WEEKEND A PLUS I
DECEMBER 8-9, 2012 I
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8 FASHION www.theaustralian.com.au
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BRAND WATCH Balenciaga In the beginning. Before Spain gave us Zara there was Cristobal Balenciaga. Born in the Basque region in 1895, Balenciaga learned to sew at the side of his seamstress mother before gaining the support of the Marquesa de Casa Torres who sent him to Madrid to learn tailoring. Before the Spanish Civil War Balenciaga had several boutiques but the conflict forced him to move to Paris, where he successfully competed for customers alongside Coco Chanel, Elsa Schiaparelli and Mainbocher. He became famous for his square coat, cut in one piece, the balloon jacket and the sack dress. His Paris salon finally closed in 1968.
Take two When the label was revived by new owners, Belgian designer Josephus Thimister began designing for Balenciaga again in 1992 before the self-taught Nicolas Ghesquiere took over in 1997. His approach quickly found a strong celebrity following, with Kylie Minogue wearing a Balenciaga dress in her music videos for Slow and Red Blooded Woman. Nicole Kidman also wore Balenciaga for her marriage to Keith Urban. For seasons the Balenciaga ready-to-wear shows were the hottest ticket in Paris and Ghesquiere’s resignation last month caught the industry by surprise. ‘‘Nicolas has been one of the most exciting and inspiring designers to watch in the last decade,’’ said British Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman. ‘‘Balenciaga is admired by the fashion industry and has made a real impact on the clothes we wear.’’
New beginning Twenty-eight-year-old Alexander Wang’s meteoric rise to fame gained even more speed this week with the official announcement of his new role as head designer at Balenciaga. Wang’s slouchy urbanwear is a favourite with New York hipsters and has garnered strong support from US Vogue. He has also made inroads into Asia and achieved success with accessories, a focus for Balenciaga’s parent group PPR. Alexander Wang ‘‘Balenciaga is proud to welcome Alexander Wang, whose proven talent, modernity and individual and cosmopolitan vision of design will enrich the unique heritage of this fashion house,’’ says CEO and president Isabelle Guichot.
Must have Not every girl dreams of finding a pale blue box with a white ribbon beneath her Christmas tree. Tougher types dream of Sydney jeweller Toby Jones’s gritty and grin-inducing designs. A former designer with Ksubi and Insight, Jones has been creating quirky pieces for six years and recently collaborated with Kym Ellery. Necklaces with metal bread clips or burnt matches have street credibility and unisex appeal but it’s the lock ring that should have you opening your purse. Toby Jones Club Lock Signet Ring ($170, wearethestables.com).
DRESS TO EXCESS ■ Exploited workers and the environment pay a high cost for our cheap clothes ■ Carli Philips DURING the past 15 years the fast-fashion formula of highvolume, low-cost trends delivered quick to market has spread thick and fast, revolutionising the way the Western world shops. We are buying (and discarding) apparel at unprecedented rates. Last year, Australians bought one billion units of clothing, 90 per cent of it imported. Even the Salvation Army is feeling the weight of our bulging wardrobes, processing more than 20 million garments a year. And according to the organisation’s general manager, Neville Barrett, ‘‘The number of new, unworn garments donated has increased.’’ Consumer desire fuels demand, and the behemoths continue to rise at a rapid rate. Topshop has opened stores in Melbourne and Sydney, with Zara moving into Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. Next year, Swedish fashion mega-retailer H&M, and Japanese basics brand Uniqlo will land on our shores. The figures are astounding. Last year, H&M opened 2500 shops worldwide, with estimates suggesting that it sells more than 550 million garments annually. Inditex, the parent company of Spanish-owned retailer Zara, makes about 840 million garments a year and has about 5900 shops in 85 countries. It’s blink and you’ll miss it fashion. And if you don’t like it next week? Just throw it out. In 2009, US author Elizabeth Cline found herself in a Kmart when she discovered that canvas slip-on shoes had been reduced from $15 to $7. On impulse, she bought seven pairs. But before she could even wear them all, they fell apart, the style changed and now only two pairs reside in her wardrobe. It was this moment that led Cline to write her book Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion, in which she explores the long-term ethical and environmental ramifications of fast fashion chains. ‘‘Buying so much clothing and treating it as if it’s disposable is putting a huge added weight on the environment,’’ Cline says. Such waste extends to textiles, too, as fashion chains rely heavily on cheap fibres such as polyester and cotton that require huge supplies of water and agrichemicals. ‘‘It’s a waste of water resources that really should be used for growing food and more essential commodities,’’ says Simon McRae from Ethical Clothing Australia. ‘‘It can still be done, we just need to look at more sustainable fibers and modes of production.’’ Which is what H&M sought to do with its Eco Conscious Collection made from organic cotton, recycled plastic bottles and hemp. But it’s still treated with derision by McRae. ‘‘It might be fair trade cotton but what about the actual production; what the garment workers are being paid, what conditions they’re working under, what hours they’re working? It’s just a cynical marketing exercise to compartmentalise ethics.’’ Company statistics suggest otherwise, with H&M’s latest sustainability report showing significant improvements overall: 128,958 garment workers in Bangladesh were trained on their rights; more than 2.3 million garments donated to charitable causes; nearly 2.5 million pairs of shoes were made last year using lower-impact
above Spanish-owned retailer Zara makes about 840 million garments a year and has about 5900 shops in 85 countries
water-based solvents. More changes are under way, with the company setting a target of 100 per cent sustainably sourced cotton by 2020. Topshop also has jumped on the eco bandwagon with its upcycled Reclaim to Wear collection made from discarded fabrics, surplus stock and production cut-offs. ‘‘It’s greenwashing to some extent,’’ Cline says. ‘‘But it’s great because it means a mainstream consumer is being introduced to the idea of sustainable fashion. It’s fantastic for the movement if it means people are being educated about sustainable clothing.’’ As retailers pour millions into corporate social responsibility charters, even H&M, which has invested in CSR, remains cautious. ‘‘Remember that H&M does not own any factories itself,’’ Helena Helmersson, head of H&M sustainability, told Britain’s The Observer newspaper this year. ‘‘We are to some extent dependent on the suppliers; it is impossible to be in full control.’’ It’s an issue that Zara has managed to dodge through the years because of its vertical integration model, which sees much of its manufacturing take place at Inditex-owned factories within close proximity to its company headquarters in Spain and nearby in Portugal, Morocco and Turkey. For Cline, the fact Amancio Ortega, founder and director of Inditex, is the third richest man in the world with an estimated fortune of $US46.6 billion ($44.5bn) is a ‘‘twisted picture of how the global economy is set up right now’’, where labour costs in developing countries are so small as a percentage of the retail price of products. ‘‘I’m not accusing them of using sweatshop labour, but they certainly hunt down people who can work very cheaply in order to turn a profit,’’ she says. The power of giant apparel retailers has caused the average price of clothing to drop, resulting in a generation of fast-fashion addicts (Zara takes only two weeks from design to delivery) and according to Cline it can’t last. ‘‘These companies aren’t going to be able to do this forever, there aren’t enough resources. Especially if they continue their plans for worldwide expansion into the Chinese market; there’s just not enough oil and cotton in the world to continue this way, so they’re going to have to start operating more sustainably sooner or later. ‘‘And,’’ Cline says, ‘‘it’s going to be interesting to see how many consumers change their behaviour before company luck runs out.’’