“Queer Eye” fashion expert Tan France, who’s co-hosting “Next in Fashion” on Netflix, says he’s living a lifelong dream.
“Funny enough, when I signed with my agency when I first got ‘Queer Eye,’ they asked me what my dream job would be. I said a fashion competition show,” France, 36, tells The Post. “Being the host or a judge would be my ultimate dream. I love what I do on ‘Queer Eye but it’s not fashion — it’s more style.”
France co-hosts “Next In Fashion” with Alexa Chung. Over 10 episodes filmed in LA, 18 fashion designers compete to win a prize of $250,000 and the chance to debut a collection with luxury retailer Net-A-Porter. The guest judges are a rotating cast of industry giants, including Tommy Hilfiger and Adriana Lima.
“We’ve got some real heavy hitters on our show that add such gravitas to what we’re offering,” says France. But he thinks the show can also appeal to viewers who aren’t fashion aficionados.
“I loved the glassblowing show [‘Blown Away’] and I have no interest in glassblowing myself,” he says. “I think the vibe [of ‘Next in Fashion’] is so positive and feels like a competition-show extension of what we do on ‘Queer Eye.’ We’re trying to shine a light on what our craft is all about.”
Tan France and Alexa Chung co-host the new Netflix series “Next in Fashion.”Adam Rose/Netflix
France, who’s British-Pakistani but lives in Utah with his husband, illustrator Rob France, rose to prominence when “Queer Eye” (a reboot of Bravo’s “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy’’) debuted in 2018. Although Netflix doesn’t release viewership stats, the series’ popularity shows in France’s Instagram following (over 3 million) and his pop-culture presence (he’s appeared in a Taylor Swift music video and on all the major talk shows).
“I did not think many people would watch ‘Queer Eye’ [when it first came out], so I’m shocked when I’m traveling internationally and find just so many people so excited to tell me what they love about it,” he says. “That will never get old. As far as my personal life, it hasn’t changed massively. I still live in my same house, I still have my same friends, I go to the same restaurants, gym, grocery store.”
France says he has no plans to relocate to a more typical entertainment industry city like New York or LA.
“Salt Lake City is my favorite place on earth. I know people find that so bizarre,” he says. “But for me it makes sense. I wasn’t from show business; I’ve only done this for a couple of years, and my life outside of work is actually very simple. The work part of my life is what changed so drastically. Because now when I’m on the street or shooting the show, people often will know my name. That’s a feeling you don’t really get used to.”
France is also the first openly gay South Asian man — and out gay Muslim man — on TV.
“Is it sad that it’s taken us so long to get to a point where South Asian gay people are represented? Yes. However, I don’t take that responsibility lightly,” he says. “I’d like to make sure that I am constantly acting with my community in mind [and] not just myself. That makes it incredibly high pressure, but I would like to believe I’m in a position where I can carry that mantle relatively well and responsibly.”
Meanwhile, aside from “Next in Fashion,” France has a fifth season of “Queer Eye” in the can (no premiere date yet).
“We wrapped a few months ago, and my gosh it’s good! It was based in Philly,” he says. “It feels different tonally than our other seasons. Every season I think ‘I don’t know what heroes we could meet that could make us behave differently or learn more about ourselves.’ But we do.”
Tan France with his “Queer Eye” cast mates (from left) Bobby Berk, Jonathan Van Ness, Karamo Brown and Antoni Porowski.Christopher Smith/Netflix
During the week, the fashion designer Ulla Johnson spends most of her time in her SoHo studio or traveling to countries like Kenya, Peru, or India for materials and inspiration. On weekends, however, she tends to stay within a tight radius of her Fort Greene brownstone. “My vision and the actual logistics of my life are so scattered, with the travel and work and the sourcing and everything, it’s nice to be close to home,” she said.
For Ms. Johnson, 45, a native New Yorker who was raised in a small apartment building in Yorkville, the tree-lined streets of Brooklyn, where she lives with her family (husband Zach Miner, 46, an art consultant, and their children Soren, 13, Asher, 10, and Agnes, 7) have special appeal. “It’s very verdant,” she said. “I grew up in a much more urban setting, but my children have a different life. It’s a much more peaceful existence.”
Ms. Johnson will show her newest line of clothing and accessories at New York Fashion Week on Feb. 8.
“My husband is a very avid cook — like, incredible — in all meals and all genres; we usually do some kind of waffles or pancakes. I don’t eat it but the kids love it.”Credit...Maridelis Morales Rosado for The New York Times
LET THEM WATCH We don’t sleep much later on the weekend than the week — maybe I sleep until 7:30 versus 6:30. It’s not wildly different, even though that feels somewhat luxurious. I am a “coffee the minute I wake up” kind of person. My husband and I will have coffee, and usually the kids will tiptoe by our door and try and sneak down to the TV to watch cartoons. I’m a little bit draconian about restricted access to screen time, but we do let them — that’s the time of the week that they really get to do their own thing.
RUN One reason that I’ve always loved Fort Greene is that I love running in Prospect Park. The run from my house, around the loop and back, is about five miles. It’s a beautiful run; for me, it’s my sort of contemplative practice. I don’t listen to music, I’m just present with myself and my thoughts.
