‘Young people key to ending fashion labor abuses’
Conde Nast expected to announce new editor for Vogue Arabia
LONDON, April 13, (RTRS): Young people have started to question how their clothes are made but consumers of all ages need to do more to tackle fashion labour abuses, according to a British lawmaker and sustainable fashion campaigner.
Baroness Lola Young said young people are increasingly engaged with political and economic issues and willing to fight on social causes - and labour abuses in the garment industry were no exception.
Young, a former actress who was made a life peer of Britain’s House of Lords in 2004, said harnessing this energy was vital to revolutionise the fashion industry which has come under pressure since more than 1,100 workers died in the Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh in 2013.
“A lot of young people are very concerned about a whole range of social justice issues and therefore are quite willing to go into the fray when they know what is going on,” said Young, who founded an All-Party Parliamentary Group on Ethics and
Young said transforming consumer behaviour in the West and changing the model of the “throwaway disposable society” is an important way to tackle labour abuses, particularly in the fast fashion sector.
Many big fashion brands have been criticised for failing to improve the conditions for workers in their global supply chains — from poor health and safety standards and long working hours to low pay and bans on forming trade unions.
She said while young people could often not afford more expensive clothing, she hoped exchange ventures at retailers such as Sweden’s H&M — where customers return old clothes for recycling in return for vouchers — could show a new way forward.
She said they are also getting more engaged even as many have concerns over a period of global instability.
“Paradoxically, what feels like current political volatility has made some people sit up and think: ‘What are we doing here? We’ve got to take more control over what’s happening in this world and fight some of these injustices much more openly,’” Young said in an interview.
She said different sectors of the fashion industry — from fast fashion to haute couture — had different challenges and will have to take different approaches to the problems.
Yet Young added that fully addressing the issues surrounding the supply chain was a “big ask” for the industry as “we need to look again fundamentally at how the garment industry works”.
“You really need to look at your business models because they’re not delivering this ethical industry that many of us would like to see,” said Young, who will be on a supply chain transparency panel at the Copenhagen Fashion Summit next month.
Young said while Western awareness of the issues has grown recently, many people still don’t think about where their clothes come from until their attention is drawn by a largescale event such as the Rana Plaza disaster.
Young said one of most effective ways to tackle the problems would be to support organisations working on the ground to implement a effective monitoring system that would empower workers and enable them to fight for better conditions.
Yet she emphasised the urgency of tackling these issues.
“Time is running out in relation to the environment, time is running in terms of the dreadful impact that it’s having on various communities and individuals around the world. So you’ve got to get on and do something really really quickly,” she said.
Also: DUBAI, United Arab Emirates:
The Saudi princess at the helm of the newly launched Vogue Arabia has apparently left her post as editor-in-chief after just two print issues of the luxury fashion magazine.
When asked about the reported departure Thursday by The Associated Press, publisher Condé Nast International said: “We will ensure you receive the announcement regarding the new editor as and when the time is right.” The publisher declined to elaborate.
Deena Aljuhani Abdulaziz led Vogue’s nascent project when it was launched on the web last fall and through its first two print issues. The inaugural print edition published in March featured American supermodel Gigi Hadid on the cover.
Abdulaziz could not immediately be reached for comment.
In an interview last month with the AP in her office in Dubai, Abdulaziz described the idea behind putting Hadid in an embellished, mesh veil on the cover. The magazine’s cover also read: “Reorienting perceptions.”
“I don’t want Vogue Arabia to just be another regional magazine. I definitely want it to be a global one as well, especially in this political climate. I think it’s very important,” the mother of three had said.
The March arrival of the magazine also had a section entirely in Arabic.