keratin fibre what Bournville is to Chocolate.
Read MoreThe government should focus on increasing productivity and investment in skills. The UK has a lower productivity level and growth than other countries such as Germany, France, and the US. A longer-term plan focused on investment in skills and innovation will amount to a more sustainable economic growth compared to short-term policy options such as the tax cuts proposed.
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