FAMILY BREAKFAST I’ll come back and then my husband will go out after me. By 10, we’ve both come back. The kids are probably starving and everybody’s getting grumpy. My husband is a very avid cook — like, incredible — in all meals and all genres; we usually do some kind of waffles or pancakes. I don’t eat it but the kids love it.
PLAYGROUND APPRECIATION After that, everyone has to get ready. I’ll take my daughter to the playground — she’s obsessed with the monkey bars, and she’s shockingly good. My husband takes the boys to shoot hoops, maybe block away from where the playground is. We’ll do that for an hour.
It’s funny because I’ve just come to my playground love with the end of the young part of my third child’s childhood. For a long time it was sort of the chaos of, “Oh my God, who’s crying? “Where did the kid go?” The hyper awareness, all the different idiosyncrasies of the social dynamic. But now it’s not like that: my daughter’s just doing the monkey bars. It’s so peaceful.
DON’T CALL IT BRUNCH After that we’ll go to Roman’s. I do love an Italian grandma lunch. I’m such a creature of habit: I find my favorite places and then I’m like, “That’s where we’re going.” The other thing about Roman’s is that they don’t serve brunch — they don’t do fancy eggs or a hollandaise. It’s lunch, it’s delicious, there’s pasta, there’s meat. It’s wonderful and it’s quite leisurely. It doesn’t have that brunch freneticism and the endless Bloody Marys — that vibe that happens when you go to places that are very brunch-oriented.
LOST IN BOOKS The other place I love to go: Greenlight Bookstore. We can all get lost there: everybody looks at their own little sections. It’s a great place to hang: it’s so welcoming and there’s plenty of space around.
I’m a literature freak. I read things with heavy subject matter; I read a lot of female authors. It’s an exciting time for literature, there’s so much good stuff out there. I’m constantly buying more books.
GAMES PEOPLE PLAY We often host people on Sundays. It’s kind of like an open door — Sunday supper, anybody knows, we’re there, we’re cooking at home, it’s probably going to be chicken, we’re listening to Johnny Cash, there’s always candlelight.
The chicken goes in the oven and we have that hour and half when we can connect in another way. We’re really into games — this is another great equalizer between the ages: a 14-year old and a 7-year old both like it. We like Yahtzee, Scrabble or a new obsession, Phase 10. Any opportunity to play a game or do a puzzle — these are things that our family really loves and can come together.
NO MORE SUNDAY DREAD After the kids go to bed, Zach and I will have a cup of tea — that’s one of my favorite things to do. It’s a place where we can just talk about the week ahead. I grew up with that idea of Sunday dread and I don’t have it anymore. It’s always excitement. The weekends are very full and amazing and family-based and Monday is something totally different that I also love.
Sunday Routine readers can follow Ulla Johnson on Instagram @ullajohnson.
Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis reunited for a screening of "Thelma & Louise," held by Kering’s Women in Motion.
The pioneering actresses discussed activism and the legacy of politics in film.
“It turned out to be something that was so empowering and infuriating at the time,” Sarandon said, during her opening remarks. “One of my favorite lines is, ‘You are what you settle for,’ and I’m happy that this time, when we’re celebrating the anniversary of women being able to vote, that we’re not going to settle.”
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Report: @JamesManso
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While many professionals in fashion might be over trite terms such as “curated” or “edited,” the value of a fully vetted, invitation-only trade platform targeted to the industry cannot be overestimated.
And that’s the basis behind Serai, a solution specialized for the business-to-business crowd that aims to simplify international trade by connecting screened manufacturers and suppliers exclusively invited by other users, or by the platform itself. Serai is a fully owned subsidiary of the HSBC Group, which naturally opens the door to thousands of “qualified” clients in the apparel sector globally, giving the network a leg up from the start with companies such as FCI Group, Envoy Textiles, Leverstyle, Esquel Group and DBL Group already using the platform. Think of it as a LinkedIn for fashion industry professionals.
Here, Vivek Ramachandran, chief executive officer of Serai, talks to WWD about the mechanics of Serai, the role of technology in transparency, and why the fashion industry is ripe for change.
WWD: How does Serai’s platform streamline global trade for fashion industry businesses and brands? What about it is fashion-specific?
Vivek Ramachandran: Serai is a digital network for businesses to build trusted relationships. The world of international trade is still much more complicated than it needs to be. Brands in the U.S. and Europe, for example, continue to invest a huge amount of resources and time to find new manufacturers and suppliers — and that is just the start of the journey towards building a trusted relationship.
Serai aims to simplify this journey. It provides a platform for manufacturers and suppliers to showcase their capabilities, credentials and connections. Brands can use Serai to find new suppliers and to manage their current relationships. Being a digital network for businesses, Serai aims to go beyond just “streamlining” global trade, we are looking to provide a new way for businesses to engage, connect and build relationships digitally.
We are starting with the Clothing & Garments sector. This sector is facing disruptive change on multiple fronts — consumer preferences, the push for supply chain transparency, trade tensions and the push for more sustainable production sources. We believe Serai will help the players in this industry respond to these changes.
Image courtesy of Serai.
WWD: How is Serai’s solution differentiated in the market? In what ways has it “reinvented” trade finance?
