03 Jan Teaching Brands the Importance of Ingraining True Sustainability

As part of the mentoring program with FC Designer Workspace, Fashion-Enter Ltd (FEL) supports the designers on change management and supply chain and the transparency within that supply base. There is increasing demand by government for all fashion brands to have ethical trading standards and to maintain ownership of what happens to a garment once it has reached its end of life. This is to prevent the endless dumping of garments into landfill and our over consumed clothes being sent to African states, and to encourage upcycling and recycling within brands. 

Normally FEL creates seminars for their designers in the meeting room, however this was not possible during the month of December. FEL therefore created a Power Point (13th December 2022) to support their designers to highlight how ‘Greenwashing’ is not acceptable and support on ethical trading. 

The resulting Power Point was created to highlight that each designer must identify sustainability priorities for their individual business and set within the context of clear warnings of climate change and known human rights abuses occurring globally. Tap the link to view the Power Point: https://fcdesignerworkspace.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Greenwashing-Sustainability-1-1.ppt

Recently Tesco has received 130 issues of human rights exploitation, tap the link to read The Guardian’s article: ‘Thai police screen ex-workers at former Tesco supplier over sweatshop claims’ https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/dec/29/thai-police-screen-ex-workers-at-former-tesco-supplier-sweatshop-claims

Tesco faces a huge lawsuit in the UK from 130 former VKG workers which also included a 7 year old girl who was raped in accommodation belonging to the factory while her mother worked overtime making F&F clothes. The workers are suing Tesco for negligence and unjust enrichment and stated that there were paid only  £3 a day to work until 11pm with just one day off a month.

The workers made F&F jeans and other clothes for the Thai branch of Tesco’s business between 2017 and 2020. Tesco, which had no role in the day-to-day running of the factory, said the allegations were “incredibly serious” and that it would have ended its relationship with the supplier “immediately” if it had identified issues of the kind at the time.

At FEL we have a leading status in the Fast Forward audit and we want our designers at the FCDW to be the best that they can be too! 

Onwards into 2023!