Fashion Victims and Villains

Top by new ethical fashion brand, sketch london.

Left-leaning newspapers have been running a series of articles ever since the Bangladesh garment factory collapsed.  The death toll has now sadly passed 500, mostly women, but why are consumers and fashion brands being made to bear the majority of the guilty burden? That fingers have been pointed at some brands was inevitable and fashion is regularly targeted for being a poison of the world: the very sick and visible face of capitalism and greed.  In Bangladesh and India the tragedy is being reported as a corrupt failure of building regulations not a story about Evil Fashion Brands.

The usual suspects of British ethical fashion have been carted out with the usual snippets of condemnation and hissing at the likes of Primark, GAP and so on.  Will consumers care they ask? Can they afford to I ask?  This could be a long article so please get a cuppa or a glass of wine.  I promise you will learn a thing or two.

The New Freedom Fries

The new Freedom Fries are wealthy French people fleeing their beloved country for tax havens in order to dodge the rising rates of income tax implemented by President François Hollande.

LVMH owner, Bernard Arnault became a Belgian citizen this month. 

Masters of Money

If you are fascinated with economics, Masters of Money, is a really good series by the BBC portraying 3 of the most influential economists of the 20th century, John Maynard Keynes, Friedrich Hayek, and Karl Marx.

Set against the backdrop of today’s recession, the series examines in lamens terms, the theories of these men and how their view on the economic crisis of their time shaped policies and politics around the world.

Fashion on Fire

We all know about the dark side of fashion production so I’m not going to go into the morals of it all here but I just wanted to draw attention to Indian current affairs that may affect a global brand near you.  These are facts, whether you feel like you want to change your buying habits or write to complain to any brand mentioned that is up to you.

On Monday this week there was a mini riot and complete carnage at a garment factory just outside Delhi

Food Fight

The UN made an ominous prediction that 2011 would be a year of food riots around the world.  Rioting has been predicted even in Britain – something I doubt will happen, not a very British reaction to rising prices is it? We just moan and pay.

Food grain price increases will of course affect developing nations much more and I have seen prices rise on an almost monthly basis in India