V.R.: Serai is trying to reinvent B2B trade — it is not a financing platform. Technology has fundamentally changed how individuals build and manage their relationships with each other, and how businesses build and manage relationships with their consumers. Serai aims to do this in the B2B space. B2B relationships are not helped enough by technology today and are still dependent on centralized databases and human interaction. Serai will help change this. A key differentiator is the technology foundations upon which Serai is built, which will allow companies to access a range of third-party solutions and services through the platform.
WWD: What criteria is used to vet buyers and sellers interacting on the platform?
V.R.: Serai is invitation-based, rather than open platform. Companies are invited by other users on the platform or they can register their interest via our web site and receive an invitation directly from Serai. Serai is also a fully owned subsidiary of the HSBC Group, which gives us access to thousands of qualified clients across the Clothing & Garments sector across more than 50 countries. Over time, the data points on these companies, their connections and relationships on the platform will feed into our proprietary algorithm, which will allow the network to validate itself.
WWD: Can you speak to Serai’s promise of traceability throughout the supply chain, and what that entails?
V.R.: We believe transparency builds trust. Serai provides a platform for companies to showcase their connections and supply chains. The companies own their profiles and their data — and choose the extent to which they want to be transparent.
WWD: What’s next for Serai?
V.R.: It is the early days for Serai. We went live with a beta version toward the end of 2019. In 2020, our focus is on growing the number of users and driving usage. Our product development and feature prioritization will be entirely driven by the users on the platform. In the coming years, Serai will expand to other industries and introduce third-party solutions/services on the platform.
L: Tan France, Alexa Chung in Next In Fashion (Netflix); R, top and bottom: Night On Earth ( Netflix)
Here’s what’s happening in the world of television for Wednesday, January 29. All times are Eastern.
Top pick
Next In Fashion (Netflix, 3:01 a.m., series premiere): If the new Heidi-Klum-and-Tim-Gunn-less version of Project Runway isn’t working for you, Netflix has a new, very familiar feeling option. The streaming channel’s first fashion program, Next In Fashion, stars Queer Eye’s clothing expert Tan France and model Alexa Chung leading a pack of designer/stylists in a weekly best-of fashion competition. NIF at least offers one twist: Instead of solo designers/stylists, the teams have joined the competition in pairs, some who’ve worked together a long time, some more recent. They create their various concoctions, the best and worst results are named with the help of some guest judges, and one team gets cut each week without even a catchy kiss-off phrase. France and Chung are decidedly cute, there are a few teams definitely worth rooting for, and an actual fashion-related injury in episode three. Other than that, NIF seems like a lot of same-old, and the challenges are a bit more pedestrian (mixing prints and patterns one week or focusing on suits the next) than Runway’s tasks to create with candy or hardware store supplies or whatever. But if Next In Fashion also fails to inspire, never fear: Tim and Heidi are soon set to return with Making The Cut on Amazon Prime on March 27. [Gwen Ihnat]
Night On Earth (Netflix, 3:01 a.m., complete first season): We’ve been spoiled for choice when it comes to nature documentaries of late: Planet Earth,Blue Planet,Our Planet—the list goes on. It might be tempting to see Night On Earth and think, “great, a nature doc, but at night, how novel.” That would be a mistake. This six-episode series, narrated by Samira Wiley, uses some very cool technology to capture things that would otherwise go unseen: In the first episode, for example, we see how lions and other such predators use night to their advantage, getting startlingly close to prey before the soon-to-be-food notices anything amiss; then we see how the moonlight-reflecting flowers on cacti attract the long-tongued bats that spread the pollen between blooms. It’s visually stunning and unlike anything else in its genre.
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And come on, who doesn’t want to watch two glow-in-the-dark scorpions mate, unaware they’re being hunted by a grasshopper mouse that howls at the moon?
Each of the first five episodes focuses on a specific habitat: the plains, the arctic, the jungle, the ocean, and urban environments. While not provided to critics, Netflix promises that the sixth episode, “Dusk Till Dawn,” will focus specifically on the progression from darkest night to sunrise. Thrilling, trippy, and if you’ll pardon the word choice, illuminating, Night On Earth quickly proves that it’s more than just a cool gimmick—but the gimmick is cool, all the same. [Allison Shoemaker]
Harry & Meghan: The Royals In Crisis (Fox, 8 p.m.) and Royal Divide: Harry, Meghan, and The Crown (ABC, 10 p.m.): There is a certain segment of the population that would absolutely wish to be made aware that there are tonight two different specials on the Sussexes, sure to be filled with contradictory information, very dramatic music, some thoughtful commentary, some angry people saying questionable things, and apparently a lot of footage of Meghan Markle in a brown turtleneck, which looks very comfortable by the way.
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If you are in that segment of the population, just know that you’ve got an hour between specials to make a run for snacks or another bottle of wine. Have fun, you crazy kids. [Allison Shoemaker]
German womenswear company chooses Centric Fashion PLM to drive innovation and boost efficiency
CAMPBELL, Calif., Jan. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Simplicity trade GmbH, the German womenswear company, has selected Centric Software®'s Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solution. Centric Software provides the most innovative enterprise solutions to fashion, retail, footwear, outdoor, luxury, consumer goods and home décor companies to achieve strategic and operational digital transformation goals.
