BBC Panorama accuses Boohoo of breaking promises
Photo by J Williams on Unsplash. Black and white photo of sewing machine stitching denim.
Last night an exposé by BBC Panorama aired probing the practices of fast-fashion giant Boohoo, who last year made a reported £1.7bn worth of sales. The majority of the filming occurred in their Manchester headquarters, where journalist Emma Lowther spent 10 weeks.
The evidence garnered showed increasing pressure to cut prices in order to save money and the unscrupulous practice of amending prices after the stock had already been made. Lowther exposed a number of occasions where suppliers were left out of pocket due to discounts being applied which were not initially agreed.
During a staff meeting, the undercover investigation highlighted that new orders would not be signed off until the Executive Chairman of Boohoo, Mahmud Kamani, approved it first, only pressuring staff further.
In January last year, Boohoo opened its flagship factory in Leicester called Thurmaston Lane. This was promoted as a UK manufacturing centre of excellence in the UK and was part of their ‘Agenda for Change’ Programme. This came about after Alison Levitt KC found allegations of unsafe working conditions and workers being paid under the national minimum wage to be "substantially true".
But, while Lowther worked at Boohoo's head office, she discovered those public statements about Thurmaston Lane didn't always match what was happening. In fact, Boohoo’s lawyers stated that Thurmaston Lane only makes 1% of all Boohoo’s garments and four factories in Leicester (amongst others overseas) were actually servicing these orders.
Secret filming of Boohoo’s supplier, MM Leicester Clothing Ltd, which made more than 70,000 Boohoo garments between January and June 2023, highlighted that staff were not allowed to leave until orders were completed.
Dominique Muller, UK Policy Lead at Labour Behind the Label, told us:
“The Panorama programme exposed what suppliers and workers have been telling us for years – that poor working conditions and wage theft are not solely because of supplier exploitation, but come directly as a result of fashion brands exploitative bullying and unethical purchasing practices.
“It is clear that the fast-fashion industry model is based on the exploitation of supply-chain workers in order to extract as much profit as possible for fashion brands and their owners.
“This is not just an issue for Boohoo but is found throughout the fashion industry, in the UK and everywhere garments are manufactured.”
A Spokesperson for Boohoo said:
“Boohoo has not shied away from dealing with the problems of the past and we have invested significant time, effort and resource into driving positive change across every aspect of our business and supply chain.
“Alison Levitt KC conducted an independent review of our supply chain and made a number of recommendations to improve working conditions and transparency. With oversight from Sir Brian Leveson PC, we have implemented every one of these recommendations including improving corporate governance, strengthening the ethical and compliance obligations on those wishing to supply Boohoo, regularly publishing our full list of approved global manufacturers, responsibly exiting from relationships with suppliers where standards are found to have fallen short, supplementing audit processes with regular unannounced checks and more. The action we’ve taken has already delivered significant change and we will continue to deliver on the commitments we’ve made.”
Our action
At Fashion Roundtable, we regularly advocate for localised ways of working. Our research suggests that there is a growing body of evidence which highlights that valuing localised ways of working within the craft and textiles sector, can allow for power to be transferred back to local communities — who are most familiar with the infrastructure of their communities and its specific geographical knowledge.
This is an area which we will be exploring next week in our capacity as Secretariat of the Ethics and Sustainability in Fashion All-Party Parliamentary Group under the question, ‘Can localism support due diligence and greater transparency in the fashion sector?’
This is by invitation only, please get in touch if this is of interest: meg.pirie@fashionroundtable.co.uk
Tamara Cincik talks to the Guardian about how Phoebe Philo’s necklace puts motherhood centre stage
Photo by Dakota Corbin on Unsplash. Image shows mother holding a baby against a colourful bacground.
Extract taken from the Guardian article:
For some observers, there was an irony to the apparent celebration of motherhood in an industry not known for always treating women – and mothers specifically – with much respect.
“I don’t think it’s kind to women,” said Tamara Cincik, the founder of Fashion Roundtable, a thinktank dedicated to re-imagining a creative and responsible fashion industry.
A former stylist, she lost all but one of her clients when she was pregnant. “Lots of women are not having children in creative jobs because of the fragile economy and the cost of childcare … but also because they are worried about their careers,” she said.
The necklace and its symbolism arrive at a particularly loaded moment for the industry, with fresh questions being asked about the dearth of women in the top creative jobs. Cincik said: “At a time when a lot of creative directors are men, it’s great to see a woman who is owning her identity as a woman and a mother and a creative.”
Today is Purple Tuesday, but what is the Purple Pound?