Simplicity trade GmbH unites two brands, Opus and Someday. Opus was founded as a specialist trouser brand in 2000 and now designs complete women's outfits. In 2015, the Someday brand was created to offer casual women's clothing. Twelve collections are distributed throughout Europe annually via more than 2,000 trading partners and Simplicity's online store.
Simplicity is focusing on the digitalization of its design department to optimize and simplify existing processes. Thanks to Centric Fashion PLM, the design team at Opus will be able to focus on innovating and creating successful products!
"We want to eliminate different Excel sheets and work from a single point of information," explains Susanne Vatter, Head of Design at Opus. "This will reduce errors at the source, enable us to work with greater speed and efficiency, and increase transparency."
Simplicity selected Centric Fashion PLM on the basis of its user-friendliness and Centric Software's fashion industry expertise.
"The Centric interface is attractive, web-based and comprehensible at first sight," says Susanne. "The system satisfies our requirements and makes it possible to implement our processes much more easily. For instance, with Centric Adobe® Connect, the Centric innovation that integrates Adobe® Illustrator, our designers will work in a familiar environment while streamlining their creative design activities. Centric has a large portfolio of fashion customers and the Centric team offers expert advice while working with us in an open-minded, participatory and solution-focused way."
"We look forward to achieving a state of permanent innovation," says Susanne. "Centric Fashion PLM will make our processes more dynamic so that we can focus on creating products that hit the zeitgeist every time."
"We are delighted to welcome Simplicity as our latest partner in Europe," says Chris Groves, President and CEO of Centric Software. "Simplicity's digital strategy begins with facilitating the creative power of its design department, and Centric Fashion PLM will provide an ideal foundation for their full digital transformation."
It all started in 2001 with the idea to produce really good trousers under the name Opus. Opus has become a brand that designs complete outfits for women. In 2015, the new brand Someday was added. Today, Opus and Someday are united under the umbrella of Simplicity trade GmbH. The team now consists of over 500 employees. Each year, twelve collections are distributed throughout Europe via more than 2,000 trading partners. The design team is based in Hamburg. The headquarters are in Oelde in the countryside of Münster. The campus is a complex with several wings in which we learn and develop. The architecture is strongly based on the values of our brands. Embedded in the landscape, architecture and nature merge.
OTTAWA/TORONTO (Reuters) - Britain's Prince Harry and his wife Meghan's move to Canada could boost its C$30.6 billion ($23.3 billion) fashion industry, experts say, by putting the spotlight on local brands.
Harry, 35, and Meghan, 38, announced this month they were stepping down from their royal roles to protect their privacy and gain financial independence from the monarchy.
"People just absolutely lap up whatever (Meghan) wears," said Jeanne Beker, a longtime fashion columnist based in Toronto. "Designers from all over the globe have been clamoring to get their clothes on her body."
Canada's fashion industry has slowed recently. Retail sales of clothing and accessories fell 2.1% in 2017 to C$30.6 billion compared with an increase of 6.7% in the retail sector as a whole, industry data showed.
In 2017, Meghan wore a white wrap coat from Line the Label, a Toronto-based designer, in her first public appearance after her engagement to Harry. It quickly sold out - and the surge in interest crashed the label's website in some parts of the world.
Toronto-based Sentaler, whose beige alpaca wool coat was worn by Meghan during her first Christmas with the royal family in 2017, has also experienced the "Meghan Effect."
"Each time Meghan appears in Sentaler, the result is tremendous," founder Bojana Sentaler said in an email. "We see increased traffic across all of our channels ... and the style she wears as well as other similar styles sell out."
Meghan has shown an affinity for highlighting more local, independent brands, said Gail McInnes, owner of Magnet Creative Management, a Toronto-based fashion management company.
This preference may favor Canada's fashion industry, which tends to use small production teams made up of locally hired staff.
"It's almost like (being) an unofficial Canadian fashion spokesperson," McInnes said. "She's going to impact the lives of so many people by simply wearing a dress."
With many Canadian designers being forced to move to the United States in order to survive, "it's unquestionable that if (Meghan) is out there waving the flag a little bit more for our local fashion industry, that she'll bringing more attention to it," Beker said.
Harry, too, has his own distinct influence.
"He's definitely going to be an inspiration for a global style for menswear as well," said Roger Gingerich, a fashion broker who has spent nearly four decades in Canada's industry.
The country's diverse climate and frigid winters have helped make Canada a global leader in outerwear, and will broaden Harry and Meghan's fashion options.
"You cannot find a more perfect country than Canada where we have truly four full seasons," Gingerich said.
Fashion experts remain hopeful public fascination with Meghan and Harry will shine a brighter light on homegrown brands, even though the couple's move to Canada is driven by a desire to step out of the spotlight.
"She's the most famous woman in the world," McInnes said of Meghan. "All eyes are on her."
(Reporting by Moira Warburton in Toronto and Kelsey Johnson in Ottawa; editing by Heather Timmons)
Whenever a fashion brand makes a commitment to offset its carbon emissions, it needs to explain why it matters. Whenever a journalist like me writes a story about, say, activists protesting London Fashion Week, I also need to tell you why you should care and should keep reading. After all, there are so many other worthy things that demand our attention these days. So consider the following harrowing, commonly repeated facts:
Eight to 10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions comes from the fashion industry, which is more than the aviation and maritime shipping industries combined.
The fashion industry produces and sells somewhere between 80 billion and 150 billion garments a year globally.
Nearly three-fifths of all clothing produced ends up in incinerators or landfills within years of being made.
It’s clear that the fashion industry is a big, stinking mess. But if you take a moment to ponder these facts, you realize that something is … off. An estimated range of 80 billion to 150 billion garments a year is ridiculously wide. The two most common estimates for fashion’s greenhouse gas emissions vary by a billion tons, a huge margin of error. And saying three-fifths of clothing will be trashed within “years” is a meaningless statement.
Yet I pulled all of these statistics and other common facts from reputable sources: McKinsey. The United Nations. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation. The World Bank. International labor unions. Advocacy organizations. And these facts have been cited by publications like the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.
Not all of these highly respected experts could be wrong. Could they?
It turns out they could. Because only one out of the dozen or so most commonly cited facts about the fashion industry’s huge footprint is based on any sort of science, data collection, or peer-reviewed research. The rest are based on gut feelings, broken links, marketing, and something someone said in 2003.
If we’re serious about recruiting the fashion industry into the fight to save our world from burning, these bad facts do us all a disservice. They make fashion activists look silly. They allow brands to wave vaguely at reducing their impact without taking meaningful action. And they stymy the ability to implement meaningful regulation, which needs to be undergirded by solid data.
“Where are the technical papers? Where are the peer-reviewed journals? Where is the serious work?” says Dr. Linda Greer, a former senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council and now a senior global fellow at the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, a Chinese environmental NGO. “You couldn’t even get a master’s degree with this, not even close.” (Sick burn from someone with a PhD in toxicology.) “And here we are trying to run a whole industry’s environmental footprint reduction based on this kind of stuff. It’s kind of preposterous that people put up with it.”
Greer is intimately familiar with these bad facts and where they come from — she thinks she might inadvertently be responsible for one of the most persistent. Years ago, she looked at sources of water pollution in the only province in China that had good government data, the highly industrialized Shaanxi, and found that the textile industry was the second most polluting after the chemical industry in that particular province. “I thought, okay, for my purposes of NRDC trying to get on top of polluters in China, this is fine. I can use this.” She went on to found the NRDC’s Clean by Design program, which helped increase water and energy efficiency at Chinese textile factories, partly on the basis of this transparently back-of-the-envelope calculation.
At some point in the next decade, the belief that globally, the fashion industry is the second most polluting industry after oil took off, much to her horror. (It continued to circulate even after I debunked it for Racked in 2017.) And better data has never emerged. “Somebody by now should have gone ahead and figured out what’s really true,” she says.
As the co-founder of the now-defunct ethical e-tailer Zady, Maxine Bédat used to repeat many of these non-facts at sustainable fashion panels. After Zady shut down, she founded an organization called the New Standard Institute. Her goal is to collect all the best information about the fashion industry in one place and leverage it to pressure fashion brands to do something about their footprint. But as she and NSI research volunteers started to peel away the layers of each statistic, she realized that there was nothing at their core.
I asked Bédat in January if she had found any fashion facts that were true or had a reliable primary source, but she says NSI is not yet ready to go on the record endorsing anything. “I can tell you a bunch that are not true,” she says. She homes in on the stat that says that there are 60 million garment workers globally, which the advocacy organization Clean Clothes cited as from the International Labor Organization. “We reached out to ILO, who doesn’t have a record of this information. It was also used by BetterWorks, Sustainable Brand Solidarity Center, and IndustriAll. Seventy-five million garment workers globally was also found in a Clean Clothes publication, and they cite Fashion United, but the link doesn’t mention that stat.”
We know that the garment industry is polluting our rivers, but we do not know how much.
Ed Wray/Getty Images
This is what happens in the fashion sustainability space. One organization puts out a fact, and four other organizations link to it, and then nobody remembers or cares who first made the claim.
The statistic that 4 percent of global waste is from the fashion industry is the most well-sourced fact I’ve found, eventually leading back to a report by the UK nonprofit Waste & Resources Action Program (WRAP) on the waste associated with clothing sold in the UK, which is based on a peer-reviewed tool whose methodology is laid out in a robust technical analysis. It still may not be true, given that the global waste figure is extrapolated from UK figures and then compared to a stat from the UN, which hasn’t proved to be very reliable on fashion figures. But at least it’s transparent.
WRAP’s transparency is in contrast to the consulting firm McKinsey, which says that between 2000 and 2014, global clothing production doubled, and the number of garments purchased each year by the average consumer increased by around 60 percent, to 100 billion garments per year. (The documentary The True Cost says we purchase 80 billion garments a year, while the World Economic Forum puts it at 150 billion.) Where did the figure of 100 billion garments come from? McKinsey would only say that it analyzed proprietary data provided by market research firms to come to their conclusions. And yet, in fashion’s desert of scientific research, a report with zero footnotes from a company that has reportedly helped Saudi Arabia silence critics and — over objections from the World Health Organization — brought an ethos of cost-cutting to the arena of global health is what passes for reputable information.
The McKinsey website also used to say that nearly three-fifths of all clothing produced ends up in incinerators or landfills within “one year” of being made but at some point changed it to the vague “within years.”