Source: Purple square which says text ‘Purple Tuesday.’
Purple Tuesday is a social movement aimed at helping to improve experiences for disabled people and their families.
Last week, we spoke with co-founder of Zebedee Talent Agency, Laura Winson who highlighted the spending power (or purple pound) of disabled people – which is thought to be around £280 billion pounds every year in the UK alone and £1.3 trillion worldwide.
Laura Winson told us:
“I want to get to the point where 20% of advertising features disabled people, so that's what my ask would be. I think it's very hard for that to be put into policy and instead we are pushing people to think about the ethics behind it. But there is also the business case, the spending power of disabled people is thought to be around £280 billion pounds every year in the UK alone and £1.3 trillion worldwide. So brands need to be thinking about it and if they're not thinking about it now, then they will get left behind. My advice to them would be to consider disabled people for all of their briefs. They do an amazing job and they bring so much to a creative campaign, that there's just no reason why they shouldn't be inviting them to cast.”
Victoria Jenkins co-chairs our Representation and Inclusion Committee and is a garment technologist with 14 years of experience in the fashion industry who became Disabled in her 20s. She is behind the sustainable adaptive fashion brand Unhidden and in an interview with her last month, who shared her top policy asks in advocating for the fashion sector to be more inclusive.
The biggest one is probably the boldest one and that is to mandate that 1 in 5 models on a runway have a disability visible or otherwise. If we don't mandate it, I don't believe it will happen, frankly.
A stronger policy around venues. Venues should be accessible and you should not be allowed to put an event on unless you are transparent about what the accessibility is.
Content must be accessible, if it's not accessible, it gets banned or revoked, or you've got to resubmit it. Alt text – it’s really easy and quite fun to do video captions; having BSL interpreters available at events. It’s about inviting the community and letting them know that they're welcome.
That the Equalities Act of 2010 is enforced more strongly.
For brands that want to get into this space now, the most meaningful way and the fastest way to do it is to collaborate with other adaptive designers. By working with consultants and designers who already know what they're doing, who have already done the work, ultimately means they can meaningfully bring it to the community.
We review ‘Style and Substance’ by Bay Garnett
Image shows Bay Garnett’s book cover against a pink Melin Tregwynt Welsh wool cushion.
Reading Bay Garnett’s book, ‘Style and Substance: Why What We Wear Matters’ is to take a journey of sartorial discovery. Bay offers a curation of both the literary and sartorial featuring first-person essays from the likes of Bella Freud and Chloe Sevigny to Stanley Tucci. Mixing a thoughtful and gloriously eclectic celebration of self-expression with the icons of past, such as Joan Didion’s notes on packing and Oscar Wilde’s writing on proportions. A mix of old and new, which only amplifies Bay’s ability to storytell. The perfect stocking filler!
We recently interviewed Bay for our podcast, which you can listen to below.
ESG essentials for fashion professionals
Image shows hands mending a knitted jumper with the words ‘ESG essentials for fashion professionals’ short course. Image Source here
Build your fashion knowledge across essential environmental, social and governance topic areas.
Do you work in fashion marketing? Are you interested in learning how your brand can make their business practices more sustainable?
Bath Spa University is running a two-day short course in ESG Essentials for Fashion Professionals that will develop your expertise in sustainability and give you the confidence to contribute effectively to an increasingly important area in business.
Online lectures and workshops will be delivered by award-winning responsible business specialists Louise McCabe and Tara Luckman, Directors of Flourish CSR. Topics will cover people and human rights, fashion and the environment, creating positive social change and more.
The course takes place on 10 and 17 November 2023 and 15 and 22 March 2024. Places are limited, so secure your place today!
Announcing two MyWorld Fashion Fellowships in residence
Image shows an exhibit of a mannequin wearing a blue top, pink textured skirt, tapered black trousers and black high heels. There is a poster which says ‘dress of the year’ and Dior packaging is strewn on the floor. Credit: Fashion Museum Bath
The two Fellows will work closely with each other as well as MyWorld stakeholders, including Bath’s Fashion Museum and its Dress of the Year Collection. One Fellowship will be practice-based, exploring the digitisation of existing fashion assets and applications in the digital realm. The second Fellowship will theorise what kind of legal framework needs to surround the application of these digitised fashion assets within virtual worlds , whether AR/VR or other digital 3D environments.
These two Fellowships invite applications from individuals:
with a background or practice in game design and/or the burgeoning digital fashion sector or
with a background in legal studies and/or IP law to join us to explore fashion in the digital realm, and the Intellectual Property (IP) considerations surrounding this.
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