An Ellen MacArthur Foundation report says that 20 percent of global industrial water pollution is from the fashion industry, but EcoTextile News shredded this in its December issue dedicated to myth-busting, tracking the statistic back to a vague assertion by a 2012 paper that attributed it to the World Bank; the bank denied it was the origin of the fact. Also attributed to the World Bank is the fact that 80 percent of garment workers worldwide are women, but when I asked, a representative directed me to an article that says 80 percent of garment workers in Bangladesh are women and then to a conflicting World Bank report that says it’s actually 54 percent. The idea that the average American throws away 80 pounds of clothing comes from a 2014 Environmental Protection Agency report, but that data is also inaccurate: It includes textiles like carpets and mattresses and garment factory waste.
And finally, one statistic you’ll see in almost every story and at every panel: the greenhouse gas emissions attributed to the global fashion industry. According to the UN, it’s 10 percent of global emissions. But according to a 2018 report by the sustainability consulting firm Quantis, it’s 8 percent.
“Let’s talk for a moment about the Quantis report,” says Greer. “They refused to provide anybody — me, Climate Works Foundation that funded them, or the general public — any of the data that went into their conclusions. If you were to try to publish that in a peer-reviewed journal, you would be rejected in 30 minutes. It should have died a quick death.”
The report didn’t die. It was pulled off the Quantis website for a few months, then republished without Climate Works’ name on it. And it keeps getting cited. By me, by other journalists, by panelists, by everyone. There’s just nothing else to go on.
Even without good data, brands and countries are attempting to lessen the fashion industry’s impact. Last year, 150 companies joined a pact where they agreed to “science-based” targets around emissions, biodiversity, and single-use plastics by 2050. It’s the latest in a long line of industry groups, agreements, conferences, promises, and “sustainable” product lines. But companies still don’t know what is happening in their supply chains, and so have no baseline for what they will cut their emissions from. (According to a report by Greer’s organization, Nike is the only brand that regularly asks for emissions data from its factories in China.)
Some of this bad data has even cynically been pressed into service to increase our consumption. “Double sales and retention,” crows a marketing company that creates carbon emission calculators for eco brands. “By purchasing a product, visitors fully understand their positive environmental impact!”
Brands have also zeroed in on circular design, a utopian economy where waste materials would be recycled right back into new clothes. (Right now, we think that 99 percent of old clothing is eventually landfilled or burned. Don’t ask me to find the primary source for that.) As a result, Nordic countries — the only governments that have committed any resources to improving the fashion industry — are pouring money into textile R&D. Sure, that will help with waste, but what if it ends up increasing fashion’s footprint in other areas?
“Where is the data that shows what the difference is in terms of carbon emissions, water use, toxic chemical use in a fully circular economy for the fashion industry?” Greer asks. “I’ve yet to see numbers.” She’s spent decades at the NRDC working to protect the environment from industrial pollution and knows firsthand the kind of robust research literature that has to undergird government rulemaking on corporate pollution. The false stat about how much global industrial water pollution comes from the fashion industry, for instance, is not going to cut it. “If they put out a rule that is based on something as flip-floppy as this 20 percent stat, then it’s not going to survive a courtroom challenge,” she says.
It’s clear that before we do anything else — demand legislation, invent new textiles, set targets — we need to figure out what research we need, then ask the government and big brands to fund it.
“We need a landscape assessment of the data and an analysis of the gaps and inconsistencies that’s crisp,” Greer says. “And then a call for funding the research to fill those gaps. Then we’d be making progress.”
That money needs to come from the government or a consortium of fashion brands, because getting good data is expensive. For example, the California nonprofit Fibershed is planning a fiber mapping project where it would go into people’s closets, look at all the tags in their clothing, weigh the clothing, and then process the data to yield high-quality research on the fiber mix in our closets. Founder Rebecca Burgess estimates that it will cost more than $100,000 just for California.
“All these sociological and quantitative data sets on the labor side would cost as much or more money,” Burgess says. “We need funding for people to be on the ground to take water samples, to go into factories and count how many workers are women. Unless the public is crying for it, who is going to fund that?”
There is some progress. Last May, Stella McCartney and Google announced a partnership to test Google’s data-processing prowess by quantifying the impact of various types of cotton and viscose, using McCartney’s data and more data they hope to collect from researchers and brands. But the fear is that the resulting data will only be available for brands to use.
“There’s not enough investment in academia, but I can say there’s a lot of money in private research,” says Dr. Joanne Brasch, a lecturer at UC Davis on textile sustainability and special project manager at the nonprofit California Product Stewardship Council. She sees her students get snapped up by fashion brands at graduation, essentially privatizing the vast majority of fashion science.
This might be her last year at UC Davis, too. Her research funding has dried up, and UC Davis shut down the two undergraduate majors, textiles and clothing and polymer science. Incoming graduate students interested in fashion sustainability will now have to choose either fashion design or material engineering. Students revolted and signed a resolution against the move, but it was no use. Instead of researching what fashion does to our world, they now can only study how to make more of it.
“This stuff isn’t rocket science,” Bédat says. “The industry just hasn’t invested and prioritized this information. And if we don’t invest as an industry in this process, any company can say anything and we can’t say yes or no on whether it’s a meaningful process.”
But despite all this, she thinks the conversation is shifting. “I am hopeful in this year and decade that we’re moving toward bringing clarity into this space.”
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PARIS — Jean-Pierre Blanc, founder of Hyères International Festival of Fashion and Photography, gathered friends and collaborators on Wednesday night to officially unveil the jury of the 35th edition of the festival, to be held from April 23 to 27, as well as announce the 10 finalists in each category.
But before the grand announcement, Blanc had a couple of important pieces of news to share.
“I am proud to say the French government has given its high patronage to the 35th edition of the Hyères festival, which particularly moves me as it’s the first time in the history of the festival that this request has been accepted,” said the founder, who in 2018 had called for more funding to help the festival survive.
Hosting a flower-filled cocktail party at the Beaux Arts, Blanc also unveiled a new prize for the 2020 edition of Hyères: Hermès has created a new accessories prize delivering an endowment of 20,000 euros, or $22,000, for the best collaboration between a Hyères finalist and the Hermès ateliers for a leather-based piece of jewelry.
“It’s kind of amazing to think that in a couple of weeks, these 10 young fashion school graduates will be able to go work in the Hermès ateliers,” said Blanc.
He then went on to announce the three jury presidents: Jonathan Anderson will head the fashion jury; Paolo Roversi will lead the photography jury; and Hubert Barrère, artistic director of Chanel Métiers d’Art house Maison Lesage, will take the lead for the accessories prize.
The Hyères cocktail at the Beaux Arts in Paris
Jean Picon
The 10 finalists of the fashion prize, chosen by Anderson’s jury that day, are Aline Boubert, Xavier Brisoux, Marvin M’Toumo, Céline Shen and Emma Bruschi from France; Katarzyna Cichy from Poland; Timour Desdemoustier and Tom Van Der Borght from Belgium; Andrea Grossi from Italy; and Maximilian Rittler from Austria.
The winner of the fashion prize, named Grand Prix Première Vision, will take home a 40,000 euros endowment, one half sponsored by Première Vision and the other from Chanel. There are two other fashion prizes to be won: the Chloé prize and the 19M Chanel Métiers d’Art prize, launched in 2019, both worth 20,000 euros each.
Both the photography and the accessories prizes are worth 20,000 euros, provided by Chanel.
Founded and headed by Blanc, the festival has been a launchpad for many fashion designers, including Paco Rabanne’s Julien Dossena, Viktor & Rolf, Anthony Vaccarello and most recently Rushemy Botter and Lisi Herrebrugh, who were named creative directors of Nina Ricci mere months after winning Hyères and reaching the final stage of the LVMH Prize.
Rahul Mishra and Imane Ayissi made history Thursday by becoming the first Indian and black African designers to show their clothes on the elite Paris haute couture catwalk.
Only a little more than a dozen of the world's most prestigious luxury labels -- including Dior, Chanel and Givenchy -- have a right to call their clothes haute couture.
All the clothes must be handmade -- and go on to sell for tens of thousands of euros (dollars) to some of the richest and most famous women in the world.
Mishra, an advocate of ethical "slow fashion" who blames mechanization for much of the world's ills, said "it felt amazing and very surreal to be the first Indian to be chosen."
"They see a great future for us -- which will make us push ourselves even harder," the 40-year-old told AFP after his debut show was cheered by fashionistas.
Both Mishra and Cameroon-born Ayissi, 51, are champions of traditional fabrics and techniques from their homelands and are famous for their classy lines.
Ayissi said his selection was "immense" both for Africa and himself.
"I am so proud that I can show my work and showcase real African fabrics and African heritage," he told AFP backstage as celebrities, including the chic head of Unesco, Audrey Azoulay, congratulated him.
Mishra broke through on the Paris ready-to-wear scene after winning the International Woolmark Prize in 2014, the top award that also launched the careers of such greats as Karl Lagerfeld and Yves Saint Laurent.
The purity of his often white creations with their detailed but understated embroidery has won him many fans, including Vogue's legendary critic Suzy Menkes.
The doyenne of fashion's front row called him an Indian "national treasure".
But this time, Mishra turned up the colour palette somewhat with dresses that subtly evoked the jungle paradises and pristine underwater world off the Maldives he worries that one day we might lose.
Delhi smoke dreams
Appalled by the smoke and pollution that meant he had to keep his four-year-old daughter indoors in Delhi for nearly 20 days in November, Mishra said he imagined a "pure virginal and untamed planet... with ecosystems crafted out of embroidered flora and fauna".
"I am very emotional about it. Sometimes it makes me cry. All our children should be growing up in a better world," he added.
"When I take Aarna (his daughter) to the foothills of the Himalayas and the sky turns blue, she is so happy.
"Once, when she saw the River Ganges, she said: 'Can you please clean it for us so can go for a swim?'"
Mishra said he was reducing the quantity of clothes he was producing while at the same time increasing their quality, with humming birds, koalas and other animals hidden in the hundreds of hand worked embroidered leaves and flowers of his "jungle dresses".
The designer has won ethical and sustainability awards for his work supporting local crafts people in rural India.
"My objective is to create jobs which help people in their own villages," Mishra said.
"If villages are stronger, you will have a stronger country, a stronger nation, and a stronger world," he added.
Ayissi takes a similar stand, refusing to use wax prints popular in West Africa which he dismisses as "colonial".
Dutch mills flooded Africa with cotton printed with colourful patterns borrowed from Indonesian batik in the 19th century, and still dominate the market.
"When we talk about African fashion, it's always wax, which is a real pity," he told AFP, "because it's killing our own African heritage."
Ayissi, a former dancer who worked with singers such as Sting and Seal, told AFP he wanted to open up "a new path for Africa" and find an "alternative way of doing luxury fashion".
He has gone back to using prestigious local materials, like the strip fabric kente woven by the Akan people of Ghana and the Ivory Coast, which was originally worn only by nobles.
The son of an undefeated African boxing champ and a former Miss Cameroon, he also uses appliqued techniques from Benin and Ghana.
Haute couture shows only take place in Paris and the criteria to enter and remain in fashion's elite club are strictly enforced by French law.
For his couture collection, Giambattista Valli made sure to include his signature tulle showstoppers, including this zingy yellow gown with a train the size of a living room.
If you thought that nobody dresses like that anymore, think again — or check out the Instagram feeds of Lauren Santo Domingo, Bianca Brandolini and Giovanna Engelbert, who also attended the event.
“It’s not that some people still live in that — some people are getting back to living that way,” Valli said. “I think it’s very much about the next step and the future. I think the hoodie, the jogging did their time. You can still wear them, but I think that people want to start to dress and to have the art of living.”
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In the French capital for only 24 hours, she’d swooped in from New York to launch her fragrance, Little Flower, in Galeries Lafayette on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées on Tuesday night. Right before that, she sat down with WWD to share her thoughts about perfume, fashion and pregnancy.
WWD: After Little Flower do you have any more fragrance projects in the works?
Chloë Sevigny: No — this is it. This is like the beginning, the middle and the end. Alia [Raza] and Ezra [Woods], who started Régime [des Fleurs], are old friends of mine. When they started the company, I fell in love with each fragrance that they were releasing. They [asked]: “What do you think about doing fragrance?” The thought had never crossed my mind before. It made perfect sense with all the other brands that I’ve collaborated with, like Opening Ceremony, and my indie film roots — helping bring attention to emerging artists, companies and people whose vision I really believe in, and [who] are doing something outside the box.
WWD: You’ve had a long-running relationship with Opening Ceremony. What sort of memories came back when you heard their stores are shutting?
C.S.: I’m kind of holding on to them until they actually close, because I feel like there is going to be a lot of events and whatnot before the summertime. But, of course, when I first did my collection with them…there were like five people in the office, and the office was above the store and then it became this [empire].
I am very excited to see what they do with their brand, and that they will have more time to focus on that. Maybe they’ll ask me to do something.
WWD: What brands are you loving during your pregnancy?
C.S.: I am wearing Chloé today. Norma Kamali has been a godsend. I always loved Norma Kamali — an iconic New Yorker female designer, who has been so innovative since Day One [and] still is. Also, she’s always been a real champion of vintage, and she’d always sell in her collection vintage pieces. I love her whole look, her whole vibe, her whole ethos. Everything.
She makes lots of stretch. These stretch pants that go high, up over the belly, they’re flared. It’s almost impossible to find flared pants from a [maternity] company, which I think is surprising because I think it’s better for the silhouette to have a little flare at the bottom to balance out this big thing happening in the middle. She makes the perfect flared leggings.
WWD: You’ve had fashion and accessories partnerships, like with Warby Parker. Are you working on anything else currently?
C.S.: Right now, I’m just working on the baby.
WWD: Jim Jarmusch, whose movies you’ve acted in, took some amazing photos of you pregnant, which you posted on Instagram.
C.S.: That was actually for the snap cardigan at Agnès b. She did this big project with all these different artists, and I said [to Jim] if we undo [the cardigan] will you take some for me personally?
WWD: What do you adore about him?
C.S.: I love his interests, how wide they are. He’s very esoteric. I love his look — I mean, I just like to gaze upon him. He’s so tall, and he has that iconic hair. He’s very kind-natured, self-effacing. He loved his mother. (She laughs.)
WWD: Which other directors have you enjoyed filming with?
C.S.: Olivier Assayas — I worked with him years ago actually here in Paris. We shot a film called “Demonlover.” I’ve had so many great experiences. I loved David Fincher. I worked with him on “Zodiac.” I loved his attention to detail. Everybody brings something different.
WWD: Which directors are on your wish list?
C.S.: Jane Campion, Catherine Breillat, Claire Denis — more the ladies.
WWD: What about acting roles?
C.S.: I would like to play a Mae West-y kind of character — ballsy, loud, sexy and glamorous. I feel I don’t get that so often. I’d also like to play someone really mouse-y and shy. Opposite ends of the spectrum.
WWD: You’ve directed three shorts. What draws you to directing?
C.S.: I love the process. I love problem-solving — something going awry and having to fix that in the moment, and the inspiration [coming] out of that, out of complications. I found that really challenging and inspiring. And working with actors, of course, and there are so many artisans.…I’m a control freak, so having control is probably the best part. (She laughs.)
I am trying to come up with an idea for a feature.
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